Since last Saturday and no post match analysis from RR theres been a gap in my life. Are you still out there young man and if so will we get a match report after tonight?
To be honest, I thought people were bored with it. It is on my computer and I am happy to post it if you are interested. There will be no report tonight though. I have a bad feeling about it, and I am not going to shell out a tenner in those circumstances.
I'm sure many people aren't bored with it. Personally I always look forward to reading it although I might not always agree (as you know) with some of your opinion. I wasn't confident tonight but its half time and we're doing alright. COYR!
It’s a good read, carry on. Suspect easier to write when we win. Have to admit, having it strategically pointed out when we lose and illustrating it can be a painful read. It is a great insight, carry on if it makes you happy
I do not want to clutter the place up when people will be more interested in the game tonight so here is part of what I wrote on saturday. Barnsley scored with almost their first attack. It looked like Woodrow had passed up a good opportunity when he was too slow to capitalise on a good through ball (Williams), but from the corner that resulted from his blocked effort, Romal Palmer’s cross was met by the unmarked Michal Helik, and he headed home unchallenged. It was defending worthy of a Barnsley team at its worst. Not much else happened that first half which allowed me the time to look at how things were working under our temporary Chief Coach. Once again, it was 3-4-1-2 with Thomas providing the link between midfield and attack. Behind him, Romal Palmer was having a very good game, as he read play and intercepted passes. Jordan Williams also played well spending more of his time in the attacking half, than he did defending. For me, those were our two outstanding players, but even at that stage, in other areas, things were not going as well. I have said before that Andersen does not seem happy on the left side of the back 3. His long passing with his left foot is not accurate enough, but he was not helped by Clarke Oduor who seemed too poorly balanced to play well defensively at left back. Our left side looked a problem defensively, and it was not effective going forward either. There also seemed to be more long passes, just the sort of thing that look aimless when aimed at a forward line that is neither tall, nor quick. Neither was the pressing quite as intense, although that might also be because pressing is not Woodrow’s forte. When the city equaliser arrived at the start of the second half, it was the result of an inaccurate Williams’ throw-in level with the edge of the City penalty box. City broke quickly and the whole of our right side was caught too far forward. We never really recovered, and although we managed to block a couple of City efforts on goal, when the ball eventually came clear, it was lashed home, via a deflection, from the edge of the box by Hunt. If that was not bad enough, in their next attack City scored again. This time Walton pushed away a cross that he might have held, and Bakinson fired home from the edge of the box, aided by another big deflection. OK, we were unlucky, but we had also made some very poor decisions. Murray decided to make changes, figuring that he had nothing to lose. Herbie Kane replaced Palmer for his Barnsley debut (57’). Then Simoes replaced Oduor (63’) and the team went to a back four. Williams went to left back and Sollbauer went to right back, and attempted to play as an overlapping wing back. Andersen immediately looked happier because he was able to play to his strengths, winning the balls played forward. However, I am much less sure that the change worked in other ways. Sollbauer is not an attacking full back and Williams was less effective in an attacking sense on the left. I am not sure what the attacking part of our system was. Thomas moved to wide right, but there did not seem to be width on the left side, with neither Simoes nor Chaplin totally happy to move away from their comfort zones. Murray solved it by replacing Chaplin with Frieser, a more natural wide left player. Nevertheless, it all looked a bit of a dog’s breakfast. We had more ball, we had a higher field position, but we created very little, and the equaliser did not look like it was coming. The 90 minutes plus injury time were up when Sollbauer challenged for a ball at the edge of the City box. He was there first, and was hit late by O’Dowda. He was knocked unconscious in the collision and the ref immediately gave a penalty we had not really deserved. After 12 minutes of injury time, Woodrow struck the penalty confidently into the roof of the net for the draw. Conclusions are very hard to draw under the circumstances. The team does not press as well as it did last season. Andersen does not look happy playing on the left side of a back 3. Oduor does not look happy defending against a decent wide player, but above all of that, the biggest issue is our inability to score goals in open play. That was obvious above all once more again today. It was obvious when we had 3 at the back and a total of 5 in midfield, and it was obvious when we were 4 at the back and four in midfield. I would even suggest that Kane made very little difference after he replaced Palmer, because he was too deep and his long passes had very little chance of reaching our front two. Yes, we played with more energy and more players higher, but you cannot play that way consistently. We got back into the game only because we got lucky. Before the game, I posed the question as to how the team could be rebalanced in order to give us a better way of getting forward that does not involve high balls/long passes from back to front, and without using a press, for which this set of players does not seem as suited. At the end of the game, that question was not answered. Of course, there are still a number of players to integrate into our first eleven. Brittain at right wing back allows Williams to replace Oduor at left wing back. A fit Matty James will improve our central midfield, although I thought Palmer played well in that role today, and will allow Kane to get further forward to deliver his passes from a more effective short distance. However, we look like we are still in need of a big man up front, and the Woodrow/Chaplin partnership does not look like it can be productive. There is a need for fresh ideas at a coaching level, and I was very disappointed to see us go backwards in time to 4-4-2 later in the game as we struggled to find a solution to City’s deep defence and quick attacks on the break. OK, we had the ball more, but there was nothing new in our play. Nothing to get excited about, or to look forward to. At the end of the game, my biggest emotion was despair.
