United 1 Peterborough 0 - report

[pommpey]

Cheers Deadbat

I don't give a stuff how pretty it is. I'll take the three points.

pommpey

 

[FatLadFromSheffield]

I can agree with the Duffy mark, a couple of times during the game sharp had to drop deep and link the midfield up, that's clearly duffys job.

Looked to me that around the 20 minute mark Duffy was asked to stick to the right to help Freeman out who constantly had 2 and sometimes 3 players attacking down his side. This left us disjointed meaning Sharp/Done had to drop into the space here Duffy nornally would have been. Probably one of the reasons we changed formation I think.

 

[Lane Ender]

Cheers Deadbat

I don't give a stuff how pretty it is. I'll take the three points.

pommpey

There was some good football played yesturday by both sides first league game in a long time I thoroughly enjoyed.
Posh will be up there and cause anybody in the division problems passed the ball well so did we.

 

[Northyorksblade]

I think the last time I felt that, when we weren't already; up, down or hopelessly mid table, was at Leicester.

Was that after their goalie was injured

 

[Bergen Blade]

Not as good as I hoped, but of course three vital points.

Peterborough had a lot of good ball players in midfield and we struggled to get close to them at times. Thankfully Basham was in great form in the first half and seemed to pop up everywhere and he was also good on the ball. The centre halves also did well, let alone the goalkeeper. We may have seen a weakness in that 3-5-2 formation as gradually Peterborough started dominating the game and we looked unable to do much about it. It will be interesting if Wilder will change it next week.

The formation change at half time was certainly needed and we managed to upset their rhythm with more players back to chase and close down. A bit of cynicism also helped.

Moore 9
EEL 8 Wright 7 O'Connell 7
Freeman 7 - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lafferty 4
Basham 8 Coutts 6
Duffy 6
Sharp 6 Done 7
​

 

[Grizzly blade]

Not as good as I hoped, but of course three vital points.

Peterborough had a lot of good ball players in midfield and we struggled to get close to them at times. Thankfully Basham was in great form in the first half and seemed to pop up everywhere and he was also good on the ball. The centre halves also did well, let alone the goalkeeper. We may have seen a weakness in that 3-5-2 formation as gradually Peterborough started dominating the game and we looked unable to do much about it. It will be interesting if Wilder will change it next week.

The formation change at half time was certainly needed and we managed to upset their rhythm with more players back to chase and close down. A bit of cynicism also helped.

Moore 9
EEL 8 Wright 7 O'Connell 7
Freeman 7 - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lafferty 4
Basham 8 Coutts 6
Duffy 6
Sharp 6 Done 7
​

Usually agree with you sir, however I thought our midfield was far better than those ratings.
Basham had a good game, and I saw yesterday why he's there alongside Coutts. Against the better passing sides who have good movement we need his energy. This allows Duffy to have that free role, and Coutts to just get the ball and keep it moving.
I think all of them were excellent, and some of the interplay between Duffy and Coutts very good. Coutts is a class act, ball retention is I would say better than anyone else in this division. His knowledge of the space around him and where to turn with it, he knows when he gets the ball where he's giving it next, speed of thought, quality of pass (always sticks to the ground not bobbling about, and the correct pace for the receiving player) all show that he is the main man now in the middle. First name on the team sheet for me.

Just wish he would trust himself more nearer goal, and get a shot off. For someone who strikes the ball so cleanly his shooting can't be that bad. Add that to his game, maintain fitness and we have the player we have been craving for years.

Also, was Lafferty that bad? Done...incredible amount of running, and was the main threat for us all day.

 

[Posh Blade]

Agree with deadbats report to be fair. Ive done my view own view from thread if anyone fancies a read.

 

[sitwell]

Usually agree with you sir, however I thought our midfield was far better than those ratings.
Basham had a good game, and I saw yesterday why he's there alongside Coutts. Against the better passing sides who have good movement we need his energy. This allows Duffy to have that free role, and Coutts to just get the ball and keep it moving.
I think all of them were excellent, and some of the interplay between Duffy and Coutts very good. Coutts is a class act, ball retention is I would say better than anyone else in this division. His knowledge of the space around him and where to turn with it, he knows when he gets the ball where he's giving it next, speed of thought, quality of pass (always sticks to the ground not bobbling about, and the correct pace for the receiving player) all show that he is the main man now in the middle. First name on the team sheet for me.

Just wish he would trust himself more nearer goal, and get a shot off. For someone who strikes the ball so cleanly his shooting can't be that bad. Add that to his game, maintain fitness and we have the player we have been craving for years.

