Tactical Decisions

[Cassius Kray]

I can just about understand why we replaced Anel with Jebbo. We were under the cosh and needed to make a change. I thought at the time it was an unnecessary risk that didn't resolve our key challenge - a lack of control in midfield - but I can just about see the logic in changing formation, putting another man up front, and rolling the dice. Just.

Replacing Norwood with Osborn was bizarre for so many reasons:

1/ Of our midfield three, Norwood was the only one even close to offering some defensive cover.
2/ McAtee was having a terrible game and clearly the prime candidate for taking off
3/ Osborn might have added more bite in midfield when we were struggling but the scores were even. Once Boro has gone ahead and were primed to sit back he was never going to offer the creativity we needed going forward.
4/ Worse than bringing on a player with little attacking threat, we took off our key playmaker, and for the rest of the game unsurprisingly had no one with the ability to put a foot on the ball and create a chance.

One match doesn't make a season, and we will come back from this. But it seems to me that tonight Hecky got things completely wrong.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

Norwood was having a shocker to be fair. McAtee was too but I don’t think either can argue they deserved to stay on.

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

Was Berge even on the pitch tonight? Yet another 90 minutes where the £20mil Rolls Royce did nothing. Massively over rated player. Way too inconsistent and anonymous in matches for the hype surrounding him.

 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

The correct answer was to put an extra midfielder on and take a defender off to try and compete in midfield which they dominated from start to finish. Norwood and McAtee wouldn’t have had the bad performances they did if they’d had an extra body in there with them, Fleck or Osborne should should have come on instead of Jebbo.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

The correct answer was to put an extra midfielder on and take a defender off to try and compete in midfield which they dominated from start to finish. Norwood and McAtee wouldn’t have had the bad performances they did if they’d had an extra body in there with them, Fleck or Osborne should should have come on instead of Jebbo.

That’s what I would have done too. It’s not like things weren’t sticking up front. We didn’t need Jebbison, we needed to compete in the middle

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

The correct answer was to put an extra midfielder on and take a defender off to try and compete in midfield which they dominated from start to finish. Norwood and McAtee wouldn’t have had the bad performances they did if they’d had an extra body in there with them, Fleck or Osborne should should have come on instead of Jebbo.

Basham for me.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

Was Berge even on the pitch tonight? Yet another 90 minutes where the £20mil Rolls Royce did nothing. Massively over rated player. Way too inconsistent and anonymous in matches for the hype surrounding him.

I’m a Berge fan but he was in slow motion tonight. Very disappointing

 

[Rochdaleblade]

As soon as we went to four at the back I thought we were more likely to concede than score. It always seemed to happen in the Wilder years. It's a shame Doyle has turned out to be such a crock.

 

[ATL Recs]

The correct answer was to put an extra midfielder on and take a defender off to try and compete in midfield which they dominated from start to finish. Norwood and McAtee wouldn’t have had the bad performances they did if they’d had an extra body in there with them, Fleck or Osborne should should have come on instead of Jebbo.

Agree

 

[robbiez666]

I can just about understand why we replaced Anel with Jebbo. We were under the cosh and needed to make a change. I thought at the time it was an unnecessary risk that didn't resolve our key challenge - a lack of control in midfield - but I can just about see the logic in changing formation, putting another man up front, and rolling the dice. Just.

But we didn't role the dice as such as Ndiaye dropped deeper adding an extra man in midfield (and putting one great ball down the left). We looked better then and less likely to be run through. The third came from Norwood.....I have no idea what he was doing.

 

[Toronto Blade]

Hecky's plan B tonight was to kick the hell out of the 4th Official's board

 

[DeanLearner'sCat]

I thought Norwood was poor, but switching to a back four, with Jack Robinson as one of the two centre backs, was always likely to lead to a 3rd.

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

Hecky's plan B tonight was to kick the hell out of the 4th Official's board

Even that didn't work.

 

[Nightsweats]

Our manager was shocking tonight in addressing screamingly obvious issues. He has got away with this largely because the quality of the opposition has not been of a level tonights were on every level.
He has an awful lot of work to do if we are to maintain our position. Saturday could well be a watershed.

 

[AWetFlannel]

I agree that Hecky got it wrong tonight, and think some people have good suggestions as to why.

It's worth saying though, that I've seen about 5 different versions of, "he's clueless, it's obvious he should have done x".

