Hanlan probably works best off that left wing, so maybe we should try him there with Mehmeti central.
Would probably work better when we get Gape back alongside Scowen though.
Failing that, get back to having Horgan as the most forward of the midfield 3. Although I thought he was totally off the pace when he came on, and oddly seemed to be playing deeper than Scowen.
I think we've just cracked it. There is no improvisation, no initiative, nobody grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck. This may look far-fetched and ridiculous but I wonder if we need to something like the below to get the best out of our individuals...(assuming all fit)
Stryjek
McCarthy Forino Taff JJ
Mawson Scowen (DMC)
Mehmeti (MC)
McCleary Vokes Hanlan
The thinking behind it being, our three best "footballers" control the middle. Mawson's passing ability, Mehmeti's trickery, Scowen doing the dirty work. Looks like a good mix to me.
Despite us hyping up the wealth of CM's we have - none of them are creating anything. No assists or goals.
Corners aren't a high percentage play are they. Everyone gets excited, but it's much much easier to defend one than attack one.
Unless you were in of the very crap teams I played in, whereas a conceded corner was a guarantee of the opposition at minimum getting a header on target!
I ventured down today for the full Whaddon Road experience. The bowling green behind the away stand was in immaculate condition. Cleeve Hill looked majestic. The Motts supporters coach had the Angel Executive in it's slipstream as they both hurtled pass me on the A40 homeward bound. I'd like to know who took the chequered flag in that duel as it was set up for a grandstand finish. Just a shame the team couldn't provide any sort of finish of their own this afternoon. I can't put any gloss on this one. It wasn’t the best.
I like @thecatwwfc's comment about Mehmeti spearheading a midfield three. The reality is we have gobs of attacking talent but could not open up a can of sardines right now. There has to be a solution - I would be up for rotating the attacking talent to give them all opportunities at the 10 and wide (Freeman, Horgan, McLeary, Mehmeti) and just see if anything clicks. Freeman is still being played too defensively, too.
I also feel like Mehmeti is getting "found out" a bit, and doesn't have anything else in his locker just yet. Perhaps he needs to get on the ball deeper and pick out the likes of Hanlan in behind the defence. Or run at central defenders who won't keep up. Little interplay with Vokes who is smart enough to help him.
You could argue none of the attackers are consistently firing for long spells this season.
Vokes is being starved, had that month out early season and you wonder if he's still lacking that sharpness, from basically playing 90 every game.
McCleary scored a superb goal last week, but hasn't been the same threat as last season.
Mehmeti has scored some lovely goals but struggles to put in a full 90min of threat.
Kaikai never seems to be available for any length of time. Freeman isn't used as a wide attacker anymore. So it's basically Hanlan who is the other wide option.
Not sure I like Mawson in midfield. Personally, I think we're overloaded (and ineffective) up front - if we're going to persist with playing Vokes on his own, then the two wide players need to be deployed much more cleverly than they are, getting in the box when the other one has the ball so that it becomes a front two when we're attacking wide. A lot of what I saw today Wheeler was the most advanced player which meant we pretty much had a flat front 4, and inevitably every single attack was snuffed out with ease because there was nobody arriving in the box. Their central defenders had the time and space to just play a short pass to their defensive mid and then counter. Anyway, enough of my armchair tactics. As long as we keep doing the exact same thing over and over again we're going to get the exact same result. We're basically waiting for other teams to gift us a win at the moment.
This probably won’t be a popular call but I would rest (drop) Sam V. If he isn’t there as a target man we won’t keep aimlessly pumping the ball skyward towards him (to no great effect). Give Mustard a run through the middle, play it on the ground past him. It can’t be any worse, can it?
Grimmer coming off was justified as he'd been run ragged by May and their RB doubling up. Obita had a terrible game, I genuinely don't know what he offers at LB but we couldn't do anything with JJ out. Succession planning for him has been dire.
Thought Wheeler in behind Vokes was strange as they were both going for the same ball without anyone running behind or supporting.
Scowen really makes us so much better in midfield, he is everywhere, but even he couldn't sure up the middle. Freeman is better higher up, at the back his passing can be too much of a liability, like that which led to their goal.
Simply, we've lost too many leaders who can drive the team on. We've got good players and aren't playing to their strengths. We seem to chuck the ball to Anis, and if he can't do something we're lost.
I feel dreadfully sorry for Horgan, he was so wildly out his depth thrown in to the midfield today.
