Sticking with the away formula at home

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I'd say it's because teams come more defensive, whereas at home they're more confident which in turn affords us space...
 
other results apart from donny seemed to go our way today, so its not a bad point. we need to mix it up at home i feel.
 
Don't have the creativity & cutting edge. Been saying this all season. Our away success is based on our defensive qualities. Apart from Stevenage, Colchester & Scunthorpe, struggled in most our home games. Really, really frustrating...
 
I don't think the set up was necessarily a problem, I think at least a couple were off their game which meant we struggled to capitalise on being the better side.

What I would have done however was dropped Robson deeper pushing one of the quicker lads up with Kitson or brought him off earlier... Kitson with Robson just behind doesn't create much when the centre of the park is having to be helped by the wingers as we have no pace and less movement in the final third. This becomes more of a problem as they tire and time runs out.

We looked less balanced and organised after Murphy was understandably changed.

But for Jono calmly tucking away one of the two chances towards the end though, we'd be praising a strong win.
 
While I've managed to get to a lot of the away games this season, that was only the second game I've seen at the Lane (the other vs Tranmere). We did well in the first half, played some very nice stuff, the Robson header after Flynn and Kitson combined well to win possession probably our best chance - Murphy looked positive. Second half we were overall poorer - Kitson wasn't in it as much, we didn't offer much out wide and were restricted. Forte made a difference, arguably should have been on earlier. Probably should have done better with the glorious chance when he was played in. Plenty of effort throughout, but we never looked like getting the goal. That said, neither did they.

MK Dons - one of the nastiest niggly cheating team I've seen for some time. The game started with an ugly late challenge from Smith and that set their tone. They knew they could keep doing it because the ref was completely weak - a baffling performance from him. Can anyone explain how an offside against us turned into our goal kick? Very odd.

A lot has been said in the last week about the fans. Have to say I agree with the sentiment that they could be more supportive - deathly quiet on the Kop, with majority of attempts to get the crowd going petering out.

Long 7/10 - very little to do, generally competent when called upon
McMahon 7/10 - steady, couple of decent pieces of defending, needs to improve his crossing
Hill 7.5/10 - probably best of the back 4 today, offered something going fwd too
Collins 7/10 - fine
Maguire 6.5/10 - gave the unpredictable ref a reason to give him a red with a very very late challenge first half. With that ref today though, decapitation was probably necessary for anything more than a booking
Flynn 6/10 - often unfairly criticised, but perhaps not today as it was not a great game for Flynn. While working hard he didn't offer enough going forward
Doyle 7.5/10 - thought he had a decent game today, and actually took some of the initiative in the midfield. Picked out Murphy on the flanks well with some well-weighted long passes
McDonald 6.5/10 - didn't do anywhere near enough today IMHO. If Robson was fitter, I'd have subbed McDonald today
Murphy 7.5/10 - tired in the second half (understandable given he's returning from injury), but was our most dangerous outlet first half, really positive and took on his marker at every possible turn
Robson 8/10 - best I've seen him play to date. Seemed to have a bit of a free role off from Kitson and was involved in most of what we did well today
Kitson 6.5/10 - like McDonald, slightly disappointing. Did ok first half, virtually anonymous in the second.

Subs
Forte - made a difference, should have scored
Poleon - didn't really make a difference
 
I would have liked to see both Murphy and Forte start, with Flynn or Robson losing out. What about Ironside at home too? At Doncaster he caused panic with his determination but haven't seen much of him since...
 
LoughboroBlade said:
While I've managed to get to a lot of the away games this season, that was only the second game I've seen at the Lane (the other vs Tranmere). We did well in the first half, played some very nice stuff, the Robson header after Flynn and Kitson combined well to win possession probably our best chance - Murphy looked positive. Second half we were overall poorer - Kitson wasn't in it as much, we didn't offer much out wide and were restricted. Forte made a difference, arguably should have been on earlier. Probably should have done better with the glorious chance when he was played in. Plenty of effort throughout, but we never looked like getting the goal. That said, neither did they.

MK Dons - one of the nastiest niggly cheating team I've seen for some time. The game started with an ugly late challenge from Smith and that set their tone. They knew they could keep doing it because the ref was completely weak - a baffling performance from him. Can anyone explain how an offside against us turned into our goal kick? Very odd.

A lot has been said in the last week about the fans. Have to say I agree with the sentiment that they could be more supportive - deathly quiet on the Kop, with majority of attempts to get the crowd going petering out.

Long 7/10 - very little to do, generally competent when called upon
McMahon 7/10 - steady, couple of decent pieces of defending, needs to improve his crossing
Hill 7.5/10 - probably best of the back 4 today, offered something going fwd too
Collins 7/10 - fine
Maguire 6.5/10 - gave the unpredictable ref a reason to give him a red with a very very late challenge first half. With that ref today though, decapitation was probably necessary for anything more than a booking
Flynn 6/10 - often unfairly criticised, but perhaps not today as it was not a great game for Flynn. While working hard he didn't offer enough going forward
Doyle 7.5/10 - thought he had a decent game today, and actually took some of the initiative in the midfield. Picked out Murphy on the flanks well with some well-weighted long passes
McDonald 6.5/10 - didn't do anywhere near enough today IMHO. If Robson was fitter, I'd have subbed McDonald today
Murphy 7.5/10 - tired in the second half (understandable given he's returning from injury), but was our most dangerous outlet first half, really positive and took on his marker at every possible turn
Robson 8/10 - best I've seen him play to date. Seemed to have a bit of a free role off from Kitson and was involved in most of what we did well today
Kitson 6.5/10 - like McDonald, slightly disappointing. Did ok first half, virtually anonymous in the second.

