The Problems.......

[5tannington Blade]

It's hard to criticise, the keeper, defence, or the attack tonight. Jamal did well, made a 2 or 3 decent stops, couldn't have done anything about the goal. Stearman and O'Connel were their usual selves (decent), Basham had a couple of dodgy moments. We know Clarke or Sharp aren't great at holding it up (partic billy) and they need chances to feed off - they had zilch tonight.

Problem was all in midfield - outfought and chased down a lot. Evans, Fleck and Leonard lost it on too many occasions, mainly because they were under pressure. Even when they weren't under pressure though they gave it away far too easily. Leonard needs to realise how we play and the overlaps and stop snatching at shots when a defender is closing in - a couple of bad decisions which cost us a decent chance. Fleck wasn't his usual self either and Evans was poorest I've seen him (I thought he's been our best signing so far).

Not sure about Leonard playing in the hole, he seems more in competition to Fleck for me. We need someone creative like Duffy or a Brooks in that role and the balance wasn't there today. I'm not saying one of those in the team would have made the difference because all 3 central players were at it.

Full backs also didn't have a great game - I think those 5 which are so key to our play contributed to our downfall tonight.


We've been poor away at Preston, Cardiff, Millwall and tonight. I don't think we need to get too worried but if we do the same again against Reading then we can almost write off our play off chances.

 

[5tannington Blade]

* UTB ****

 

[Kempy]

It's hard to criticise, the keeper, defence, or the attack tonight. Jamal did well, made a 2 or 3 decent stops, couldn't have done anything about the goal. Stearman and O'Connel were their usual selves (decent), Basham had a couple of dodgy moments. We know Clarke or Sharp aren't great at holding it up (partic billy) and they need chances to feed off - they had zilch tonight.

Problem was all in midfield - outfought and chased down a lot. Evans, Fleck and Leonard lost it on too many occasions, mainly because they were under pressure. Even when they weren't under pressure though they gave it away far too easily. Leonard needs to realise how we play and the overlaps and stop snatching at shots when a defender is closing in - a couple of bad decisions which cost us a decent chance. Fleck wasn't his usual self either and Evans was poorest I've seen him (I thought he's been our best signing so far).

Not sure about Leonard playing in the hole, he seems more in competition to Fleck for me. We need someone creative like Duffy or a Brooks in that role and the balance wasn't there today. I'm not saying one of those in the team would have made the difference because all 3 central players were at it.

Full backs also didn't have a great game - I think those 5 which are so key to our play contributed to our downfall tonight.


We've been poor away at Preston, Cardiff, Millwall and tonight. I don't think we need to get too worried but if we do the same again against Reading then we can almost write off our play off chances.

Agree with the majority of that. Leonard was the wrong choice for me tonight and I get the feeling that was our ‘away game tactic’ that we played tonight, incorrectly.

We’ve set up similar against the likes of Sunderland, villa and wolves away but usually with the Don upfront to latch onto the long balls on the break to grab a couple of goals.

Wrong decision from Wilder to set up like that today, we should have set up as if it was a home game with Duffy playing above fleck and Evans (maybe harsh to drop Lunny on last performance but I still think fleck has to play if fit).

Having said that, there was still a lack of effort and energy in that performance from the players, uncharacteristic of us but clearly evident. Mix of wrong tactics and just not at the races today.

Im furious given the opportunity we have available to us. A great chance at the payoffs and we’ve made it harder for ourselves.

 

[5tannington Blade]

Ye agree - and the problem is it will get Bristols tails up on sunday knowing they can put space between us, even if they have got a tricky fixture against Cardiff

 

[Roygbiv]

Midfield was the weak link and without Duffy we rely far too much on the wing backs to create stuff. It's not as if our wing backs are Dani Alves and Jordi Alba either. Both put the effort in but they aren't explosive and rarely take a man on

 

[Esablade]

Poor passing.
No tempo.
Basic stuff.

Ball kept coming back at are defence..thank god Hull are shite...

 

[zablade]

The January signings were a punt on League one players and a loan signing

Evans has shown promise in some games, but has also looked poor against Wolves and now Hull.

