What seems to have been overlooked .

[Isaw Joeshaw]

During the game itself and in the aftermath of our embarrassing defeat , there has been the usual tendency to blame it on the performances of certain individuals with some justification in a number of cases , although I find the criticism of the goalkeeper over exaggerated .

In my view he could only be reasonably expected to save one of the four but even then , there were others more culpable in the events leading up to this.

Looking at the broader picture and which has been pointed out on BBC’s match day highlights , the reason we conceded the first 2 goals was down to ridiculous marking from the corners that led to them . In both cases , they had two men on the edge of the box waiting for the outball and we had no one within 10 yards of them .

Granted they were both good strikes , but Reed should never have been given the time and space to execute them . The fact that this happened not once but twice is unforgivable.

Whether this serious flaw in our set up is down to the manager , his assistant or the defensive coach or a combination of all three is a matter for debate but is almost certainly the reason we conceded the first two goals which were crucial to the end result .

 

[bladesince64]

Defensively we were very poor imo.

We got done for pace by simple through balls and quick runners.

Very basic stuff which a lower league side were able to exploit.

The 2 strikes by LR were also avoidable (the 2nd also taking a big deflection) but why is he given such time & space.

Cloughie took advantage of our 2 slow (unfit) centre backs and yet we changed nothing during the game to stop their quick striker.

 

[finlaytheblade]

During the game itself and in the aftermath of our embarrassing defeat , there has been the usual tendency to blame it on the performances of certain individuals with some justification in a number of cases , although I find the criticism of the goalkeeper over exaggerated .

In my view he could only be reasonably expected to save one of the four but even then , there were others more culpable in the events leading up to this.

Looking at the broader picture and which has been pointed out on BBC’s match day highlights , the reason we conceded the first 2 goals was down to ridiculous marking from the corners that led to them . In both cases , they had two men on the edge of the box waiting for the outball and we had no one within 10 yards of them .

Granted they were both good strikes , but Reed should never have been given the time and space to execute them . The fact that this happened not once but twice is unforgivable.

Whether this serious flaw in our set up is down to the manager , his assistant or the defensive coach or a combination of all three is a matter for debate but is almost certainly the reason we conceded the first two goals which were crucial to the end result .

Too true Joe ! Davies gets the flack!
Everytime ! and its unfair really.
The annoying thing about the goals is nievity ! Ings and Mee were on the pitch two very experienced players.
No leaders! amongst the rest i would have thought someone would have organised us better ! School boy defending.

 

[relish]

Too true Joe ! Davies gets the flack!
Everytime ! and its unfair really.
The annoying thing about the goals is nievity ! Ings and Mee were on the pitch two very experienced players.
No leaders! amongst the rest i would have thought someone would have organised us better ! School boy defending.

Yeah. I think the scoreline would’ve been the same with Cooper in goal.

 

[Gimli]

During the game itself and in the aftermath of our embarrassing defeat , there has been the usual tendency to blame it on the performances of certain individuals with some justification in a number of cases , although I find the criticism of the goalkeeper over exaggerated .

In my view he could only be reasonably expected to save one of the four but even then , there were others more culpable in the events leading up to this.

Looking at the broader picture and which has been pointed out on BBC’s match day highlights , the reason we conceded the first 2 goals was down to ridiculous marking from the corners that led to them . In both cases , they had two men on the edge of the box waiting for the outball and we had no one within 10 yards of them .

Granted they were both good strikes , but Reed should never have been given the time and space to execute them . The fact that this happened not once but twice is unforgivable.

Whether this serious flaw in our set up is down to the manager , his assistant or the defensive coach or a combination of all three is a matter for debate but is almost certainly the reason we conceded the first two goals which were crucial to the end result .

Chong started to go and close him down for the first but then generously stopped to let little Louis shoot uncontested.

