Feels a bit like two steps forward and one step back with this team at the moment. First half felt like it was going to be a pretty routine home win, we were comfortable and in control. Second half, especially the last 15/20 minutes was as everyone else has said one here - utterly predictable and completely avoidable.
I don't want to pile in on MB, but it's so frustrating to see the same mistakes being made. Going to a back 5, putting a right-footer at left back, chucking on as many defenders as possible, and then watching as we concede late again is just madness.
However, I do think a couple of players need to take some responsibility / show some leadership. I love Vokes, but you pay your striker to put away the big chances you create for them, and if he puts the header in the second half on target it's 2-0 and game over.
And someone at the back: Max, Taff, Grimmer, whoever, has got to get us defending higher up the pitch when we're under pressure. At no point this afternoon did a Lincoln player look even remotely like getting the wrong side of our centre backs - but we ended up defending the six yard box with Max stuck on his line. Point at the coaching staff all you like, they've all got to be a bit braver than that.
All that said, we've seen some dross this year, and that was by no means the worst we've played. I'm gutted tonight, but I do think we've at least facing the right way even if we're not quite moving in the right direction yet.
I would agree that this is the weakest League 1 has been for some years but we are struggling for positive results against even the lesser sides. I also belief we have one of our strongest, if not strongest , squad for a number of years . Clearly something is not working.
I will continue my subscription but I’m not sure how much longer I can watch a Matt Bloomfield team. He has been in charge for 50 games and do seem to have learned how to close a game out. Twice now he has substituted a player for a defender with minutes to go and completley F33ked it.
I am not suggesting everything is hunky dory by any stretch (although I still think whatever the formation or substitution mistakes there were enough experienced professional footballers on the pitch who should know how to defend set pieces to have seen that game out!) or that the manager should not be criticised but I very much doubt he will go before end of the season. If he does, I doubt we will be able to afford anything other than a caretaker. For me there is enough in the side to survive and even push on...but I realise other opinions are available. @davecz asked for mine on MB and I gave it.
In fact, KVY’s only contribution to the game was time wasting over some throw ins. Considering our final 15 minutes tactic was 7 players acting as central defenders and getting in each others’ way, I’m not sure why he was drafted in.
The frustrating part is, we're really not a bad side, but our inability to see games out is crippling us. I don't particularly see it as a Bloomfield problem, it's up to the players on the pitch to show some bravery and leadership. We can complain all we want about bringing on a extra defender, but at that stage we were so deep the whole team were playing in defence. In that situation we may just as well bring on another specialist! I can't imagine Bloomfield is actually telling them to play that way. At the moment, unless we're 2 goals ahead, you just know what's going to happen. Not good enough when we have experienced players on the pitch.
Incidentally, the stoppage that led to the 6mins injury time was for an injury to Dale Taylor, who was completely wiped out by a challenge which the referee correctly let us play the advantage for, but then inexplicably failed to punish with a yellow card when play stopped. One of a number of strange calls from the ref.
Just got home, another long drive and a disappointing result,could see the goal coming a mile off. Lincoln brought on large target men and doubled up on the wings, we decided to go 5 at back and have 1 (wingbacks) defending the double up. Invited the pressure and conceded as expected. Will stick with the team through thick and thin . On a positive thought this was the best I had seen Taylor play. He was scrapping fir everything and did some good runs.
We will look back on this season and wonder how on earth this group of players could barely scrape a top half finish. Stryjek, Tafazolli, Low, Forino, Grimmer, Leahy, Potts, Scowen, Wheeler, McCleary, Vokes. Ludicrous. Should be top 8 minimum.
But unless the new money flows in and Jim Ratcliffeski pays off the MB team and buys in a new manager, the caretaker would likely to be a cheap internal appointment...in which case IMHO I doubt we would finish much higher than sticking with MB.
There were some positives for me. Grimmer put in a fantastic performance and looks every inch the captain I hoped he would be: committed, passionate, communicative, a leader.
Wheeler had an excellent match threading through balls from the centre, tackling harder than I've seen him previously and did some brilliant defensive work including a goal line clearance.
Sadlier was brilliant down the left wing, creative, bombastic and driven.
For me the biggest problem today was that Potts had an off day. Most of his Hollywood passes went awry, most of his cautious work kept possession but sucked the momentum out of our play. He's the fulcrum of the team and when it doesn't click it's going to be hard to create the chances.
