But Flynn organised
His footy was shyte
His signings were journeymen in nature
He paid the price
But he could organise a team
No doubt about that his team was organised. But don’t see much difference between Flynns last season and this in some ways. Sadler had a too good for the division player in Lowe and a bigger budget to attract the likes of Jellis and Barret who were class until January. But the pre Jan team was very very organised off the ball.
When the Flynn team came off the rails we were also a shambles. Rochdale away, Crewe away, Harrogate away, Stevenage away.
Saddler has given Johnson too many chances. Way off L2 standard these days.
Criticising Saddler for not regularly selecting Johnson is as bizarre as crticising his post-match interviews. These are pretty much Saddler’s only strengths.
A reminder that our defensive capabilities were a key strength up to the MK Dons game. We weren’t big on possession but we knew, pretty much, how to thwart the opposition. It’s like we had a strong, protective ring of steel around our own final third.
In the first 25 games (up to and including MK dons) we’d conceded 23 goals. Less than 1 per game. Only Salford, Crewe and Wimbledon had let in less goals.
In the 18 matches since then, we’ve conceded 30 goals. Almost 1.7 goals against per game.
Make of that what you will.
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A few people have said that teams have reacted to our style by getting the ball forward faster. From my occasional checks , I don’t think the possession stats have changed much during this slump. So this would mean teams are getting the same possession, generally a big majority, but much more of it is in our half. Which is likely to lead to chances and a possible reason for the defensive drop-off.
We haven’t so much not countered this, say by playing a more possession based game, as been in denial about there even being a problem to address.
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I make of it that we haven’t adjusted playing the opposition like the way the rest of the league has adjusted to playing us. It’s extremely naive management and it will cost us imo
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I think we’re over complicating the analysis of division 4 managers and players. Not doing the most basic task of simply closing down players had cost us at least double figures points. Col u away…gillingham at home, Grimsby, Barrow, Doncaster, Harrogate, Cheltenham…. Need I go on?? Chuck in the inability to defend the most rudimentary set pieces such as long throws and that’s the story of our demise. It’s got nothing to do with opposition managers working us out, it’s just shyte 4th division teams doing what they do and us suddenly not being able to deal with it because thanks to Sadler’s utter pig-headed mis management of his squad players are physically shot, and that has lead in turn to being mentally shot and lacking in confidence.
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We can’t defend long throws, but still give the opposition needless throw in chances around our box. You have to question the footballing intelligence of some of our squad, I’m looking at you Dave and Oishin.
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Whilst we’re conceding goals, a bigger worry is that for the last two games our keeper has been man of the match.
I gave Simkin a bit of stock earlier in the season but he’s been brilliant the last two games, including two very good saves that were followed up and ended in goals as his defence stood around and watched.
We’re conceding bag fulls of chances.
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Agree with this.
We’re alright up front still scoring plenty, just need to conceed one less a game, that’d be a step in the right direction.
Just to say I’m taking some positivity after the way the team came back and went for it after Harrogate’s 2nd. That gave me real hope for these final 3 games, play as we can and there’s no worries.
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So what’s the point in playing 3 at the back and an holding midfielder if we can’t defend anyway? At this stage we might as well go with 4 at the back and have an extra midfielder.
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We have and, without Simkin, we would have done even worse. Two things seem to be happening. One is our inability to clear the ball properly and the other is leaving players unmarked. Some goals are difficult to stop but on Saturday, one goal was from giving the ball away on the edge of our box and the other was from a long throw that we could not clear.
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