Mackday meldrew

I've been told on here by a couple they are not bothered if we aren't playing well becuase we won. Well the day i don't care if we're playing shite is the day I stop going.

Problem is that we said this all last season. “Doesn’t matter if we play shit and win”. But over a full season it will catch up with you and it did at the end of last season. The same will happen again this year, you can see the exact same patterns emerging as last season. We are just drifting at present towards an uninspiring third season of league one football. You’ve got to grab the game by the balls at some point
I can't be that harsh if I gave him man of the match ;)

Both goals (Oxford and Accrington) he played a poor pass which led to the receiver being intercepted. Both situations, unfortunately for him, led to goals being scored. It's not always the person who loses the ball who is at fault, although I'm sure you know that.

He was good yesterday, a real bright spark.

I can’t agree with your assessment of Dobson. Thought he was pretty poor to be honest. Him and Grant were overrun in the middle and countless times one of their midfielders had a free run at our centre halves and they should have scored a hatful or goals with the chances they had particular in the first 30 minutes. The system really needs to change as more and more teams are overloading the centre of the park against us making it 3 or even 4 against 2 through the middle and just walking through us. I’d much rather see a middle three of onien, Dobson/power and McGeouch behind a three of Gooch, McGeady and mcnulty. Would just make us that bit more solid. It could have been 5-5 at halftime today, and better teams would have been significantly ahead of us. Today showed the same problems as the Peterborough game did. And I won’t even start on the negative approach once we went 3-1 ahead...

Think your other ratings were pretty much spot on - I’d have given Gooch and mcnulty another half a point orso, and Gooch motm for me (for about the 3rd time this season, surprisingly). Think Gooch is really important to how we want to play and is underrated on here a lot this season. And I agree he was beyond shite last season.
 
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Problem is that we said this all last season. “Doesn’t matter if we play shit and win”. But over a full season it will catch up with you and it did at the end of last season. The same will happen again this year, you can see the exact same patterns emerging as last season. We are just drifting at present towards an uninspiring third season of league one football. You’ve got to grab the game by the balls at some point


I can’t agree with your assessment of Dobson. Thought he was pretty poor to be honest. Him and Grant were overrun in the middle and countless times one of their midfielders had a free run at our centre halves and they should have scored a hatful or goals with the chances they had particular in the first 30 minutes. The system really needs to change as more and more teams are overloading the centre of the park against us making it 3 or even 4 against 2 through the middle and just walking through us. I’d much rather see a middle three of onien, Dobson/power and McGeouch behind a three of Gooch, McGeady and mcnulty. Would just make us that bit more solid. It could have been 5-5 at halftime today, and better teams would have been significantly ahead of us. Today showed the same problems as the Peterborough game did. And I won’t even start on the negative approach once we went 3-1 ahead...

Think your other ratings were pretty much spot on - I’d have given Gooch and mcnulty another half a point orso, and Gooch motm for me (for about the 3rd time this season, surprisingly). Think Gooch is really important to how we want to play and is underrated on here a lot this season. And I agree he was beyond shite last season.

It seems like Dobson could be a player who splits opinion a bit (although it's early days for him). Other than a couple of brain farts, I've been mostly impressed. He harries off the ball, and looks to get on the ball and move play forward quickly - two of the first qualities I look for in a player. He's shown good levels of aggression, off the ball work, work rate, stamina, and I'd even say he anticipates the game quite well in the main. He will need to make sure he's defensively capable in a 4-2-3-1 though, so time will tell. It's a good point you make actually, and one I want to look at a bit more.

Our wide areas were culpable for them opening us up yesterday, especially when they doubled up on Hume. They either saw him as a weak point defensively, or knew McGeady wouldn't help out as much down his flank as the others (Gooch, Maguire) would, and looked to exploit this. This meant that Leadbitter spent a large part of the game in a left sided defensive midfield position, as he was trying to snuff out that danger.

This may also explain why our central midfield was too open. They got in the channel of Ozturk and O'Nien far too often from a central position, which might emphasise your point about the central midfield being too open. Either way if we're going to continue with out 4-2-3-1 then it's something which needs looking at - it might be that the trio of Hume, O'Nien and Dobson doesn't always work because all three have getting forward on their minds, and one of them needs to be more defensive minded. If Dobson can't do the defensive aspect but continues to look decent otherwise, it might be that we adjust formation slightly and play Leadbitter/McGeouch just in front of the back four, with two central midfielders ahead (Dobson/O'Nien/Power) with more license to get forward.

That would mean being able to put McLaughlin in at right back so we had two natural full backs. That would give us better defensive shape, but it would also mean one of the attacking quartet missed out. It comes down to whether you want four attacking players with less support from the others, or three attacking players with two central midfielders getting forward and supporting them.

McLaughlin

McLaughlin Ozturk Willis Hume

Leadbitter

O'Nien Dobson

McGeady Maguire

McNulty
That's an example of how it could look.
 
