I feel sorry for McEntee in a way. Sadler has completed confused him with the ridiculous idea of him being a midfielder - he now believes he’s some sort of Pirlo. He’s forgotten what made him a good player - and a centre half.
I find the DJ treatment absolutely bizarre and weird. To bring on Levi in advance of DJ (especially when Matt was still on the pitch) is weird.
Well, stick all those players wages into 2 decent players and bingo
I think that Jamma stayed on because Mat was worried about their aerial threat from set pieces.
Understandable
So why did Levi come on then? And not DJ?
It’s honestly like you’re enjoying the fact we’re struggling??
You aren’t some sort of visionary just because you constantly post the most negative, worst case scenarios without any hint of a solution. Just pure hatred towards Trivela and Sadler. Odd.
That’s fair enough but he shared a portion of the blame for their goal from a corner.
More worrying really is that we were carrying him, he wasn’t even nuisance value in the second half. I’m not trying to knock Matt here, he has been superb but he hasn’t been playing well at all and it is probably cos he is shattered.
We were playing with 10 men basically the second half. There was one break where Gordon got away through the centre and there was no one at all making a run, Jamma just stood still and let him run the ball closer to him. There is always a risk reward and seeing as we weren’t winning the game, I think the change should have been made.
Jamma will probably be in an ice bath for 3 days now trying to recover for Saturday.
Agreed @Belphegor and given the number of headers he won it was a justified call. If we’d had a 2 goal lead or they weren’t going to cause such a threat I think he’d have come off.
Sadlers at fault for things - but this one I get.
As for OS. As the Right sided CB I think he is great able to step in and play. But please put Harry back in !
Running power sadly
Im more worried what’s happening at the other end. If we need Matt to support 3 centre halfs not being able to defend our goal, then something just ay right.
I’ve been fairly defensive about Stirk up to this point but he really looked a weak link last night… Loads of running around but my god he looked lightweight (almost challenge-shy) and gave the ball away on numerous occasions (almost always in a very threatening position too….)
Another quandary for MS to resolve but probably won’t
I wouldn’t disagree, but the facts show that he wins most of the first headers from set pieces in our box, followed by Williams. Need st least one of them in the pitch
Agreed, what’s the point of having three central defenders if we need an ineffective centre forward to defend the box!
To cut Sadler some slack though, the team made enough chances to win. He can’t be blamed for that level of bad finishing.
He could go against the Sadler playbook and bring a finisher on though.
If only he had an out and out finisher sitting on the bench.
On McEntee I wonder if injuries are catching up with him. He’s always been high energy even as a defender, but he doesn’t seem that at the moment. I’m really not sure what the solution is, you can move Okagbue there but he was starting to get rinsed on the right hand side as well.
Phil, as I said on another thread we royally screwed up in January by putting all of our eggs in one basket. Trying to sign Draper would have been a very solid move by the club, unfortunately, it didn’t materialize, leaving us in the usual January panic mode.
some things never change, do they.
I think the risks of moving Okagbue back to the right where he performed well but not without issues are outweighed by the positives of getting Williams back in. I would bench McCentee.
Not sure about that. Williams is a much better player than Okagbue. Dropping what is for me our player of the season at this point is just utterly bizarre.
I agree. And on current form I would be far happier to have Okagbue on the right instead of McCentee. As you say he hasn’t seemed the same player since his return. Lack of rythm in the position due to injuries and being moved in to midfield
I agree and was calling for DJ, but the players on the pitch should have scored at least one more with the chances created.
Saddler is pig headed, he leaves possibly the leagues most natural goalscorer on the bench while we desperately need a goalscorer. I remember last season when he insisted on playing faal instead of him even though it was ramadam and faal had no energy and when the fans told him what they though he just shook his head. My player of the season is sat on the bench while we continue to fail to keep clean sheets. Barrat looks a fraction of the player he looked earlier in the season yet still plays. The midfield looked better last night, more forward thinking but why on earth is he not making changes on 60-65 minutes? Its a squad game now with 5 subs allowed, the amount of running our players do demands fresh legs earlier, this has been glaringly obvious for weeks.
I know we are just about top still, but that just shows what an awful standard of football this division is. We were consistent up until January when others weren’t, but the rest have strengthened as youd expect and we have regressed. I dont think we have ever really looked a great side, just tight at the back and very effective at punishing mistakes and with a left sided centre half with a wand of a left foot.