Home vs Forest Green

the difference in those two matches is that henley is very right sided and was evidently not happy going on the outside and on to his weaker left foot so spent both matches turning back inside either playing the pass into midfield on returned it to his centre-halfs, he wasn’t comfortable on his left side.

wood is left sided so should naturally give us width on the left. longridge looked far better and more comfortable at left-back in his short cameo against cambridge than henley did too.

henley continuously slowed the game down in those two matches by cutting back inside and playing simple passes but into busy areas.

 

While the tackle Wood made in the area was very good, that was also Wood's man that he completely lost leading up to that tackle.

I'm not going to criticise Wood for making up for his mistakes, no chance, but I wouldn't class that particularly superb tackle as part of a wider piece of particularly superb defending.

It was very poor defending that required Wood to dig himself out of jail.

 

that chance came from FGR playing through the lines and pulling us out of shape.. donaldson got caught short and with gibson got sucked in to the press with no realistic chance of winning possession. with them two out of position defensively they played through the lines and overloaded in midfield - they got through us with two passes. hence why bowyer and drury were so adamant that we kept our shape and structure defensively.

it was clearly evident from the first time they played their goalkicks short and the ‘keeper brought the ball forward what they were trying to do - suck us in to having two or three players pressing the ball and play through the lines quickly.

if you can break past the press it looks great and can be highly effective in terms of having more players in attacking positions and overloading on teams but it’s risky. the only half-chance we really got from them making their own mistake in the first half when their centre-half took a heavy touch, it was pounced on, gibson broke in to the box and it was questionable whether it was a penatly or not.

we were out thought yesterday.

 

You spent all of last season trying to paint him as one of the worst players we've ever had. Why don't you just admit that he's a lot better than you thought he was?

Even as one of our better players this season, all you're really interested in is picking out holes in his game.

 

Defensively he's got a few holes.

Offensively he's fine.

I wouldn't be alone saying he should play in midfield.

I almost bet you agree with that sentiment.

 

Also, I didn't paint him as one of the worst ever, I just pointed out the obvious fact that he was never as good at left back as Chicksen was.

It's everyone else who, by criticising Chicksen so heavily, painted him as one of the worst ever - given supposedly Chicksen was one of the worst ever.

There is literally no argument to be made that Wood was, is, or ever will be a superior full back than Chicksen. He's nowhere near that level.

 

Sorry jon that's nonsense. Wood has played very well at LB in the last game and a half as well as in the few games he played at the back end of last season. Adamantly he still has defensive attributes to improve but he's a better player than chicksen in every department. There's a reason the latter hasn't got a club a month into the new season.

 

My first ever live city game staying up with my aisan gf until 2.00am glued to my mobile both screaming at the fing stupud ref.

Forest green, bunch of winkers

 

You checked under the hood?

 

Absolute rubbish.

I published the defensive statistics last season with Wood in the team and with Chicksen in the team.

The defence was much, much tighter with Chicksen in than Wood in - so people started telling me the stats were nonsense for a variety of subjective reasons that may or may not have even applied, simply because they wanted to follow some agenda that Wood was a better defender because everyone hated Chicksen.

It was bullshit at the time, it's bullshit now.

Look back at the highlights of games last season where Wood is in the team and we are regularly conceding 2-4 goals - the MAJORITY of goals scored in open play during Wood's games were coming from the left hand side, and time and again Wood is absolutely nowhere near the wide midfielders.

Chicksen got pelters for not stopping crosses - Wood got a pass because he wasn't even there to stop the crosses. That's a total joke.

Add that every single manager that had the opportunity to pick between Chicksen and Wood regularly chose Chicksen when Adam was fit.

I am NOT saying Chicksen was a great defender, we all know that he wasn't - but Wood simply wasn't as good as Chicksen at left back.

That might explain why Wood is now considered a midfielder by many City fans.

Love it, hate it, or feel indifferent about it, it's not 'nonsense' just because a guy who can't accept the facts says it is. Also, he didn't play 'very well' at left back yesterday, but he was largely fine.

 

I'm not disagreeing that wood isn't a great defender, he's got a lot of improving to do. I'm not sure on the exact stats but I know it was at least 80% of goals conceded came from our left side when chicksen played at one point, which is probably similar to what you're saying about the stats with wood.

I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree but for me there's a reason one player is looking like a comfortable league two player and the other is unemployed.

