United 1 Notts County 1 - report

[sitwell]

We had nothing on the left ,it was crying out for Murphy to play in front of Harris ,and Baxter and Scougall to back up Higdon. But Murphy was played down the middle ,Baxter disappeared ,and Scougall was like a headless chicken. Once Doyle was taken off ,Harris seemed to lose his assurance that someone would cover him and stopped going forward as much. I would have put Reed on for Baxter ,moved Murphy to the left and Scougall up behind Mcnulty ,although he didn't look over confident with the mask. OGrady could make a big difference ,with some movement ,you are right Higdon and Baxter is too static.
I would also bring back Alcock ,and put Basham to centre half in place of Mcarthy.

 

[Bladesway]

But its all Ok, there's money in the bank to spend in January.

 

[bladesadviser]

I thought Notts County were the poorest team we have seen at the Lane this season which makes our performance worse. The 1st half was probably the worst since the 1st half at Colchester

Don't understand why Basham is at right back when he has been solid at CB and recently improved at midfield (and looked better in midfield when he moved there last night). With regards to Higdon I agree with mattbianco's comments that we will be disappointed in O'Grady if we play the same way. We could have had Ronaldo up front last night and we still wouldn't have scored 1st half. My problem with Higdon is that he doesn't help himself. He has a look of someone not interested

Finally at times it was hard to work out what formation we were playing, at one point we seemed to have 3 right wingers and none on the left

 

[Northyorksblade]

Disagree on McEveley. How he got to the ball near the end when it was one on one with the keeper I don't know. Thought he was the stand out player. Jamal C-R is starting to flatter to deceive to me. Scougall gives 100% every game and breaks up play a lot. Average performance from most, nge for automatic. Hope O'Grady is the answer. Absolutely shocking treatment of Higdon when he was subbed, yes he was poor but so were others. Didn't hear cheering when Baxter was subbed and in my eyes he was worse.

 

[bartman]

Don't get it with Scougall I will be honest. I have seen little from him this season. He toils but end product sadly lacking for me. Want to see him get on the ball and drive forward. He often just passes it off and then hides behind his man after giving it off. He is not ruthless enough and has been bang average at best for me. Still you could say that about many players.

I think Scougill is better away from home as defenders don't sit as deep.

The only disagreement with you ratings is JCR. His job is to beat a man and get the ball into the box. He was poor on both counts yesterday and was far worse than Higdon in my opinion

As for the fans ? Good attendance,I the team were rightly booed at half time and full time but the reaction towards Higdon was disgraceful. He may not be good enough but at least he puts a shift in (unlike Baxter). It is the manager's choice to pick him

 

[Yewsman]

I thought Scougall had his best game for a long time. JCR flatters to deceive. There is no end product with his crosses and also several times last night he had a player overlapping him on the out side and he never used that option. Don't think he can play for 90 minutes. The only player we have who can really cross a ball is Harris and sadly he did not put that many in last night but it was his cross that made the goal. NC were really poor and it underlines that this is a very average league. It does not say much that we could not beat them but when will we stop giving every team a one goal start. I am not a Higdon fan but I do not think the crowd's reaction to him last night is helpful and a lot of his shortcomings were due to really poor quality balls being played into him. However I would much rather see some more mobile player ip front. Last night most of the time there was no movement of players running into space but all just waiting there with backs to goal waiting for the ball to come to them.

 

[sitwell]

To be fair to JCR he put in at least 6 excellent crosses ,2 in the first half ,our strikers were too slow to react. He sometimes over hits them ,but we had no one on the left wing to pick those up ,this is a major failing with us in my opinion. Maceveley and Harris were the stand out players for me ,everyone else under performed ,first time I have thought the formation of the team was really lacking ,and if you combine that with poor personal performances we get a poor outcome. Saying that they had hardly any attempts on goall and we could have had half a dozen in the last 20 minutes.
I still think we will go up automatically.

 

[Northyorksblade]

Regarding shots, the first proper save Carroll had to make was on sixty minutes!!

 

[Esablade]

We are just not an attacking threat for the first 60-70 minutes.

JCR's crosses may be woeful at times but if people are in and around the area anything can happen...no one there, then everyone look's poor...
re: Higdon, well let's hope COG can show him how to play the role with his 'famed high work rate', but as mentioned above, if he get's the same shite service, he may well look similar and be wasted.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Don't understand why Basham is at right back when he has been solid at CB and recently improved at midfield (and looked better in midfield when he moved there last night).