Holmes is now injured after a couple of appearances where he ran around to no great effect.

Leonard looks completely out of his depth, maybe he is struggling to settle up North but needs to improve swiftly.

Wilson? Have we sent him back yet?

None of this is the fault of the manager, he’s had to go down this route due to the laughable “backing” from “no bigger Blade” and “the invisible prince” that situation needs sorting ASAP before West Brom or someone coming down with Parachute money steps in.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

We struggle against teams that play with a narrow midfield (4 in a midfield diamond undoes us every time) as it limits our space to play.

In addition, without Coutts, none of our players pass and then move. They pass but stand still, which when the midfield is packed we hit a cul de sac.

Wilder needs to think through a solution to this as it's not the first time.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

It's annoying how we not only don't attack centrally unless We're hoofing, but only seem to attack down the right side. I've said it a dozen times. We're asking Baldock, Basham and Stevens to deliver 90% of our killer passes and it's stifling our threat.

 

[5tannington Blade]

The January signings were a punt on League one players and a loan signing

Evans has shown promise in some games, but has also looked poor against Wolves and now Hull.

Holmes is now injured after a couple of appearances where he ran around to no great effect.

Leonard looks completely out of his depth, maybe he is struggling to settle up North but needs to improve swiftly.

Wilson? Have we sent him back yet?

None of this is the fault of the manager, he’s had to go down this route due to the laughable “backing” from “no bigger Blade” and “the invisible prince” that situation needs sorting ASAP before West Brom or someone coming down with Parachute money steps in.

I agree with most of that but disagree about Holmes. He was our one stand out player against Wolves and I think on nights like tonight when he wants to rest Duffy - he will be a real menace. Looks hungry and able to create problems in the final third

 

[Latters]

Full backs also didn't have a great game - I think those 5 which are so key to our play contributed to our downfall tonight.

I agree that Stevens was poor, but I thought Baldock, along with Blackman, were the only two players to come out of tonight with any credit. The rest were piss poor; a terrible team performance.

If only Leonard had spotted Baldock’s surging runs into acres of space on both of the occasions when he tried to shoot instead of passing.

 

[Richard Haythorne]

I agree with most of that but disagree about Holmes. He was our one stand out player against Wolves and I think on nights like tonight when he wants to rest Duffy - he will be a real menace. Looks hungry and able to create problems in the final third

Good call we need creative midfielders to start a game if we are going to get in the play offs . Why we don' play 2 and go for the win playing attractive football is beyond me .if we are winning with 15 no s to go bring on the holding guys and shut the game down

 

[Gretsch Blade]

Teams now set up knowing how we are going to play with open, expansive, attacking football. For which, we received much praise nationally.
Early in the season we got away with it, we were the surprise team, no one fancied us and because of that we turned a few over as the under dog. Brilliant.

But in recent weeks/months teams seemed to have worked us out. Opposition teams play on the break, counter attacking, are well organised & difficult to break down at the back. It feels like we ve been worked out.

As a result we have had games where scoring has proved difficult. Injuries to key players hasn’t helped, perhaps our two most valuable.
On top of that we have played some teams off the park and not taken our chances / been unlucky.
But we ve also made mistakes and like tonight (and other recent games) have not continued with the ‘tried and tested’ that saw us promoted as champions and took us to the top end of this league table.

New additions, key injuries, suspensions, cup runs and fatigue can all affect team performance and morale. Squad rotation is key, but in my humble opinion this is where we appear to have fallen off the pace.

Some tactics, substitions and team selections have also surprised at times, but then again we don’t see the players every day. We don’t know who’s got a knock, who’s feeling off the pace and who’s outstanding in training.

Management isn’t straight forward, but writing on a forum is! A lot has been said of Tufty, his win ratio and his pedigree - often discussed in the media and hyped as a potential premier league or even national boss. Who knows? That said, he’s a blade, he will be hurting and he says it how it is. Let’s hope the players give us/him/themselves and the team what we need for the next few months. A decent 5-6 game winning streak and you never know....

UTB