The unguarded moment. At Home to Shrewsbury Sat Oct 54th 3'0 clock

[Bertie Wooster]

I'll also say that the most disappointing player for me so far this season is Collins, he's so half hearted and not arsed.

He needs a rocket up his arse like a few others, there is no intensity with him its like he doesn't want to be here.

[officer_dibble]

I’d say Cogley, Toal, Santos have all been below par. Johnston gets a bit of a pass though I think he’s been the best defender. Sheehan and Thomason have been hot and cold. Collins has been poor but as worthy points out it’s the defence that is letting us down. Collins needs a run in a front two.

[irie Cee Bee]

We were dreadful in the first half. Can't blame Evatt for players not knowing how to pass a football to his own player. Toal was giving away the ball everytime he made a pass forward. The midfield was absent and Charles and Ade fed off scrap. Our defense is our weakest area we haven't improved it in the last transfer window. We will continue to leak goals through poor marking decisions and ball watching. As such we need to score multiple goals to win games.

We scored 2 today but it was not enough. Of course Evatt is programed. Of course he will change his strikers in pairs. He has been doing so since last season but today I would have left Charles in. I thought the double change made us lose a bit of momentum as both players, though of better quality, took time to get up to the speed of the game. I thought Sheehan had a good game. Cogley could not have been taken off because he is the only player we have who could cover for an injury to our central defenders. taking him off would have been way too risky as if a CH got injured, we would have to perhaps put Matete or Thomason there.

I am no longer in the Evatt out camp. He is going nowhere and the board has given him their backing. I have moved on.

[Worthy4England]

Agree with most of this. You can't blame Evatt for players missing a pass. But the passes they're told to try and make, that's Evatt. And when your following "patterns" if the player isn't there, you sometimes autopilot one to some dude who actually isn't there. For me, at the moment (and probably since we shunted Dapo), the emphasis has removed thinking at the expense of this is the plan. I don't think we're going up with this approach. And as an aside, i've seen plenty of bullshit about our Championship grade squad and philosophy which might be great, if only we could get out of L1.

Whoever is driving our current strat, owes us money.

[GhostoftheBok]

No point opining that you'd be amazing against Burnley and Sunderland if you can't beat Shrews at home.

[Worthy4England]

No point opining that you'd be amazing against Burnley and Sunderland if you can't beat Shrews at home.

Yet, we do, on occasion proffer that we have a mid-champo squad (with maybe a couple of additions), when the spreadsheets go green. Either our squad is mid-champo and the manager doesn't make the best of that, or it isn't and we're seeing the King, yet again, in his altogether.

[Prufrock]

I struggle to see the benefit of fill the box or zonal. If you're hauling them all back. Get them paired off and winning their 1 v 1.

We run a mix of zonal and man.

The idea is to free up Santos and a couple of others to attack the ball and still have enough (because we have 10 back) to man mark.

Aye, and the blockers didn't do their job at Northampton for the second, and we're still wide open at the edge of the box. It's been an issue for two years that latter, that we haven't fixed it is criminal.

[Worthy4England]

I struggle to see the benefit of fill the box or zonal. If you're hauling them all back. Get them paired off and winning their 1 v 1.

We run a mix of zonal and man.

The idea is to free up Santos and a couple of others to attack the ball and still have enough (because we have 10 back) to man mark.

Aye, and the blockers didn't do their job at Northampton for the second, and we're still wide open at the edge of the box. It's been an issue for two years that latter, that we haven't fixed it is criminal.

Agree Pru. What I haven't sussed is whether it's deliberate (e.g. we see the problem and we think we're directing the best counter) - well you're not. Or we're telling the players to do X and they're doing Y (don't think that's what I'm seeing, otherwise we'd be at the least not retaining some at contract end), or our defensive coaching is woeful, inadequate and misguided.

I think the latter is the problem. I'm struggling to recall (m)any views around our defense, I'd call us attack obsessed, pretty much to the extent that structural defending was some sort of inconvenient necessity rather than a pretty significant chunk of game time.

It"s so obvious, it's incredulous. I can recall coming away from the Bok on our (I think) first L1 game under Evatt v MKD. A 3-3 with iirc a last minute equaliser from Baps? I thought then, need to sort out our defending (not the defenders, per se). I'm still fcuking waiting, as the spreadsheet jocks tell us there's new shit on the block...

[BWFC_Insane]

I struggle to see the benefit of fill the box or zonal. If you're hauling them all back. Get them paired off and winning their 1 v 1.

We run a mix of zonal and man.

The idea is to free up Santos and a couple of others to attack the ball and still have enough (because we have 10 back) to man mark.

Aye, and the blockers didn't do their job at Northampton for the second, and we're still wide open at the edge of the box. It's been an issue for two years that latter, that we haven't fixed it is criminal.

Agree Pru. What I haven't sussed is whether it's deliberate (e.g. we see the problem and we think we're directing the best counter) - well you're not. Or we're telling the players to do X and they're doing Y (don't think that's what I'm seeing, otherwise we'd be at the least not retaining some at contract end), or our defensive coaching is woeful, inadequate and misguided.

I think the latter is the problem. I'm struggling to recall (m)any views around our defense, I'd call us attack obsessed, pretty much to the extent that structural defending was some sort of inconvenient necessity rather than a pretty significant chunk of game time.