 

[Weasel]

During the game itself and in the aftermath of our embarrassing defeat , there has been the usual tendency to blame it on the performances of certain individuals with some justification in a number of cases , although I find the criticism of the goalkeeper over exaggerated .

In my view he could only be reasonably expected to save one of the four but even then , there were others more culpable in the events leading up to this.

Looking at the broader picture and which has been pointed out on BBC’s match day highlights , the reason we conceded the first 2 goals was down to ridiculous marking from the corners that led to them . In both cases , they had two men on the edge of the box waiting for the outball and we had no one within 10 yards of them .

Granted they were both good strikes , but Reed should never have been given the time and space to execute them . The fact that this happened not once but twice is unforgivable.

Whether this serious flaw in our set up is down to the manager , his assistant or the defensive coach or a combination of all three is a matter for debate but is almost certainly the reason we conceded the first two goals which were crucial to the end result .

The marking at the corners (or non marking to be more precise) was absolutely ridiculous. They did it all afternoon and didnt learn their lesson. A gaggle of Utd players all grouped together in our penalty area at corners and not one of them thought it might be an idea to pick up unmarked players at the edge of our own box.

To do it once is really poor and a reflection on lack of leaders and common sense in the team. A team with experienced players in it remember. Then after Hamer produces some magic to get us level with plenty of time left, to continue doing the same non marking at corners is just unforgiveable. They got away with it just after Hamer scored and they had a corner, but to not learn from your basic mistakes... who on earth in our coaching team told them it was ok to mark zonally and leave 2 of their players unmarked on the edge of our own area. They need sacking if they were playing to those instructions. Laughably bad.

Check how Mansfield marked up at corners... didnt see 2 United players unmarked at the edge of their area did we.

 

[R&WStripedBlood]

Wasn’t Wilf on zone??

 

[Melbourne Blade]

Was hopefully an anomaly performance. Maybe the players expected an easy win and took things for granted. Marking edge of box for corners was atrocious and nobody learnt from the first - leadership is key here aswell as direction from the dugout (Wilder & Knill).

A big fail in so many ways and we were taught a footballing lesson, albeit by a very good League One side managed by an excellent pro.

My main annoyance is our approach in the last 20 minutes where we did fk all and pissy passed it around with minimal crosses into their box - it almost seems like those were our instructions so we'd lose but that's obviously pure speculation and sounds crazy.

 

[Stretch]

Davies was definitely not at fault yesterday. And Cooper, in his present form, ain't saving any of them either.

 

[Blademan89]

It was terrible. We got away with it first time, we didnt react to it. That's wilders fault and him setting us up zonal, which I dint think we have done all season?

Did you notice they didnt go zonal on corners and had men matching ours on the edge & guess what we never got uncontested ball headed out to us. It was pathetic too see. And shows players dont have the bollocks, if it was me on the pitch of captain, id make the decision to ditch it and send someone out to the edge & deal with it after the fact (especially after first goal).

 

[Blademan89]

Davies was definitely not at fault yesterday. And Cooper, in his present form, ain't saving any of them either.

He got a piss weak hand to one goal that was perfect height. He should have saved it (cant remember if it was 2nd or 3rd) I dont want to watch highlights.

 

[Nick Jansky]

He got a piss weak hand to one goal that was perfect height. He should have saved it (cant remember if it was 2nd or 3rd) I dont want to watch highlights.

Making him the scapegoat for yesterday misses so many points it’s untrue.

 

[Blademan89]

Making him the scapegoat for yesterday misses so many points it’s untrue.

I wasnt making him a scapegoat. I just simply said there was 1 shot i think he should have done better on.

He wasnt the worst on the pitch. For me, McGuinness, Mee & Chong all take that joint top spot closely followed by Ings & Campbell.

 

[Nick Jansky]

I wasnt making him a scapegoat. I just simply said there was 1 shot i think he should have done better on.

He wasnt the worst on the pitch. For me, McGuinness, Mee & Chong all take that joint top spot closely followed by Ings & Campbell.

