Opening Home Game vs Cambridge United Aug 3rd

For me it was always unlikely we were going to start the season winning 4-0 every match.

Theres still some overhanging feeling from last seasons histrionics and with ten new players or whatever they need to learn to play together but I'm sure they will and things will improve.

 

Disappointed in yesterday, not for lack of effort but in lack of quality.

Thought Vaughan was poor despite his moment of brilliance. Ball was played into feet too much with back to goal and he was bullied off it. Awful effort when he had that clear chance. Pathetic even. Donaldson much better yesterday IMO.

Palmer too deep, not a holding MF, Gibson did OK, Anderson bang average, Doyle not a number 10. Could have done with him 65-70 minutes playing a higher line off bench.

Defence comfortable. Looked organised.

Deflated.

 

Sergio, can I just remind you of our first game in play off season 16/17. A 0-0 home draw against P Vale, turgid stuff. Keep the faith, with our squad all fit and possibly two more in we are going to be fine, I think.

 

Offering Anderson, Devine and Colville new contracts was a shameful. Our midfield is weak as shi&e.

Not hiring a decent assistant is a massive massive and could prove costly.

We know the transfer market is still open and I am sure 1 or 2 will come in but the problems are what I have said above plus Bowyer seems tactically inept and he makes subs far far too late.

Bowyer is the problem at the minute. He needs to look himself in the mirror and have a word mate.

 

Haha I'm not writing us off. My thoughts purely based on yesterday - not the season ahead. I think it will take time to click but we lacked width so that needs addressing.

Early days and still assessing I suppose. Sunderland, Cardiff, Fulham and others probably feel the same.

 

Disagree with you on Devine and Colville, we need young, cheap back ups due to budget. Can't all be seasoned pros...

Bowyer did wait far too late for sub's though and the formation was poor. We looked more threatening as a 4-4-2

 

I think deflated sums it up. A big build up from last seasons debacles, a sizeable crowd and we just never really got going. Had nil nil wrote all over it from about ten minutes in when i messaged the lads in our whatsapp group saying this system won't work. We may as well have played with 10 men in the first half, as @Onside said Bowyer should have changed it at half time and taken off the ineffective and out of position Doyle. Some positives to work on but overall a disappointing day at the office.

 

I share your view. Day 1, early days etc. But when I looked that side yesterday, the obvious quality issues were the positions held by Gibson and Anderson. Gibson did 'ok' but we need better than what he offers. I've seen enough of Anderson to know that we wont be going up if hes a mainstay in the team.

My concerns about our short comings and areas that need improvement arent just about yesterday.

On the plus side, the effort and fitness levels, the desire and application were much better than last season. We looked better at the back too, but I think that was largely down to Cambridge being awful.

It was an OK performance, but we'll need to improve a hell of a lot, and that means adding at least a couple more with real quality. We looked slow too. Need to add some pace.

 

O'Donnell - usual self, holds the ball too long and his kicking is dreadful

Mellor - for around 15 mins in the first half he looked half decent, but had no help out wide which lead to easily to defend crosses from deep

Everton - decent debut, but glimpses of being a liability. His hit and hope passes were annoying

A O'C - doesn't do anything really, another hit and hope kinda player, never has his head up

Henley - he was crap

Gibson - probably our best player, tried to make things happen and got involved, but he thinks he's better than he is which Ieads to him trying the Hollywood ball constantly or having a shot

Palmer - needs to learn to pass forward, one for the happy clappers who see someone pass a ball 5 yards and think they're Pirlo, expect better from him

Anderson - jumped into tackles and put himself about but he's simply just not good enough

Doyle - should of been off at half time, he doesn't look interested and was playing in flip flops

Vaughan - love his attitude, but his shooting was very poor

Donaldson - probably had our best chances but we didn't utilise him for his strengths which made him mostly anonymous

Overall, thought we lacked a leader. The midfield looked like they didn't know where they were meant to play, the wing backs had no support. We changed to 4-4-2 and still didn't utilise the wingers. I don't think that was our best eleven and I expect we'll change things for the next game. Very disappointed with the result, feels like a loss.

 

Agree with a lot of that. However, you have been very harsh on O'Connor. Although Cambridge rarely threatened, the defending he did have to do, he did very well.

Surprised he went with Henley at Left Back, Bowyer must have had his doubts about Longridge then' a player we all assumed was going to be our first choice left back. But Henley managed to look a downgrade on Chicksen, if that performance is anything to go by.

Bring back Meredith!

 

Thats a pretty fair assessment, the Gibson comment is interesting, he started off well but as the game wore on he thinks he's suddenly a ball player. Hitting one great pass to Vaughan he then forgets what we want him to do which is run at players and commit them. In the end he was passing to imaginary players.

 

O'Donnell - 6 - nothing really to do apart from claiming a couple of early crosses, so can't really comment. Distribution was okay. Looked to play out through Palmer and the CB's

Mellor - 7 - attacked well, especially in first half. Did defensive duties okay also
AOC - 6.5 - played well I thought. dealt with what he needed to deal with and some half decent switches in play. Only missed one obvious challenge all game in second half
BRE - 7 - commanding in the air and some strong challenges. got burnt for pace by one of their forwards in first half though.
Henley - 5 - did nothing going forwards, not challenged massively at back

Overall defence was solid. Cambridge didn't really have a sniff. Longridge should come in at LB next week, and maybe Paudie if fit. However AOC did nothing wrong.

Palmer - 6 - he will be a good player for us this season. can keep things ticking over. we need a brute alongside him who can move with the ball though.
Gibson - 6 - Couple of bright moments, and has good feet. Think the stick he's got has been unnecessary as he certainly played no worse than any of the other midfielders. Can beat a man too, although often played too deep I thought in this game to use that ability.
Anderson - 4.5 - Poor and shouldn't start next week if fit. Devine much better when he came on. Devine found himself in really good positions with clever movement a couple of times. Almost created a goal as well.

All the midfielders played too similar a role in the first half, all wanting to pass it about between them and keep it ticking over. We need a boss in their who can move with the ball as well as being dominant.

Doyle - 5 - did nothing. fell over a few times. too slow and not nothing passing ability to play in that role.
Vaughan - 6 - works hard. great moment of magic in first half to hit the bar. should have done better with the chance where he robbed the centre half. he's a handful though, and will score goals
Donaldson - 6 - works hard, also a handful. couple of good positions where he was whiskers away from connecting and scoring.

DVD doesn't work. If we're playing 4312, a proper attacking midfielder is needed. We looked more threatening in a 442, with more chances being created due to more balls going into the box. Surely have to revert to 442 against grimsby. Scannell looked a little slow, but has good feet and will be dangerous if he starts games. He only played a handful of games last season, and yesterday had about 15 mins to change it and we still weren't getting it wide quick enough to him for any real impact to be made, so I think it's pretty harsh to be slating him.

Changes for against grimsby:
442
OD
Mellor POC BRE Longridge
Scannell Palmer ***New signing*** Ismail (Gibson if not fit)
Vaughan Donaldson

 

Morning Fordy, not going to get into a big debate on this as I posted enough last night - all I would say is you wrote some pretty positive stuff over the summer about what was happening at the club and clean slates, but the 1st league game doesnt go totally to plan and everything is shi$e again (lets remember we didnt lose and kept a clean sheet - I have memories of you saying last season it has to start with a tighter defence)
We are desperate for a midfielder who can dictate the play and some pace out wide and we are in total agreement this needs addressing - anyway got to go to work now (footy coaching can you believe )

 

Good question Park, what was mentioned was ON field

 

What is the situation with Ismail? He was injured in pre season but then featured in the game at BPA and since then, nothings been seen or heard about him as far as I can tell. Bowyer mentioned yesterday about Paudie and Mccarten not being too far off but again, no mention of Ismail?

 

Good post. Agree with that. No mass scare mongering

 

Technically, it was a very interesting game. 4-3-3 is a formation for games you expect to be the stronger side but it lacked penetration against a well drilled 4-4-2 that always had two tidy lines of 4 behind the ball because we weren't quite quick enough to pass it through on the deck, meaning we had to resort to some hollywood passes that had mixed results. I think the players are still learning how to play the formation. They looked nervous at times.

