If you offered any Walsall fan before the season started, 18 points from the first 9 games, nearly all would have said “Thank you very much” We still have a plus 7 goal difference despite last night’s thrashing. We have completely shut some teams out and have stopped teams getting shots at goal against us.
I don’t know what happened last night, I think a combination of tired players, even Jellis looked ruined last night, and the fact Fleetwood was really good and we just had a stinker overall. It doesn’t have to define the season.
He was struggling to track back, even first half. I do think there were some poor selections last night that didn’t help.
People talk about “the work Matt does”. Does he ever actually win anything though? All he ever seems to do is back into people, then the opposition win the ball. Tap in aside he was poor. I didn’t mind the Adomah sub personally, but it didn’t work either and then had to be rectified again.
The man management/DJ stuff was premature. I’m sure DJ is grateful that he’s been helped through a viral infection by the club, but he looks every inch the player that wants to play to me. Missed a good chance (after the maligned Gordon put it on a plate for him) but maybe a match sharp DJ puts that away. He still has smarter movement than any of our other strikers, and I really don’t understand the work rate criticisms.
People hear rotation and think second string, it doesn’t have to be that. Dropping, say, Matt or Jellis last night would not have been a comment on their performances so far this season. Jellis has been extremely good, hold my hands up, far better than I imagined he would be. But we have players in this team that can more than make up for any tiredness in the squad. Earing, Adomah and DJ have all made good contributions this season when called upon, we don’t need to be running out the same 11 every single game.
What Matt does do and we even saw it last night is he occupies more than 1 player, several occasions last night where they doubled up on him. This plays a part in why we are getting goals throughout the team because whilst they are doing that it creates the spaces and opportunities for others.
Fair, he is a nuisance, I’m just not sure it makes up for how much he actually wins, his touch and link up play and lack of pace (and press by the way, something used to dismiss other players). 3 in 12 is nothing to write home about either.
I don’t really buy that the only reason other players are scoring is because Matt is backing into multiple defenders to be honest, but there’s no doubt he puts himself about and makes himself as much of a handful as possible.
I’ve just rewatched the goals and Okagbue has had an absolute shocker.
He let the player peel across him for the first, ignoring the run and just moving towards the ball. The second was a stupid penalty to give away, he shouldn’t have been sucked that far out in the first place to be chasing back. The third he allowed his man to get a few yards away on a corner, he hits the bar from the header and they score the rebound. The fifth, he gets sucked in again and then goal scorer is behind him (harsh maybe but he was neither here nor there in his positioning).
There were a few shocking performances and a bit of rotation would probably be a good thing. McEntee is nailed on for the RCB role as soon as he’s fit though IMO.
A very bad day at the office, but the season has been great so far, so we go again on Saturday. It’s all about how we bounce back.
It wasn’t just the goals. On two occasions he played the ball straight to their striker in the box, one a missed clearance and one a bizarre back heeled flick, that easily could have ended up with even more humiliation.
I’ve never really seen the hype to be honest, I don’t think Daniels is a perfect replacement on that side either and you can’t disturb the brilliant Harry Williams, but if McEntee is out for a long period we need to find a solution fast.
Generally agree, his main contributions are his nuisance value upfront and defending set pieces into our box which he generally wins a fair proportion of
Absolutely, there’s no doubt he occupies defenders, and he does help out defensively, but when you have three centre halves on the pitch that SHOULDN’T be necessary (although I am well aware we shit the bed from corners and crosses all night).
Personally i would make 4 or 5 changes based on fitness and a couple based on performance but i wouldn’t be surprised if Sadler kept the same team to allow them to put things right.
But in all honesty there wont be any judgement from me come 5pm Saturday if we lose we still have the same squad and coaching staff that had us top of the league at 8.45 pm yesterday evening.
Wow
Not much you can say about that, football is a crazy rollercoaster, we will probably WIN the next game 6-2 , we all like to get entertainment for our money, and 8 goals will certainly give you a bit of that.
I just hope it doesn’t distract the younger players from all the hard work they have put into the other games, and it doesn’t erode their confidence and team building, we have a long way to go yet.
Football has changed. Like someone mentioned above, even Wrexham lost a game by 5 last season.
Because of the regularity of games and the change in professionalism and the way the game played, you seem to rarely see a team get promoted by keeping it tight and kicking a goal for an entire season these days
Add that to the way we like to play, and I really do hope its just one of those games where the season caught up with us
It may yet prove to be a bit of a blessing / grounding if you flip the perception and take the initial anger out of the equation
Thanks for posting this. The flaw in the theory seems to be that it relies on the forwards pressing in the area to allow the defenders to play around them. Why not just leave them to it and press on the players they are going to give the ball to. By having two or more men in the box with the keeper, there are fewer to mark.
As I posted last night, I felt the penalty was the first turning point. Then the referee allows the third. unbelievably. And later we have DJ’s miss. By the last two goals we were in chaos. The game reminded me a bit of us winning 6-1 at Grimsby. With the game close, Grimsby had a decent penalty shout, which was not given then straight after we did get one and off we went.
I’ve seen so many goals this season by teams pressing players that aren’t comfortable on the ball (ie defenders and goalkeepers) that give examples of the opposite.
At the end of the day it’s about execution, and we didn’t execute either a press or a containing strategy, certainly second half, and it cost us.