And yes, the last 15 minutes was a mess. Taylor on the left was nonsensical. Kone is not a lone forward able to hold the ball up and keep possession, at least not yet. And the back six (or seven) was dreadful. Though I think a lot of responsibility for that must lie with Stryjek. It's his job to organise the back line and push them out. Grimmer had a go at him for not communicating after a mix up with Low in the first half but he didn't seem to improve from that point. He conceded the goal ruled offside (though it certainly didn't look offside to me) and scrambled a lot for the ball when it was played into box, regularly failing to deal with it adequately. He doesn't seem to be playing with confidence any more.
It was the last 10mins or so today that we started playing so deep. Prior to that we'd defended confidently. The closer to got to the final whistle the more we panicked and the deeper we defended. We completely lost our composure and not for the first time this season. The players need to be braver the amount of rushed clearances and missed passes in those final minutes are what has cost us more than any tactics or formation changes from the sidelines.
Still angry. A car crash we could all see happening and if Matt couldn’t see it then surely his coaches can say ‘are you sure boss?’ when he comes up with that tactical soup for the last 10 minutes.
Whatever shortcomings of individuals in the second half this latest fuck up was once again management led.
Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, A Neville Brother, Sol Campbell...why does Rob continually ignore the Golden Generation of managers? They've all got 'unfinished business'. And the Cambridge manager made Lyle Taylor score a goal for goodness sake!
Of course the players take part of the blame, but Bloomfield has consistently made strange substitutions, changed his formation and thrown defenders on seemingly out of panic. Bloomfield is in charge of the team, and the buck stops with him. If we are consistently throwing points away while he is continuing to mess with the system late in the game, he has to shoulder the blame.
As soon as we started sitting off today and refusing to keep hold of the ball, that equaliser could've been seen coming from a mile away.
The last few weeks has seem an improvement, which has come around by ditching the system that Bloomfield so clearly favours. Throwing points away like today is still, frankly, not good enough. I still remain unconvinced as to whether he's up for the job.
Watching from the family stand. What a great first half but we just don’t put enough chances away. GMac had their left back in his pocket, Sadlier playing well, Vokes and Taylor doing nicely but we need to score two to get comfortable.
Lincoln were like so many poor league one sides we have seen this season, it really is a poor division and we should be doing much better and challenging top half/play offs with this squad.
The subs seemed to change the game, Lincoln got better, we took off Sadlier which left Dale Taylor lost in space and gave their number 2 license to charge up our left side unopposed, leaving Leahy massively exposed. Adding Phillips into the mix made matters worse as he was charging everywhere. We couldn’t work out where he was supposed to be playing. And then bringing on extra defenders to confuse the back line.
Sort it out Matty. We were the better team today for most of the game and come away with a tame home draw to a poor Lincoln side.
This is the weakest squad we've had since we were in league two, not the strongest as loads of people seem to think. We have very little attacking threat. We aren't underperforming, we just aren't as good as other teams.
Once again the sum of the parts don’t equal the whole. Sadlier must wonder why he gets subbed off when playing so well. Because the manager wants to try out something? Taylor to left wing made his decent game a bit shit. KVY was just a car wreck. The five at the back was the usual disaster. And all of these changes were made actively. Not because we had an injury or a sending off. Our manager did these as he thought he was improving our chance of winning. Terrifying.
The 2018/19 squad was weaker. I'm still not convinced this is much more than a mid-table squad, but I'm seriously worried we'll end up worse off than that.
I don't buy this at all, I'm afraid. The players signed this season were mostly strong performers in their teams last season (Leahy player of the year and Phillips young player of the year at Shrewsbury) Everyone was praising the strength of the recruitment over the Summer.
It has transpired that the recruitment was imbalanced and focussed on a tactical system that just doesn't work for us, and as a result our squad balance (now that the manager has worked out that his preferred system doesn't work) is now all over the place.
Recently someone said on here that our team is currently consistently less than the sum of its parts, when Wycombe teams of recent years have been much the opposite. Sadly, I think that's the best way to describe our team at the moment.
True, and I loved that squad - built on a trust owned shoestring budget, full of spirit and character, and plenty of comebacks. "Greater than the sum of the parts" was so true of 2018-20!
Comments
Apparently we've let in 8 goals this season in injury time at the end of a game.... we're pretty shit at time wasting and hanging on aren't we
Feels a bit like two steps forward and one step back with this team at the moment. First half felt like it was going to be a pretty routine home win, we were comfortable and in control. Second half, especially the last 15/20 minutes was as everyone else has said one here - utterly predictable and completely avoidable.
I don't want to pile in on MB, but it's so frustrating to see the same mistakes being made. Going to a back 5, putting a right-footer at left back, chucking on as many defenders as possible, and then watching as we concede late again is just madness.
