The third goal

[Grappler]

I suppose what’s even more surprising about the decision is that even before O’Connel’s injury we were hard pressed, it wasn’t like we were well on top and coasting to victory. After we scored the second I fully expected him to bring Cranie on, move Bash into the middle and maybe sub Norwood as well, but he basically weakened a defence that was already hard pushed and did nothing at all to shore up the midfield that was obviously struggling. He’ll know he messed and learn from his mistakes though.

He almost did, and this is the part I don't understand.

Coutts was brought to pitch side, but then sent back to the dugout. Cranie was pitch side, warming up, and was called over. I nudged Mrs Grappler and said "Cranie coming on next".

The next thing I knew, Johnson is stood on the line, waiting to come on.

Cranie has been 100% solid all season, when called for, surely that was the obvious move?

 

[Bergen Blade]

Managers always over think things and Wilder is no different occasionally, the good news is Wilder only over thinks it occasionally.

The last time he did it was in the last 10 minutes at Villa

I've never understood why a manager seeing his team winning and doing ok feels the need to change the system
Change individual players for fresh legs, yes, but changing the whole system and balance of the team that up to that point have done ok/well/very well is just plain mental.

Wilder doesn't do it very often which is a blessing, unlike some managers that can't help but bring an extra defender on when they go 1-0 up

I mean, what do they think is going to happen ?

Different tweaks can help the team cope in different match scenarios.

After our opening goal Bristol City took over and their game plan started to work. They were dominating possession and getting closer and in hindsight, maybe should have made a tweak a while before they equalised?

We pushed Basham up and changed to a diamond after they scored, and also kept that after the break. We tend to make that change when we're losing the midfield and we did become a bit more competitive as a result.

So we scored and saw them make two attacking substitutions. A new scenario again. Of course O'Connell had to go off.

At that point we probably thought it would be naive to "play on the front foot", and decided to contain them in our usual formation, soak up pressure and hit them on the break, using the pace of Johnnson and Hogan. If that had worked, our management would have had an excellent afternoon.

But then they scored and we again found ourselves with a different scenario than what we had planned for.

And so we returned to the diamond, moving Basham into midfield again, to help us regain control over midfield and push for the winner. We did try that, but Bristol City remained a threat and we weren't mentally switched on enough when they scored their third. At the time I think we were frustrated at having to defend, we'd really just get that "out of the way" and try to create something with our next attack. Hence us collectively looking sloppy and unorganised, which they punished.

Overall I think the management's tweaks (and I don't think any of us notices all of them) has helped a number of times. Although he can't get it right every time, I'm happy for Wilder to continue using the flexibility of the squad to affect games.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Different tweaks can help the team cope in different match scenarios.

After our opening goal Bristol City took over and their game plan started to work. They were dominating possession and getting closer and in hindsight, maybe should have made a tweak a while before they equalised?

We pushed Basham up and changed to a diamond after they scored, and also kept that after the break. We tend to make that change when we're losing the midfield and we did become a bit more competitive as a result.

So we scored and saw them make two attacking substitutions. A new scenario again. Of course O'Connell had to go off.

At that point we probably thought it would be naive to "play on the front foot", and decided to contain them in our usual formation, soak up pressure and hit them on the break, using the pace of Johnnson and Hogan. If that had worked, our management would have had an excellent afternoon.

But then they scored and we again found ourselves with a different scenario than what we had planned for.

And so we returned to the diamond, moving Basham into midfield again, to help us regain control over midfield and push for the winner. We did try that, but Bristol City remained a threat and we weren't mentally switched on enough when they scored their third. At the time I think we were frustrated at having to defend, we'd really just get that "out of the way" and try to create something with our next attack. Hence us collectively looking sloppy and unorganised, which they punished.

Overall I think the management's tweaks (and I don't think any of us notices all of them) has helped a number of times. Although he can't get it right every time, I'm happy for Wilder to continue using the flexibility of the squad to affect games.

Can understand Wilder changing formations to get a grip of the game but after we scored we were 2nd best for most of the game.As the second half panned out we did well to get our noses Infront again.Feel Wilder got it wrong when Jack had to go off.
Bristol were in no mood to let the game go ,with the game going how it was we needed to be solid at the back ,Johnson is no defender and was way off the pace.i expected Cranie to come on although not his natural side he is experienced and would have made us better alongside Stevens.We were having a tough time containing them ,we were wide open down that side,they sensed it and punished us.Wilder has talked about seeing games out when we are not playing well it made no sense to me as that wasn't the way to tough it out when the opposition have got the upper hand.

 

[1889]

Can’t disagree with much of that but he did say he wanted to go for the win and that’s why he brought Johnson on when we were already winning and that’s what I’m ultimately questioning, GB.

Agreed, we’d not long gone 2-1 up when O’Connell went off. Personally, I think it was the best excuse for a fucking ridiculous change that Wilder could come up with and the interviewer didn’t pick up on it?

In fact, he’d have got away with it if it wasn’t for us pesky kids

 

[Bergen Blade]

Can understand Wilder changing formations to get a grip of the game but after we scored we were 2nd best for most of the game.As the second half panned out we did well to get our noses Infront again.Feel Wilder got it wrong when Jack had to go off.
Bristol were in no mood to let the game go ,with the game going how it was we needed to be solid at the back ,Johnson is no defender and was way off the pace.i expected Cranie to come on although not his natural side he is experienced and would have made us better alongside Stevens.We were having a tough time containing them ,we were wide open down that side,they sensed it and punished us.Wilder has talked about seeing games out when we are not playing well it made no sense to me as that wasn't the way to tough it out when the opposition have got the upper hand.

We were wide open down that side, partly because the centre halves seemed to think Johnson didn't need any help:

 

[blade too long]

Well we lost .at home .
Leeds have lost 2 of their last 3 at home

So why is ours terminal

Twists and turns .... more to come

Remember losing 1-2 to Hull and that was it ...over

But we went up

Leeds fans kept the faith
Perhaps we should try it ... just for a change

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

We were wide open down that side, partly because the centre halves seemed to think Johnson didn't need any help:

nopigfansintown it looks like at least two of our defenders on both occasions were being pre-occupied by their crap no. 9

 

[Roygbiv]

Well we lost .at home .
Leeds have lost 2 of their last 3 at home

So why is ours terminal

Twists and turns .... more to come

Remember losing 1-2 to Hull and that was it ...over

But we went up

Leeds fans kept the faith
Perhaps we should try it ... just for a change

Leeds have only lost 1 in the last 5 at home and won the rest.

 

[blade too long]

Leeds have only lost 1 in the last 5 at home and won the rest.

meant theyve lost 2 recently one at home one away

 

[originaltrueblade]

JOC was injured took off as a precaution at the time and I was certain that Stearman was coming on if not him the wonderful talent that is Cranie....quick check of the scores on the phone looked up and Johnson is on. Thought WTF.....and that I am pretty sure that goal would not have happened had the subs been different....I do believe we will be stronger for that going forward with hindsight the sub would be different.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Could be the defining point in our season.

Let’s talk about it.

Who’s to blame? I’m not gonna put all the blame on Johnson, he’s run from the halfway line with the ball untracked and unmarked - but that excuse of a block on the edge of the 18 yard box is the worst bit of defending I’ve seen since we got promoted.

Discuss.

He ain’t no left wing back.........thats for sure

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Bit of a Villaesque collape.our ball retention was absolutely shockingi.