I actually agree with this. We are too predictable with him. Might be a good option to bring on later on in the game when we tire and need to start lumping it.
Failing that - our best performance in recent times (arguably) was the 3-0 away win at Plymouth last season. We started with a front two of Vokes and Hanlan with Mehmeti just behind.
I can't wait to see Thompson back in the team too. I hope he fully recovers and finds form.
Another point worth noting is, we used to be hard to beat. Once you establish that quality, the rest can take care of itself. At the moment, we aren't even that.
You only have to read through the comments on this thread to see what a confused squad / team we have. And that is the problem. Right personnel wrong tactics, wrong personnel right tactics, lack of application, lack of endeavour, lack of leadership on and off the field and what we end up with is a team that stumbles and bumbles along. We might get some results we might not get others.
I think last season was the end of an era and we maybe missed the chance to start rebuilding in the summer.
we can do all the bleating we like but are currently hobbled by hoofing it, let’s stop nannying this herd, someone needs to grab the horns and milk the talent available.
Don't think it matters who we play up front, we'll still be hoofing it !
Think we need new fullbacks both sides myself, McCarthy and Grimmer are both having too many bad games, and on the left, well, we just need some more left footed players, JJ love him as I do, his time has come, and Obita just isn't a fullback, I've seen kids tackle harder than he does
Comments
@drcongo Amazing - I actually thought you might have made it up at first...
Just Googled this game. Whoever created this must be absolutely off their head!! Looks fun though!
Hanlan probably works best off that left wing, so maybe we should try him there with Mehmeti central.
Would probably work better when we get Gape back alongside Scowen though.
Failing that, get back to having Horgan as the most forward of the midfield 3. Although I thought he was totally off the pace when he came on, and oddly seemed to be playing deeper than Scowen.
I think we've just cracked it. There is no improvisation, no initiative, nobody grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck. This may look far-fetched and ridiculous but I wonder if we need to something like the below to get the best out of our individuals...(assuming all fit)
Stryjek
McCarthy Forino Taff JJ
Mawson Scowen (DMC)
Mehmeti (MC)
McCleary Vokes Hanlan
The thinking behind it being, our three best "footballers" control the middle. Mawson's passing ability, Mehmeti's trickery, Scowen doing the dirty work. Looks like a good mix to me.
Despite us hyping up the wealth of CM's we have - none of them are creating anything. No assists or goals.
Corners aren't a high percentage play are they. Everyone gets excited, but it's much much easier to defend one than attack one.
Unless you were in of the very crap teams I played in, whereas a conceded corner was a guarantee of the opposition at minimum getting a header on target!
I ventured down today for the full Whaddon Road experience. The bowling green behind the away stand was in immaculate condition. Cleeve Hill looked majestic. The Motts supporters coach had the Angel Executive in it's slipstream as they both hurtled pass me on the A40 homeward bound. I'd like to know who took the chequered flag in that duel as it was set up for a grandstand finish. Just a shame the team couldn't provide any sort of finish of their own this afternoon. I can't put any gloss on this one. It wasn’t the best.
I like @thecatwwfc's comment about Mehmeti spearheading a midfield three. The reality is we have gobs of attacking talent but could not open up a can of sardines right now. There has to be a solution - I would be up for rotating the attacking talent to give them all opportunities at the 10 and wide (Freeman, Horgan, McLeary, Mehmeti) and just see if anything clicks. Freeman is still being played too defensively, too.
I also feel like Mehmeti is getting "found out" a bit, and doesn't have anything else in his locker just yet. Perhaps he needs to get on the ball deeper and pick out the likes of Hanlan in behind the defence. Or run at central defenders who won't keep up. Little interplay with Vokes who is smart enough to help him.
You could argue none of the attackers are consistently firing for long spells this season.
Vokes is being starved, had that month out early season and you wonder if he's still lacking that sharpness, from basically playing 90 every game.
McCleary scored a superb goal last week, but hasn't been the same threat as last season.
Mehmeti has scored some lovely goals but struggles to put in a full 90min of threat.
Kaikai never seems to be available for any length of time. Freeman isn't used as a wide attacker anymore. So it's basically Hanlan who is the other wide option.
Long season though etc etc.
He's never been a 90min player, but has scored a fair few quality goals.
But teams will definitely know about him now, and know to back off and double team up.