However, I do think a couple of players need to take some responsibility / show some leadership. I love Vokes, but you pay your striker to put away the big chances you create for them, and if he puts the header in the second half on target it's 2-0 and game over.
And someone at the back: Max, Taff, Grimmer, whoever, has got to get us defending higher up the pitch when we're under pressure. At no point this afternoon did a Lincoln player look even remotely like getting the wrong side of our centre backs - but we ended up defending the six yard box with Max stuck on his line. Point at the coaching staff all you like, they've all got to be a bit braver than that.
All that said, we've seen some dross this year, and that was by no means the worst we've played. I'm gutted tonight, but I do think we've at least facing the right way even if we're not quite moving in the right direction yet.
16 goals conceded from the 76th minute onwards - the most in the league. GD of -10 in that time period of games - worst in the league 😬
I would agree that this is the weakest League 1 has been for some years but we are struggling for positive results against even the lesser sides. I also belief we have one of our strongest, if not strongest , squad for a number of years . Clearly something is not working.
Even worse from 80 onwards (top two tables here https://www.soccerstats.com/timing.asp?league=england3)
I will continue my subscription but I’m not sure how much longer I can watch a Matt Bloomfield team. He has been in charge for 50 games and do seem to have learned how to close a game out. Twice now he has substituted a player for a defender with minutes to go and completley F33ked it.
I am not suggesting everything is hunky dory by any stretch (although I still think whatever the formation or substitution mistakes there were enough experienced professional footballers on the pitch who should know how to defend set pieces to have seen that game out!) or that the manager should not be criticised but I very much doubt he will go before end of the season. If he does, I doubt we will be able to afford anything other than a caretaker. For me there is enough in the side to survive and even push on...but I realise other opinions are available. @davecz asked for mine on MB and I gave it.
Fair enough and maybe your point about a caretaker might actually be the way forward.
In fact, KVY’s only contribution to the game was time wasting over some throw ins. Considering our final 15 minutes tactic was 7 players acting as central defenders and getting in each others’ way, I’m not sure why he was drafted in.
I'm really not sure how he's getting into the match day squad tbh, seems a square peg in every round hole we try him
The frustrating part is, we're really not a bad side, but our inability to see games out is crippling us. I don't particularly see it as a Bloomfield problem, it's up to the players on the pitch to show some bravery and leadership. We can complain all we want about bringing on a extra defender, but at that stage we were so deep the whole team were playing in defence. In that situation we may just as well bring on another specialist! I can't imagine Bloomfield is actually telling them to play that way. At the moment, unless we're 2 goals ahead, you just know what's going to happen. Not good enough when we have experienced players on the pitch.
Incidentally, the stoppage that led to the 6mins injury time was for an injury to Dale Taylor, who was completely wiped out by a challenge which the referee correctly let us play the advantage for, but then inexplicably failed to punish with a yellow card when play stopped. One of a number of strange calls from the ref.
I’d like to see Martin O’Neil with our current squad, if we could persuade him to take on the role until the end of the season.
Just got home, another long drive and a disappointing result,could see the goal coming a mile off. Lincoln brought on large target men and doubled up on the wings, we decided to go 5 at back and have 1 (wingbacks) defending the double up. Invited the pressure and conceded as expected. Will stick with the team through thick and thin . On a positive thought this was the best I had seen Taylor play. He was scrapping fir everything and did some good runs.
We will look back on this season and wonder how on earth this group of players could barely scrape a top half finish. Stryjek, Tafazolli, Low, Forino, Grimmer, Leahy, Potts, Scowen, Wheeler, McCleary, Vokes. Ludicrous. Should be top 8 minimum.
Of course he's telling them to play that way - playing an excessively low block has been a troubling theme of the Bloomfield era
But unless the new money flows in and Jim Ratcliffeski pays off the MB team and buys in a new manager, the caretaker would likely to be a cheap internal appointment...in which case IMHO I doubt we would finish much higher than sticking with MB.
There were some positives for me. Grimmer put in a fantastic performance and looks every inch the captain I hoped he would be: committed, passionate, communicative, a leader.
Wheeler had an excellent match threading through balls from the centre, tackling harder than I've seen him previously and did some brilliant defensive work including a goal line clearance.
Sadlier was brilliant down the left wing, creative, bombastic and driven.
For me the biggest problem today was that Potts had an off day. Most of his Hollywood passes went awry, most of his cautious work kept possession but sucked the momentum out of our play. He's the fulcrum of the team and when it doesn't click it's going to be hard to create the chances.
