Optimistic post which heavily relies on TK’s willingness to back Brennan.pletch99 wrote:While the result wasn't pretty I thought yesterday was mostly an improved performance on the last couples. Unfortunately, we were up against a side who have a lot of pace and power and who are currently supremely confident. Their first and third goals were both the result of poor touches being pounced no quickly and then superbly ececuted breaks. Their third goal in particular involved a pass that set the winger away - I suspect you can count on one hand the numbers of players in this league who would have seen that pass and actually played it successfully. It cut us apart.
I personally feel we're not far away from having a competitive team, but as others have said the right back, central midfield and the centre forward positions need an upgrade. I thought we played much better football yesterday, in the first half at least - the difference between us and them was the quality of passing around the box - to pick out one example Brundle really opened them up with a late run into space and Wes had a relatively simply ball to play him through onto goal, but his pass was hopelessly overhit. Now the truth is I believe Wes is good enough to play that ball, but right now is totally lacking in confidence.
I think it's really interesting that everyones suddenly having a go at DB tactics, but I mostly think his decisions have made sense. He played a really defensive team at BW and we got a point, it was ugly to watch, but it was successful in negating BW and we got a point. Against Alty he took a lot of stick but the truth is that he was short of attacking options. So we played a team with three limited midfielders who really don't completment each other (but who individually in another midfield would be fine.) Our only really creative attacking threat was Hall, but Alty spotted this as got men around him. As a consequence we end up lumping the ball forward - again really ugly.
Yesterday DB had more options - however, his selection did highlight the weaknesses in the squad - yesterday he tried selecting his strongest three attacking players - the problem is that all of them are wide attackers, none of whom is really suited to playing centrally. He also made the midfield more attacking by including Wes, but at the cost of work rate and ability to win the ball. Chesterfield might not have been the right opposition to do that. It's a bit of a rock and a hard place. Had Flanagan been fit to play instead of Wes, it might have been more effective.
I was initially impressed with Bloomfield, but his confidence appears to be shot. He has been ineffective when used recently and was dominated by a step 4 defence on Tuesday night. So I can understand why he might have decided to try BRE in the position. To be fair BRE did win a few headers and the goal was well taken, although meaningless.
While I thought yesterdays referee was better than most we've had recently, he once again allowed a team to constantly man handle EMC - it's really difficult to be effective when you constantly have a troll twice your size hanging onto your shirt.
It's likely to be a difficult few weeks - we have tough run of fixtures and while it's not impossible we'll pick up some unexpected points, particularly if DB goes into BW mode, the likelihood is that we will slip down the table. The key question is whether DB can restore confidence once the fixtures get easier.
Finally, everybody seems to think we won't add to the squad, but DB said in his interview that we are looking and that a couple of deals had fallen through, so it sounds like we're trying. He also said he would only bring players in who will make the squad better. Time will tell.
Before the Yeovil game I was hoping we might continue to climb the table and at have a possibility of the playoffs although I think deep down I think I suspected that the ceiling of this team wasn't that high. I'm now sure of this - I'm reasonably confident that we will finish at least lower midtable. I think DB is doing a lot of things right and therefore should be given time by both supporters and TK. This was always going to be a long term process as the starting base was so low.
Midfield needs sorting out urgently, it’s been woeful for too long. Incredulously, half decent service into our forward players might actually yield some goals.