With Alcock (and Davies) out we didn't have many options at right back.

 

[alcoblade]

I still think we will go up automatically.

Carry on as we are and there's no chance of that. It's not bad luck, or needing time to gel, or even primarily about the ability of the players.

We need to change out approach to games. You'd think that would be obvious, but there's a horrible suspicion in Clough's track record that these tactics are deeply engrained.

UTB

 

[alcoblade]

With Alcock (and Davies) out we didn't have many options at right back.

I presumed Alcock was dropped after last weeks horror show?

UTB

 

[Bergen Blade]

I presumed Alcock was dropped after last weeks horror show?

UTB

Clough said Basham was filling in and "not ideal losing Craig".

 

[Bergen Blade]

We had nothing on the left ,it was crying out for Murphy to play in front of Harris ,and Baxter and Scougall to back up Higdon. But Murphy was played down the middle ,Baxter disappeared ,and Scougall was like a headless chicken. Once Doyle was taken off ,Harris seemed to lose his assurance that someone would cover him and stopped going forward as much. I would have put Reed on for Baxter ,moved Murphy to the left and Scougall up behind Mcnulty ,although he didn't look over confident with the mask. OGrady could make a big difference ,with some movement ,you are right Higdon and Baxter is too static.
I would also bring back Alcock ,and put Basham to centre half in place of Mcarthy.

Judging by Clough's comments Murphy started on the left and then got moved in more central? County's right back Dumbuya is very quick and Murphy also struggled to get past Oldham's Kusunga (also an athletic, strong type), so he was probably concerned he wouldn't be able to have an impact again.

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

To be fair to JCR he put in at least 6 excellent crosses ,2 in the first half ,our strikers were too slow to react. He sometimes over hits them

Those he doesn't overhit he puts in at the wrong angle. Second half last night, he put a number of balls into the front post which were easily dealt with by Carroll or a defender. He's trying to fizz it along the six-yard box but failing. H'd be better off aiming a yard or two further out and cutting it back which is always harder to defend.

 

[cooperblade]

Clough said Basham was filling in and "not ideal losing Craig".

Basham at RB didn't work at all. He was willing as always but looked completely ill at ease there. He looked so much happier when he was pushed into midfield. Hopefully Alcock isn't out for long.

At a very basic level, we need to do things quicker, more carefully and 10 yards further up the pitch. We somehow manage to be really sloppy (first touches, passes, crosses) whilst taking too long to do things. Against massed defences like Notts County's, we have to be precise and quick. When we do up the tempo, I think we look very good but it's still taking too long to happen.

I thought Baxter had 15 minutes last night when he really tried to force things and look for more incisive, attacking passes and we looked better for that.

Still really struggling to understand McCarthy's continued selection - I'd honestly have him behind Basham, McGahey and Collins. He's very poor on the ball and his defending is only average.

 

[cooperblade]

Judging by Clough's comments Murphy started on the left and then got moved in more central? County's right back Dumbuya is very quick and Murphy also struggled to get past Oldham's Kusunga (also an athletic, strong type), so he was probably concerned he wouldn't be able to have an impact again.

We went 4-4-2 with Murphy alongside Higdon pretty early on.

I thought our wide players (other than when Baxter went out there) had the beating of Notts' full backs but they either over-egged it (JCR in particular seemed to want to beat players 2 or 3 times) or lacked conviction. Our upturn in form last season came when Murphy and Flynn were full of confidence and driving at people all the time, we've started turning back and looking for support too much again.

 

[Bergen Blade]

County weren't up to much, but your continual references to two average league one sides in them and Oldham ?. Oldham looked one of the best sides, if not the best side I have seen at the Lane this season and, with such a poor looking division this season have every chance of going up.

I think a lot of people are expecting too much from the away sides coming to Bramall Lane. Most of them are happy to keep it tight, make us struggle and nick a goal from a set piece or something. This is their game plan and it's deliberate that they don't play too offensively. It doesn't always show their true ability which is usually better reflected by their home performances. A Nottingham paper described it as a "superb away performance" by County last night.

I don't agree that this year's league is worse than the previous ones. Maybe there aren't many stand out teams, but a lot of teams are putting decent first elevens together and play good football. We have to realise that we will find it difficult if we don't get our balance, team selections and tactics just right.