It"s so obvious, it's incredulous. I can recall coming away from the Bok on our (I think) first L1 game under Evatt v MKD. A 3-3 with iirc a last minute equaliser from Baps? I thought then, need to sort out our defending (not the defenders, per se). I'm still fcuking waiting, as the spreadsheet jocks tell us there's new shit on the block...

I’m very much of the view that most of this isn’t down to coaching ability or skill the team not doing what they are instructed to. I think it’s broadly a mentality issue. It probably comes from the top down - but managers that set high standards and demand focus and intensity at all times tend to have good set piece records. Where the emphasis is on the small margins that give you an advantage. They tend to have good records on set pieces in each box.

Our issue with it is probably that too much energy is wasted on ‘patterns’ rather than focus on each box and how we get the ball to good players in decent attacking areas.

I also think that none of our defenders strike me as the Beevers or Wheater type determined to get their head on it in either box and determined to rip into anyone not doing their jobs. Again it feels to me like collective mentality of a soft touch team. Yes we look ‘nice’ sometimes but everyone knows teams that look nice often have a soft underbelly. And that’s us. It isn’t a hint of it we shout it out most games.

[Worthy4England]

Not convinced it's all that, mate. What we're clearly not seeing is a plan to pick up individual players 1 on 1. Which is why the players on the edge are often free with one of ours trying to close the gap.

The number of times they a free headers between to CDs is also a worry. That one could be down to miscommunication, dunno.

Not sure it's a "mentality" thing...

[officer_dibble]

Could be communication - back three are not talking enough?

[Worthy4England]

Could be communication - back three are not talking enough?

Think there's some of that, Dibs.

[BWFC_Insane]

Not convinced it's all that, mate. What we're clearly not seeing is a plan to pick up individual players 1 on 1. Which is why the players on the edge are often free with one of ours trying to close the gap.

The number of times they a free headers between to CDs is also a worry. That one could be down to miscommunication, dunno.

Not sure it's a "mentality" thing...

I suppose what I’m saying is that even if we got the best set piece coach going (Craddock was meant to be pretty good in that regard) if your focus is on ‘people who can play’ and your training focussed on ‘patterns’ you will struggle with set pieces.

[TANGODANCER]

I also think that none of our defenders strike me as the Beevers or Wheater type determined to get their head on it in either box and determined to rip into anyone not doing their jobs.

Oh dear, what's the world coming to. I'm agreeing with Insaney again. This has t stop.

[sonicthewhite]

Better. Sonic, you need to start watching from the start pal. It's getting beyond a joke this.

Sorry mate Was out again all day and didn't get home until after the game finished

[Worthy4England]

Not convinced it's all that, mate. What we're clearly not seeing is a plan to pick up individual players 1 on 1. Which is why the players on the edge are often free with one of ours trying to close the gap.

The number of times they a free headers between to CDs is also a worry. That one could be down to miscommunication, dunno.

Not sure it's a "mentality" thing...

I suppose what I’m saying is that even if we got the best set piece coach going (Craddock was meant to be pretty good in that regard) if your focus is on ‘people who can play’ and your training focussed on ‘patterns’ you will struggle with set pieces.

I think you're right that ability to stop set pieces may be somewhat lower in the attribute list than can play out from the back.

But you'd still think with today's tech that they'd spot we're too leaky. I mean an abacus or glance at the table or just watching a game should tell them what they need to know, yet I'm not sure, I see much change. Obviously they looked at the box 4 or whatever it's called, but whilst that might have stopped some balls going in, it's not going to help much on the occasions they do.

[TANGODANCER]

Quite simply, all we had to do was what we did without them scoring. We didn't so we lost two valuable points. You can't put that down to anything but poor defending. A team propping the League up defended better than we did. The rest is just so much talk. Trouble is, it's becoming so much a habit that we're not even surprised when it happens..

[Bertie Wooster]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, despite all of the financial backing from the board Evatt hasn't improved anything at all in the past 2 years, if anything we have gone backwards as a team.

Has he made us harder to beat - No, has he made us more entertaining - No, are we more robust and physical in big games - No, has he made us defensively better - No, are we now better at set pieces (defending & attacking - No) - he's improved nothing, tactically he does the same things he did last season & the season before - we are stagnant under Evatt, going nowhere.

I'll ask again for about the 3rd time to the Evatt likers / supporters, despite being backed to the hilt by the board - please tell me what he has improved over the past 2 years.

[Bertie Wooster]

He's wasted a lot of money on shite signings and some poor decisions - the Swiss investors pumping money in must be asking serious questions. He's spent around £2M on Collins & McAtee yet neither are nailed on starters, if you spend that sort of money in League 1 then surely they have to be starting (TBH I'm not convinced by Collins, a very talented player but he just doesn't look interested) but again Evatt paid a lot of money for him so he should back him - he's let Morley go and replaced him with the totally ineffective Arfield making us weaker in midfield

Annual wages wasted on Arfield & injury prone Forini alone must be £500k. He's recruited players in the summer specifically for a new system and then changed it after 5 games, therefore some of the players signed may not play many games, an absolute waste of money.

[TANGODANCER]

I'll ask again for about the 3rd time to the Evatt likers / supporters, despite being backed to the hilt by the board - please tell me what he has improved over the past 2 years.

Considering our financial state as a club, I'd say just about everything possible.