Also, was Lafferty that bad? Done...incredible amount of running, and was the main threat for us all day.

Agree with that about Coutts ,I would do wouldn't I but also agree about Lafferty ,hes getting a bit a bum deal here ,I think hes played well ,they got down our left more in the second half and we were less potent going forward. Just because he doesn't stand out being flash doesn't mean hes not doing his job ,the change was more for tactical reasons than him having a bad game. we needed someone to run at them as this is what they struggled with (see Basham and Done) and that's what Scougall can offer.

 

[Bladeinleeds]

Agree with that about Coutts ,I would do wouldn't I but also agree about Lafferty ,hes getting a bit a bum deal here ,I think hes played well ,they got down our left more in the second half and we were less potent going forward. Just because he doesn't stand out being flash doesn't mean hes not doing his job ,the change was more for tactical reasons than him having a bad game. we needed someone to run at them as this is what they struggled with (see Basham and Done) and that's what Scougall can offer.

Didn't think he was terrible or anything but there were a couple of awful and misplaced passes that stick in the mind.

I feel that he would probably be better at lb rather than wing back. However, o'connell did a fine job there in the second half

 

[moDtheGod]

DB, have you ever considered giving ratings out of 5 instead of 10?
5 - absolute blinder
4 - good game, considerably better than average
3 - solid, standard performance
2 - below par
1 - a stinker
(0 - Lee Baxter)

I find with scores out of 10, especially where half points are awarded, you can get inconsistencies that people will pick out and quibble over. 5 is just very simple - someone arguing over the difference between 7 and 6.5 is probably not going to argue with you when you give a 3/5 score.

Just a thought and not a dig at all. The write ups are always appreciated by those of us that can't attend.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Usually agree with you sir, however I thought our midfield was far better than those ratings.
Basham had a good game, and I saw yesterday why he's there alongside Coutts. Against the better passing sides who have good movement we need his energy. This allows Duffy to have that free role, and Coutts to just get the ball and keep it moving.
I think all of them were excellent, and some of the interplay between Duffy and Coutts very good. Coutts is a class act, ball retention is I would say better than anyone else in this division. His knowledge of the space around him and where to turn with it, he knows when he gets the ball where he's giving it next, speed of thought, quality of pass (always sticks to the ground not bobbling about, and the correct pace for the receiving player) all show that he is the main man now in the middle. First name on the team sheet for me.

Just wish he would trust himself more nearer goal, and get a shot off. For someone who strikes the ball so cleanly his shooting can't be that bad. Add that to his game, maintain fitness and we have the player we have been craving for years.

Also, was Lafferty that bad? Done...incredible amount of running, and was the main threat for us all day.

I think we were very good the first 20 minutes and wondered if that and the comfort of being ahead very early made the performance seem a bit better than it actually was? Maybe I expected too much, hoping to see us take another step forward in terms of looking like an automatic promotion side. In my opinion the rest of the game wasn't great and it's not too often we see away teams at the Lane have almost 60% possession and 18 shots (10 on target) with our goalkeeper being MoM.

We won five in a row last season as well, and we must not kid ourselves into thinking we're now fantastic and can just go on and on. We have to be proactive and keep looking at things that's not working quite as hoped and tweak things until they are. The good thing about Saturday is that Wilder clearly demonstrated that he's aware of this, making a half time substitution and formation change despite leading. If he'd left things as they were I felt the equaliser may have been coming.

Regarding the ratings, we may not disagree too much, certainly the way you describe Coutts' good attributes is the way I see him as well. Peterborough's ability on the ball in midfield meant that we had to work very hard in midfield to cover enough ground, and while Coutts has improved his fitness, this part of the game is not something that will be a strength of his. With two strikers, wing backs pegged back a bit and Duffy being in front of Basham and Coutts, the latter two had a lot of ground to cover, and it was vital that we did something to get more work rate, and more people sharing that work load. I don't give half points by the way.

I think Lafferty has done ok so far, although he may be better at full back than wing back. On Saturday he clearly had a poor game though, seemed to lose some confidence early on and was then reluctant to try doing too much on the ball. There was one occasion where he got the ball and I'd imagine Wilder wanted him to bomb forward with it, but he passed it backwards instead. Couple of minutes after he did run forward with it from a similar situation, and I wondered if he'd got a bollocking from Wilder the first time. Towards the end of the half it became obvious that it just wasn't his day as he crossed it out of play and generally struggled. I wouldn't rule out him starting or doing great in the next game though.

Done, agree he did well and worked hard. He deserves to be our current first choice striker.