TOPIC: Dag & Red (A) Match Thread

loser wrote:
Back then Curle had a different away team and formation to our home team and formation.
And it was working.
Playing away from home with 3 at the back and attacking wing-backs was working a treat.
Wins at Hartlepool, QPR, Leyton Orient, Stevenage, drawing at Anfield etc.
That all changed when we signed Ellis.
We then went to a flat back 4 away from home and the results have dipped since, with the odd bright spot such as Luton away and Morecambe away.
That's my view anyway.

Blimey carwash...not sure we went to the same game. Hope was dreadful and should not have been kept on, his distribution was truly awful and his lack of fight inexcusable. The best chance was Wyke's in the first half, we must convert one on one's.

Overall though we did okay in the first half and lacked quality with the final ball or with the chances we had. Second half we were generally poor and lacked ideas. I don't understand why we have changed the style of play so much since late last year. Orient away was a game where we took on a team with a passing style, it was risky but it worked and much more enjoyable to watch than the current rubbish.

I don't see the play offs as realistic given current form so Curle needs to be building for next season and working out how to address the open questions in the team:

1. Style and formation. Yes he needs to be flexible but KC needs to decide now whether we are direct or back to the passing.
2. Related to above but where does Grainger play. Tonight I though his quality on the ball stood out but it was too infrequent, is he LB or LM.
3. Creativity in midfield....we don't have much!
4. Balanced attack....Wyke and Jabo are too similar, we need someone who can stretch a defence with pace and while Derek is an option he is too old.

It was awful... and I know because I was there...

Chorley, Hope was lively but not always very effective. He was so pulled around by their defenders he probably did lose interest in tackling towards the end as if he'd won the ball he'd have no-one to pass to. To quote from Jon Colman's twitter, 'Hope cuts in promisingly, thinks he's being held, ref not having it'. Our strike force is totally dysfunctional at the moment with very little understanding between the players.

crunchblue wrote:
I always saw Liddle as an upgrade on Joyce rather than Dicker - strikes me as a better comparison.

Either way, a tad naive if we only went after one potential replacement who was clearly going elsewhere after our desperate looking public declaration of interest.

The most worrying sign for me was that Jabo worked tirelessly all night - but it was mostly going back to the centre circle to win the ball back and try to make something happen. He obviously has no confidence in the midfield to deliver the balls that matter and his own performance is suffering as he is often not where he should be or when he is, he is a shadow of the man in early season.

im not worried about our recent form.....it certainly makes a change to be sitting comfortably in mid table with a chance of the play-offs.

i suppose the result reflects the result from the Northampton game, keeping a clean sheet was a must. it was a game we could have won, but a point is better than 0 with a loss (now that would be hard to take).

It is very worrying as that was his best eleven I`d say......Grainger Atkinson and Miller all back from injury and Wyke.... the only new face really is Hope................Joyce and Kennedy`s form has dipped in midfield and that`s where the problem lies imo.

And as has been said what happened to to easy on the eye pre-floods passing game from back to front.......is it the winter pitches that have forced the long ball game to reappear...........or as somebody said is it the Ellis- Raynes centre back formation which does resort to the big hoof mostly.

Plenty food for thought KC.

Kennedy is the shadow of the player we had last season. Playing alongside mr backwards Joyce is ruining him. Look at the way he played when he had an active, bustling midfield partner like Kyle dempsey last season. He thrived on the work KD did


Joyce is clart, not improved since we last had him and I've been slated by folk I go to games with for saying Joyce is shit

Didn't sound like a great game to be at but on the bright side the results elsewhere meant we're a point nearer the play-offs!

After all the games in hand we are still in the same position..which means we have gone backwards now. Its not how you start the season its how you finish it

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musher441 wrote: Exactly. If it ain't broke don't fix it.