Wolves away.....my thoughts

golfaddick

should & can do better.

We wont get one of the top 2 positions in this league by persisting with Iwelumo up front. Too much is expected of him....hoof the ball and expect him to get flicks ons/knock downs to Varney etc. This never worked 10 years ago with Leaburn (and dare I say it, he was a better player ??) and it wont work now. Our best football has been when we play it to feet to Reid/semedo/ Thomas/Sam etc and they play others through ALONG THE FLOOR.

Very disapointing.

If we don't buck our ideas up a top 6 spot is all we can hope for and if we don't watch out even that may be out of our reach. I know we have only played 11 games so far this season, but we have not beaten anyone outside the bootom 8, drawn against the mid-table table teams and lost to the teams in the top 6......exactly where Plymouth sit. Tuesday is not going to be the walk-over everybody expects (from the coments I heard after today's game)

time will tell, but we need to up the tempo more and forget about lumping it forward and play through the midfield.......our best football (and results) have come this way. BTW, can anyone tell me the last time one of our striker's actually scored with a header from a cross from a winger ? I know ZZ scored the other week, but that was from a knock down.....I mean an actual headed goal from a cross. My bet is Baby Bent about 2 seasons ago, but I may be wrong.

Carter

Bit rich of me to say as I didn't go today but I think Iwelumo is a massive asset to us and I can't see how we could get by without him. I see what your saying about the desperate balls we expect him to deal with but how much football did Wolves play on the deck through to their centre forwards?? Plymouth will be a tough game and I can't understand people thinking otherwise.

Varney, Mcleod or Todorov would not be as effective without Iwelumo

Al the Addick

"Tuesday is not going to be the walk-over everybody expects"

they are only two points behind us!

northstandsteve

Starting to wonder whether up front we should have gone for tried and tested as opposed to younger players from lower divisions.I think you need to be clued up and I am wondering whether with the exception of big chris we are.I would like to see Toddy given more of a chance now as I think he may well have tucked a few more chances away.You can't question the attitude of the young ones,but we really do need to take our chances especially away from home,as I feel clean sheets are going to be few and far between.

AllLeftFoot

I travelled up with a friend who is a Wolves fan and he thought that we picked them apart at times in the first half.
We could - and should - have been at least one or two up by the break, but their very early second half goal seemed to really deflate us.

For me, the game also showed again how much we rely on Reid, and if he's not at his best then we do resort to more of the long and hopeful balls to Iwelumo.

golfaddick

exactly.......we rely too much on Reid and if he were injured and out for a lengthy spell (ala last season) we have no hope and so top priority in January is another playmaker and a provern goalscorer.

We had plenty of atttemps yesterday but just how many tested their keeper ???? ZZ,Mills, Ambrose (x 3) all blazed over the bar and I only thibk varney towards the end made their keeper work. Just not good enough.

ISawLeaburnScore

agree completely on the reid points but there's no way we'll buy anymore strikers this season

razil

judging by theteam selection we were once again very flat, hence the route one stuff. I think someone has already mentioned we don't score much if any from crosses. It's just lump it up to the big guy.

Pards needs in my opinion to utilise the pace and width we have in the team and not persist with the likes of Ambrose or even Reid on the wings. Possibly our best half hour on football was second half at home against Sheff Wed so why not try and use that team lineup again? I know its hard to try and include ZZ Reid and Samedo, and we had problems with Sam and Thomas but to be honest I am starting to get a bit bored with the negative formations and tactical naevity.

cunningstunt87

[cite]Posted By: ISawLeaburnScore[/cite]agree completely on the reid points but there's no way we'll buy anymore strikers this season

Don't bet on it. Pards does love buying strikers!

Thommo

In agreement with most of the posts here. I think the performance was not as bad as some are saying. The problem was that we were bypassing the midfield for much of the game, with balls over the top and down the channels. We had so many efforts buy few on target, Reid put in a good performance but looked tired, we lost shape when Powell went off, but thankfully the attacks down the left dried up when Mills was switched to left back.

Thomas ripped them apart when he came on, showed a lot more desire than we have seen from him in a while.

Massive positive of the day was Luke Varney who chased everything, if we can use him more he'll be top scorer for us.

Rothko

Loads of comments from people who didn't go like Barnie.

We should have been 3 up in 30 minutes, Ambrose missed two sitters, and the game would have been dead, and at 1-0 we should have got back in it, out played Wolves for large slices of the game.

Nice to see Golfie piping up when we lose, but never praises when we win.

northstandsteve

Rothko behave Golfie is as entitled to his opinion as everyone is.Should of's don't win matches and when we don't take them our defence isn't good enough FACT.

Rothko

[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]Rothko behave Golfie is as entitled to his opinion as everyone is.Should of's don't win matches and when we don't take them our defence isn't good enough FACT.

Just a point about Golfies posts.

We defended well yesterday, Boothroyd scored a decent goal for me, and the second came when we were chasing the game.

It was a tight game, some you win, some you lose, how you deal and react to it, shows if you're a good team or not, and I suspect will react well against Plymouth

northstandsteve

hope so m8 just feel too many people get knocked for voicing their concerns which are interpreted as moaning.

bingaddick

I think we were beaten by a team who on the day were very strong, very focussed, took the few chances that came their way. McCarthy had clearly done his homework. Big Chris won less headers than in any game I seen him play. Reid was marked very tightly and only rarely got on the ball. When he did much of his efforts were mis-directed. ZZ was battered and went down several time with injuries. Losing Sir Chris early and having to re-organise didn't help. What was odd for me was that Pards moved Mills to left back where he struggled, put Sodyer at right back, then after we had conceded pushed Semedo to right back with Sodyer replacing Magic in the centre. All of this didn't help the fluency of our play. Thomas came on and in typical fashion showed some skillful dribbling and then absolutely no end product. Tody didn't really have a chance to make a difference because they had got the bit between their teeth by then.