It seems like Dobson could be a player who splits opinion a bit (although it's early days for him). Other than a couple of brain farts, I've been mostly impressed. He harries off the ball, and looks to get on the ball and move play forward quickly - two of the first qualities I look for in a player. He's shown good levels of aggression, off the ball work, work rate, stamina, and I'd even say he anticipates the game quite well in the main. He will need to make sure he's defensively capable in a 4-2-3-1 though, so time will tell. It's a good point you make actually, and one I want to look at a bit more.

Our wide areas were culpable for them opening us up yesterday, especially when they doubled up on Hume. They either saw him as a weak point defensively, or knew McGeady wouldn't help out as much down his flank as the others (Gooch, Maguire) would, and looked to exploit this. This meant that Leadbitter spent a large part of the game in a left sided defensive midfield position, as he was trying to snuff out that danger.

This may also explain why our central midfield was too open. They got in the channel of Ozturk and O'Nien far too often from a central position, which might emphasise your point about the central midfield being too open. Either way if we're going to continue with out 4-2-3-1 then it's something which needs looking at - it might be that the trio of Hume, O'Nien and Dobson doesn't always work because all three have getting forward on their minds, and one of them needs to be more defensive minded. If Dobson can't do the defensive aspect but continues to look decent otherwise, it might be that we adjust formation slightly and play Leadbitter/McGeouch just in front of the back four, with two central midfielders ahead (Dobson/O'Nien/Power) with more license to get forward.

That would mean being able to put McLaughlin in at right back so we had two natural full backs. That would give us better defensive shape, but it would also mean one of the attacking quartet missed out. It comes down to whether you want four attacking players with less support from the others, or three attacking players with two central midfielders getting forward and supporting them.

McLaughlin

McLaughlin Ozturk Willis Hume

Leadbitter

O'Nien Dobson

McGeady Maguire

McNulty
That's an example of how it could look.

That is basically exactly what I’d play. Gooch in for maguire though for me. Think relying on McGeady defensively in a 442 is also a dangerous game, whereas what you suggest would allow him to basically be given a free role, especially if you had Gooch covering in on the other side a bit more than maguire would. We’d also be able to commit 2 CMs forward so we’d be attacking with 5 plus fullback support, instead of the 4 plus fullback support at present. Think it’s just more balanced and therefore more offensive and defensive at the same time. This was basically what we played at Burnley and looked like a much better team for it - which would obviously be better still with our first choice 11 playing instead of that patchy side we played at Burnley.

Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t intending on criticising Dobson as such, just didn’t think he was that great yesterday. However I don’t like judging players too much this early into their careers here and he definitely deserves a good few more games before I form a proper opinion.
 
Just had a look at the highlights and I think you're bit harsh on Dobson on their goal. It was actually more down to a dreadful first touch by Gooch, Yes, there was a man close, but it was the kind of pass Gooch should have been more than capable of receiving and moving on. Even then it was a long way from goal, and it was only the very good (if you're generous) or hopeful (if you're not) through ball that resulted in the chance.

Overall, it was workmanlike. We got the job done in the first half, and managed the second. For all Accrington's huffing and puffing, how many real chances did the actually have? I don't really remember McLaughlin being seriously tested.
 
Just had a look at the highlights and I think you're bit harsh on Dobson on their goal. It was actually more down to a dreadful first touch by Gooch, Yes, there was a man close, but it was the kind of pass Gooch should have been more than capable of receiving and moving on. Even then it was a long way from goal, and it was only the very good (if you're generous) or hopeful (if you're not) through ball that resulted in the chance.

Overall, it was workmanlike. We got the job done in the first half, and managed the second. For all Accrington's huffing and puffing, how many real chances did the actually have? I don't really remember McLaughlin being seriously tested.

Lots of highlights look different to how they do at the game. If it's something black and white like an offside then obviously the highlight will show the true picture. If it's something generally more objective, like a bad tackle or a referee decision then I'll generally weigh up both situations. If it's more subjective, like the decision to play a pass or the weight of a pass for example, I'll usually trust my instinct. My instinct told me it was a poor pass, and us losing the ball then led to them scoring. It was the same against Oxford; I took a sharp intake of breath as soon as he played the pass.

I'd also say it was a good through ball by their player; they played a few passes from and to similar areas of the pitch and got some joy from it. It's something they pinpointed early.
That is basically exactly what I’d play. Gooch in for maguire though for me. Think relying on McGeady defensively in a 442 is also a dangerous game, whereas what you suggest would allow him to basically be given a free role, especially if you had Gooch covering in on the other side a bit more than maguire would. We’d also be able to commit 2 CMs forward so we’d be attacking with 5 plus fullback support, instead of the 4 plus fullback support at present. Think it’s just more balanced and therefore more offensive and defensive at the same time. This was basically what we played at Burnley and looked like a much better team for it - which would obviously be better still with our first choice 11 playing instead of that patchy side we played at Burnley.

Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t intending on criticising Dobson as such, just didn’t think he was that great yesterday. However I don’t like judging players too much this early into their careers here and he definitely deserves a good few more games before I form a proper opinion.

Gooch on one side and McGeady on the other would also mean we don't become too dimensional, as we'd have an inside forward and a winger on the flanks. The overall formation is more fluid with more attacking options in terms of personnel.
 
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