Wimbledone

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Kernow Yellow
Grumpy old git
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Joined: Thu May 11, 2006 5:16 pm

Wimbledone

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Some belated reflections on Saturday's game, as no-one else has yet:

We started brightly, playing the ball confidently out of defence (as we had against Charlton, the only other game I've managed to get to). However, whereas against the Addicks we remained playing attractive football throughout, here we fell worryingly back into some old habits.

The main problem was that some key players did not perform. Taylor missed a great chance and often lost possession with poor touches; Gorrin (sorry, Rodrigues) gave the ball away far too often - I know people like his robust approach, but I really think we can do better in CDM, and hope that Kane can be that player; Williams didn't get into the game at all. Neither Winnall nor Holland did anything of note after their introductions, other than the latter not bothering to shoot when through on goal. Of the rest, only Brannagan and Sykes had particularly good games, though Jack Stevens did nothing wrong. I really worried that we'd lose Brannagan in the transfer window, and thank god we didn't - he's regaining his best form and is becoming a real leader too.

But it wasn't just individual errors, there were some more obvious trends. Have our set pieces ever been worse? We had 13 corners, and never remotely threatened from any of them - unsurprising when the ball was chipped gently up towards the penalty spot each time (Seddon the worst culprit here. In fact add him to the list of those who underperformed generally). Wimbledon, by contrast, whipped theirs in viciously, went close from one and then scored from the next. We had no clue how to defend them, and had our shortest players marking their tallest despite having everyone back in the box every time. This is pretty basic stuff for a team with any kind of ambition.

Another trend is that we have taken the lead in all our away games so far, and only come away with a single point from all three. It's a good thing our home form is so good. I've seen one very good performance and one very poor one so far, so won't be leaping to any early judgements about the season yet.

Nice for the Dons to back at Plough Lane though, even if the stadium is pretty rudimentary. Our seats actually faced away from the pitch, but luckily(!) they'd restricted the capacity for no good reason so there were plenty of spares to move to. And nice to be at an away game at all - my first since Newcastle I think. Especially one so near a train station, pubs etc. Not sure why quite so many police were milling around the place - I guess with no other London games on that day they had to do something. The stewarding was friendly and sensible. Nice to bump into so many familiar faces too. Just a shame about the second half really.
slappy
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Re: Wimbledone

Post by slappy »

I don't know the whole story, but apparently they didn't have the money to complete the ground to the original spec.
https://www.sheppardrobson.com/architec ... evelopment

So apart from the main stand, the other are three "temporary" stands. I'd imagine it would need a sustained period in the Championship to afford / justify increasing the capacity as traditionally Wimbledon have never had large crowds even in their glory days (on the basis of assigning the old history to the phoenix club).

What I think we are missing this year is big, tall and strong players. Apart from Elliott Moore, we don't have that aerial and physical presence anymore, which we used to have with Rob Dickie, Rob Atkinson, and our front line is missing that too.
Isaac
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Re: Wimbledone

Post by Isaac »

Long and Ruffels too are/were pretty good defending/attacking set plays too. From what I saw on a dodgy stream, we looked a bit frantic, seemed to play the whole game like we were 1-0 down. Possibly because the team themselves know they're somewhat vulnerable from set plays. Entertaining to watch, but not what you'd call a promotion style of play.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Wimbledone

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Isaac wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 2:09 pm Long and Ruffels too are/were pretty good defending/attacking set plays too.
Yes, from what I've seen so far I'm not convinced Seddon is an upgrade on Josh Ruffels. He had to take an early booking on Saturday after being comprehensively beaten by his man, and his delivery was poor both from set pieces and open play. We definitely miss Sam Long. Let's hope he comes back as strong as he was last season. Our lack of full back cover is worrying.
ty cobb
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Re: Wimbledone

Post by ty cobb »

Although I'm a big Robbo fan I think he got the subs in this one badly wrong. I thought Sykes was our best player yet was subbed. Gorrin, I thought, makes us much more solid and protects the back four very well. He was also subbed at (I think) one all when AFC were pushing forward and looking to get a win. I really think Robbo lacks some pragmatism at times. We're one all against a decent team with the crowd behind them and a full house. Why go to three up top with three players who are pretty hopeless at tracking back and defending? Against Blackpool in the play offs we went really attacking in the first leg rather than realise we were up against a team bang in form so rather the priority be lets get lots of goals, how about keep it tight for a half and stay in the tie. As KY says we have been up in all our away games so far - to only get one point shows a lack of pragmatism for me, taking Gorrin off left us wide open and was no surprise to me they got three goals.

