Seems the whole midfield had an off day - Labadie was immense on Tuesday but was chasing shadows today; Earring’s passing was ineffective; so many passes under hit that were intercepted or cut out; and I can’t recall a single ball that Miller could turn and run on to.
The longer it went on the more you could see what was coming - which was just what we should have expected considering they hadn’t won at home and we hadn’t lost away since September!
The initial cross for their goal fell to a player on the edge of the box with nobody picking him up. He was put under no pressure at all and was able to deliver a perfect ball into the 6 yard box where there were more unmarked Carlisle players! With two minutes to go you can’t be letting a player have that time - it was a schoolboy error, and one we keep making.
We are simply playing 4231 Incredibly wrong,
Is this either matts tactics and he doesn’t know how to play and get the team to play what he wants to play. Could be inexperience or lack of football knowledge from a tactical perspective.
Or are our players simply not suitable for the style Matt wants which puts the blame on horrendous recruitment from Fullerton.
From watching top teams and even Walsall under smith to make 4231 work you need attacking quick fullbacks to spread the play and create width, inside forwards to be close to the lone striker to score goals and feed the main man and a technical attacking midfielder who can hold the ball and be the pivot.
We have none of these so I am suprised we are still bothering with the formation. With our players and managers current tactics it won’t work simples.
We are suited to old school 442 unfortunately
…which we seem to do with alarming regularity - Scunthorpe and Barrow at home, away at Newport (85th min) and Carlisle today.
There’s 6pts dropped (granted you could argue we gained 2pts with the late winner at home to Salford) and for all the faults and frustrations this season we sit those 6pts off the play offs tonight.
I know others have argued we got what we deserved from those games but in most cases it’s virtually the last cross/set piece of the game to defend that we had done in those games for the previous 80 odd minutes.
We cant carry on with this system with Miller upfront either get him help or find someone who can switch with or play with him capable of holding the ball up and winning headers.
Massively disappointing. We just seem to lack any cohesion going forward. If you won games by passing it around the back four and rushworth then we would be right up there. I just find it tedious. I thought it was going to end nil nil until that sloppy defending. Set pieces oh dear.
Now 24hrs plus without power where we are staying so not the greatest of days.
Still my son’s father in law, a Carlisle supporter is happy
Can only assume they looked at weather forecast last few days and half expected match to be called off so didn’t bother with hotel reservations and chanced it on the morning.
Like many gambles it backfired.
No need to stay overnight for likes of Vale and Forest Green but certainly 3 and a bit hour trek up to Carlisle is a bit odd to do on a morning of a game.
It says pretty much everything about the distance when there’s flights up that way from Birmingham airport it’s obviously a trek, so to not go up a day early and put the lads in a holiday inn or something of that nature (it doesn’t have to be the Ritz) is pretty poor planning and yet another simple operation made very difficult by the club.
Let’s not pretend that having had a night’s kip in a Premier Inn instead of trekking up on the day would have turned that shower into Liverpool!
Carlisle were dire, but we ain’t got a clue how to break teams down who press us in midfield, and don’t see how anyone in the management team can not see that lumping up to no one doesn’t work.
Honourable mention for Osadebe today though, got everywhere, and was the only player who was a nuisance to Carlisle’s defence.