Playing 3-5-2 At least we play a natural left sided player at wing back: Mattock. No Forde or Taylor. At last. Yates up front with Smudger. Hopeful. UTM
Tonight Warne started with two up front as some have repeatedly asked. That is three games he has done that. We were crap at Bolton with it, dug out a draw at Millwall without creating more than one opportunity, and were crap with it again for half an hour tonight. Warne changed it and we were a changed side. On the back of that he is not getting praise for getting it right and making tough decisions (is he still a coward Derby?). Instead some are blaming him for getting it wrong to begin with, and suggesting that he just got lucky in the end. I'm bemused by it. We've gone away to a team with five consecutive home wins. The knives were out at half time, but we've shown resilience and fighting spirit and in the end had many more efforts on goal than a decent and expensively assembled Hull City side and were the team knocking on the door to win it. If I was Warne I would seriously think about resigning. I think we must be a nightmare club to manage. The fans expect far more than is realistic. I think Jacket probably got it right. He was on a hiding to nothing with us. We are, on the whole, an impossible bunch of malcontents.
-- Edited by smiler on Wednesday 13th of February 2019 12:56:23 AM
Smiler valid points
So you feel 4 5 1 is the best formation then
Because normally we go behind and we.lose because we can't score goals due to there been one up front
We must take heart from last night's result. It was Hull who threw three points away. We made up ground in the second half with the help of a Hull player scoring an own goal. Every little helps. I don't think we will be satisfied until we draw well clear of the drop zone. Will that ever happen between now and the end of this season? Who knows? It's been a very frustrating season up to now watching Smudge running himself ragged up front without scoring many goals. If we don't bring in any new players soon I reckon the current squad will tire very quickly during the remainder of the season and morale will take a nosedive. There is the danger of more injuries being sustained by members of the playing squad. The big test starts next Saturday against a Sheffield team who have been nicking the odd three points plus the odd draw. Make no mistake they have tightened up their defence. We will be tested to the hilt. Warney needs to change it up big time. It's not even about the bragging rights, it's all about three points and one more big step to safety.
Hillsborough, I think we are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. I don't think there is a magic formation that is going to win us football matches. At the end of the day, whatever formation we use there are very few weeks when we can field eleven players who are man for man as good as the opponents eleven. So however we set up, over a long season we will probably lose much more often than we win. That will be the case in this league unless or until we become a bigger, richer club. So to that extent formations are a red herring. Having said that, the first half last night was a perfect illustration of why Warne is afraid to play two up front. Smith and Yates were living off scraps because we were penned back by constant waves of Hull possession where they were moving us around and patiently picking us off. Unless he had taken the unfortunate Yates off and reverted to Smith leading the line alone, it could have been a cricket score. To get the two up front you have to give something somewhere else, and we can't afford to do that. I keep hearing that we don't score enough goals but yet again last night we scored twice (I know we were gifted one of them) and didn't win. That has happened plenty of times. Obviously in an ideal world we need to both score more and concede fewer goals, but I happen to agree with Warne that staying in games and giving ourselves an opportunity to pick up points represents first base for us. Starting with two up front, we are not likely to get a foothold in matches. As it is, we are giving ourselves a fighting chance (1) to pick up points match by match and (2) to stay up. That is as good as we can be and for us represents success. That is life for us in the Championship. I really do appreciate other opinions, but that's a summary of how I see it.
-- Edited by smiler on Wednesday 13th of February 2019 07:48:40 AM
So at last.... we see one of the issues of the club resolved... the guy should have gone before now but I'm very very pleased, for the sake of the club, he's gone....