I’d go with Campbell. At least the others all put some token effort in even though their execution was shite. Campbell was an absolute passenger.

 

[SwissBlade]

During the game itself and in the aftermath of our embarrassing defeat , there has been the usual tendency to blame it on the performances of certain individuals with some justification in a number of cases , although I find the criticism of the goalkeeper over exaggerated .

In my view he could only be reasonably expected to save one of the four but even then , there were others more culpable in the events leading up to this.

Looking at the broader picture and which has been pointed out on BBC’s match day highlights , the reason we conceded the first 2 goals was down to ridiculous marking from the corners that led to them . In both cases , they had two men on the edge of the box waiting for the outball and we had no one within 10 yards of them .

Granted they were both good strikes , but Reed should never have been given the time and space to execute them . The fact that this happened not once but twice is unforgivable.

Whether this serious flaw in our set up is down to the manager , his assistant or the defensive coach or a combination of all three is a matter for debate but is almost certainly the reason we conceded the first two goals which were crucial to the end result .

You could also say that the first two goals came from their corners failing to beat the first man, so our set up for the corner was good, the clearance and closing down the man on the edge of the box were wank

 

[The Crab]

Yeah. I think the scoreline would’ve been the same with Cooper in goal.

Davies isn’t good enough but he wasn’t the reason we lost.

Too many players who are apparently good enough who dialled it in and got schooled

 

[Varkanoid]

We lost that game at 2-0. Despite all the other issues that is a fact. Two goals that should have never been scored. You can blame Wilder but that is ridiculous at the end of the day the defence let us down. Once maybe debatable you can call it a mistake but anyone with two brain cells would send someone to edge of box to watch for the same issue as the first goal. Even my kids U16 team would have made sure the edge of the box was covered. Pure and simple no leaders on the pitch. In fact I can not remember who the Captain was.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Making him the scapegoat for yesterday misses so many points it’s untrue.

Davies has had some stinkers but this wasnt one of them.Enough said about the first two goals,what is annoying is fall off after we got back to 4-3.
Wilder critical of Seriki and Brookes !
They both started playing there own game of keep ball running into trouble time and again when we needed to open it up showing there own form of nievity.
They were both on our right close to
Wilder who must have been in there ear ! whatever he said if anything ( i will be surprised if he didnt say anything ) they did there own thing which played into the Stags hands. .
A total cockup from start to finish.

 

[ancientblade]

we will always concede when mcguinness is in the team hes awful and chong what a waste of a wage he is cant even control the ball

 

[John Street West Terrace]

we will always concede when mcguinness is in the team hes awful and chong what a waste of a wage he is cant even control the ball

And rumoured we’ve paid around £8M for the pair & 4 year contracts

 

[bakeblade]

We lost that game at 2-0. Despite all the other issues that is a fact. Two goals that should have never been scored. You can blame Wilder but that is ridiculous at the end of the day the defence let us down. Once maybe debatable you can call it a mistake but anyone with two brain cells would send someone to edge of box to watch for the same issue as the first goal. Even my kids U16 team would have made sure the edge of the box was covered. Pure and simple no leaders on the pitch. In fact I can not remember who the Captain was.

Perhaps the very experienced Ings should have jogged back to cover the alarming space at the edge of the area, rather than just staying on the half way line

 

[Snowflake]

During the game itself and in the aftermath of our embarrassing defeat , there has been the usual tendency to blame it on the performances of certain individuals with some justification in a number of cases , although I find the criticism of the goalkeeper over exaggerated .

In my view he could only be reasonably expected to save one of the four but even then , there were others more culpable in the events leading up to this.

Looking at the broader picture and which has been pointed out on BBC’s match day highlights , the reason we conceded the first 2 goals was down to ridiculous marking from the corners that led to them . In both cases , they had two men on the edge of the box waiting for the outball and we had no one within 10 yards of them .