We had enough opportunities to have scored goals, Ambrose missing at least three opportunities. It just is not happening for him. I thought he was lively today and didn't hide like he can. He missed a golden opportunity against Barnsley by trying to curl one in when hitting it it hard and straight would almost certainly have scored. So today he missed shots by trying to blast them when placing them would have been a better option.

ZZ missed one shooting chance from the edge of the area and so did Mills. They can only have had three chances in the game and yet they scored two. On another day we would have been ahead at half time but in truth we didn't deserve anything from this game because Wolves just wanted it more.

If we are going to beat teams like Wolves regularly, then we are going to have to match them physically and find ways of getting Reid more on the ball in dangerous areas. We also need to take our chances. Big Chris was marked very well in this game and players have to realise this and have the flexibility to adapt play. I saw enough about our play, especially in the first half to still be optimistic about the season. I'd have liked to have had Racon on the bench because he may well have given us better control in the second half.

jimmymelrose

[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite].Should of's don't win matches and when we don't take them our defence isn't good enough FACT.

1. 'Should of's' don't exist.

2. Opinions are not facts.

charlton_carl

i feel differently about the strikers, i feel that big chris really is an asset for us today and that varney is a waste of space. chris called them trouble yesterday, he set up varney with a header back across the six yard box that varney failed to make contact with and then had the heder saved my the keeper which the ref gave as a goal kick.

I have other issues drom yesterday, more to do with the team and the subs that were made. when powell went off why did he not just move samedo over to left back as he did vs Sheff Wed, i feel that moving mills over to the left effected us as i thought mills was a threat going forward and we lost that by bringing on Sodje to play somewhere he is obvioulsy not comfortable.

I also felt that that Izale should of come on when instead he bought on thomas, i feel we needed the more direct pproach not the typical Thomas crap that was dished up. the two tough games we have had we have lost, and have been poor, we had four good chances in the first half, we need to be sharper in front of goal and have to take more gambles from midfield when balls are played into the box

northstandsteve

Jim dont be a knob

Bexleyheath_Red

To be honest , i thought the game was mostly boring, hated where we were positioned in the ground as well, no atmosphere could be created whatsoever, which is terrible.

I mean i just couldn't think of many positives to take from it, Varney innefective bar one shot. Reid tried so hard, but you could tell he was finding it hard to kep up with the play.

Ambrose, why is Pard's insisting on starting him, Can't wait for Sam to be back (is that a good thing?).

Overall pretty poor , had a great weekend though, which is very strange considering all 3 England's losing!

Barn Door Varney

Didn't go to the game but listened on the radio, but I think that Steve Brown sumed it up pretty well, "if you don't take your chances, you don't win games" simple.

Unfortunetly, it seems to becoming a bit of a theme this season.

Swisdom

Iwelumo was marked out of the game - they knew he posed a threat and sadly we didn't have a plan B to counter him.

Varney chased everything but needs to be more intelligent with his runs. He has blistering pace and yet he is always caught offside or doesn't get to the ball. The Wolves defence were carthorses and yet we didn't get a single ball into the channels for him to run on to.

Ambrose missed chances once again - I get the impression Lloyd Sam would have bagged at least one of the chances afforded to Ambrose and he needs to get his finger out

Thomas was his usual self. Promise but no end result.

Todorov ineffective

Certainly would have been a good game for McLeod I think - ball into the channels and make the defence panic. He may not have shown his finishing prowess thus far but he is certainly reminiscent of Baby Bent whenit comes to playing on the shoulder of the last man.

Rothko

I thought Varney was alright, and did a job when he went wide when Todorov came on, was finally getting the ball in a position to drive at the defenders and cause trouble, made Hennesey pull off a good save, and put some decent stuff in the box.

razil

OK everyone you aren't allowed to post on here unless you agree with Rothko or comply with his rules, that OK?

Rothko

[cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]OK everyone you aren't allowed to post on here unless you agree with Rothko or comply with his rules, that OK?

Not really barn, firstly, and I think Golfie would accept this, he only posts when we loses, secondly, you were commenting blind on the game, we didn't go route one all game, we played decent stuff and mixed it up, first half we were by far the better side, and didn't take our chances.

Charlton Dan

Lets get it into perspective. We lost for the 1st time in 8 games..... Its hardly time to start slating the team / Pards etc.

Rothko

[cite]Posted By: Charlton Dan[/cite]Lets get it into perspective. We lost for the 1st time in 8 games..... Its hardly time to start slating the team / Pards etc.

Was going to say that, first league defeat for two months, hardly panic stations

oohaahmortimer

no time to panic..... 5 points from the last 4 games isn't great but should be good enough to keep us up:-)

Charlton Dan

[cite]Posted By: oohaahmortimer[/cite]no time to panic..... 5 points from the last 4 games isn't great but should be good enough to keep us up:-)

Believe!! ;-)

razil

It's all about opinions, right? Mine were as I said were based on team selection, and an overview rather than a particular example. I think we could do a lot better, I also think we are floundering somewhat, when ideally the gelling argument should mean we get better and better.

:)

Rothko

[cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]It's all about opinions, right? Mine were as I said were based on team selection, and an overview rather than a particular example. I think we could do a lot better, I also think we are floundering somewhat, when ideally the gelling argument should mean we get better and better.

Floundering in 3rd, a point behind Bristol City, and two home games to come.

God help us!

razil

lordy you just cant give it up, yes floundering... partiuclarly in light of the opposition.