Wombling free
Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:51 am
A game of two very poor teams and two very shaky defences.
As Steve Hanks said to me after about 5 minutes, this game could easily end up 6-6, such was the poor play of both midfields and defences.
Will Antwi, the Wimbledon #29 centre back, was probably the worst professional centre back I have ever seen at any level.
As Chris has said, the line up was clearly supposed to be 4-4-2 with Rigg and Potter playing wide, but Potter rarely ventured anywhere near the midfield so it effectively became a lop-sided 4-3-3. But at least Wilder appears to have listened - if only he had chosen Smalley and Constable up front, we might have worked the appalling Wimbledon back line a lot more.
At any level of football, if you persistently give the ball away, you will be under pressure too often and will lose matches. Apart from technical skill and fitness, this is the basic reason why higher level teams beat lower level teams. Both sides last night were seemingly delighted to present the ball to their opponents on a regular basis and the game became a contest of who could make the most mistakes. Numerous inaccurate passes of both long and short range gifting the ball every few seconds. It was quite comical at times. Well you have to laugh, otherwise you would cry.
What I did see change last night though was the work ethic of some (but not all) players. Some of the midfield and strikers worked hard all the match to chase the ball down to force mistakes. From this I exclude Potter and Craddock, both of whom seemed like thy would rather be somewhere else. But the work rate of the others is a foundation to build on.
Once again the defence were under regular pressure, and I don't care how many times I say it, but if you put any defence under constant pressure, they will make mistakes. That isn't a fault of the defenders, it is a fault of the team, and it's just that defensive mistakes tend to lead to goals against, and so get highlighted far more than mistakes of the strikers missing easy chances, which has exactly the same effect on the outcome of the game. However, that view does become a little blighted when defences have ample chances to clear the ball and fail to do so, or when they give away free kicks along the edge of the area, or when they try to be fancy dan dribbling around strikers too close to goal. Defenders first job is get the ball from danger.
I must admit to being concerned about our goalkeeping situation. Wayne Brown has been a goalkeeping coach for Clarkey for a few months now, and since Hodgy left, Clarke's confidence and performances have dropped. Coincidence? Don't think so. When you add into that Wayne Brown's awful performances, and last night he was awful, the mists part and it becomes clearer to me that Wayne Brown needs to depart and we need a proper goalkeeping coach. Brown did nothing to command the 6 yard box, let alone the penalty area. Several goalmouth scrambles saw him get nowhere near the ball. I don't remember him catching a single cross all night. And he is supposed to be coaching Clarkey. The change to Clarke made a clear difference to the defensive set up and suddenly we looked much more solid.
The addition of Heslop did very little to the game in my view. He had maybe one or two little surging runs but little beyond that. The problem with the midfield as I have already alluded to was the poor passing.
Raynes injury is a concern as we are now running out of centre backs. I wonder if any of our multiple strikers can play at the back. I hope they don't rush Whingy back too quickly and I hope Raynes injury is only a tweak rather than a tear.
Onto the strikers and wide men. Smalley had a reasonable game, but missed several straightforward opportunities. We can't afford that. He doesn't take enough risks. Craddock remains lazy in my view. Potter went missing for large parts of the game. Rigg had a good game and was MoM by a distance.
So the player budget is up to the wage cap. We can't spend more on players even if we wanted to. The money has been frittered away on a squad that is too small to cope with injuries and which is heavily biased on strikers. Gone is the argument that Wilder hasn't been given sufficient resources because we aren't spending enough on players. We have the 4th highest attendances in the division, and of the 3 above us, Bradford's attendances are purely because of their special very cheap ticket deals which massively reduce their income and playing budget. So we have a very competitive budget with perhaps 3 or 4 teams in the same league as us financially. There are no valid excuses for poor performances and we lie in 16th in the division having scraped a win, at home, against a shockingly poor team who risk relegation.
I remain of the view that Wilder needs to depart, along with Melville, Brown, and Lewis, and I fear for the result on Saturday against a very strong Gillingham. If we get beaten heavily at home the attendances will continue to drop. Just 4,900 home fans last night of which 4000 are season ticket holders counted automatically in the attendance. The real attendance was more like 4,000 with just 900 or so buying tickets for this match. It isn't looking good and Lenagan may well live to rue his decision on Wilder.
