Don’t see an issue with that. 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 can be used with the options in the squad. 4-4-2 was brutally exposed at Luton last week so shouldn’t be the default setting every week.
Ronan has tools to play a big part this season. It’s not easy for a young player to impose himself when he moves on loan and only gets 10 minutes at end of games, remember Sawyers didn’t do much in his loan spell.
With all of those options available, my one criticism of Keates is that he doesn’t proactively switch in game.
Ferrier clocked off after our second today. He had been a menace all through the first half but once we went two up he stopped tracking back and when he had the ball it was all about trickery and shooting from impossible angles. It took Keates about fifteen minutes to act. An age. In which time they had got one back.
The great thing though is that they are all learning whilst in the top half which gives us all room to breath.
Agree with that totally. We have options from the bench now which we have not had for years…competition for places these lads who come on are going to want to make an impact and get in that team for the next game so let’s use the squad UTS
Bit of a mixed bag of performances, Cook looks like he needs a couple of wheels which might enable him to turn a little quicker but overall a very good performance from him.
Defence still a problem and Kane Wilson is not the answer, he’s worse than Devlin and I’d prefer Liam Kinsella as a stop gap until we find a suitable replacement.
In terms of our midfield, 4-3-3 is definitely the way to go. It’s not coincidence that both Osbourne and Ronan had their best games of the season for us. This, in turn, led to Dobson having his best game for a while too. The extra man we have in the middle means that Osbourne doesn’t have to do as much running, meaning he can concentrate on just winning the ball and get us going forward again with intelligent passing.
It allows Ronan to be the spare man and control the tempo of the game, without having to battle and scrap for too many balls. This means that Dobson doesn’t have to cover for the the inabilities of the other two when in a pair, and can concentrate on his own game.
I’d love to see a stat of how many times Ronan touched the ball today. He always seemed to be free to receive a pass
Cook also had his best game in a Walsall shirt. It goes to show what he can do when we actually play through him to his strengths.
A really enjoyable game and a very good performance with a deserved 3 points. It was so good to see the man on the ball have options for a pass. Martin added some real authority and organisation to the defence, he was calm and his distribution helped the team. The midfield 3 worked real well with osbourne looking a lot more mobile today and Dobson getting through lots of good work. Man of the match for me today was Ronan, he always wanted the ball, found space to receive and play and generally set the tempo. Some of his passing was excellent. I like how direct ferrier was but I do feel in the second half he was maybe trying too much and could have played a pass or 2 more. A special mention to Andy Cook. Today was the best I’ve seen him play, he won nearly all of his headers but it was his link up play that was excellent today plus he put in a real shift.
As others have said it was also good to see a decent ref for a change, didn’t ruin the game by being picky and I don’t think he showed any cards, a big change from some of the idiots we have had in recent games
Performance and result that were both very much needed. Thought all apart from liability Luke were excellent. Andy Cook was fantastic, always said play to his strengths and we’ll be rewarded and we were, not just the goal but his knock ons were unreal. A complete performance.
Also, Russell Martin, unbelievably good. You can tell he’s experienced and twice the player of anyone else in our young side. He’s organising everything. Kept Wilson and Guthrie in position but unfortunately liability Luke is too much of a lost cause already to do anything about. Martin will be captain by the end of the season.
Leahy also kicked the ball straight back to the Wycombe players after the pen, instead of holding on to the ball and wasting a bit more time. Bloody useless! Great win though, so important at this stage of the season with 4 more home games coming up on the bounce.
Agreed, although there were times when the 3 got outrun by Wycombe’s 4. Against stronger teams, we might have got further punished. Still think that the 16 squad will look stronger with Edwards and Chambers, especially if protecting a lead. Osbourne looked much fitter though and Ronan was a class above all game.
I think that he decided to let Cook and El Abd have a 90 minute wrestling match and leave two warriors to it. Better than being whistle happy but on another day, this might have caused a major injury. The Lino must have been told throw ins and offsides only because he wasn’t involved in on play challenges at all!