Most liked posts in thread: GB (lack of) tactics

In fairness, plan B was a shift in formation and Oteh was brought off because he was injured. It clearly didn't work but tactically the system was altered.

One up front is generally boring me to tears though and I agree at times it is far too negative. Pritchard has gone off the boil and that means we aren't getting close enough to V Vaughan leaving him completely isolated and ineffective.

I'm growing increasingly concerned how this system has our strikers (whoever plays) walking off the pitch at full time having been given a couple of half chances at best.

 

Playing Oteh out wide emphasises exactly what people are mentioning on here, using players out of position to suit a formation severely negates their impact on a game. The lad has attribute such as his pace and harassing defenders but out wide he has little impact. being a wide player is a specialist role and requires a skill set different to that of a striker or target man. Oteh and Vaughan are being restricted due to roles being asked of them, to a point where i'd say Vaughan looks forlorn at times.

 

Do you think Vaughan looking forlorn has echoes of Doyle about it. Both players who do their best stuff facing goal. Must be difficult week in week out not to get despondent

 

I'm not sure its total doom and gloom. I think fans are expressing a concern that as with Doyle, our tactics are turning a previously prolific goalscorer into a despondent looking workhorse

 

Did you go to either game?

There was absolutely nothing between both sides for 180 minutes with O'Donnell agaiin having literally nothing to do last night.

We're at least as good as Shrewsbury right now so if they can be as high as 9th I'd say we're more than good enough to trouble the top half should we get there.

 

Shrewsbury didn't play well it was a poor game from both sides, a poor advert for lower league football. And if you bothered to read my previous posts i alluded to the fact that Bowyer is somewhat hamstrung with injuries. Fact still remains we are not getting the best out of certain players due to playing them in a role not best suited to them.

 

Neither Cooke nor Pritchard played in the first game.

 

Parkinson and McCall were always accused of not having a plan B, then Collins was praised when he changed systems on our first game that he won. I’m happy having a manager who knows what he wants, if you need plan B it usually means plan A was shite. Could be top next Tuesday cheer up, the ott reaction on the forum at times makes good reading though.

 

I know I constantly bang on about it but at home, without fail, I'd play 4 4 2.

We've had some decent results with the 4 5 1 / 4 3 3 but I still feel at times we look toothless and uninspiring. Our forwards, especially Vaughan, also get flogged every week for little reward and there's no way they'll get through playing that role without plenty of niggling injuries.

 

His goal at Grimsby should be the aim. Rain crosses in the box, big powerful striker attacking the ball. He's a very instinctive player his strengths aren't with his back to goal. Think because of his frame the temptation to use him as a target man is there for the coaching staff. I don't want to see him involved in the build up if I'm honest.

 

There was little between the teams, defensively we’ve been pretty sound all season and last night was no different. Teams beating us are usually doing so with a rare effort on goal, annoying but a stat i would expect to change in our favour if we keep defending as we have been doing.
Midfield is still our achilles heel although there are mitigating circumstances round that, injuries being the main factor. You van throw Donaldson into that as well, not a prolific scorer but an important figure if playing a lone striker. Until we get a clear bill of health then we aren’t going to be at our best, when Bowyer has a midfield with the likes of Palmer, Devitt and Reeves to choose to complement Cooke and Pritchard then our options to change from the bench look far better.
That said Bowyer has to help himself to some extent as last night showed. Making what can only be described as negative substitutions in an important game finance wise is always going to get the fans back up. I admit his options are somewhat limited with injuries and players who quite clearly aren’t good enough but FFS go for it a bit more when a game is clearly there to be won.

 

Good shout.

Now if you'd like to let us all know which two wide men will get around 20 each like Salah and Mane I'll take the example seriously.

 

433 can be a very good formation. I don't have a problem with it. Our biggest 'problem' is lack of effective playing style within that system. There are many games where we look disjointed and focused on going aimlessly long.

I also don't think we should get too hung up on 433. It looked more effective when we first came to use it, as we were moving from a midfield 2 of Palmer and Devine/Anderson, which couldn't get us a kick of the ball, to getting both Cooke and Pritchard in there. All of a sudden we did find a way of getting some possession.

But when fully fit, a midfield 2 of Reeves and Cooke would boss most games at this level and give us a chance to get 2 strikers on the pitch. Same point though - if the instruction is just to go long and have Vaughan wrestle with every defender he sees, it won't produce many goals either.

 

What I found baffling was the pre match interview where GB was moaning about all the midweek games suggesting we were playing too much.

Fast forward to the end of the night and he's suggesting we lacked match practice and sharpness after both Saturday's postponment and the midweek game at Macclesfield which apparently he didn't want to play anyway according to the earlier interview.

 

Struggling to accept how drury is holding bowyer back. Bowyer has been a manager 8 years, if he hasnt learnt by now that at one nil down with 20 mins to go, swapping a striker for a left back and a CM for a more defensive CM isnt really the way to go, then i dont think there is much hope for him.

We just need to let off the shackles a bit, yes we are doing ok being sat in the play offs with games in hand yet you feel it should be much more.

Yes he is struggling for options upfront but that is something we all called in august, something a manager of 8 years you would have hoped of spotted. A consequence of overloading the midfield/wide options and neglecting the top of the side.

Bowyer put all his eggs in the donaldson/vaughan basket and now has to live with that and deal with it better than he is.

 

This is one of my biggest problems with Bowyer. He's always worried about what the other team are doing rather than letting the team worry about us.

 

In the cold light of day we more than matched a team from the league above. We lost to literally thier only shot on target all night.
The double sub was a definite mistake when we should have gone at them and had a good go.
Otherwise both teams basically cancelled each other out. You can see why they win 1-0 a lot (according to radio l666ds that is).

 

I am saying his best work is done in the box like Doyle's but he spends not enough time in there.

 

I see some are getting stressed over 1 loss again.

Shrewsbury were a pretty good side - fairly quick and fit, hardworking and organised, with good passing - but not lots of flair or stand out players, just persistence and decent ball retention. We mostly matched them in a game of few chances - a tight game that might be described as dour. However, their first substitution really put them on the front foot. I think they would have scored in that spell sooner or later as they pushed up and pulled our defence all over yet they still lacked bite. When they did score 10 minutes after that change (an AoC tackling own goal which caught O'Donnell out?) , they shut up shop and they did it as if they do it every week. They worked hard to close us down and kept doing so. Throughout the game, they had enough pace to nullify our 4-2-3-1, that in League 2 relies quite a bit on pace of our front 4 - plus they had stamina and a work ethic that kept it neutralised. We eventually changed it and actually created a couple of chances but had no luck.

Should we change our recent more successful formation for a new one due to one loss against a team from a division above that we would not have lost to on a luckier day? Of course not. Had Akpan's first half shot not been met with a great reflex save, the result might well have been different. I do think Ismail's trickery would have worked better against their full-backs, since they had enough pace to frustrate Oteh and Connolly, so he should have come on sooner or started. And I expected Reeves would come on for Akpan for a while. But we went for a less familiar formation change (Mellor for long throws and set piece height?) and it did not work. It's not the end of the world. As far as League 2 is concerned, 4-2-3-1 ain't broke so don't fix it.

 

It is embarssing when team after team come to VP playing 2 up front and we at home only play a negative one up front, GB needs bigger balls