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Post by mtrstudent on Aug 14, 2021 19:17:21 GMT
Disagree. Powell had no positive influence on the game whatsoever, so from a creative point of view our midfield was completely non existent. Defensive midfield was the least of our worries today. This not to say that we don't need one longer term, because it's pretty evident that we do, but just disagree that it was our issue today. Powell did have a quiet game, one pass in particular he made though was sweetly waited to set up a chance for a cross. I thought though we missed a dean whitehead type player or dare I say it a Geoff cameron in there, there wasn't a presence for a competitive battle. Allen was getting bullied a lot and clucas is just a steady player. I'm not sure vrancic and Powell together against their central midfield today would have fared much better Lack of DM was a real problem for me today, it puts so much pressure on us. Also Powell wasn't at the races. Just one of those days really, he often looked way worse in a 3 last season IMO.
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Post by spitshaw on Aug 14, 2021 19:23:52 GMT
We don't have a proper DM and until we get one we will always be massively unbalanced in midfield. We would have been better off moving on one Of Allen/Clucas and keeping Cousins
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Post by mtrstudent on Aug 14, 2021 19:29:02 GMT
We don't have a proper DM and until we get one we will always be massively unbalanced in midfield. We would have been better off moving on one Of Allen/Clucas and keeping Cousins I thought Cousins did a decent job for us and seemed like a good attitude. Also, wasn't he cheap? Dropping him didn't make sense to me.
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Post by iglugluk on Aug 14, 2021 19:31:27 GMT
We don't have a proper DM and until we get one we will always be massively unbalanced in midfield. We would have been better off moving on one Of Allen/Clucas and keeping Cousins It strongly seems like MoN simply cannot see past Allen's reputation. Either that or he hoped the captaincy would bring more out of him. I suspect the former.
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Post by PotteringThrough on Aug 14, 2021 19:34:50 GMT
Talking from not seeing a single thing but I’d imagine a lot of preseason has involved Mario, set pieces and working with him & the other players.
I think it was odd to go without the pace of brown pairing with Surridge or Fletcher. Those two strike me as being quite similar in stature and physicality, albeit they no slouches I just think browns pace give us a different threat.
That said, win our home games and draw the away ones - we’ll be good!
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Post by mtrstudent on Aug 14, 2021 19:43:48 GMT
Talking from not seeing a single thing but I’d imagine a lot of preseason has involved Mario, set pieces and working with him & the other players. I think it was odd to go without the pace of brown pairing with Surridge or Fletcher. Those two strike me as being quite similar in stature and physicality, albeit they no slouches I just think browns pace give us a different threat. That said, win our home games and draw the away ones - we’ll be good! My read was a bit different: Surridge didn't look up for a battle in the buildup and got bullied off the ball, very different from Fletch. I don't think this game suited him but not just because "he's too similar to Fletcher". If we had wingers/backs getting in behind the lines from Fletcher's knock-ons or Powell's through balls then cutting it back, he'd be our guy to finish them. But we didn't.
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Post by Rick Grimes on Aug 14, 2021 19:49:10 GMT
We definitely missed Vrancic.
Clucas had a very poor game and his set pieces in particular were abysmal. Surely Smith should be taking corners if Mario isn’t playing.
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Post by gingerninja on Aug 14, 2021 19:56:19 GMT
We still miss that X factor player, especially in games like today.
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Post by Gods on Aug 14, 2021 20:02:08 GMT
Sounds like he’ll miss Tuesday as well judging by O’Neill’s comments after,slight hamstring issue Yes surely out on Tuesday and possibly beyond, there can't be a hamstring injury known to man that gets better in 3 or 4 days.
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Post by Rednwhitenblue on Aug 14, 2021 20:33:28 GMT
Talking from not seeing a single thing but I’d imagine a lot of preseason has involved Mario, set pieces and working with him & the other players. I think it was odd to go without the pace of brown pairing with Surridge or Fletcher. Those two strike me as being quite similar in stature and physicality, albeit they no slouches I just think browns pace give us a different threat. That said, win our home games and draw the away ones - we’ll be good! My read was a bit different: Surridge didn't look up for a battle in the buildup and got bullied off the ball, very different from Fletch. I don't think this game suited him but not just because "he's too similar to Fletcher". If we had wingers/backs getting in behind the lines from Fletcher's knock-ons or Powell's through balls then cutting it back, he'd be our guy to finish them. But we didn't. I think Surridge felt like he didn't perform today, and to be fair, he didn't really. He never stopped trying and we love a trier, but I lost count of the times he tripped over the ball or got it stuck under his feet, just wasn't his day. Which probably explains the hangdog walk off the pitch when subbed. My take on today was that we were the better side at the start and end of the game, with not much to talk about in between. Never really looked like conceding but also didn't really threaten upfront. Did either keeper make a decent save? Still, we usually lose at St Andrews so it's an improvement on that, win at home and draw away makes for a decent season. Players to return too, so B+ so far.
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Post by skemstokie on Aug 14, 2021 20:48:35 GMT
I thought we caused a lot of our own problems today, the trying to play out from the back should have been mixed up more as they tried to close us down and we make tones of mistakes because of It. Agree 100% playing out from the back is fine but we are better on the front foot than the back foot in my opinion.
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Post by Bojan Mackey on Aug 14, 2021 20:59:31 GMT
The only midfielder other than Powell who can successfully receive the ball from a defender and then make something for one of the attackers.
We have a quality defence, some decent players up front but absolutely fuck all between them, hoping there’s some more activity before the window shuts because running a midfield of Clucas and Allen has got bottom half written all over it.
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Post by PotteringThrough on Aug 14, 2021 22:46:38 GMT
Talking from not seeing a single thing but I’d imagine a lot of preseason has involved Mario, set pieces and working with him & the other players. I think it was odd to go without the pace of brown pairing with Surridge or Fletcher. Those two strike me as being quite similar in stature and physicality, albeit they no slouches I just think browns pace give us a different threat. That said, win our home games and draw the away ones - we’ll be good! My read was a bit different: Surridge didn't look up for a battle in the buildup and got bullied off the ball, very different from Fletch. I don't think this game suited him but not just because "he's too similar to Fletcher". If we had wingers/backs getting in behind the lines from Fletcher's knock-ons or Powell's through balls then cutting it back, he'd be our guy to finish them. But we didn't. Fair shout. I stand by my opinion that they’re similar in stature but I think Fletcher has probably evolved a bit more to be the ball winner in a front two, whereas Surridge is the main striker in the most attacking position which would align with your opinion. I do think Surridge could adapt to be a strike partner with Brown and they could suss who does what quite quickly - focussing on Surridge being the fox in the box.
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Post by scfcno1fan on Aug 14, 2021 22:51:39 GMT
Thought surridge did well overall today, looks a tidy player.
Just needs to bulk up a bit.
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Post by parsonage on Aug 15, 2021 10:34:25 GMT
Most definitely. But it doesn'help when Powell has his most ineffective game in living memory and Clucas is, well, a bit poor all round.
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