Defence poor, midfield non existant, attack weak

[Uncle Spielberg]

What the hell has happened to the football side I have loved to watch over the last 4 years ?.

We used to be able to string passes on the deck and very rarely use to rely on the hoof upfront

We have several players playing a long long way below their capabilites, stand up: Cullip, Carpenter, Rodger, Roberts.

We have played crap football all season and put in 1 good performance against QPR.

Henderson is an average player and Knight needs a deckchair as he just watches the game every Saturday. He can score but is not an all round player such as Zamora who created as many as he scored.

Sort it out.

 

[Brovion]

Yeah until Heskey cam... Oh sorry, I thought you were talking about England.

 

[Fluffster]

The real problem was the midfield, Oatway, Chippy, and Rodger all played terrible.. which meant there was more pressure on the defence, and no service to the attack... .

 

[Icy Gull]

Been abroad and haven't been able to get to any games so far this season.

So what's the problem so far this season?

Adjusting to Div 2 football again
SC's tactics
Players who think they are too good for this division and not competing properly.
We've been playing the best teams so far
Team getting too old, it's been together a while.
Crap officials
No luck
No Zamora

Only bright spot is that we are 5th in the table whilst apparently
playing crap.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Agreed. We were very, very poor on Saturday. No fight, no shape, no game plan. Very lucky to steal a point.

The defence was shaky although I thought Butters ( still a stone overweight) did ok. Not sure about Hinshelwood yet. Cullip started poorly last year but we all know he's a good defender and will surely come good.

But it was the midfield which gave real cause for concern. Playing Rodgers out wide on the left makes no sense - he must play alongside Carpenter ( terrible on Saturday) in the middle. Hart was the only one who had a decent game but how we missed Brooker.

Little Leon will score 20 goals this season but why o why didn't we go in for Mooney who Swindon got on a free from Birmingham and looked dangerous all afternoon. Henderson doesn't look like scoring from open play does he?

What was even more worrying was the way we resorted to hoofing it up the park. I trust Steve Coppell but it must be said we were shocking on Saturday and desperately need a creative midfielder - somone who can put thier foot on the ball and pass it to a Brighton player. That's not to much to ask is it?

 

[Fluffster]

Andre Kan-chelskis! How we need him.

 

[pishhead]

we should of matched there formation on saturday they had parkin and mooney with milner floating behind them, we dont have a player that is capable of doing it. so why cant we get a player in on loan that can play this position? It would deffinatly give us more attacking options which we are deffinatly lacking at the minute.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I don't think anyone would say Knight was ever going to be new Zamora. He was a one-in-a-million player, and it's wrong to put Leon under that kind of pressure

 

[Goring Gull]

Oatway, i can't believe he's still bloody well playing for us, so he scored a goal the other week, i don't care, ship him out.

 

[The Great Cornholio]

And 5th in the league. Anybody got any idea why we have the most whiney fans in the league? We played very poorly on Saturday because we couldn't adapt to their surprise tactics of 3-4-3. We are a couple of players short of a very good team but we all know the reasons for this (Falmer, money etc.) We missed Jones as Rodger was sucked out of position too often leaving Mayo exposed to a very good youngster whose played in the Premier. And we got a draw and could of won but for a blind ref/linesman.

I bet even Man U fans don't whinge this much when they play bad.

 

[Gwylan]

Does anyone know how Oatway was MOTM on Saturday? What did he do all game?

 

[Dandyman]

Agreed. We were very, very poor on Saturday. No fight, no shape, no game plan. Very lucky to steal a point.

The defence was shaky although I thought Butters ( still a stone overweight) did ok. Not sure about Hinshelwood yet. Cullip started poorly last year but we all know he's a good defender and will surely come good.

But it was the midfield which gave real cause for concern. Playing Rodgers out wide on the left makes no sense - he must play alongside Carpenter ( terrible on Saturday) in the middle. Hart was the only one who had a decent game but how we missed Brooker.

Little Leon will score 20 goals this season but why o why didn't we go in for Mooney who Swindon got on a free from Birmingham and looked dangerous all afternoon. Henderson doesn't look like scoring from open play does he?

What was even more worrying was the way we resorted to hoofing it up the park. I trust Steve Coppell but it must be said we were shocking on Saturday and desperately need a creative midfielder - somone who can put thier foot on the ball and pass it to a Brighton player. That's not to much to ask is it?

Agree with almost all of that, George.

I did think, from the safety of J Block, that Hinsh had an ok game - he came in to intercept the ball on most occassions. I hope that a fully fit Piercy may supply some of the answers. Having seen him play for Spurs, I do think the lad had talent and that SC has the nous to bring it out of him.

 

[Yorkie]

What the hell has happened to the football side I have loved to watch over the last 4 years ?.

We used to be able to string passes on the deck and very rarely use to rely on the hoof upfront

We have several players playing a long long way below their capabilites, We have played crap football all season and put in 1 good performance

Sort it out.

Stop going to Selhurst then and watch a decent team

 

[Brixtaan]

Good opinions everyone.Keep it up.

 

[Goring Gull]

I think the whole squad needs a bit off a redshuffle but with limited resources what can we do. Got over the perfromance on saturday now, and believe we are lucky to still be up near the top. Just hope we start playing a bit better.

 

[227 BHA]

Oatway, i can't believe he's still bloody well playing for us, so he scored a goal the other week, i don't care, ship him out.

I thought he was the best of the 3 - Chippy and Jolly were dreadful and Charlie was always gonna struggle with the rest of his midfield having a day off!
Still think he is a good player to have in the squad at this level but we desperately need some creativity - as the earlier post said - bring on Kanchelskis!?

 

[Yorkie]

We missed Jones on Saturday

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

Jones' absence left the team without balance. The midfield were all playing in the same space apart from Harty, which is why he stood out and the midfield performance was so poor, IMHO. It looked better when Harding came on because there was finally somebody on the left hand side to give the ball to.

I don't think enough credit is being given to Swindon. They came to win the game, three up front. They were strong, aggressive and well organised - certainly one of the better teams in this division come May, I suspect. Parkin was excellent, and their no.2 (I forget his name) had a cracking game.

Look on the bright side. We haven't really got going yet, and are not playing that well, but we're still fifth, with only one loss league and cup. I'd have settled for that. Where's all the trust in Coppell gone? He recognised we were poor on Saturday, he's not making excuses. I can remember much, much worse games than that where previous bosses (Lloyd in particular was a master of this) would claim we played well against all evidence to the contrary. If we can see they're not playing well, you can be bloody sure Coppell can.

It would be great to watch slick passing football every Saturday, but at the end of the day I go home happy or upset according to the RESULT. We play that poorly but still pick points up, we'll be OK.

 

[crasher]

Am I the only who thought Henderson had a good game?

The team were very poor but he won the ball and looked sharp and aggressive. And I can't believe Leon's getting criticised =- he got the ball at his feet near the box about twice all game. He won a penalty, could have had another and just missed with a glancing header.

Midfield were terrible - we need Rodger in the middle, someone else who can pass it so Oatway isn't first choice and a right-back. Hinshelwood's doing his best but he can't pass the ball at all.

FWIW I'd have changed to a 5-3-2 at half-time to combat Swindon's formation.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

Agreed Rodger had a mare but he was not ' match fit ' and still shaking off an injury so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

I thought Oatway did OK given that he is best used to disrupt the oppositions game plan. Butters played a blinder and was running close with Hart for my MoM.

Roberts, an absolute stinker of a game, if your going to do a Barthez like dribble out of the area don't make a Petterson like clanger. We were very lucky in the first half when Butters recovered to keep the ball away from their forwards in the 6 yard box.

In fact all the ' dodgy ' players did well and all the so called ' legends ' had a mare.

And we have got to defend set pieces better.