I admire Ian's optimism and generosity of spirit. I disagree with his conclusions and I am not judging Evans merely on 5 games. I had us taped as relegation certs in the close season. There is no consistency, no long term planning, no incremental improvement. I read today that Bournemouth fielded the same back four that they had when they got promoted from League 1. Evans would have sold that defence and sent others out on loan. When he finally goes there will be nothing at NYS except a few tumbleweeds blowing across the pitch.
I was looking forward to yesterday. I heard how we were improving with each game. I heard how the defence was hampered by a crap goalie. I'd only seen the Preston game and was disappointed with our cowardice in seeking a point against a fairly limited team at home, so I was looking for a bit of something.
But we were worse. We have literally no idea about how to make chances. We won't keep possession. Not can't (we can) but the manager and assistant demand we launch it forward if we take more than two passes. We don't press possession anymore, so Fulham, who were ordinary, could keep possession with ease.
We don't keep a line at the back. We don't have a shape. Players wander about the pitch, sometimes wandering into each other (how often did Collins and Smallwood compete for the same defensive header; how often did Ledesma drift into the middle of the pitch).
We don't have a plan of attack. We don't have a means of transferring the ball from defence to attack beyond a lobbed ball in the vague direction of an attacker. We employ wide players who all seem to want to be central, so there's no width. There's no energy or guile in central midfield.
We don't even have the physique. There's no Revell to take a battering for the team (JCH is an athlete), no Morgan to offer resilience against the power of the opposition (Halford and Collins are angular, about timing rather than power).
It's utterly depressing. Even with a poor budget, you can surely create a basic level of organisation, discipline and a plan. Halford says there's no plan B; what's plan A?
At some point we'll nick a goal in a game and hold on. But on that showing, maybe 5 times a season. We lack the ability to make chances, the structure to control the flow of a game and the defensive competence to keep the opposition out.
It's been a very, very long time since we've been as bad as this. It's very reminiscent of the Gemmill side that got him sacked (for Collins read Paul Blades and so on). We need a radical improvement, for the team to play like a new side if not a new side, if we're not to be effectively down by the start of winter.