Subs
Forte - made a difference, should have scored
Poleon - didn't really make a difference
Click to expand...

Re the offside - the linesman gave us offside from a goalkick. Both benches and the 4th official told him you can't be offside from a goalkick (mildly concerning that he didn't know himself) so they took play back to the goalkick.
 
cooperblade said:
Re the offside - the linesman gave us offside from a goalkick. Both benches and the 4th official told him you can't be offside from a goalkick (mildly concerning that he didn't know himself) so they took play back to the goalkick.
Click to expand...

But hadn't Long just collected a loose ball and punted it upfield? I didn't think at the time there had been a goal kick, so was doubly confused that the ref seemed to revert back to something that hadn't happened in the first place.
 
cooperblade said:
Re the offside - the linesman gave us offside from a goalkick. Both benches and the 4th official told him you can't be offside from a goalkick (mildly concerning that he didn't know himself) so they took play back to the goalkick.
Click to expand...

I hate to jump on the bandwagon of "official bashing" and whilst fully recognising that they have a difficult job to do I am STAGGERED by the appalling quality of officials this year.

This lot today were absolutely incompetent on a stunning level and would have struggled to officiate at a junior football match !!!!

I am amazed that United have not sent video evidence of some of the officials performances to the FA / Football League this season because it MUST improve quickly as the enjoyment of the game is being ruined.

UTB
 
OllyBlade said:
I would have liked to see both Murphy and Forte start, with Flynn or Robson losing out. What about Ironside at home too? At Doncaster he caused panic with his determination but haven't seen much of him since...
Click to expand...

Agree, probably retain Robson.

Our off the ball movement when attacking was poor today, his many times did we go backwards when in good positions?
 
OllyBlade said:
I would have liked to see both Murphy and Forte start, with Flynn or Robson losing out.
Click to expand...

Agree with you, it's hard to get the balance right at the moment with both Flynn and Robson playing. If they're both out wide we lack pace and genuine width. If Robson is in the hole and Flynn wide it leaves just one place for a quick, mobile player (Murphy, Poleon, Forte), who's then under too much pressure being the only one to take players on and run into space.

When the balance is not right you tend to get poor individual performances (e.g. McDonald and Kitson vs Orient), little rhythm and few chances. Fans will then often want to drop the players who've performed poorly, rather the ones who are preventing us from getting the balance right.
 
Foxy said:
We looked less balanced and organised after Murphy was understandably changed.

But for Jono calmly tucking away one of the two chances towards the end though, we'd be praising a strong win.
Click to expand...
eh?.. murphy was the only player who was showing a threat regularly beating the fullback to the byline. strong win? we were utterly devoid of ideas.. even KMac was crap.. flynn i'd have shot but then you lot thought monty was brazil standard.. i think i go to a different dimension
 
My observations, for what it's worth.
I wouldn't start Kitson up front on hhis own, he wants to do too many other players job. He drops far too deep at times. Early in the first half, we closed them down really well, won the ball but then couldn't break forward because we had no out ball. Danny seems to like the experience that Kitson and Robson bring but my feeling is that we need to inject the unpredictability of youth. I really don't mind whether that it is murphy, Poleon or Ironside. I would like Forte to start as well.
I guess my ramblings prove how difficult it is to pick a balanced side.

UTB
 

Darthblade said:
I hate to jump on the bandwagon of "official bashing" and whilst fully recognising that they have a difficult job to do I am STAGGERED by the appalling quality of officials this year.
Click to expand...

To be fair to the officials they were generally shit last season as well. Just as the best players will filter upwards to the best league (okay, to the teams with the most money) then so will the best officials. And by the same logic that sees us in a shitty league with mainly third division players then we inevitably get third division officials.
 
Foxy said:
But for Jono calmly tucking away one of the two chances towards the end though, we'd be praising a strong win.
Click to expand...
I agree - it wasn't bad yesterday, but being honest in the end how many times did we test their keeper?

UTB
 
Darthblade said:
I hate to jump on the bandwagon of "official bashing" and whilst fully recognising that they have a difficult job to do I am STAGGERED by the appalling quality of officials this year.

This lot today were absolutely incompetent on a stunning level and would have struggled to officiate at a junior football match !!!!

I am amazed that United have not sent video evidence of some of the officials performances to the FA / Football League this season because it MUST improve quickly as the enjoyment of the game is being ruined.

UTB
Click to expand...
Having seen many matches at Sheffield fc i have never seen a ref perform so ineptly as that prick did at bdtbl yesterday.
 
One of the tactical things that really stood out was the way we pressed really high up the pitch, particularly in the first half. We consistently won possession in good areas in the first 45 but this stopped happening as much as Kitson and Robson (and Murphy and Flynn) tired.

It was the total opposite of MK away last season where our players had clearly been instructed to stand off the MK players until they crossed halfway.

I think if DW had changed things a bit earlier and kept up the pressing game, we'd have created more chances in the 2nd half. There was a case for bringing Ironside on for Kitson to achieve this and I think DW needs to be bold in replacing Kitson and/or Robson earlier in games to maintain pressure / a higher tempo.
 
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