He is in the minds of a lot of our players and also it has to be said a lot of our supporters!
Excellent post. That imbalance and poor selection was exactly as I saw it.
Evan Weir, I have been impressed with him especially he long passes.
Talks some sense as well
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I’d counter that and though it’s just a correlation…
We managed the first half of the season without him and ended up 12 points clear at the top…
He’s just a non league player bless him. I am absolutely astonished he’s ahead of Levi, Wheatley, DJ, and Harrison tonight.
It’s an appalling decision to start him.
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Question.
Does anyone seriously still think Oisin McEntee should be playing in midfield? Is there anyone out there?
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Mat Sadler
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Not critisizing Gordon himself, but i don’t get how he can be deemed not good enough on Saturday to get into the squad ahead of four strikers, five if you include Adomah.
Then on the Tuesday he starts ahead of all five.
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While i think McEntee should be used as a defender he was probably our most effective player on the pitch today.
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Effective … how?
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He came on and did a great job at Notts County I seem to recall so in some games mainly away from home I can see a role for him but I would not have picked him tonight.
As everyone else was so bad he probably was out most effective
Stirk and jellis were absolutely dog today and I’d agree mcentee was Atleast a little more effective with winning the odd header and making runs
I’d never pick him there. A lummox roaming around not having a clue what he’s supposed to be doing.
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The booing of a top of the table side really does sit uneasily with me.
Had we got a point tonight to go 4 points clear and hadn’t been so dominant previously, then the reation would have been very, very different.
There is not a single fan that would not have taken this position at this point, before a ball was kicked. In fact we would have snatched your hands off!
In this respect we are victims of our own dominance and brilliance up until recently.
I think we all expected a slump and some poor performances but the drop off has been catastrophic which is causing panic
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Tonight was the exemplar for why he isn’t a full-time midfielder.
The lads we’ve got on loan must watch that and wonder what on Earth they’ve joined and also reflect on their own careers if they’re sat behind a centre half ploughing his way up and down the pitch.
I think the Sadler “legs over quality” philosophy was summed up in two volleys. Josh’s one on the stroke of half time that nearly took up residence in the hotel, and Mcentee’s air shot. These are professional footballers. There’s not really much excuse to have technique quite so bad.
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Come back from Australia and it’s has if I’d stepped into the TARDIS and gone back a year.
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I have nothing against him personally at all, and no one could ever question his effort. It’s not even his fault he is in the team.
I don’t care for him clapping though, pay me his wages and I will stay out clapping for as long as you like. He is no threat whatsoever, there is so little chance of him scoring a goal it is unreal. He doesn’t offer any kind of creativity, he doesn’t even make the runs he used to in his first spell with us.
I didn’t boo him or anyone else for that matter, I dont’ agree with that, but just talking football on a forum, he just isn’t good enough.
DJ didn’t score tonight but he got in several good positions in the few minutes he was on, and gave them something to worry about. Harrison also looked a threat until he was moved further back.
That’s not the only reason we didn’t win, but you have to give the opposition something to worry about, and he just doesn’t.
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From my personal point of view, I always felt our style of football was particularly fragile. We were playing very low possession football, which contrary to most football orthodoxy was producing results.
I always felt that wouldn’t last forever - players tire, opposition managers learn, form wavers.
It’s why, having been gifted a huge lead in January, to not capitalise with some proper signings, and I mean ‘proper’ first XI style players was criminal, even on loan, never mind permies. What we got was a bunch of kids who give us neither the experience nor quality.
I don’t want to be all catastrophic about this, but I don’t see how we turn this around. We look tired, we look devoid of a plan, we have little or no options from the bench, and a manager who is reverting to type with strange team selections. We still need 6 wins, and on the evidence of the last 5 games, I can’t see it.
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I’ve just watched Mat’s post-match club interview and I’m hoping that he was being so clichéd and anodyne in his responses for the best of reasons and that he actually appreciates that warm words alone will not result in an improvement on our current form.
For the middle 20 of the second we appeared to be getting back into our groove to an extent. I think this happened after Harrison came on. Our pressing was effective and they were not given the time they needed to play a positive game. Sadly, we couldn’t maintain that and the last ten minutes was increasingly chaotic on our part.
It made no sense to me in having Lakin on the bench but not bringing him on at any point, having chosen not to include either of the young lads on loan from Stoke and Brum, in the squad.
As someone has mentioned, it did seem as though Mat was trying to match up to Coleman’s predictably physical, niggly and combative way of playing but he seems to be regularly caught in two minds in his approach to games at the moment.
Positive, direct football can be a joy to watch but it is so easy for it to become speculative, disjointed and seemingly desperate.
Barrett wasn’t too bad first 45, appearing to be gaining some confidence back and having a good balance between his attacking and defensive duties but second half he retreated into his shell again.
Once Jellis went off we soon found ourselves with three forwards and five at the back with, seemingly, little effective presence in the middle of the pitch. Gillingham did their best to exploit this but thankfully didn’t.
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