DIRE performance and so on

[s4-blade]

Long- Made a couple of good saves but flapped at crosses drop catches and found the stand with his clearances. 4/10
McMahon- Going forward was terrible, poor decision making and gets beat far too easily. 4.5/10
Harry- solid game, didn't do muck wrong but didnt do much at all tbh. 6.5/10
Collins- Poor decision making was week in the air and passing was all over t' place 5/10
Hill- Strong and solid but still getting beat. 6/10
Murphy- Didn't beat his man once, kept loosing possession and didn't look a threat. 5/10
Doyle- Average Doyle performance. 6.5/10
McGinn- solid, but passes were all or t' place. 5.5/10
Baxter- Decent performance, good link up play and a cracking free kick. Gutted when he hit the post in t' last minit. 8/10
Miller- Ran abart a lot, solid on the ball, but was nackered at the end of it. 6.5/10
Porter- Awful, Dire, 150% tryer but just no quality what so ever. 4/10 (and thats only for trying)

Thoughts...

 

[true99blade]

Miller was shit.

 

[Harry's Game]

McGinn and Doyle were close to laughable in midfield, Porters next job should be pulling a rag and bone cart.

 

[Harry's Game]

Miller was shit.

Yes, sad but true, it looks like he is going to be one of those who never really recovers from a bad injury.

 

[s4-blade]

We definitely need a new striker (or two). Porter, Miller, Taylor, Murphy, need to go.

 

[blader]

Agree on the whole.

Long - 4 - poor by his standards. Kicking and claiming crosses weren't in this weeks training schedule, obviously.

McMahon - 5 - has his moments, but generally ineffective. Main problem is that he over-commits way too often. He either gets beaten or has to concede a free kick, hence his impressive yellow card collection.

Maguire - 6.5 - looks so much more comfortable in a back 4. Not a fan of the back 3 we seemed to start with.

Collins - 5 - as above, but needs to stop thinking he can play football. Once he gets it, he should get rid as soon as possible.

Hill - 7 - Not bad. Out of position the odd time, but usually reliable and seemed relatively comfortable in the back 3 or 4.

White - hope he recovers. Think his early injury thew the tactics right out of the window. Wouldn't mind having him back until the end of the season

Murphy - 4 - poor. Don't really know what to say about him. Just didn't do owt!

Doyle - 4 - I haven't been too often this year, but if that was as you say an 'average doyle performance' then my goodness. Dreadful, ill disciplined and p.s. i have usually labelled him the scapegoat. That was properly s***.

McGinn - 2 - one of the worst individual performances I have seen from a blade in a long time. He was had some decent games this year, but not today. Nothing worked, he never used the ball well and probably the best thing he did was get booked and 'took one for the team' when their full back was racing through. Should have been taken off for Coady.

Baxter - 9 - class above any other player on the pitch. In the middle or on the right, uses the ball well, and has a football brain. You could see he stepped it up against his old employers and was superb. Great goal, his biggest tragedy is having players alongside him who don't have his vision, so often his best passes go uncollected. Similar issues to McDonald.

Miller - 4 - poor. I can't be too harsh on the lad, just recovered from an awful injury, and I think the rest of the season will still be part of his rehabilitation. Don't think he will be back to 100% until next season.

Porter - 3 - pfft. Again, I respect the guys effort, but what can he actually do? You know the worst thing, is that if you look at our squad he is probably still in the top 2 strikers at the club currently. That's terrifying. A striker is a priority at 00:01 on January 1st for Nigel!

Subs - never had time to do anything.

Nigel - can't rate him. We started with what appeared a sort of 3-5-2, but those plans went very quickly when White came off. I think this affected the game plan somewhat. He obviously gave em a huge kick up the arse at half time as they came out with a bit of fire in their bellies (albeit only for around 20 mins). I think he knows where our weaknesses are and think he will address them next week. Hard to judge his performance today really, I did feel he should have made subs 10/15 minutes earlier really.

Tranmere is a must win for me now. That first half should never be replicated again.

UTB

 

[zablade]

Yes, sad but true, it looks like he is going to be one of those who never really recovers from a bad injury.

I am inclined to agree he looks to have lost a yard of pace, which I initially put down to match fitness but he should be past that stage by now.

Even more worryingly he looks to have also lost his awareness and anticipation.

 

[s4-blade]

what do y think needs changin for tranmere?? I'd se the full midfield apart from Baxter and obviously Porter needs to go. His only use is carrying the bag of balls to the training pitch.

 

[bartman]

what do y think needs changin for tranmere?? I'd se the full midfield apart from Baxter and obviously Porter needs to go. His only use is carrying the bag of balls to the training pitch.

personally I would drop Porter for Taylor and drop Miller for either Coady,Brandy or Flo
Play Baxter just behind Taylor with two wingers providing the supply

 

[zablade]

what do y think needs changin for tranmere?? I'd se the full midfield apart from Baxter and obviously Porter needs to go. His only use is carrying the bag of balls to the training pitch.