As Steve Hanks said to me after about 5 minutes, this game could easily end up 6-6, such was the poor play of both midfields and defences.
Will Antwi, the Wimbledon #29 centre back, was probably the worst professional centre back I have ever seen at any level.
As Chris has said, the line up was clearly supposed to be 4-4-2 with Rigg and Potter playing wide, but Potter rarely ventured anywhere near the midfield so it effectively became a lop-sided 4-3-3. But at least Wilder appears to have listened - if only he had chosen Smalley and Constable up front, we might have worked the appalling Wimbledon back line a lot more.
At any level of football, if you persistently give the ball away, you will be under pressure too often and will lose matches. Apart from technical skill and fitness, this is the basic reason why higher level teams beat lower level teams. Both sides last night were seemingly delighted to present the ball to their opponents on a regular basis and the game became a contest of who could make the most mistakes. Numerous inaccurate passes of both long and short range gifting the ball every few seconds. It was quite comical at times. Well you have to laugh, otherwise you would cry.
What I did see change last night though was the work ethic of some (but not all) players. Some of the midfield and strikers worked hard all the match to chase the ball down to force mistakes. From this I exclude Potter and Craddock, both of whom seemed like thy would rather be somewhere else. But the work rate of the others is a foundation to build on.
Once again the defence were under regular pressure, and I don't care how many times I say it, but if you put any defence under constant pressure, they will make mistakes. That isn't a fault of the defenders, it is a fault of the team, and it's just that defensive mistakes tend to lead to goals against, and so get highlighted far more than mistakes of the strikers missing easy chances, which has exactly the same effect on the outcome of the game. However, that view does become a little blighted when defences have ample chances to clear the ball and fail to do so, or when they give away free kicks along the edge of the area, or when they try to be fancy dan dribbling around strikers too close to goal. Defenders first job is get the ball from danger.
I must admit to being concerned about our goalkeeping situation. Wayne Brown has been a goalkeeping coach for Clarkey for a few months now, and since Hodgy left, Clarke's confidence and performances have dropped. Coincidence? Don't think so. When you add into that Wayne Brown's awful performances, and last night he was awful, the mists part and it becomes clearer to me that Wayne Brown needs to depart and we need a proper goalkeeping coach. Brown did nothing to command the 6 yard box, let alone the penalty area. Several goalmouth scrambles saw him get nowhere near the ball. I don't remember him catching a single cross all night. And he is supposed to be coaching Clarkey. The change to Clarke made a clear difference to the defensive set up and suddenly we looked much more solid.
The addition of Heslop did very little to the game in my view. He had maybe one or two little surging runs but little beyond that. The problem with the midfield as I have already alluded to was the poor passing.
Raynes injury is a concern as we are now running out of centre backs. I wonder if any of our multiple strikers can play at the back. I hope they don't rush Whingy back too quickly and I hope Raynes injury is only a tweak rather than a tear.
Onto the strikers and wide men. Smalley had a reasonable game, but missed several straightforward opportunities. We can't afford that. He doesn't take enough risks. Craddock remains lazy in my view. Potter went missing for large parts of the game. Rigg had a good game and was MoM by a distance.
So the player budget is up to the wage cap. We can't spend more on players even if we wanted to. The money has been frittered away on a squad that is too small to cope with injuries and which is heavily biased on strikers. Gone is the argument that Wilder hasn't been given sufficient resources because we aren't spending enough on players. We have the 4th highest attendances in the division, and of the 3 above us, Bradford's attendances are purely because of their special very cheap ticket deals which massively reduce their income and playing budget. So we have a very competitive budget with perhaps 3 or 4 teams in the same league as us financially. There are no valid excuses for poor performances and we lie in 16th in the division having scraped a win, at home, against a shockingly poor team who risk relegation.
I remain of the view that Wilder needs to depart, along with Melville, Brown, and Lewis, and I fear for the result on Saturday against a very strong Gillingham. If we get beaten heavily at home the attendances will continue to drop. Just 4,900 home fans last night of which 4000 are season ticket holders counted automatically in the attendance. The real attendance was more like 4,000 with just 900 or so buying tickets for this match. It isn't looking good and Lenagan may well live to rue his decision on Wilder.