Hopkin unhappy with Booing

I can just about cope with the long ball crap;

1. It was part of an overall plan, now and again to gain territorial advantage.
2. We had the personnel to deliver quality long ball.
3. We gained points and it steered us clear.

We had none of the above, we have been unable to gain any points with the long ball strategy. So no points to steer us clear. We had better find a team out of our squad that can play to a plan that does get us points. We had that in December, can we return to that please, yes I know it is risky, but we have the personnel to play the pressing game.

 

Long ball is being forced on us because our midfield is being crowded out and we have no width.
Fleetwood benefitted from that and so will Plymouth

 

Our midfield also has zero creativity.

 

It's not risky at all onside, it's the perfect way for this squad of players to play. Hopkin cracked it in December especially regarding what is a generally appalling defence (caddis and occasionally O'Connor aside). High pressure tactic forcing the opposition to go long and play aimless balls forward which is the only thing we can defend against. An defence not being worked as much because the midfield is looking after the ball, not rushing, not panicking but keeping possession and giving it to Payne and Ball to work their magic and create chances, which, shock horror meant we scored a shit tonne. We aren't doing a single one of these things anymore.

 

Don’t agree with that. Give them room to play and Payne Obrien Akpan And Now Butterfield can create and score.
Trouble is we are to narrow and easy to crowd out on Saturday in the second half Payne had his marker and Evans on his back anytime the ball went near him.
We have to play long ball which we poorly equipped for. On Saturday as well we tried to play down the channels and the punts from our centre backs were very poor

 

I think we'll see Mellor back in the line up at the weekend ahead of Akpan. When Mellor was playing in an advanced right role before and over Xmas we had the out ball to him to get the ball up the pitch. Mellor pulling right and the availability of the long ball frees up space on the pitch for the likes of Payne, Ball, O'Brien.

 

Butterfield played a few balls which OB didn't read. Was interesting to see. I thought OB had a bit of an off game on Saturday, didn't really work out for him. I'd rather see Butterfield playing in the advanced position, and OB tidied up and protects Payne. If Payne is getting man marked, or closed down as soon as he has the ball, then that naturally should create some space for the other players to work with. Of course, if the ball is just being lumped forward, it doesn't matter who is in midfield.

 

I do think some of our hoofballs happen because O'Donnell doesn't play the ball quickly enough. I noticed a couple of times on Saturday when Caddis and Chicksen ran wide to receive the ball from O'Donnell,but by the time he realised (if in fact he even looked or realised), the possibility was gone because Fleetwood saw it before he did and closed our full backs down. Having said that, if he had have released either of them, we still need our midfield or forwards to show out wide for the ball down the line, otherwise the full backs end up with no option other than to hoof

 

How can anyone leave a match early when it was only 1-0 ?

 

Didn't we have a transfer window in January,if that is the case Hopkin should have got a wide man in, if we are going to see teams do as Fleetwood did last Saturday we can't wait for Scannell to get match fit, and his injury record is not the best.

 

I can't fathom it out, it makes absolutely no sense, no matter how I look at it.

I can understand the logic in it, try and get them on the counter, balls over the top for Miller to run on to... but it became clear after about 10 minutes that wasn't going to work...so why did we continue with it for the full 90 minutes?
we've got a team with Payne, Ball, Butterfield, Clarke, O'Brien in it and we're going long... it's completely and utterly backward and it'll take us down.

that type of play, especially with the players we have is meat and drink to these teams now a days.
if that was how we were going to play we should have gone ahead and got Connor Sammon, and added a couple of wingers but we didn't, we got ball players such as Super Billy and Butterfield and then hoof it over their heads to the 6'6 centre half they are up against.

 

Sorry I wasn’t clear, it is only risky because our defence is flaky at best!!

 

I think its a lack of confidence in their own footballing abilities, panic almost, just hoof it rather than risk losing the ball in our own half

 

Well they were on Saturday, but that was entirely due to the way we were playing. What is a concern to me is the lack of brain activity both on field and off it. We needed to change plan A almost immediately as our best players were literally being ignored, we had to find a way to bring them into the game, and we systematically did not do that.

 

You could have left after 10 minutes, the outcome of the game would not have changed. The Southend game had exactly the same feel about it, infact any game where we go behind. If we trail at any point might as well head for the exit.

 

Is anyone else concerned about what DH is saying with regards to preparation for matches?

Twice I have heard him say it now. “We tell players via txt how Fleetwood play, and send all the players videos to watch” if that is it, then that is nowhere near enough. How does he know the players have watched the vids? I would want them all in, and spend a couple of hours going through tactics, looking at vids, and asking for any contributions.

 

exactly. that game could have gone on another 90 minutes, we wouldn't have scored.

 

I'd very much hope they were doing this as part of tactical briefings and team meetings prior to and after games - if all theyre doing is whipping them a quick text and sending them a youtube link that's unbelievably tinpot.

 

Well that is what he said, and he said it twice in different interviews. Not sure what question promoted that response. Alarm bells were ringing in my head. Especially as he is also saying we don’t play long ball!!

 

I'd LOVE to know what he'd describe Saturday as if it wasn't long ball.