Agree with this, I think for a little while we’ve been coasting on having a rock solid defence and relying on moments of brilliance from Henry, Fosu or Baptiste to nick us goals. Hell even against Southend, one of the worst L1 teams in recent times, at least two of our goals came from their defenders literally passing it to one of ours in front of their goal, not our incisive forward play breaking them up. The fact that Taylor is enduring a bit of a drought is perhaps testament to the fact that our ability to create clear chances has notably diminished. I agree that it’s not a problem with system, and I hope we don’t ditch the 41221 that has been working so well, but I think it is a problem of personnel: we’ve become one dimensional, and the addition of Holland and Browne should change that.Our tactics have been found out for a few weeks now since the start of December. We have got away with it a lot of times with our players generally being better than the opposition. But the chances created have definitely dried up. Packing midfield, long balls particularly over/towards the full backs, a higher press against our defenders and stopping our wide players crossing from dangerous areas seems to have scuppered the successful plan we had earlier in the season. And this must have been recognised by KR as the introduction of Holland and Browne does signify an alternative to the tactics.
I can't help but feel yesterday with the really strong wind towards the JS Stand we could have done with attacking the other way first half. Against such a direct side we were always going to struggle to get the ball clear from defence in those conditions and it was all about the team kicking that way first half getting a decent lead to half time and defending it second half.
We got to this position playing good attacking free flowing football which relied on Fosu and Branagan being on top form, Gorrin not getting booked and the full backs crossing from the edge of the penalty area. None of these are now happening so it is now down to the management team to find the right mix to get us having more opportunities to score and Holland and Browne might just be the right signings to do this. The players are good enough, the system just needs to be right and we might need to grind out a few results for 2 or 3 more weeks yet before the right new formula is found. We have a bit of a freeroll towards the end of the season now to try and make the plays off with absolutely no worry that we can be relegated.
that said, I’m feeling slightly better about the result than I was last night. We lost to the team top of the division at the moment, and we won’t have too many other games against teams as strong as them. The fact that we also came out feeling slightly frustrated that we didn’t overturn a three goal deficit against such a good team in one half, when we had the chances to do so, also says a lot. It’s a frustrating and disappointing result, but one with clear lessons from which we will hopefully learn. We’re going through a slight blip at the moment - every team will do - and we will improve.