Donaldson and Vaughn looked threatening individually but need to learn to run wide a bit more to create space and drag defenders out of position and create space for Doyle who did not threaten. The front 6 hunted in a pack well in the first half and often crowded Cambridge off the ball at the half way line but this did not happen much in the second half, depite the extra man, as we tired and they put fresh legs on. There was also a complacent spell for 10-15 minutes where we thought the extra man meant we did not have to keep working hard. I'll bet Bowyer had something to say about that after the game.

Having only 3 in an inexperienced midfield left our defence with a lot of work to do at times. O'Connor stopped everything that came his way and also advanced well to cut out a couple of through balls that maybe midfield should have anticipated better. He was actually my man of the match, though I know that will not go down well with some. R-Everton had a pretty good game but his judgement on when to sit and when to go nearly caught him out a couple of times, though he recovered well. Both centre backs were keen to get the ball to move it around in possession. Full backs tried to push up in the first half, Mellor doing quite well, but that was less common in the second half thanks to some poor midfield decisions. O'Donnell had an uneventful game but came out confidently in the first half for a few crosses.

Midfield had some good movement and passing in the first half, Palmer particularly was always trying to find good space and pick a pass, but I thought they left gaps the centre backs had to cover, could have marked better when Cambridge had the ball, and were just overwhelmed at times in the second half. A bit more experience and match fitness is needed there, I think. Gibson looked lively in the first half but too often turned back into traffic in the second half when he had an easy pass wide. He's a bit too greedy for me but he'll learn and still had some good moments. Maybe the midfield 3 will improve as they learn to conserve energy better or maybe Bowyer will put an extra man in there.

We need a tough holding midfielder. Reeves could maybe do it but I think A. O'C could be the man, assuming Paudie returns to the back 4. I don't think A.O'C would not have the youthful running in him needed for a 4-3-3, so 4-1-3-2 formation would be best for Donaldson and Vaughn or a 4-1-4-1 if we play two proper wingers. Having Everton, A.O'C and Paudie would mean a strong defense and a very tall team to threaten from set pieces and corners. The extra defensive man in the middle might then allow full backs more option to push up.

So, overall an edgy game of positives and negatives. I'm happy with the clean sheet and a lot of shots but I thought we could have passed more quickly and a few looked short of match fitness and the good touch/eye for goal that comes with it. There were a few issues that could be addressed and I think they will be but will that be changes of players or formation or both? Players will learn how to play 4-3-3 but there are also a couple of players to come back and Bowyer has a history of changing systems to suit strengths and weaknesses. I actually think we might have enough first team players when Paudie and Ismail return (Reeves and Robinson?). O'Connor might push up to defensive midfield or we play as one of three centre backs, but we could still maybe do with another midfielder and I'm not sure we have all the cover we need.

It's early days and I'm still cautiously hopeful but I never thought we would storm the division. I just expected a decent top half finish and still do. I can see potential for promotion if we iron out some bugs, particularly around midfield. It's time for Mr Bowyer to show us what he has got to get us into the top 7. The players are mostly there. Injuries will probably determine if we need one or two signings to make the top 3 but I think one game is too early to say that. This is a work in progress and another couple of games against different opposition are needed before judging the formation or the players.

 

Riley not included in the squad again. Injured? Strange if not, as he featured prominently pre season.

 

Did bowyer not mention another small knock he’d picked up after the 45 he played at BPA?

 

I had hoped (based on reputation) that Palmer would be our set piece 'specialist'. Earlier yesterday I asked if not, then perhaps McCartan ? From yesterdays showing, Palmer is not the man for this job. Not just once, but each time we had a 'dead ball' situation - Palmers 'cross' was either misjudged, or way off it's intended target. Perhaps we should consider McCartan for set pieces, after all ?

For all the defence appeared competent ....... City were playing Cambridge, not Salford or Mansfield etc.

A member posted earlier in the thread - He saw NO Cambridge player he would want at VP. Fair enough. However, there were 2 or 3 City players who Cambridge wouldn't want on their books, too.

Early days, I know. Yet as I stated late August of last season .... Time waits for no-one, and the clock is forever ticking.