Toothless performance

[ravenrover]

Well no-one else has said it so......... I thought we were absolutely toothless last night.
Never looked like scoring especially second half. Billy is certainly not Sharp at the moment, yes I understand he is supposed to be carrying an injury but the sharpness certainly wasn't there. Against Norwich on Tuesday and last night he never got away from the centre backs, he seemed to be on his heels  waiting for the ball when last year he was making the runs for the ball to played into him. And I do not understand why we keep floating high balls into the box we will never win a header against most defences we need to fire the ball into Billies feet.
As for Fairhurst if he is our alternative to BS then we are in trouble, he was attrocious against Accrington poor control not quick enough and doesn't anticipate the play at all, and his little cameo last night was nothing to write home about. The midfield contributed very little in the last 1/3rd of the pitch, and I can't think of many instances when we managed to get behind their defence. I did say yesterday afternoon our midfield were in for a kicking and I was correct how they kept 11 players on the field I'll never know. Having said that I thought the referee and both linesmen had a good game.
When everyone was crying out for a Centre Back earlier in the season I said in an earlier post we needed a forward rather than a CB and was cried down.
What are your thoughts now CB or striker?  
No use saying both we can only, possibly, afford one or the other.
Don't get me wrong I couldn't have asked for a better start to the season but I am a little worried where the regular goals are going to come from. If they HAD scored last night I very much doubt that we could have replied.
IMHO.  

[Wellred]

I don't agree it was a toothless performance but one thing was evident for me last night and that is when we come up against a team of bullies we go into a shell.
After Copps got that awful tackle in the first half (Which should have been a red card) he wasn't the same player.

AND Why oh why tho did SOD wait until the 80th minute to try and change things?
It was obvious we were being outplayed in midfield and we kept getting pushed further and further back so why not try and change it?
For me yet again Oster had a poor game and Stock should have been brought on much earlier.
I think had we brought Stock and Wilson on for Gillet and Oster around the 65th minute we might well have pinched it.

[grayx]

Wellred wrote:

AND Why oh why tho did SOD wait until the 80th minute to try and change things?
It was obvious we were being outplayed in midfield and we kept getting pushed further and further back so why not try and change it?

Thank God someone else was thinking that. I thought we improved a lot when Stock came on. I can only assume he is still carrying an injury.

[CusworthRovers]

Let's face it, unless Sean changes the way we play or signs a new breed of nasty footballer akin to his style of play, then we will always get bullied (as you say).

IMO I feel bullied is the wrong word to use. The ref will protect us from that. Barca do not have a player at all who puts his foot in, in midfield in that type of way. They are all 2 stone wet through and 2'7\". We can hit teams very hard by not having to resort to their style.

In all honesty I believe nearly every game this season, as seen all the teams (maybe not Hull) try and harass us/close down our outlets/stop our passing, we've managed to overcome it in some, but no in all or not for long periods in the game.

We are now becoming established, known, revered, feared. Warnock is another who knows us very well and our manager. I have a feeling they will try and take us on at home next week and believe they are better than us at football. I think this will be a belter

[Wellred]

I am not asking Sean to change the way we play Rob simply asking him to TRY and change things when it obviously isn't working.
He knew it wasn't working last night but left it until the 80th minute to TRY and change it.
Why leave it so late?

[CusworthRovers]

Only Sean can answer that. It was a struggle for our midfield more than I have seen before. I thought Watford crammed us in, but these were even more intent.

In all honesty I never knew Oster was on the pitch til he went off. However, Oster was awesome for the first 45 v Norwich.

I don't put it down to an individual thing. We all know our team works like a machine and if a few of those cogs are not working or seized up by foreign bodies, the it has a huge effect on the team performance.

I just think Grayson got his tactics bang right. Sean either, never did, or couldn't change it with the players he had at his disposal. IMO we needed a Brooker or Martis to go up front with Billy to give us an outlet. We needed respite for the midfielders or a plan B.


As for the subs; it wasn't working v Norwich in the second half, but the subs starting coming on in the 70's minutes ie earlier.

[i_ateallthepies]

Wellred wrote:

I am not asking Sean to change the way we play Rob simply asking him to TRY and change things when it obviously isn't working.
He knew it wasn't working last night but left it until the 80th minute to TRY and change it.
Why leave it so late?

They played Sean's post match interview on Radio Sheffield last night.  Like most who've posted on here, I thought we were off our game and expected SO'D to have a similar view, so was surprised when he was very satisfied with the performance.  Can't remember just how he said it but along the lines of our most disciplined performance of the season with everybody doing their job.  He seemed very satisfied.

Surprised me I have to say but whatever we think, SO'D knows vastly more about the game than any of us do.  He looks for different things to the rest of us when watching a game, which is probably why he frustrates so many of us with his subtitutions.  He takes the view 'what is the point of changing it when it aint broken'.  My guess is, SO'D is not a gambling man, and beleives that when he already has his best team on the pitch, what is the point blinking first.

[NorthNorfolkRover]

It's a shame we don't take more risks against teams like Leeds when we have far bigger tests ahead eg qpr away where a point would be excellent rather than a waste.

[bobbymax]

grayx wrote:

Wellred wrote:

AND Why oh why tho did SOD wait until the 80th minute to try and change things?
It was obvious we were being outplayed in midfield and we kept getting pushed further and further back so why not try and change it?

Thank God someone else was thinking that. I thought we improved a lot when Stock came on. I can only assume he is still carrying an injury.

Within a couple of minutes of coming on, Stock had pinged two 40-yard passes straight on to Copp's foot. That's why we need him at this club and why we need to get him fully fit.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

He certainly gives the players on the pitch the chance to put things right. It's a gamble making a sub when things go wrong and could undermine a players confidence.

On Friday though, most of us could see Gillett, Oster and Woods were losing the midfield and we needed to get a grip.

I was urging a change and within a couple of minutes you could see SOD and ROK discussing it. After another 7 or 8 mins we finally got Stock on. It's a shame because I thought we finished the game stronger and we perhaps could have nicked one.

[ravenrover]

DonnyBazR0ver wrote:

He certainly gives the players on the pitch the chance to put things right. It's a gamble making a sub when things go wrong and could undermine a players confidence.

On Friday though, most of us could see Gillett, Oster and Woods were losing the midfield and we needed to get a grip.

I was urging a change and within a couple of minutes you could see SOD and ROK discussing it. After another 7 or 8 mins we finally got Stock on. It's a shame because I thought we finished the game stronger and we perhaps could have nicked one.

Agree we finished stronger but as for nicking one.... we could be still playing now and not have scored. We are totally dependent on BS and when it's not going for him we are struggling. We just don't have another 10-15 goals a season player. Copps is probably the nearest but when it gets a bit physical Copps stays out wide instead of roaming around just behind BS. We are probably missing Hayter more than we think he does a lot of work up front and on the right hand side when the Jo'C or now Mussy is bombing forward, and at the moment BS is having to do all the closing down so how is he expected to be in the right position when the rare chances come along
After all that though, if we can average 2 points a game we are not going to be far off. It looks like we are going to need more away victories to keep that average as the teams coming to The Keepmoat know exactly how to play us when we are at home and just sit back and stifle us and look to take a point or snatch a win on the break such as Bristol tried.
I now expect that we will go to QPR and nick a win although Mr Warnock will almost certainly have ideas on how to stop us.  :angry: