What a player cleary is. Got us a right player in the making here. Direct, can cross a ball and what a penalty at the end.
I think the solution is quite simple going forward and it’s a Kelly and Connell midfield 2. The wingers I haven’t seen enough of but they look good so far, don’t bother shoehorning DKD onto the left, play with actual wingers. Most importantly you’re getting the best out of DKD and McGoldrick in the centre of the pitch this way. Our full back situation is strange but can be used in a way that can make our team balanced, when Kelly gets forward Ogbeta can tuck inside, if Ogbeta goes on a wander Kelly should be more reserved along with Connell. Connell and whoever is playing right back can stay back all the time. We can still press but just in a more controlled manner and we have enough players back to not get destroyed by simple long balls which makes games so chaotic For me this is the most balanced way of setting up the team. DKD is a more adaptable player and overall better than Phillips as he can play up front when McGoldrick cant, linking play particularly spreading the ball to the wingers and then getting into the box like he did at the end of last season. Phillips can only really play that role where he’s wide all the time linking up with Vickers, don’t get me wrong it can be effective but I’d much rather have a threat from both flanks like tonight. If Ogbeta becomes good at inverting I’d also be open to playing Russell alongside Connell, for me this way gets the most out of our squad. Russell is much more adventurous but we have enough numbers back to cover the space he leaves so we can actually cope with teams countering us The only player that would be left out is Phillips and the only concern I’d have is if someone is willing to buy him for a decent amount of money. I’m convinced with this approach we’d easily get into the play-offs. We’ve had the quality in the past few seasons but we need to be more pragmatic.
I agree that we certainly looked impressive in the first half. A very bad miss by DKD and another miss by him, plus two close things from Vickers and Cleary, prevented the scoreline which our first half dominance warranted. Some very poor defending at the corner in first half added time made things worse, of course.
I was in the sign a big knock about striker club but after watching last night I think a small in the box centre forward in the stamp of Adam Armstrong would have a field day up front for us now. Not sure who's available but were crying out for a finisher..
I know it looked like Fleetwood were going to score for a while but I’m sure the mix up with Cleary thinking his MotM announcement was him being subbed as board went up at the same time influenced it slightly. I think the confusion of him wondering if he was off or not, plus our players telling him to get back on and who had really gone off threw us for a second and they capitalised on it. I bet he wished he had been subbed when they scored!
It happened a bit after that It was funny though, the mix up. I hope he realised he'd got MOTM! We do need to improve that concentration at the death though, we won't get promoted without it.