 

Yes, the reason one is unemployed is because his contract expired.

The reason the other is here is because his contract DIDN'T expire - and he's probably quite a bit cheaper, though I'm extrapolating.

 

I wasn't there yesterday but it wasn't the first time managers have brought teams down to Valley Parade to frustrate our players and in doing so 15,000 or so fans, good tactic when it comes off.
We've heard it from every manager we've had over the last 10/15 years in the khazi or the league above, "teams come and park the bus" no shite its your job as manager to counter the way the opposition play and set up.
There has never been more information out there with regards managers and how they set up, Mr Bowyer you pick the team on the day to counter the opposition and if you can't you have players available on the bench who you can bring on to alter the formation.
As I say I was not there but reading many posts regarding our performance Bowyer didnt make the right choice of starting 11 or used his 3 substitutions to change the game, but what I do find infuriating is his comment in the T&A
“We felt how we were on Tuesday when Stevenage played three in midfield and we only had two to start with, it just caused us a little bit of problem to try and get a foothold.

“We stayed with that (formation) because it won us the game on Tuesday.”
We started with 4-4-2 Scannell and Wood our wide men with Palmer and Devine our two midfield players, Henley got injured we pushed Wood to left back brought Akpan on and played 4-3-3, the second half was cease mentality as they overwhelmed us most of the half and we never had an out ball untill he brought Patrick on who at least tried to carry the ball forward, we defended as a team and O'Donnell made two outstanding saves ti keep us in the game at times we rode our luck on Tuesday night, it nothing to do with reshuffling our formation Henley's injury was the divining factor in change of formation.

 

You're opinions on Wood have always been OTT and certainly a lot stronger than a good offensive player with the odd defensive hole. From reading your posts on him for the best part of a year you do appear to have some sort of agenda where you'd much rather rather criticise him than give him his dues.

I don't buy into your Chicksen argument either. Both were generally not good enough but Wood always showed something Chicksen didn't which was potential. He's had a good pre season behind him and has come back a much better player. Personally, iv'e had no complaints with his last few games at LB.

 

For what it’s worth, as we left the ground yesterday a lot of our fans were giving FGR fans some real pelters, and I mean really nasty and aggressive stuff, something I’ve not seen for a while. Anyway, the FGR fans said they fully agreed with the comments and stated they were wholly embarrassed by their own teams display. Whether they actually meant it or they were just agreeing cos they felt intimidated and wanted to get away from their little pickle ASAP, I guess we’ll never know!

 

My agenda was proving what was being proven all season long, both by selection and the stats - Chicksen was a better left back than Wood.

Anyway, that's all in the past now, Wood is here, Chicksen isn't, Wood is not the ideal LB, we all know that, and the potential you describe is real, but not related to being a full back.

Wood's strength is his crossing accuracy, and he also works hard to track back. And his set pieces have been decent at times, too. He has potential, yes, I agree, but I do not agree he is a good left back, or that he will become a good left back, or that he played amazingly well against FGR because his most impressive moment (the tackle in the area) was also a result of his least impressive moment (letting the player cut in from his side and actually get into the area in the first place).

I hope Bowyer plays a real left back in future, not Henley, not Wood, and let's those players do what they do best - for Henley, play right back, for Wood, play further up field.

 

I would rather have Wood in our defence over Chicksen anyday

 

You're certainly not alone in that sentiment.

 

A lot of fans have referred to FGR as a ‘poor team’, and I have even read a ‘pub team’.

Can’t say I have much time for them. Any team that bans meat from the stadium wants kicking out the division for starters lol.

That’s even before their pointless short goal kicks are accounted for, or their attention seeking director whinging because he couldn’t get in the suite without a tie.

That said, they aren’t a poor team at all. They made the playoffs last year and have stability.

They had a gameplan to frustrate us and it worked, but instead of venting our frustration at them and making clouded judgements on their ability based on a few results so far this year before the form has settled down, we have thrown out more important issues closer to home that need addressing by Bowyer.....

 

Hope Akpan has been a terrible signing. It would be great to ship him out.

The scapegoating is ridiculous though. He played well 1st half, poorly 2nd when he was pushed on a bit. He was still better than what Palmer and Devine produced. It's not one players fault. The hissy fitting is embarrassing.

I thought once Eoin Doyle left we would suddenly win every game ........