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Post by riochforthereebok on Aug 19, 2023 13:48:58 GMT
Have to question, Vic and Nlundulu both had a poor game, Vic, for me probably having a better of the game than Dan, but he is the leagues top scorer, whilst Dan couldn’t score in an empty net, so what does Evatt do, he takes off Vic!!!!
Straaaange🤔🤔
It’s been made clear to me that there’s a decent squad we’ve built up, but we do need better quality than we’ve got, especially in the middle and certainly defensive midfielder.
That said, Wigan beat us all ends up when we needed all 11 on it and judging by that performance from us, I’d say none of them where on it
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Post by Pedro on Aug 19, 2023 13:54:02 GMT
Championship v League1. 3 games without scoring in the second half.
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Post by davidm on Aug 19, 2023 16:23:18 GMT
A truly dreadful performance.
We were bad – bad not poor or average BAD – more or less from the start.
Wigan highlighted problems we have in the air. They launched balls to Wyke to compete with Santos and he made Santos look average and launched high balls to Humphreys on the right to challenge either Iredale or Williams. These 2 players dominated our defence in the air.
Wigan’s midfield and defence just would not let us settle and played a very good aggressive style where whenever we got the ball they just simply tackled us and won the ball back. As a team, we were so weak and out-tackled.
We were outthought on the manager front and outfought on the field.
Midfield was dreadful and just could not get the ball and upfront was abysmal.
The manager’s vanity project of seeing something in Nlundulu and making him a good player will cost us dearly because, at this moment in time, he is dreadful and a waste of a shirt.
Goal no 1 came when Iredale needlessly gave away a corner. Not necessarily his fault but someone should have told him he could have left the ball. When the players were lined up for the corner, Nlundulu was “marking” Wyke on the edge of the box whilst Santos stood in the middle marking no one. The corner was back headed and Wyke came onto the 6 yard box, having left Nlundulu day dreaming and headed a simple goal. Dreadful, dreadful defending.
Goal no 2 came from a weak challenge by Jones and he just lost the ball. The ball was played into the box and our defenders just stood and watched as the ball eventually finished on the right for Humphreys to score. No challenge whatsoever. It was like watching statues.
Goal no 3 was almost identical. This time we lost possession (yet again!) in the middle of the field. Wigan sprang into acres of space down our right and action replay, the ball bobbled around. Santos and company stood still and Wigan scored. The ball should easily have been cleared.
Goal no 4 came when Mendes-Gomez was tackled and lost possession in midfield. The Wigan man ran forward, played a straight pass in between Santos and Iredale and Wyke put in a decent shot which Baxter made a balls of and it dropped in the net. Many faults there – Mendes-Gomez so soft in losing the ball. Santos & Iredale just not marking and Baxter weak.
Overall, a dreadful, weak, pathetic performance.
Marks (not that anyone deserved more than 0!):-
Baxter - 2 Possibly could not do much with the 1st half goals although I would have loved to have seen an effort at them. Fourth goal was so weak – made what appeared to be a decent save from Wyke but his hand was so weak, he failed to push it over the bar, as he should have, he just let it drop in the net.
Dacres - Cogley - 2 Got forward but his final ball was awful. Missed our best chance just after half time – shooting wide from the penalty spot.
Williams - 2 Likewise, got forward but to no avail
Jones - 1 So poor for the 2nd goal and one of a dreadful back 3. Some awful passes out of defence.
Santos - 1 Well maybe he has been listening to his publicity but this was awful. Couldn’t cope with strength of Wyke and what does he do defensively? Marking no one in the area for goal 1 and for goals 2 & 3 just stood as the ball bounced around the box for ultimately a Wigan man to score. Wide open defensively for no 4. A terrible performance.
Iredale - 1 He struggled from minute 1 to minute 90 when he was subbed. Lost the ball on many occasions and his defensive duties were dreadful.
Sheehan - 2 Just got out muscled by a midfield that wanted to tackle and did not give us any time on the ball. Poor.
Morley - 2 Poor also. The game just by-passed him.
Dempsey - 3 Probably our best player which is not saying much. He kept trying but nothing at all worked.
Nlundulu - 1 Why oh why does he get picked. He should be playing in the B team – that is his standard. Regularly knocked off the ball. Cannot head a ball, cannot pass straight. Just dreadful.
Adeboyejo - 2 Reverted back to the Victor from before last Tuesday. Totally lost. Contributed nothing.