It can't be obvious if we don't all agree on what we would have done.

 

[bertieblade]

Anel went off as he had been booked and was carrying an injury.
Ideally I would have taken off mcatee who was crowded out and not strong enough, dropped ili back into midfield and played jebbison up top with Mcburnie.
but in all honesty we were not at the races tonight, second to most balls, looking for the easy, backward option and Not chancing our arm when in shooting positions outside the Box, passing to someone in n9 better position because they did not want responsibility

 

[Toronto Blade]

Opposition study the refs. If you go down under tackle you get a foul, same as what we should expecting in the PL . No point in being noble if that is how the refs call a game, you will lose every time.
Do the same to them under pressure in a tackle go down and stay down don't bounce back up get the freekick or get them a card. Nice guys finish last in the Championship.

 

[wavy-blade]

were lost with sharp

 

[vas borbokis]

We got what we deserved tonight. Fuck all. But their 3rd the ref has to give us a foul in midfield before they break on us. As said above, if we go down the ref can't wave play on.
What the fuck was Anel doing on their second? Oodles of time to clear that before his pocket was picked.
Mentality was all wrong tonight.
Always is when you have a "must not lose" game/attitude.
It was a must win game for them and that meant that's all they'd accept.
Let's hope we can pick ourselves up and go again. Unfortunately everyone will smell blood now and be after us.

 

[Foxy]

We should have tried dropping Berge and McAtee deeper before making any changes for me… I could see why it was thought to have them on their deeper lying midfielders, but they simply bypassed that into the huge spaces leaving Norwood massively exposed.

Great when it works and they win the ball back up there/they toss it away, but as soon as they started playing through into space it was always going to turn their way.

For some reason early second half, both Berge and McAtee seemed to sit deeper when we attacked rather than when we were out of possession, which created the opposite problem.

When Boro started coming into the game on 15/20 mins I’d have dropped them back, if it didn’t work, subbing one of the two for Fleck (if fit enough).

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

But it seems to me that tonight Hecky got things completely wrong.

Not to mention his red card..

 

[CornwallBlade]

But we didn't role the dice as such as Ndiaye dropped deeper adding an extra man in midfield (and putting one great ball down the left). We looked better then and less likely to be run through. The third came from Norwood.....I have no idea what he was doing.

Ndiaye is not a striker, he is way more effective sitting in behind where he can be creative and also put pressure on their midfield space. Huge holes in our midfield tonight.

 

[Davalon]

As well as too many players having off nights, with due credit to Boro for that too, I think we were out thought on the touchline too.

 

[Hillsboro Blade]

My face tonight when Ben Osborn was brought on instead of Coulibaly…..

 

[Toronto Blade]

The defence had no cover they just cruised straight through the midfield

 

[Keen Blade]

Was Berge even on the pitch tonight? Yet another 90 minutes where the £20mil Rolls Royce did nothing. Massively over rated player. Way too inconsistent and anonymous in matches for the hype surrounding him.

Why the fuck did Hecky stick him on the L where he's no use ?
And stick McAtee on the R where he's no use ?
Hecky clueless

 

[Keen Blade]

My face tonight when Ben Osborn was brought on instead of Coulibaly…..View attachment 154008

Hecky clueless

 

[Keen Blade]

We should have tried dropping Berge and McAtee deeper before making any changes for me… I could see why it was thought to have them on their deeper lying midfielders, but they simply bypassed that into the huge spaces leaving Norwood massively exposed.

Great when it works and they win the ball back up there/they toss it away, but as soon as they started playing through into space it was always going to turn their way.

For some reason early second half, both Berge and McAtee seemed to sit deeper when we attacked rather than when we were out of possession, which created the opposite problem.

When Boro started coming into the game on 15/20 mins I’d have dropped them back, if it didn’t work, subbing one of the two for Fleck (if fit enough).

Hecky clueless

 

[Keen Blade]

I agree that Hecky got it wrong tonight, and think some people have good suggestions as to why.

It's worth saying though, that I've seen about 5 different versions of, "he's clueless, it's obvious he should have done x".

It can't be obvious if we don't all agree on what we would have done.

He should certainly not have done what he did -
He might be good at some aspects of the job but he's not improved his "in-game" management since he took it

 

[Alex Cheeseright]

If McAtee would have gone down, would the ref had issued a yellow card. So by playing on did it cancel a yellow? I really don't know if that what Hecky was pissed off with