Shrewsbury Town (H)

[gonzo]

If you're having to take painkillers during games I'd suggest you're not fit.

I'd be leaving Dion out till play offs.

[Traf]

21 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I like JDB too and accept he doesn't always play well (like every striker we have) but how is he a sicknote? 

Made of glass, balsa and masking tape.

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, Traf said:

Not scapegoating, mate, not my style.
They were all shit last night, apart from Maghoma and possibly Jerome.

I was merely offering an alternate to the 'strikers missing easy chances' script.
If you keep clean sheets, you can't lose and only need a goal to win.
We shouldn't need to be scoring three to beat Shrewsbury at home.

Yeah sorry, definitely the wrong choice of word.

I couldn’t comment on the first because I’ve no idea of the angles from my seat but I do reckon he’ll be pissed off with the second. Suppose it’s ’credit in the bank’ which means he gets an easier ride for me from last night, rightly or wrongly - do get your point though.

As you say, only Maghoma (not having Jerome) comes out of last night with any credit.

[gonzo]

7 minutes ago, Traf said:

Made of glass, balsa and masking tape.

And couldn't finish his dinner.

[FrancisFogarty]

5 hours ago, Stig said:

This is how we've set up all season defending corners. We don't leave a man up field and we don't mark the edge of the box.

I understand the rationale - the statistical thinking will be that the more men you pack in the box, the fewer goals you concede, as less likely for clean headers and pot shots from the edge of the box are low likelihood to go in.

But this is the way the players have been coached to defend corners definitely all season, so a coaching issue. We saw a carbon copy at Wycombe away.

Show me stats that say packing the box and concede less and I’ll show you one saying attack attack attack and you’ll score goals and win games.

[Johnnyrotten]

12 hours ago, radcliffe white said:

So easy for opposition to do homework on us like Shrewsbury guys comments above it’s not hard but we can’t counter it 

This isn't just a comment on us but on a number of teams, but I find it puzzling when managers openly pin their colours to the mast of one system and one system only.  5 at the back come hell or high water.  Irrespective of who's available to play, who the opposition is, what the score is, who's having a bit of a nightmare on the day, and simply playing into the hands of the opposition who know exactly what you're going to do.  How would Shrewsbury have reacted last night if we'd kicked off and changed to 4-4-2, or at least changed to that at H-T?  Make it a bit harder, not a bit easier, for the opposition occasionally.

[Johnnyrotten]

11 hours ago, BeeversLeftPeg said:

I think last night was a prime example of how much we missed Gethin Jones. Forrester arguably a better defender but JDC really missed having Jones with him, who understands the wingback role and regularly offers an overlap too.

I felt sorry for Forrester in a way, the CB role on the right of a 3 is basically a right back position, that's why Jones looks comfortable there, he's a full back all day long, never a CB.  Forrester is a CB, never a right back.  Imagine if Santos was asked to play that role, he'd be a fish out of water, as good as he is.  If we were defending much of the game eg Barnsley away or holding onto a lead like at Port Vale, Forrester shows his strength.  He's never going to be the overlapping full back bombing on like Jones, simply out of position in a game where we have 80% possession or whatever (2nd half) and the opposition sit deep.  No need for 3 CBs in that 2nd half, and the Shrewsbury boss knew that.

[Johnnyrotten]

10 hours ago, Mounts Kipper said:

No coach at any level coaches to leave players unmarked on the edge of the penalty areas from corners. It’s lack of communication from the playing group and nothing to do with Evatt or coaches. Seems a stick to beat Evatt with, especially for those who’ve wanted him out for months… utterly ridiculous, he’s got his faults but the positives outweigh the negatives.   

That's got to be inaccurate, IE does it regularly, and other teams do too, not just once or twice a game, but 6 or 7 times.  Its a tactic to mark the space not the man.  Its not like the corners are taken quickly, we can all go for a brew in the time it takes a player to walk over, put his hands up, replace the ball, the players have a grapple, the ref tells them to stop, etc etc - its not an accident that players are left unmarked on the edge, its clearly an instruction, just as not leaving anyone near the halfway line is.

[Johnnyrotten]

4 hours ago, Stig said:

Yeah I'm not a fan of 11 back within 12 yards of our goal at all. I understand the rationale, but as I mentioned after the Wycombe game, I think the statistics will be misleading on this as they won't count all the second, third, fourth phase play after we've given the ball back to the opposition unopposed.

Imagine if we were left with a man free on the edge of the box for a pot shots every game, we'd love it

We haven't lost many at home, but Carlisle's 2 game changing goals were both from this.  Their 2nd pen that they scored, and their 2nd goal, both from corners that came to their unmarked players, resulting in a pen and then a 20 yarder deflected into top corner.

[Stig]

1 hour ago, FrancisFogarty said:

Show me stats that say packing the box and concede less and I’ll show you one saying attack attack attack and you’ll score goals and win games.

I agree. I'm just saying I understand why some coaches are doing 11 back these days, but I think the stats are misleading them

[Johnnyrotten]

1 hour ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

To be fair, he missed 27 matches through injury last season and took a while to get up to speed this season

He's now also out for the rest of this season

And between August and mid April he's literally been in every squad for every league and cup game (maybe missed a very occasional one but I can't recall?), when everyone else has been rested or injured, the only one that comes close to being consistently available is JDC.  Having a long term injury last season is no different to Toal, Johnstone, Dempsey, Sheehan, Dan, Vic, CMG the list goes on.  Now missing a couple of weeks same as Santos, Jones, Baxter, Williams, Taylor, Ashworth etc, I'm just unsure of the difference.