Mendes-Gomez - 2 He had 45+ minutes to show us what he is about and what happened? Nothing. Started the move for Wigan’s 4th goal by being caught in possession
Maghoma - 2 A few bright bits but then just faded away.
Bodvarsson - 2 Somehow managed to put the ball wide when an empty net awaited.
Jerome - 1 Headed over when the keeper fisted the ball onto his head but other than that did anyone notice him?
Forrester
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Post by whitesince63 on Aug 19, 2023 18:09:07 GMT
I didn’t see the second half (thankfully) so I can’t really comment but I’d have liked to have come back and found that they’d at least put in some effort and pulled one back. As far as the first half was concerned Wigan just pressed us to death, we just couldn’t get the ball out and when we did we were so incredibly weak on the ball we were pushed around and out tackled somewhat alarmingly. This isn’t something new we’ve been weak constantly against teams who come to bully us. In the time we have left in the window it’s clear that Evatt needs to concentrate on getting a true battler for the middle of the park because none of this lot, including Dempsey have the ability to win the ball strongly. As far as individual performances are concerned, like David I think it was a total, complete surrender by the whole team right from kick off. After the euphoria of the opening games this has brought us right back down to Earth and if IE needed any confirmation of where his problems lie then this surely highlighted them perfectly? I keep trying to defend Dan and see something positive in him that Evatt must see but I’m continually disappointed. Today was a dreadful all round team performance and let’s just hope they’ve learned something today because you can bet other L1 managers will see this and how easily were overcome, in fact even Barrow exposed us and should have taught us something but clearly not. I do wonder what’s been said in training this week and whether we were undermined again there by Ian’s “Hero” quote? Well the only hero’s today Ian were the fans who stayed to see the end of such a lamentable showing.
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Post by OohMac on Aug 19, 2023 19:20:08 GMT
When you think of the Battle of Burnden and our successful season you have tough men like Taggart, Pollock, Sheridan, McGinlay, Blake and more.
This side is far far too soft. And when another team comes to fight we come to showcase.
We've been embarrassed once again.
Dan N - terrible decision to make him permanent. Not what we need.
Window still open. Loans available. Please get a combative DM and a scorer and another AM too. And loan out Dan Nlundulu, release Jerome.
I'd have Josh Vela back here. Someone who fancies a scrap
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Post by riochforthereebok on Aug 20, 2023 12:49:39 GMT
Having slept and had time to absorb that dreadful performance yesterday, we all know that not one player came off with any credit it all.
We need ‘beefing’ up and for a tough tackling defender as he was, he’d have been a bit embarrassed by the way we never won one 50/50 with the worst culprit, Randell completely backing away from a tackle which I found most disappointing
I’m trying to put a level of semblance to this, we’ve just won 3 games with plus 3 goals, but been brought back down to earth with a tough tackling, very well organised side, with 2 strikers that can bag a simple brace apiece, compared to Vic and Dan that couldn’t hit a barn door and also a combative midfield too
Wigan have really embraced the negative starting position they were in, were they not relegated with a points deduction last season?
Apart from a couple of player losses (Will Keane etc) they are practically the same Championship side and I do expect them to be punching in the top 6
For our troubles, Evatt needs to use the last of the window to scour some combative players and rid us of the peripheral weaker players and those not up to the task and he needs to do this now.
