For some reason, I am concerned about this match.
Well I was correct there!
What a disappointing performance that was.
Lack of effort, lack of tactical nous, no urgency at all – just downright poor
Make no mistake, apart from the first 10 minutes, Plymouth dominated and thoroughly deserved to win.
We set off well. Some neat accurate passing and balls into the box. Nothing came of these half chances but we looked good but then the killer blow.
Very slack marking allowed Plymouth players to 3 times put the ball into the box whilst we stood around and watch. Third time, the ball bounced loose for the Plymouth man to hammer it in with a fine quick shot.
And that was the game lost!We rarely got going after that – the confidence dipped – and all we could do was pass the ball amongst the back 6 (because Lowe and Murphy played so deep!) and ultimately pass back to Matthews. Did anyone count how many times we passed back to Matthews today?
This passing back should have conceded a second goal as Daryl Murphy chose to pass to Matthews but played in the Plymouth striker only for Matthews to rescue us with a fine block.
Half time came at 1-0 down and we had 15 minutes to reorganise the tactics. This is where I am highly critical of the management because nothing at all changed in the second half. We continued sideways and backwards passing with no forward passing and Plymouth just coasted.
In fact late on when we should have been desperate for possession Plymouth managed to keep the ball in our final third for over 5 minutes as we dashed around like headless chickens.
It was a desperately bad performance – the momentum from 3 wins is seriously damaged.
Marks:-
Matthews - 6 Good save to stop us going 2-0 down but in the second half he just dawdled over every goal kick/free kick at a time when we needed some urgency.
Emmanuel - 5 Good first 10 minutes up the right with DoDoo but faded and a naïve second half when Plymouth just slowed the game down and won free kicks and corners off him.
Chicksen - 5 No Verlinden in front of him and he struggled to go forward.
Wright - 6 Reasonably steady but much too much back-passing.
Zouma - 5 Defensively OK but his charges forward were random and reckless.
Murphy L - 2 Great match last Saturday, absolutely terrible today. Hardly any accurate passes. Practically no forward passing. No problem at all for the Plymouth midfield.
Lowe - 3 MOM last Saturday, awful today. Just spent 90 minutes passing backwards and sideways.
DoDoo - 4 Great first 10 minutes but faded badly. Terrible second half.
O’Grady - 4 Looked lost on the left wing.
Graham - 3 Total struggle from minute 1 until he was subbed.
Murphy D - 3 Just not at the game after the first 10 minutes.
Politic - 4 No impact when he came on.
Earl - 5 Looked quite classy. Put in probably the best (maybe only?) crosses from the left.
Hall - 2 His big chance to show us what he is about but he got injured quickly.
