Shocking team selection, and Subs miles too late!

[roversdude]

Ajayi was worth a shot and he did alright. What else in the selection would have worked?

Too many individual errors and we clearly need a new striker who's good enough.  This is how you find out about players.

Thought he was a competition winner woeful but not on his own our homegrown centre half looks like he’s never played football before

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Be brave how? He made loads of changes today. Probably too brave. Just pick the best XI FFS, it’s becoming pretty clear who is in it.

Making subs earlier when it was obvious we were struggling, waiting until 68 mins and going 2-1 down is not being brave

I actually thought we were on top until the pen, that Bailey miss was massive.

I agree with Gazlaz, it's largely clear now who the better players are.  I think we've found quite a few not up to it at the moment, some in bad form others just not good enough.

Also agree on Billy he's clearly trying but I fear age has caught up with him at this level.

[Jersey Rover]

Looked a different team with 3 at the back. We’re so pedestrian in this formation, I agree with earlier comment, grant needs to be braver in his formations not just the  players he picks

[TonySoprano]

Again, its the recruitment of Ajayi, olasagne and hanlan that is absolutely killing us.

Key areas of the pitch that we needed strong recruitment, but signing those muppets has weakened us from last season.
AND we are in a tougher league.

Now the momentum is over, and the players now know they aren't good enough the effort levels have dropped massively.

It's going to be a long season.

[Juddy]

Sterry out for quite a while yet

[In the box]

Come on Grant you want your players to be brave, time to be brave yourself!

The players are looking for inspiration of tactics , attitude and commitment to the job required further each game …Grant is not performing on all levels  . Tactics are predictable and simple to see why ere not inspiring the opportunities, because the attitude of the players are clearly not following through and commitment as they are not competing in key areas of the midfield and continually loosing  the individual battles to either keep the ball or win it back . High crosses to the near smallest man on the pitch ( Sharp) is just an example . Middleton / Gibson just not picking out players when crosses and they either go into beyond every one or the nearest fullback. This clearly has to change but which players is going to step up for the team . Running out of ideas and personal belief imo !!!

[steve@dcfd]

Some pathetic statements really
The squad is what we could afford with the money supplied
Ajayi was poor yes but Molyneux was no better his  crossing was awful has he realised league 1 is above him.
Gibson came on and was non existent
Middleton was our best wide midfield player
Midfield was okay but not good enough.
We don’t know which players were missing due to injury was it Nixon and Broadbent
We have not got another  striker apart from Billy
2 decisions on Hanlan and Olusanya have proven poor.
Our season had a good start but is that level were our squad should be realism please

[Lesonthewest]

We are absolutely woeful up front.

Billy is not a lone striker, until that changes we will continue to be woeful up front

No blame to Billy from me, works his nads off, the support & creation when we go forward is awful. Mentally we looked shot that 2nd half.

[Chris Black come back]

Nixon is injured, out for a few weeks. Molyneux has been ill this week.

[ravenrover]

What’s the definition of insanity?

Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The problem is the formation and tactics, the personnel doesn’t change the end result.

Let’s go 4-4-2 if necessary and give Billy some help up top?

Call it 4-1-2-1-2 or whatever, I don’t care, just create width and allow  Bailey and whoever plays alongside him an opportunity to pass it forwards.

This isn’t working

The formation isn’t the issue.

But it is, Billy needs a partener got to play 2 up top. Nobody is capable of getting to support Billy

[drfchound]

We had a very clear chance to go 2-1 up yet Bailey I think it was somehow kept a goal bound shot out. If that went in we were likely to have got a draw at least. Northampton didn't create many chances at all.

I pretty sure that Bails didn’t stop a shot that was going in.
It was a low ball across the face of goal but he somehow seemed to get ahead of the ball and it kind of got stuck underneath him.
Incredible though that it didn’t go in.
I also thought that after we went behind that Middleton was fouled in their box and that we should have had a pen ourselves.

[In the box]

You’d think that it shouldn’t  be too hard to improve on current performances, but if what is being stated by Bailey and McCann that they are putting the hard work behind the scenes. I can only assume that players leaving their best efforts on the training pitch as match days are woeful!! With the odd exception of Sharp and possibly Middleton I couldn’t see any cohesion in the pattern of play , too many players slowing down with negative back or sideways passing when a quick forward pass to keep pressure on the opposing defenders would showed more intent , poor passing and no chasing down the ball when lost were obvious . McCann on the touch line today was very unobtrusive and sat down for long periods which seemed to say he was uninterested in the general play .

[sedwardsdrfc]

What’s the definition of insanity?

Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The problem is the formation and tactics, the personnel doesn’t change the end result.

Let’s go 4-4-2 if necessary and give Billy some help up top?

Call it 4-1-2-1-2 or whatever, I don’t care, just create width and allow  Bailey and whoever plays alongside him an opportunity to pass it forwards.

This isn’t working

The formation isn’t the issue.

But it is, Billy needs a partener got to play 2 up top. Nobody is capable of getting to support Billy

Billy needs a P-A-R-T-N-E-R. If you’re going to be a smart arse check your own posts more.

[Alan Southstand]

To be fair, we’ve become totally reliant on Billy, which can’t possibly have been the intention in the summer.
There’s no height and no pace up there. Hanlan and Olosanya are nowhere near good enough, so who’s going to partner Billy?

[grayx]

I know Ironside was out of form but he was at least an option. Perhaps we should have kept him.

[Ian Nimmo]

Ironside is far better than any of the strikers and certainly better than Hansen, who clearly was brought in to replace Ironside.
Very poor decision by Grant in my opinion.

[Dagenham Rover]

Be brave how? He made loads of changes today. Probably too brave. Just pick the best XI FFS, it’s becoming pretty clear who is in it.

You could nearly gurantee subs were made within a couple of minutes of 60 minutes being on the clock they are getting later and later


Making subs earlier when it was obvious we were struggling, waiting until 68 mins and going 2-1 down is not being brave

[ravenrover]

What’s the definition of insanity?

Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The problem is the formation and tactics, the personnel doesn’t change the end result.

Let’s go 4-4-2 if necessary and give Billy some help up top?

Call it 4-1-2-1-2 or whatever, I don’t care, just create width and allow  Bailey and whoever plays alongside him an opportunity to pass it forwards.

This isn’t working

The formation isn’t the issue.

But it is, Billy needs a partener got to play 2 up top. Nobody is capable of getting to support Billy

Billy needs a P-A-R-T-N-E-R. If you’re going to be a smart arse check your own posts more.

Touché