Baldock, Stevens and Stearman

[robbiez666]

Baldock suffered going forward as he did not have ccv pushing on in the way that bash does.
Stevens has unfortunately gone off the boil in the last month and in my opinion needs a rest, only a rest mind as he has shown what a quality player he is.
Stearman is more physical than wright and can only assume that is why he is in the team.
Wright is v good at organising and reads the game v well but tends to sit too deep, subsequently in the position w3 are in we cannot have everything.

Oh and never a penalty and think the ref realised afterwards and subsequently allowed bash to stay on. If he had committed those fouls against us we would rightfully had been annoyed he had not walked.

Merry Christmas Blades, 2016 and 17 have been wonderful let’s hope that Wilder gets the support to take us forward in 2018 but I somehow doubt it.

You make a very good point about Stevens and rest. He's basically played every game in a really physically gruelling position. He needs a couple of games off, but Lafferty isn't in the same league, for me. He's probably not the only one. I'm sure a few of them could benefit from a rest. It's noticeable that we've not been able to maintain our usual intensity over the past few weeks.

 

[Trafford]

Self explanatory...the only thing shocking being the OP.

Having watched the highlights again and read through all the comments on the thread, I stand by what I said and the majority seem to agree. Perhaps my wording could have been better but it really wound me up watching the game, particularly the first half. The ball-watching has been a recurring issue and needs working on - I learnt not to do it when I was 15!

 

[Tommoblade66]

Great result but the quality of Baldock, Stevens and Stearman’s defending was simply shocking.

Called a sharp learning curve isn't it? Let's hope they're learning

 

[Cyprus Blade]

Rare post for me of late. It seems to me that a good team plays to its strengths and a lot of the signings CW has made seem to be around having some interchangeability of personnel. That said no two players are exactly alike - Wright/Stearman, Lundstam/Coutts, Moore/Blackman, Baldock/Freeman and there are bound to be some adjustment issues.

For me Wright is the better organiser, but Stearman the better player, though Stearman does do some howlers and,in the words of one of the Wolves' supporters, is "prone to the odd mistake". For me the second goal was as much down to CCV as Stearman. Poor defending either way.

Coutts at the point of injury was not the Coutts of two years ago and is quite a lot older than Lundstram. I think Lundstram has a big hole to fill and he is playing in a weakened MF. Sides seem to have sussed our preferred system better as well. He has stepped up to the plate and done quite well for our club and is improving game by game. For me Basham is far better as a defender than CM and was lucky to stay on last night

The return match with the pigs is ever closer and they may well get the lift that teams often experience when sacking a manager. We need to back everyone in a red and white shirt and beat the dark side again, and again and again. Merry Christmas to all, and Santa is a Blade.

 

[South Bucks]

Great comeback yesterday and we could have won it if we'd been more offensive. Really cheeses me off how Baldock and Stevens get us up the flanks near the corner flag then instead of a pass inside we bring it back to the half way line, prat around then lose it. Need to be more positive, once up the pitch and play a ball in to cause a threat like other teams and not bring it back to half way and start again when they've parked the bus.

 

[ucandomagic]

My biggest issue with Baldock and Stearman is that they are ball-watchers. The highlights illustrate it perfectly, both with the 2nd goal and the subsequent header that went just wide.

The second Villa goal was all down to Baldock. Gary Neville has been talking in detail about defending after a few games recently. Basically, if somebody has a run at a header they will always beat somebody standing. So players marking further out from the goal have to stop the run. Baldock’s job was to watch Jedinak and block any run. He failed miserably, watched the ball as Jedinak ran past him and as a result Stearman and CCV had no chance. When the ball goes in Baldock is standing all alone by the penalty spot.

Good defenders worry about their man, and let the ball worry about itself.

Magic isn’t always Pretty

 

[Esablade]

Having watched the highlights again and read through all the comments on the thread, I stand by what I said and the majority seem to agree. Perhaps my wording could have been better but it really wound me up watching the game, particularly the first half. The ball-watching has been a recurring issue and needs working on - I learnt not to do it when I was 15!

All abaht opinions innit...
Merry Christmas!

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Given the chance i would go with Stearman,Basham and O'Connell, at the back.

that's a good call and have thought about Basham in the middle a few times as he reads the game well.

For all stearman's qualities, not convinced the organising role in the middle is what he is suited to.

There have been examples at Millwall and Bristol where he should be more aware of danger and what the centre player needs to be and do. Wright does very little to be fair but sits in the middle but his record/stats speak for themselves.

UTB

 

[JasonEllis]

Agreed, thought Moore was poor as well in the first half. Was it Stevens that just left their goal scorer for a free header on their second?

Baldock. Crazy he was assigned to mark Jedinak in any event.

 

[Maidenhead]

Great result but the quality of Baldock, Stevens and Stearman’s defending was simply shocking.

Out of position time after time, gave the ball away, didn’t stop the ball coming in - tell me what I missed?

That's what you're going to get at times playing the way we do.
,
Last season not many teams had enough quality to trouble us as we pushed forward (Rochdale and Mendez Liang? apart, and what a game that was!) but this season most teams can break at us with more pace and exploit the spaces.

Personally I am happy that we choose to play on the front foot but it's important to recognise the short comings in the system and not start lambasting individual players for not being super heroes.

 

[Grizzly blade]

The second Villa goal was all down to Baldock. Gary Neville has been talking in detail about defending after a few games recently. Basically, if somebody has a run at a header they will always beat somebody standing. So players marking further out from the goal have to stop the run. Baldock’s job was to watch Jedinak and block any run. He failed miserably, watched the ball as Jedinak ran past him and as a result Stearman and CCV had no chance. When the ball goes in Baldock is standing all alone by the penalty spot.

Good defenders worry about their man, and let the ball worry about itself.

Magic isn’t always Pretty

Yes, Baldock was stood with jedinak at the point of the kick being taken, and yes he might have been expected to try and block or divert a run.
However, we lined up zonal to defend the 6 yard box and had 2 players an arms length between them fail to get their head on the ball before Jedinak.
Really, can we expect a player who is 5/6 to block Jedinak? He’s not going to do that too well and so it proved.

Now...have Jamal in goal and he catches the cross!!

 

[highgreenintokyo]

Thought Stearman was fine today. I still can't tell about the penalty. It looked soft, but it's also a somewhat daft challenge. Baldock is definitely partly at fault for the second. Needs to make that a lot harder for the guy. CCV and Stearman were outjumped, but you're always going to be outjumped by someone with a running start.

Baldock, as above, was at fault for the second goal, and was also outchallenged when Adoma should have scored with the header. Offensively, though, I thought he was pretty good. He gets far up the pitch, and when we got on top after equalizing, a lot of it was down his side caused by his direct running and willingness to take up advanced positions. It didn't always come off, but we need that outlet. He also put over a fantastic cross that Leon should really have scored from.

Stevens was quiet, and in the mini-slump of the team, he's also suffering a slump. I think it's partly down to him not getting the ball in advanced positions like earlier in the season. Main reason for that is we don't hold onto the ball in midfield long enough. I think with Fleck back his game will improve.

 

[SwissBlade]

Baldock. Crazy he was assigned to mark Jedinak in any event.

Yeah it seems that he didn’t get the email on what he had to do either. Stand with him, go with him if he moves. Challenge.

Instead he stood with him, let him go. Goal

 

[Trafford]

All abaht opinions innit...
Merry Christmas!

Absolutely. Different perspectives expressed in a respectful way are what differentiates this forum and makes it worthwhile. Merry Christmas to one and all!

 

[wizadry]

Absolutely. Different perspectives expressed in a respectful way are what differentiates this forum and makes it worthwhile. Merry Christmas to one and all!

Merry Christmas pal!

Stop talking bollocks and we’ll get along just fine.

 

[Trafford]

Good to see that all 3 responded to my criticism - Baldock was unrecognisable compared with Villa and, for the first time, I thought that Stearman marshalled the defence. The goals were a bonus and I don’t want to take all the credit......

 

[Harry's Game]

Defensively today we did everything we were asked to do, which in all honesty wasn’t a great deal.

 

[dc_blade]

Good to see that all 3 responded to my criticism - Baldock was unrecognisable compared with Villa and, for the first time, I thought that Stearman marshalled the defence. The goals were a bonus and I don’t want to take all the credit......

Baldock really wanted it today. He got in a few scraps with their left back and you could see how delighted he was with the goal. Really good performance.