INTO THE DEEP
- Thread starter The Blobster
- Start date
Victoria Swan
Key Player
Grudgingly admit that I see why Preston has let in so few goals - tight defence despite having Woody in goal!
Unlike us they are professional with what they do. Better coached!
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Manning shoots from 8 yards but woody flaps it away
Pathetic! The fact that we were by far the better team in the second half cuts no mustard with me. Preston are a totally shit team that we should have beaten. All they have is a well drilled defence and we didn't have what was needed to break them down. For me, Russell Martin is absolutely to blame. He surely knows that we have a crap defence who, almost by rote, give away a goal a game from some stupid error or other.
The world and his dog knows that all Preston can do is defend, so if we likely fell behind courtesy of one of our routine defensive brain farts (which of course we did), we would need whatever firepower we could bring to bear. Yet what does that prize moron Martin do? He drops Cullen out of the squad entirely thereby limiting our attacking options and chances of a goal. Is the man insane in football terms or what?
To sum up. The equation Martin faced was this. Preston have one of the best defences in the league. If we conceded first, we would need as many attacking options as possible to break them down. The chances of conceding first were high because we have got a totally shit defence who take it in turns to give away ridiculous goals. Therefore we would need as many striking options as possible to get back on terms. Simple enough I think.
Yet this wannabe manager/coach we've been stuck with seems to have added 2 + 2 and got God knows what answer except 4!!! He then compounds his mistake by selecting a starting eleven most of whom appeared to be asleep in the first half - and that certainly includes Piroe who might as well have been wearing his PJs let alone bursting with energy after a nice long rest. Will we ever learn that FOOTBALL IS A 90 MINUTE GAME and not the odd 45 minutes when it suits us or when we fall behind.
I thought Martin was beginning to get it right. This game put paid to that notion. He is inexperienced, stubborn, naive and tunnel visioned. I read that Norwich are still interested, along with some other clubs, and the likely compensation would be a million quid. For God's sake, Winter, snap their hands off and get Cameron Toshack in asap.
The world and his dog knows that all Preston can do is defend, so if we likely fell behind courtesy of one of our routine defensive brain farts (which of course we did), we would need whatever firepower we could bring to bear. Yet what does that prize moron Martin do? He drops Cullen out of the squad entirely thereby limiting our attacking options and chances of a goal. Is the man insane in football terms or what?
To sum up. The equation Martin faced was this. Preston have one of the best defences in the league. If we conceded first, we would need as many attacking options as possible to break them down. The chances of conceding first were high because we have got a totally shit defence who take it in turns to give away ridiculous goals. Therefore we would need as many striking options as possible to get back on terms. Simple enough I think.
Yet this wannabe manager/coach we've been stuck with seems to have added 2 + 2 and got God knows what answer except 4!!! He then compounds his mistake by selecting a starting eleven most of whom appeared to be asleep in the first half - and that certainly includes Piroe who might as well have been wearing his PJs let alone bursting with energy after a nice long rest. Will we ever learn that FOOTBALL IS A 90 MINUTE GAME and not the odd 45 minutes when it suits us or when we fall behind.
I thought Martin was beginning to get it right. This game put paid to that notion. He is inexperienced, stubborn, naive and tunnel visioned. I read that Norwich are still interested, along with some other clubs, and the likely compensation would be a million quid. For God's sake, Winter, snap their hands off and get Cameron Toshack in asap.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
If you want confirmation of Martins delusion watch his after match interview !
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Martin tried to paint over an ugly situation. He danced around naming specific players for “individual mistakes”. It’s his form of blarney. But he knows that we know it was a totally shit first half. He has to rethink the capacity of certain players, “young” though they be, to consistently make errors of defensive judgement that should not be acceptable at any professional level. Darling v Wood ... is there really a choice. Wood is "young" but he's fairly solid and consistent and I trust him with the ball.
Last night Darling was a disaster. Cabango was dire. Naughton gave no options to Cabango outside to receive a pass, which forced him to continuously turn inside and play into the press. Some of the “passes” that were made were just suicidal - many players were guilty of this, and nobody was working off the ball to provide options.
Piroe’s limitations are becoming apparent. When a 20+ goal scorer is not snapped up by a higher level club, they obviously see something about him that’s too negative to tolerate. It’s starting to show. He’s missing free headers on a regular basis. He can’t and doesn’t show as a target man to receive and hold, or receive and layoff one or even two touch. This denies us long ball options. He doesn’t have speed off the mark or genuine pace - so forget the ball over the top that is Obafemi’s bread and butter. In short he’s too easy to defend unless the defender is Darling-esque. This means he’s living on last season’s output and Martin has to recognize that that may have been an aberration and focus on the here and now. This season he’s a damp squib. Obafemi, for his limitations, can and has been more impactful. Cullen has never been given a chance ,.. another Cooper perhaps but we’ll never know.