As we're not firing particularly well, blocking his space stops us as we don't capitalise on numbers elsewhere.
Not sure I like Mawson in midfield. Personally, I think we're overloaded (and ineffective) up front - if we're going to persist with playing Vokes on his own, then the two wide players need to be deployed much more cleverly than they are, getting in the box when the other one has the ball so that it becomes a front two when we're attacking wide. A lot of what I saw today Wheeler was the most advanced player which meant we pretty much had a flat front 4, and inevitably every single attack was snuffed out with ease because there was nobody arriving in the box. Their central defenders had the time and space to just play a short pass to their defensive mid and then counter. Anyway, enough of my armchair tactics. As long as we keep doing the exact same thing over and over again we're going to get the exact same result. We're basically waiting for other teams to gift us a win at the moment.
They aren't, but when you consider how good we used to be from them...
That's because JJ scored directly
This probably won’t be a popular call but I would rest (drop) Sam V. If he isn’t there as a target man we won’t keep aimlessly pumping the ball skyward towards him (to no great effect). Give Mustard a run through the middle, play it on the ground past him. It can’t be any worse, can it?
Grimmer coming off was justified as he'd been run ragged by May and their RB doubling up. Obita had a terrible game, I genuinely don't know what he offers at LB but we couldn't do anything with JJ out. Succession planning for him has been dire.
Thought Wheeler in behind Vokes was strange as they were both going for the same ball without anyone running behind or supporting.
Scowen really makes us so much better in midfield, he is everywhere, but even he couldn't sure up the middle. Freeman is better higher up, at the back his passing can be too much of a liability, like that which led to their goal.
Simply, we've lost too many leaders who can drive the team on. We've got good players and aren't playing to their strengths. We seem to chuck the ball to Anis, and if he can't do something we're lost.
I feel dreadfully sorry for Horgan, he was so wildly out his depth thrown in to the midfield today.
I actually agree with this. We are too predictable with him. Might be a good option to bring on later on in the game when we tire and need to start lumping it.
Failing that - our best performance in recent times (arguably) was the 3-0 away win at Plymouth last season. We started with a front two of Vokes and Hanlan with Mehmeti just behind.
I can't wait to see Thompson back in the team too. I hope he fully recovers and finds form.
I agree as well- that said, I’m not sure I want to see us lump it up to Brandon or Anis.
Experience says a change of CF does not necessarily bring about a change of style to reflect the new player's different qualities.
Another point worth noting is, we used to be hard to beat. Once you establish that quality, the rest can take care of itself. At the moment, we aren't even that.
You only have to read through the comments on this thread to see what a confused squad / team we have. And that is the problem. Right personnel wrong tactics, wrong personnel right tactics, lack of application, lack of endeavour, lack of leadership on and off the field and what we end up with is a team that stumbles and bumbles along. We might get some results we might not get others.
I think last season was the end of an era and we maybe missed the chance to start rebuilding in the summer.
Bloody awful. Enough has been said already that I need not go into more detail.
442, remember that? Worth a go surely.
Actually, formation remains irrelevant whilst we continue to lump it 60 yards to a player who doesn’t actually want to receive the ball in that way.
I’m off to download Goat Simulator 3.
Hopefully Vokes will spend the next two weeks playing Goal Simulator.
Problem not at the front as much as it is at the back - Grimmer had another shocker and we need to find replacement :( Keep the faith. Cmon Gareth! :)
Just seen a post on the Facebook friends page saying we should sell Vokes in January to bring in two new players. Honestly, I despair!
I’d consider this ..
Stryek
McCarthy Mawson Taff Obita
Scowen Wing
Horgan Mehmeti KaiKai
Hanlan
This means GMac and Vokes on the bench which may not be popular I know.
I thought Goat Simulator was a book charting Ronaldo's life long, futile attempt to be lauded alongside Pele, Maradona and Messi.
I thought I'd herd it all but you must be kidding me with this?
we can do all the bleating we like but are currently hobbled by hoofing it, let’s stop nannying this herd, someone needs to grab the horns and milk the talent available.
You should try the educational maths game Frog Fractions
Don't think it matters who we play up front, we'll still be hoofing it !
Think we need new fullbacks both sides myself, McCarthy and Grimmer are both having too many bad games, and on the left, well, we just need some more left footed players, JJ love him as I do, his time has come, and Obita just isn't a fullback, I've seen kids tackle harder than he does