 

[JohnDenver]

Carry on as we are and there's no chance of that. It's not bad luck, or needing time to gel, or even primarily about the ability of the players.

We need to change out approach to games. You'd think that would be obvious, but there's a horrible suspicion in Clough's track record that these tactics are deeply engrained.

UTB

What gives me hope is that Clough's post-match interviews generally reflect my own analysis. He recognised the lack of urgency and failure to get bodies forward in the first half. He remedied it in the second and we should have won. Murphy's move to inside-right worked a charm.

The trick now is to find a starting XI which doesn't have the familar failings. We're got Chris O'Grady, so all Clough has to do is find a better balance in midfield so he's not isolated, and perhaps stick Basham at centre half. Job done.

 

[cooperblade]

Extended highlights

 

[alcoblade]

What gives me hope is that Clough's post-match interviews generally reflect my own analysis. He recognised the lack of urgency and failure to get bodies forward in the first half. He remedied it in the second and we should have won. Murphy's move to inside-right worked a charm.

The trick now is to find a starting XI which doesn't have the familar failings. We're got Chris O'Grady, so all Clough has to do is find a better balance in midfield so he's not isolated, and perhaps stick Basham at centre half. Job done.

I love the fact that Clough is open and honest, and tends to reflect exactly what I see.

I hate the fact that he's failing miserably to address the glaring, ongoing shortcomings.

UTB

 

[sitwell]

That was a great half chance for Mcnulty at the end.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

I think Scougill is better away from home as defenders don't sit as deep.

The only disagreement with you ratings is JCR. His job is to beat a man and get the ball into the box. He was poor on both counts yesterday and was far worse than Higdon in my opinion

As for the fans ? Good attendance,I the team were rightly booed at half time and full time but the reaction towards Higdon was disgraceful. He may not be good enough but at least he puts a shift in (unlike Baxter). It is the manager's choice to pick him

If that's full shift then I'd like a contact on £2500/week, where do I sign?
Get it in the post Nigel and I'll drop it off some time next week.
You'll get as much effort and my knees are fucked.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Extended highlights

Did they bring their own camera man? Less zooming makes it so much better to watch the game.

It was Doyle who lost Edwards at the back post.

Linz - I think the answer you got from the q&a session was that they only had one camera. The above video is also just filmed with one camera, but it doesn't zoom in on the player on the ball as much.

 

[bladesadviser]

With Alcock (and Davies) out we didn't have many options at right back.

No I only realised that Alcock was injured this morning so other than Maceveley probably not many options

 

[super_pig]

why on earth was basham moved?? some of cloughs team selections i find bewildering..
but Flynn at right back.. finally..

 

[crucialkneeligaman]

Did they bring their own camera man? Less zooming makes it so much better to watch the game.

It was Doyle who lost Edwards at the back post.

Linz - I think the answer you got from the q&a session was that they only had one camera. The above video is also just filmed with one camera, but it doesn't zoom in on the player on the ball as much.

My thoughts about Doyle, not the first time its cost us, still poor goalkeeping. How their player missed that opportunity in the second half was unbelievable, looked like he was waiting for McEveley to arrive and put a tackle in, Flynny should have put a better challenge in when they broke.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Good report Deadbat as per. Thanks.

No time to read all the responses and apologise if I'm repeating anything.

We play 4-5-1 at home against average teams who also play 4-5-1.

Away sides often play a defensive 4-5-1 just like we do in away games. It is primarily a counter attacking formation played in cautious circumstances though it can be much more than that if you have players much better than us, Chelsea for example.!

Anyway, we can expect County to play 4-5-1 in its defensive, "in the trenches" mode. It just is not on to combat that with our own 4-5-1, played at a canter for an hour or so. It's not fair to our centre forward, nor us fans. It's rubbish.

Ratings: I think you have been generous Deadbat! I would give Scougall, McCarthy, Baxter, Ryce less and Basham 2 less.

 

[oldblade]

Don't get it with Scougall I will be honest. I have seen little from him this season. He toils but end product sadly lacking for me. Want to see him get on the ball and drive forward. He often just passes it off and then hides behind his man after giving it off. He is not ruthless enough and has been bang average at best for me. Still you could say that about many players.

You keep saying that Oldham and Notts County are mid table teams, but as far as I can see one of them currently occupies a play off position and the other is only one place below the play offs.

 

[bladesman3]

More of the same coming Tuesday.

Just seen MK...we will be soundly beaten I reckon...