Home vs Crawley Town 19th October

Who else do you blame? The managers normally the decision maker isn’t he?

I didn’t hear his interview, but if that’s the case then who decides to sit back and invite pressure on while the gaffers telling them otherwise? Sounds illogical to me

For the record, I don’t play fifa or any other computer game

 

Your theory sounds more illogical tbh, that a manager can control individuals in the heat of a match. We couldn’t keep hold of the ball second half, which is why we dropped deep much to Bowyers annoyance.

I can’t tell if you actually think a manager actually likes to invite pressure on or not, do you honestly think they wouldn’t rather get a third or fourth when they go 2 up?

 

Don't like slagging off players but I thought Akpan was poor yesterday. But why I mention him is to say that when Vardy scored for Leicester yesterday he celebrated just like Akpan with his hands behind his ears to the crowd. I'm sure that Akpan's way of celebrating was absolutely no more than that - just a celebration without any malice to the crowd.

 

So you didn’t actually answer my question wilsden. I can only decipher from your post that you say it is the whole teams decision to sit back for the last 20 odd minutes, which doesn’t make sense as you then contradict yourself in the last sentence by saying the players wanted to go on and score 3 or 4! If they wanted to score more then they wouldn’t have retreated so deep. Losing Pritchard caused an issue, but not to that extent

 

You aren’t making much sense mate, not sure I’ve contradicted myself but you just might not know what it means so we’ll leave it there

if you think a manager deliberately chooses to invite pressure on rather than go for further goals then there’s little I can do to help.

 

The loss of Pritchard was a setback but the bigger problem was organising. We switched from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-2-1 in the second half. It is unclear whether Bowyer told Devine to drop back from Pritchard's high position or not but it left Vaughan, Oteh(McCartan) and Ismail isolated with no attacking midfielder to link them. They struggled to retain possession and then Crawley had acres of space in the middle of the park to attack us from. I could already see we had a problem with the change in the first 5 minutes before Devine's goal yet the problem persisted throughout the second half and only got worse when our midfield trio dropped into their own penalty area for the last 15 minutes giving defenders nobody to pass out to.

We can improve this. Train someone more (Akpan/McCartan/A.N.Other) as the AM link up top if we keep 4-2-3-1 without Pritchard - though there are probably better options. Work the two defensive lines more in training and pull the wingers in more central and closer to Vaughan if we go 4-3-2-1. Adopt a different formation when we decide to sit back to defend a lead (4-5-1, 5-4-1?). Take a couple of bookings by wasting more time and fouling them in the middle of the park. Be more composed and try keep possession - try keep the ball and fall over easily to win free kicks and slow the game. Get "injured" and waste a couple of minutes getting treatment if someone can can signal you are about to be subbed. We must not be so naive if we want auto promotion.

 

Not being funny, but do you understand how sports work? Two teams trying to win?

There is NO decision being made to sit back, the reason we were so deep is because the players were knackered.

Bowyer was telling the players to get out and push higher, the players weren't capable of doing it.

Why are you trying to blame someone for a decision that was never made? Between Crawley having the momentum and our players being penned in and unable to get out because they were shattered, there is a clear and obvious reason why the last 10-15 minutes were like they were WITHOUT having to desperately try and blame an individual or a group for deciding to do something that they never decided to do.

 

With all due respect, go away John. You just can’t wait to jump on the bandwagon, it’s very noticeable and predictable. I can have a reasoned debate with the best of people, but yours is just about insulting the person you are trying to belittle. Do me a favour and mute my account or something will you

 

Agree with most of that. The one thing that concerned me a bit yesterday was that Crawley looked fitter than us as the game wore on. As you say, we were on our knees toward the end. Some good defending though, everyone seemed to be putting their tired bodies on the line for the cause.

 

I couldn't make yesterday but have to say Crawley are know for being a good side going forward, at 2 - 0 they had nothing to lose so possible threw caution to the wind and went for it, pulled a goal back which put their heads up and made us more cautious dropping deeper and deeper, Im not sure why the City players were shattered according to the first half states we had 72% possession surely it would have been Crawley who should have been shattered.
Your right a late goal always make the team who scored look fitter.

 

Despite winning both matches, a bit concerning in the last 2 games is that Morecambe and Crawley managed to get away about 50 shots on goal between them. We are going to come unstuck soon if that persists

 

I thought Oteh did okay. Missed an absolute sitter in true Donaldson style, but I’m not sure okay will do it. Certainly think there’s a player in there, but he’s not quite there yet. McCartan looks a lot more comfortable on the ball and more of an eye for goal.

 

Was it just me and my mate or did McCarten look knackered and he was only on the pitch 15 minutes or so?

 

Donaldson style seems to be putting the ball wide - Oteh at least forced a very good save.

I didn't think Oteh did a lot wrong with that effort, to be honest, that would probably go in 7 or 8 times out of 10.

 

I don't know what bandwagon you're talking about, but I apologise for upsetting you with the tone of my post.

 

Oteh's miss was a great save. We've all had that headrush when there's an open goal to be had, and try to smash it in. The keeper knew what he was going to do, and full himself full stretch into the balls path. The difference between Oteh and Messi, is that Messi would have had that sixth sense what the keeper was going to do, and he'd have either taken a touch inisde the keeper, or dinked it instead of smashing it. That's what makes Messi the best player in the world, and makes Oteh a League two striker The encouraging thing is, that his head didn't go down after it (although I bet later on he was sh1tting bricks when they pulled one back). He looks a step up from Patrick, and I'll see him play some more games in Donaldsons place before I make proper judegement yet.

 

Just seen the Cooke challenge IMO very lucky he did not get a straight red, sliding in his tackling foot was off the ground although Camara made a meal of it.