Granted they were both good strikes , but Reed should never have been given the time and space to execute them . The fact that this happened not once but twice is unforgivable.

Whether this serious flaw in our set up is down to the manager , his assistant or the defensive coach or a combination of all three is a matter for debate but is almost certainly the reason we conceded the first two goals which were crucial to the end result .

The lack of marking on the edge of our box at corners has been there all season.

 

[TJ blade]

And rumoured we’ve paid around £8M for the pair & 4 year contracts

Your joking surely

 

[joe casey]

Chong started to go and close him down for the first but then generously stopped to let little Louis shoot uncontested.

Chong was slow to close down Reed both times. Considering he was in the vicinity both times I'd assume that was his primary job from the corner - he failed miserably. For it to happen once is poor, for it to happen a second time is unforgiveable

 

[Grey Blade]

Agree with everything Isaw Joeshaw said in the opening post.

I think the team ( including coaching staff) should take shared responsibility. This endless looking for scapegoats is tiresome. Canon has been the chief scapegoat until he started scoring. Chong took a lot of stick yesterday but if he'd scored that volley in the first half he would have been off the hook. Why CW picked on Seriki and Brooks I don't know - I can't believe it's his brilliant insight in psychology.

There was a fan sitting behind me making loud comments, both negative and positive, a bit annoying but on reflection most of what he said was correct. He picked up the terrible positioning at corners when they first scored - does standing on the touchline make it difficult to spot.

I suppose my main point is that it's bad enough fans having scapegoats but for the manager to do it as well is poor - I hasten to add that I like Chris Wider but he shouldn't moan about individual players in public - that should be behind closed doors

 

[Nick Jansky]

10 players to handle 5 from the opposition. All ball watching. Very poor tactically.

 

[Silent Blade]

Clearances towards the middle is always dangerous just like with the first two goals. I remember Carl Tiler heading away a cross at Wembley in the 1997 play off final, it went straight to David Hopkin waiting in the middle and then he scored. Best clear the ball away to the flanks or better still concede a throw in.

 

[programmechap]

10 players to handle 5 from the opposition. All ball watching. Very poor tactically.
View attachment 228874

That is ridiculous . Why on earth is no one picking up the 2 players on the edge of the box. I reckon 9 defenders would have coped with 5 attackers.

 

[SwitchBLADE Smiles]

As poor as we were defensively, the 1st, 3rd and 4th Mansfield goals were entirely avoidable with simple positioning. The first and 3rd were particularly bad - Davies nowhere near the middle of his goal for both and was for some reason almost on the edge of his 5 yard line when the cutback was made for the third. Baffling goalkeeping.

The 4th - absolutely superb from Oats btw. If it were a United player who controlled that and ran through on goal, we’d be cooing. He took the piss yesterday. That being said, Davies couldn’t have made the goal bigger if he tried. Gets a pass for the 3rd goal as there was a massive deflection right in front of him.

At the end of the day, Mansfield had 6 shots on target all afternoon and 4 went in. You can blame centre halves or defensive screening or whatever as much as you like, but when you can’t rely on your goalkeeper to command his own line, then you’re fucked. A semi-competent goalkeeper stops at least 2 of their goals IMO.

 

[metalblade]

Perhaps the very experienced Ings should have jogged back to cover the alarming space at the edge of the area, rather than just staying on the half way line

That would have just brought one of the two Mansfield players with Ings to the penalty box. The problem is we are packing all our players into the 6 yard box holding and wrestling with attackers. Defenders outnumber attackers at evey corner kick especially when you leave a player on the half way line. Mansfield had two players watching Ings on half way another taking the corner kick so they had 5 in the box and 2 on the edge and our 9 defenders and keeper can't defend it. Schoolboy stuff from our coaching team and no leaders on the pitch to sort it out. Btw, our captain of the day is young Arblaster which says a lot of our more experienced players on the field.