Of course it’s far too early to start looking at tables and positions but it’s heartening that we are still joint top and not many other sides took advantage yesterday
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Post by chip on Aug 20, 2023 15:10:57 GMT
That was the first game I have had the chance to watch as it was played and I have to say I'm struggling to see what Nlundulu and Jerome are doing apart from wasting 2 good shirts. Now I'm all for giving players a chance but come on they have been with us since January they need to be giving us some more, now I know as a team we was pretty pxss poor yesterday and Wigan well deserved there win with a big help from us. Fingers crossed it's only a blip in the road towards promotion but we need to change or mind set to get out of this league beef up a bit and start dishing out some of the muck that other teams dish out to us cause in games like yesterday we seem to get pushed about to easy. I don't want to see the long ball stuff but surly at times needs must to get out of this league enough said lets sort it out next Saturday COYWM
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Post by whitesince63 on Aug 20, 2023 21:38:23 GMT
Let’s be honest here, this is far from the first time that an Evatt team has succumbed to a physically direct team. I thought Wigan didn’t just outplay us yesterday, they outthought and outfought us too winning just about every 50 50 ball. We just stood off them, we were slow, weak and accepted Wigans superiority all over the pitch. I couldn’t really believe what I was watching at times, it was so horribly embarrassing. I’m not sure though that a player or two will fix much in that regard, fortunately there aren’t many Wigans in 5he league and certainly we should be able to get over things quickly with our next few fixtures. My single biggest fear with Evatt is that the team is over coached and when the plan isn’t working we have no one to change it, including Evatt. As soon as the first goal went in I feared the worst because you could almost see the heads go down. We look back to teams of the past and thought how they’d have reacted to being behind, then you look at this team and realise that there isn’t actually anybody in the entire squad that you think has the bottle to change things. In fact I don’t think Evatt wants that type of player, someone who will take the game and the team by the neck and make them play, he’d rather they just continue his system whether it’s working or not. We know what happened to the likes of Sarce and Doyle when they aired views and suspect the same with Declan John. I may be completely wrong here and talking nonsense but I don’t think Evatt wants a midfield bar steward or a strong minded influencer. I think he wants unfailing application of his tactics and systems rather than putting a foot in and perhaps altering the style. That seems to me to be why the team looks so lost against physical sides or those like Barrow who come to close up shop. It’s a long season and there’s plenty of games to go yet so maybe we just put this down to a really bad day at the office and look forward to continuing the winning start at a struggling Burton next week?
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Post by westandlower on Aug 21, 2023 14:10:46 GMT
John 1.78M 5ft 10
Williams 5ft 8
Dacres Cogley 5ft 9
Sheehan 5 ft 7
Jones 5ft 10
Iredale 6 ft
Dempsey 5ft 10
Santos 6 ft 5
Toal 6ft 3
Johnston 5 ft 11
Thomason 5ft 10
Of the defenders only Toal and Santos are over 6ft.
Of the regular midfielders up to now, none are over 6ft.
Is it any wonder we get out muscled? Just going on looks, against Wigan I'd say they started with one midfielder under 6ft. We're a team of relative midgets. To compensate for lack of height, we have to be very quick, tactically astute, able to pass accurately and / or very skilful on the ball.
we're not top class in nay of the other attributes.
We are in desperate need of a 6ft plus ball winner / good passer.
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Post by whitesince63 on Aug 22, 2023 11:55:23 GMT
John 1.78M 5ft 10 Williams 5ft 8 Dacres Cogley 5ft 9 Sheehan 5 ft 7 Jones 5ft 10 Iredale 6 ft Dempsey 5ft 10 Santos 6 ft 5 Toal 6ft 3 Johnston 5 ft 11 Thomason 5ft 10 Of the defenders only Toal and Santos are over 6ft. Of the regular midfielders up to now, none are over 6ft. Is it any wonder we get out muscled? Just going on looks, against Wigan I'd say they started with one midfielder under 6ft. We're a team of relative midgets. To compensate for lack of height, we have to be very quick, tactically astute, able to pass accurately and / or very skilful on the ball. we're not top class in nay of the other attributes. We are in desperate need of a 6ft plus ball winner / good passer. I know where you’re coming from Westy but I’d have to disagree on the need for size to be the differentiator. I suppose the old adage a good big un will always beat a good small un does have some foundation but not always. I remember a number of years ago we played Brentford at the UniBol and I recall noticing when they were shaking hand prior to the game how much smaller as a team they were than us and it looked like men against boys but it didn’t turn out like that as they thrashed us 3-0! I agree defensively an aerial advantage is a plus for high balls at set pieces and it’s somewhere we have struggled but on Saturday it was just so clear that we didn’t compete with Wigan for the ball losing nearly every 50/50 against them as well as being a good yard slower. I’ve never seen Gethin Jones as bad as he was in every department and he clearly should have been off early doors and latest half time but it was nothing to do with his size as I’ve seen him face bigger than Wigan many times. When you look at the real hard men of the past like Bremner, Stiles, Gemmill and even our own in Vela and Patterson and now Dempsey, none of these were tall yet they had the right attitude however big the opposition. We’re just soft I’m afraid and need to toughen up. Evatt was by no means a shrinking violet so surely should be seeing that in the players he signs but somehow he doesn’t seem to. Perhaps Saturday will have taught him something, maybe another element to add to his recruitment requirements instead of just an ability to play tippy tappy. He seems to have shunned players with attitude up to now so maybe this will teach him that he needs another string to his own bow to learn how better to deal with opinionated players as well as lackeys? |
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