The subs we make seem to be pre determined, both with the time and also who will be taken off regardless of who is playing well. Taylor was completely ineffective on Sat and missed a sitter. He didn't win anything that got played up to him and kept giving it away. On the bench we had a striker who hasn't scored in his 7 appearances this season and has looked pretty useless in his time with us. He was put on the right wing for our best player on the day. We also had a striker who has scored 8 goals in 12 starts for us in the league and got a brilliant goal in the week so confidence will be up. He was left kicking his heels. I just don't get the treatment of Agyei, no matter what he does he seems to be behind Winnal in the pecking order.

As for our set pieces we will get no where near the play offs if we can't defend them as has been the case so far this season. AFC blocked us, pulled shirts when we had a corner, if you see the first goal they scored we had Williams against their tallest player - its so basic!

Was a good day out though and good atmosphere from them but we blew our chance to go top.
OtmoorYellow
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Re: Wimbledone

Post by OtmoorYellow »

From my comments on Facebook:

First half we coped. Second half we fell apart, especially after the subs.
Our players don’t seem up to a 90 minute match, usually running out of steam between 60 and seventy minutes. This is a huge question mark regarding fitness, and the value (or lack of value) of the pre-season set up. Also question marks regarding the sports science programme since the departure of Chris Short.
Robbo seems to have pre-set substitutions, and rather than use subs to lift the team, he seems to use subs to give players a game.
I have to agree that Sam Winnall, or Sod-all as I prefer to know him, is just not up to League One football. He’s a Conference standard player, maybe League 2 at best. He doesn’t read the game, his defending from the front consist of half arsed trotting between defenders who have the ball.
We don’t close down from the front as quickly and hard as other teams, and we don’t retreat quickly enough when our attacks break down, especially when opponents are counter attacking. The flip side is that we seem unable to counter attack quickly, with opponents retreating much faster than we get the ball forward.
This does seem bizarre given the undoubted talent that most of our squad possesses, and I think that the lack of focus on the full/wing backs in the transfer window, is going to be a fundamental weakness. Nothing against Seddon or Forde, but there is no competition in the squad to keep them motivated.
As regards our Barnsley loanee, I suspect a deal was lined up for CamBran to depart, and the deal fell through, leaving us with an unfit Championship player to squeeze in to the side.
We are creating loads of crosses into the box, but none are being turned into goal scoring opportunities. The blame for this must lie with the front 4.
We can and do play some really good football at times, but successful sides put all the pieces of the jigsaw in place, not just the edge pieces.
Dr Bob
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Re: Wimbledone

Post by Dr Bob »

This, if I recall, is not the first time that there has been criticism of KRs substitutions - who and when. Then we have comments about Winnall/Agyei, lack of pace on the counter, Holland doing nothing of note, poor set piece delivery, etc, etc, etc.

Not having been at Plough Lane, what worries me is how much I agree with these comments in relation to the games I have seen (all home games plus Burton in the cup). The WInnall/Agyei situation is totally baffling to me. Forget what happens in training - what I have seen during matches would have me always prefer Agyei to WInnall. As frustrating as Agyei can be, that frustration comes from seeing him do good things at least some of the time...I also hope Holland is just in the same situation as McGuane was at the start of last year and will come good again. But the team's lack of pace on the counter, set piece delivery (and an inability to defend set pieces) - I hope the absence of midweek fixtures gives them a chance to sort those out on the training ground. Frankly, if they do not, Saturday's game could turn into a very tough afternoon indeed.

But I disagree with the comment about the front four being to blame for the inability to convert crosses into the box, but only insofar as I would add most of the team to that number. Given our basic formation choices, and given that Taylor is not that tall, I see a major factor as being a combination of our inability or unwillingness to get up the pitch not just in a quick counter, but in numbers (the classic midfielder arriving late into the box springs to mind). And think about the goals we scored last season (from open play) that involved one or both of Long and Ruffels. But all of that brings us back to lack of pace on the counter and our weakness in terms of attacking full back options.

On the bright side - as others have already said, we have some very good players. KR and the coaches now need to get them performing to their individual and collective potential. There have been glimpses, but over the course of a very long season, if those weaknesses are not sorted PDQ we shall be found too often to be able to achieve anything.
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