It's hard to say, Baxter is the best player by light years, but I don't think he can play in a flat four in midfield so if he plays behind the lone striker then until players can be bought it may have to be Porter upfront, unless Taylor is given one last chance in that role.

One of Doyle or McGinn has to go and I have never rated Murphy.

Go with this maybe..

Long

Hill
Maguire
Collins
Macmahon

Flynn
Doyle (unfortunately)
Coady
Brandy

Baxter

Taylor

 

[Silent Blade]

personally I would drop Porter for Taylor and drop Miller for either Coady,Brandy or Flo
Play Baxter just behind Taylor with two wingers providing the supply

I am not a big fan of Porter but Taylor isnt strong in the air and doesnt hold the ball up. Taylor plays better playing off a target man

 

[Living In a Fantasy World]

Pretty much agree with your ratings and assessment of the players apart from McGinn who was terrible and 5.5 is very flattering

 

[Snowman]

I don't think I have seen such a team of misfits since the drop to the fourth and that team had at least three reasonable players in it. The one thing that was so noticeable for me today was that there is absolutely no pace in the team apart from White who lasted three minutes. They simply aren't good enough.

When is Porter's contract up?

 

[alcoblade]

Miller - 4 - poor. I can't be too harsh on the lad, just recovered from an awful injury, and I think the rest of the season will still be part of his rehabilitation. Don't think he will be back to 100% until next season.

Approaching 27 years old, with a career average of less than 1 goal in every 4 3rd and 4th division games, there has to be real question marks about that.

UTB

 

[Deadbat]

End of the season thankfully. Guy does his best but it was embarrassing today. Twice he chased the ball and painfully slowly reached it and on both occasions miscontrolled it completely. Still least he kicked it; Miller maybe had 2 or 3 touches all game and one laid on the goal (for them). As bad a performance from a United front two as I can remember.

 

[Deadbat]

Sadly I agree with the verdict on Miller alcoblade; his stats of 1 goal in 4 and the fact he could not even be a regular starter in the Crewe side in the bottom division before he joined us suggest as well as he did in that little spell before his injury that maybe he is not really that great. His inconsistency of appearances and goals at a very low level suggest many (including myself) got carried away with a few decent games last year.

Other than a few cameos when he came on as sub and first came back he has been largely anonymous in the games I have seen. He was worse than Porter today. That is saying something!

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Far too early to write off Miller. Kabba wasn't firing on all cylinders till after pre-season when he came back in 2005 - the following season was arguably his best for us. Similarly, remember Hulse when he came back from injury? Looked slow and had terrible finishing - we cashed in early and he went on to score quite a few at Derby, again having had the benefit of a pre-season. Both players have better scoring records than Miller, but there was enough in that spell last season to suggest he should be given a longer degree of time till he's cast aside.

That shouldn't mean that we don't look to get extra firepower in though. Clough seemed to suggest he'd ideally like a defender, midfielder and striker in next month (with 3 players moving out).

 

[Elsecar_Blade]

Porter was better than Miller yesterday. At least Porter got in a position to score (and miss) on two occasions whereas Miller hasn't had a shot at goal for a month. Not writing the fella off but had a feeling people were expecting too much from his return. In reality, he only had 5/6 good games last season right before his injury. I don't think he is THAT good.

Also, whilst Baxter scored a great goal to rescue us, he wasn't better than Maguire yesterday. Harry was the only player out there who got close to the standard required and pulled Long, McMahon, Hill and Doyle out of the shite on a fair few occasions. Man of the Match easily for me.

 

[Bladesway]

Lets be honest none of our strikers are good enough for what we need. Porter gets more abuse than he should because at least he tries to get involved and take some responsibility. Is he good enough to pull the team along on his own? Not a chance. Is he good enough with a decent strike partner? Possibly, but even that's not a given. His first touch lets him down too often and you can forgive that if he is taking his chances but he isn't. We don't have a single striker at the club I would say is good for 10 goals per season let alone the magic 20.

 

[alcoblade]

Lets be honest none of our strikers are good enough for what we need. Porter gets more abuse than he should because at least he tries to get involved and take some responsibility. Is he good enough to pull the team along on his own? Not a chance. Is he good enough with a decent strike partner? Possibly, but even that's not a given. His first touch lets him down too often and you can forgive that if he is taking his chances but he isn't. We don't have a single striker at the club I would say is good for 10 goals per season let alone the magic 20.

I agree with your last sentence. I don't share your suspicion that there's any formation that will bring something put of Porter, when nothing has in overall decade as a lower division profesional. He's wank, simple as that. We've just fallen to a level (Miller, Flynn, Taylor - all wank too) where such a level of non performance has begun to border on acceptable.

UTB