Captain and GAs subs

Same as Hughes before, seems to rate him.

 

Simple. Once appointed as captain players are almost never replaced in that role whilst at the club.

 

Smallwood has done nothing to deserve being dropped as captain so he won't be, doing that is just asking for dressing room trouble. In this formation Smallwood's main duty is more defensive and he did a good job yesterday breaking up play, going forward he was man marked by Woodburn so not a lot he could do. In this set up he is really doing the job of 2 players to allow both wing back and the 2 other CMs to get forward. If you drop Smallwood then who are you playing as the holding midfielder?

With regards to Pointon, there wasn't a place in the team as Pattison and Sarcevic didn't deserved to be dropped after the MK game so there was no space for Pointon. Like last season he will have to be patient as he's got a lot of competition for his place in the team, an issue he will always face with Alexander imo is that he takes a lot of risks in the defensive 1/3 and can get caught on the ball, later on in games probably suits him as well when players are tiring and gaps open up.

 

Smallwood did well when Salford had their unscheduled team talk. Got right into the ref's ear and let him know what was happening. Not sure it had much affect but at least he planted the seed.

 

I've been critical of Smallwood in the past but couldn't really fault him yesterday. He won plenty of ball and when he has willing runners around him he looks a different player, as captain he did right getting in the ref's ear regarding Salford's amateur dramatics. Set pieces still not so good though.

 

On a seperate note, that crap needs stamping out. Why are they allowed to regroup and have a team talk whenever their player goes down? Ref should stand next to the manager and book any player that comes over. It's an injury not a chance to change gameplans

 

Surely that point is the other way round. Pointon has done nothing to be dropped coming off the back of last season and it should have been for the other two to fight their way into the team.

Pointon is 20 years old, he's unlikely to get knackered, if anything Sarcevic is of an age where he is more capable as an impact player when players around him have tired.

 

There were at least three occasions that a Salford player went down and the physio came on, but the ref didn't make him leave the field, and many more where one went down and the ref just stood over him until he got up, which wasn't quickly.

The ref was weak, he should have stamped his authority at worst the second time it happened and made sure they knew that if they went down they were off the field for treatment and stayed off for the required time.

Salford were poor, and got a point through nothing more than gamesmanship.

 

I think we need to put someone alongside Smallwood to do the running. Someone to drive at their defence rather than trying to go down the sides all the time.