IsleofWightYellow
Well-known member
- Joined
- 20 Dec 2017
- Messages
- 8,652
Reading on here I think a lot of people have very different opinions of the game than me, but for what it’s worth:
Having watched the Burton game live on IFollow and then went to this one, I was a lot unhappier after Sunderland, and thought we played a lot worse - hence why we didn’t score I guess as opposed to scoring two.
For me, and I don’t like to say this, the manager lost us that game. It was a team of talented players being put in a formation which didn’t suit, and paying the price for it.
Three at the back clearly didn’t work, and I don’t see how you can say it did - yes we dominated the game at times, but we almost always do that, especially at home. For example there was a period against Burton where we were completely dominant, much more than we were at any time against Sunderland.
We seem to often do this recently but we constantly went back to the centre backs to start an attack. That’s fine, but having three at the back seemed to stop us having options in midfield. The centre backs seemed much more frustrated with the lack of options for a pass, and therefore went long much more often. In the second half Brannigan dropped deeper and picked up the ball, and drove forwards, but that was him propping up a failing system. The wing backs were also completely out of the game, and I’d say both Forde and Ruffels were our weakest performers. At times literally the only option for a CB on the ball was to go backwards or go on a driving run into midfield. Sunderland countered us well by putting a man on each wingback, and then having two to three across the midfield meaning there was just no options for passes.
Brannigan was decent again and seems to be coming back into form after his injury, which is a massive positive. For me he’s the best player at the club. Dickie was also his usual, quality self, and I thought Agyei showed flashes of why having pace and power is so dangerous at this level. Henry put some great, clever crosses in with the wind but also made the wrong decision with passes a lot, and tried to play in some high balls when he could have put Browne or Agyei through on the ground.
Overall I was disappointed that we moved away from our 4-1-2-3 which has served us so well this season, disappointed that KR didn’t seem to realise this and change the system, and disappointed we didn’t get a bit of luck which would have allowed us to draw or win; but pleased Agyei got a start, pleased Brannigan played well and pleased that we have such talented players that even in a system which doesn’t suit, we nearly snatch a draw from a side doing well in the table.
Having watched the Burton game live on IFollow and then went to this one, I was a lot unhappier after Sunderland, and thought we played a lot worse - hence why we didn’t score I guess as opposed to scoring two.
For me, and I don’t like to say this, the manager lost us that game. It was a team of talented players being put in a formation which didn’t suit, and paying the price for it.
Three at the back clearly didn’t work, and I don’t see how you can say it did - yes we dominated the game at times, but we almost always do that, especially at home. For example there was a period against Burton where we were completely dominant, much more than we were at any time against Sunderland.
We seem to often do this recently but we constantly went back to the centre backs to start an attack. That’s fine, but having three at the back seemed to stop us having options in midfield. The centre backs seemed much more frustrated with the lack of options for a pass, and therefore went long much more often. In the second half Brannigan dropped deeper and picked up the ball, and drove forwards, but that was him propping up a failing system. The wing backs were also completely out of the game, and I’d say both Forde and Ruffels were our weakest performers. At times literally the only option for a CB on the ball was to go backwards or go on a driving run into midfield. Sunderland countered us well by putting a man on each wingback, and then having two to three across the midfield meaning there was just no options for passes.
Brannigan was decent again and seems to be coming back into form after his injury, which is a massive positive. For me he’s the best player at the club. Dickie was also his usual, quality self, and I thought Agyei showed flashes of why having pace and power is so dangerous at this level. Henry put some great, clever crosses in with the wind but also made the wrong decision with passes a lot, and tried to play in some high balls when he could have put Browne or Agyei through on the ground.
Overall I was disappointed that we moved away from our 4-1-2-3 which has served us so well this season, disappointed that KR didn’t seem to realise this and change the system, and disappointed we didn’t get a bit of luck which would have allowed us to draw or win; but pleased Agyei got a start, pleased Brannigan played well and pleased that we have such talented players that even in a system which doesn’t suit, we nearly snatch a draw from a side doing well in the table.