Last night Darling was a disaster. Cabango was dire. Naughton gave no options to Cabango outside to receive a pass, which forced him to continuously turn inside and play into the press. Some of the “passes” that were made were just suicidal - many players were guilty of this, and nobody was working off the ball to provide options.
Piroe’s limitations are becoming apparent. When a 20+ goal scorer is not snapped up by a higher level club, they obviously see something about him that’s too negative to tolerate. It’s starting to show. He’s missing free headers on a regular basis. He can’t and doesn’t show as a target man to receive and hold, or receive and layoff one or even two touch. This denies us long ball options. He doesn’t have speed off the mark or genuine pace - so forget the ball over the top that is Obafemi’s bread and butter. In short he’s too easy to defend unless the defender is Darling-esque. This means he’s living on last season’s output and Martin has to recognize that that may have been an aberration and focus on the here and now. This season he’s a damp squib. Obafemi, for his limitations, can and has been more impactful. Cullen has never been given a chance ,.. another Cooper perhaps but we’ll never know.
Last edited:
Some stats if you can bear to read them:
POSSESSION: 28-72 SHOTS: 9-14 OT: 4-4 CORNERS: 2-7 FOULS: 11-8 GOALS: 1-0
Given our horrendous first half, generally not a bad set of figures excepting the last one. For me PNE are a desperately bad side good only at defending. But then a decent LOW team wouldn't concede too many with ten behind the ball. I don't want to go on repeating what we all know and what's been posted here several hundred times BUT:
We MUST start playing with more pace and Oko MUST start as he's got both pace and trickery to beat a man. The latter is such a valuable asset because once a defender is beaten the rest of them become disorganised in trying to cover the gap that's been left.
Now that Piroe is badly off the boil Cullen MUST be given his chance - and by that I mean that he should be picked to start every game for at least a half dozen outings to give him the chance to get up to match speed/fitness and for his team mates to learn what service he needs to score. And he WILL score if he consistently gets that service.
Our defenders MUST be coached to pass the ball accurately under pressure and coached repeatedly until their eyes bleed. Last night, for instance, Cabango at times looked like he couldn't find the proverbial barn door from 5 paces let alone 10.
There are other things such as fitness, attitude and the like that I could expand on but frankly I'm pissed off at having to write about them yet again and we're all pissed off with having to read them over and over. If Martin and his coaching staff were addressing these problems then we wouldn't have to moan about them, so I wish they'd just get off their arses and start dealing with them.
POSSESSION: 28-72 SHOTS: 9-14 OT: 4-4 CORNERS: 2-7 FOULS: 11-8 GOALS: 1-0
Given our horrendous first half, generally not a bad set of figures excepting the last one. For me PNE are a desperately bad side good only at defending. But then a decent LOW team wouldn't concede too many with ten behind the ball. I don't want to go on repeating what we all know and what's been posted here several hundred times BUT:
We MUST start playing with more pace and Oko MUST start as he's got both pace and trickery to beat a man. The latter is such a valuable asset because once a defender is beaten the rest of them become disorganised in trying to cover the gap that's been left.
Now that Piroe is badly off the boil Cullen MUST be given his chance - and by that I mean that he should be picked to start every game for at least a half dozen outings to give him the chance to get up to match speed/fitness and for his team mates to learn what service he needs to score. And he WILL score if he consistently gets that service.
Our defenders MUST be coached to pass the ball accurately under pressure and coached repeatedly until their eyes bleed. Last night, for instance, Cabango at times looked like he couldn't find the proverbial barn door from 5 paces let alone 10.
There are other things such as fitness, attitude and the like that I could expand on but frankly I'm pissed off at having to write about them yet again and we're all pissed off with having to read them over and over. If Martin and his coaching staff were addressing these problems then we wouldn't have to moan about them, so I wish they'd just get off their arses and start dealing with them.
CroJack
Key Player
Naughton, Ntcham, Cundle & Fulton forward passes in the final third against Preston
The blue dots are the starting position for the passes
Oko-Flex, Paterson, Obafemi and Cooper forward passes in the final third against Preston
This gif shows the difference
Paterson and Oko-Flex were impressive,
Cooper and Obafemi were not involved much
The blue dots are the starting position for the passes
Oko-Flex, Paterson, Obafemi and Cooper forward passes in the final third against Preston
This gif shows the difference
Paterson and Oko-Flex were impressive,
Cooper and Obafemi were not involved much