Sorry have had to start a new topic on this Darrell Clarke has said today the strikers are not the problem!
“The movement of the strikers is actually very good,” the boss said.“But we didn’t pick the right forward
pass at the right time and when we did get up there the final ball wasn’t good enough.
“I don’t want to keep talking about potential in the team, but we play backwards too often when the forward pass is the right thing to do.
We look dangerous and ruthless in training, we are very forward-thinking in training he said . Wow training what about looking dangerous and ruthless in a match Lol.
We all know this is the problem going backwards and side to side we need to sort it out Asap before we come to far adrift from the sides above us.
I think the next 3 fixtures give us the ideal opportunity to get things right,Bradford aren’t setting the world on fire, Morecambe and Scunthorpe are at about our standard.
From what I’ve seen there’s too much of a gap between the midfielders and strikers, but that’s obvious considering we have defensive minded midfielders, the only player that is suitable is hardy and he can play it really well. He needs to play more
I don’t think our only option is Hardy - Holden has looked just as good when allowed to go forward (why was he switched to wing back for part of the game on Saturday???), and McDonald could possibly also do a job if he was given more than a few minutes every other game. Guthrie could help get us on the attack with his passing range if he was in front of 1 or 2 holding midfielders and not being used as one himself. You could also use the non-scoring but hard-working Gordon and/or Adebayo as attacking midfield/wide players. And god knows what Kiersey can do as we’ve not even seen him since Crewe!!!
So lots of options there - but it’s down to DC how he fits one or more of those into his defence minded default of 5-3---------2.
Good point, well made. It’s obvious we lack quality in midfield but the quality we need costs more than we are willing to pay it would seem. Also, to make 3-5-2 work, you need wing-backs who are good going forward and can sling in decent crosses - we don’t have that. So, it’s pretty clear why we don’t score many, we don’t create much from open play and our set-piece delivery is shocking. But when we have created chances, our strikers, most notably Gordon, have not exactly been prolific.
This is exactly the problem. Our defenders and defensive midfielders are more than adequate for league 2 level, but this has been at the expense of our attacking nous. DC has obviously come in with the mind-set of making us hard to beat, with 532 being his preferred formation. The only wingers he signed are proof of that, as McDonald and Holden are ‘fringe’ players. Subs at best. Hardy, Adebayo, Lavery have all been ‘cheap’ gambles, with no experienced attacking players signed. Think DC was hoping for a few 1-0 wins to settle us down. For me, if DC is to persist with 532, he needs wing backs of better ability going forward and a deep lying striker or attacking midfielder to link the play and create/score a few. It is a little concerning that DC was considering another winger (before the deadline) rather than that experienced central attacking midfielder but hey ho. Anyway, this is not going to happen for a few months at least so strap yourselves in for more boredom until January and let’s hope we are not playing catch-up at that stage. BTW, I am still behind DC and hope his plan comes to fruition.