And yes, the last 15 minutes was a mess. Taylor on the left was nonsensical. Kone is not a lone forward able to hold the ball up and keep possession, at least not yet. And the back six (or seven) was dreadful. Though I think a lot of responsibility for that must lie with Stryjek. It's his job to organise the back line and push them out. Grimmer had a go at him for not communicating after a mix up with Low in the first half but he didn't seem to improve from that point. He conceded the goal ruled offside (though it certainly didn't look offside to me) and scrambled a lot for the ball when it was played into box, regularly failing to deal with it adequately. He doesn't seem to be playing with confidence any more.
This obsession with getting MON in is just strange. The man hasn't managed a team in years.
It was the last 10mins or so today that we started playing so deep. Prior to that we'd defended confidently. The closer to got to the final whistle the more we panicked and the deeper we defended. We completely lost our composure and not for the first time this season. The players need to be braver the amount of rushed clearances and missed passes in those final minutes are what has cost us more than any tactics or formation changes from the sidelines.
Still angry. A car crash we could all see happening and if Matt couldn’t see it then surely his coaches can say ‘are you sure boss?’ when he comes up with that tactical soup for the last 10 minutes.
Whatever shortcomings of individuals in the second half this latest fuck up was once again management led.
Wycombe strategy for the first hour:
Wycombe strategy for the last half hour:
Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, A Neville Brother, Sol Campbell...why does Rob continually ignore the Golden Generation of managers? They've all got 'unfinished business'. And the Cambridge manager made Lyle Taylor score a goal for goodness sake!
Of course the players take part of the blame, but Bloomfield has consistently made strange substitutions, changed his formation and thrown defenders on seemingly out of panic. Bloomfield is in charge of the team, and the buck stops with him. If we are consistently throwing points away while he is continuing to mess with the system late in the game, he has to shoulder the blame.
As soon as we started sitting off today and refusing to keep hold of the ball, that equaliser could've been seen coming from a mile away.
The last few weeks has seem an improvement, which has come around by ditching the system that Bloomfield so clearly favours. Throwing points away like today is still, frankly, not good enough. I still remain unconvinced as to whether he's up for the job.
Watching from the family stand. What a great first half but we just don’t put enough chances away. GMac had their left back in his pocket, Sadlier playing well, Vokes and Taylor doing nicely but we need to score two to get comfortable.
Lincoln were like so many poor league one sides we have seen this season, it really is a poor division and we should be doing much better and challenging top half/play offs with this squad.
The subs seemed to change the game, Lincoln got better, we took off Sadlier which left Dale Taylor lost in space and gave their number 2 license to charge up our left side unopposed, leaving Leahy massively exposed. Adding Phillips into the mix made matters worse as he was charging everywhere. We couldn’t work out where he was supposed to be playing. And then bringing on extra defenders to confuse the back line.
Sort it out Matty. We were the better team today for most of the game and come away with a tame home draw to a poor Lincoln side.
This is the weakest squad we've had since we were in league two, not the strongest as loads of people seem to think. We have very little attacking threat. We aren't underperforming, we just aren't as good as other teams.
Once again the sum of the parts don’t equal the whole. Sadlier must wonder why he gets subbed off when playing so well. Because the manager wants to try out something? Taylor to left wing made his decent game a bit shit. KVY was just a car wreck. The five at the back was the usual disaster. And all of these changes were made actively. Not because we had an injury or a sending off. Our manager did these as he thought he was improving our chance of winning. Terrifying.
The 2018/19 squad was weaker. I'm still not convinced this is much more than a mid-table squad, but I'm seriously worried we'll end up worse off than that.
I don't buy this at all, I'm afraid. The players signed this season were mostly strong performers in their teams last season (Leahy player of the year and Phillips young player of the year at Shrewsbury) Everyone was praising the strength of the recruitment over the Summer.
It has transpired that the recruitment was imbalanced and focussed on a tactical system that just doesn't work for us, and as a result our squad balance (now that the manager has worked out that his preferred system doesn't work) is now all over the place.
Recently someone said on here that our team is currently consistently less than the sum of its parts, when Wycombe teams of recent years have been much the opposite. Sadly, I think that's the best way to describe our team at the moment.
True, and I loved that squad - built on a trust owned shoestring budget, full of spirit and character, and plenty of comebacks. "Greater than the sum of the parts" was so true of 2018-20!
50 games for Bloomfield now by the way. Does anyone think he's the right man to take us forward for any reason other than him being Mr Wycombe?