sonicyouth
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Posts: 22352
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« on: Wednesday, December 8, 2004, 23:01:15 » |
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Everything about tonight was awful. I honestly cannot find a single positive from anything that happened and it's nigh on impossible to be optimistic for Saturday, let alone the rest of the season.
What's gone wrong? This time last week we were celebrating spanking Bristol City in a vintage performance, coming off the back of two or three good results against Sheff Wed and Hull. We looked to be turning the corner and getting some form together, our defence was solid, we were playing lovely football, the atmosphere was great and the attendances were on the up again. Yet here we are less than a week later and we're playing like a team scrapping for survival in the Conference. It's more or less the same eleven players as well which makes it even more frightening, how can players who have been superb suddenly turn into complete rubbish? How can crowds suddenly drop below the 5,000 mark and quieter than a funeral? It's beyond comprehension.
Let's not pull any punches, we were utterly fucking shite tonight. Saturday was pretty bad but tonight was just awful and I refuse to take any solace in the fact we improved slightly in the last 20 minutes or so. All eleven players on the pitch tonight were below par and there is simply no excuse for it. Their confidence has gone, in the past couple of games we've come out and been on the backfoot almost immediately, our heads go down and the game continues in this vein. The lads simply haven't been starting games with any zest or passion, it's as if they'd rather be sat in the dressing room still. Why is this? Lack of motivation perhaps? I find that difficult to believe, one thing you can't accuse King of is lacking in passion - the bloke overflows with it. Are the players not good enough? One or two maybe, but for the most part we have players that would get into any team in this division and many above it yet they continue to underperform - or if they do perform, it's inconsistently - yet what can King do? It's not as if he can bring anyone else in as the players on the bench, bar Nicholas, are nothing better than the first eleven. I don't believe for a second that throwing youngsters in the deep end is a good idea, what proof do you have that they want it? We don't know if they've got the desire, it's perfectly likely they don't and I personally feel that's a large factor in why so many players don't make the grade anymore, at clubs all over the country.
Something needs to be done. The problem with the midfield is glaringly obvious and a switch back to 4-4-2 is neccesary as the only benefit it gave us was the ability to play all three centre-backs, which is now an irrelevance as Ifil will be missing for at least three games - not that he deserves a starting place on Saturday after his performance before his sending off - and a switch back to a 4-4-2 formation should at least give us a bit more solidarity in the midfield again, stick Nicholas in at left-back, Howard on the left wing and push Duke up on the right-wing. The absence of Miglioranzi is still a huge problem but any hope of seeing him back in first team action this side of 2005 is beyond optimistic. I've got every confidence that Kingy will be working hard to bring in a player during the next few days or at least before the Notts County game.
However, this would simply be a temporary measure. The midfield issue is not going to disappear once Miglioranzi is back, it will continue to haunt us until we find a midfielder capable of doing the simple things: tackle, pass and hold the ball up. Hewlett, for all his faults, works fucking hard and usually puts in a decent performance most weeks but he's simply not good enough for this level and neither is Robinson. The sooner we find a midfielder to partner Miglioranzi in the centre of midfield the better, until then I think this season will be a total write-off.
Furthermore, why are players like O'Hanlon, Parkin, Roberts and Howard performing so poorly? They've been our best players this season yet in the past two games they've all been awful. O'Hanlon was at fault for at least one of the goals tonight and he's looking nervous - much like he did at the start of the season - whereas Parkin has gone back to his lazy ways and Roberts is showing very little. Of course, you can't expect the forwards to do much if they don't get the ball but what hope have they got if Howard doesn't perform? There's no doubting that he's a very talented football, regardless of his attitude, and when he's on form we're a bloody good team. He's been inconsistent this year and whether he's capable of playing central midfield is open for debate but when the defence hoofs the ball over his head all the time, how can he influence the game and perform at a level he is capable of doing?
That leads us to the question of why the defence keep hoofing the ball up the pitch all the time? It only happens when they're lacking in confidence, when we're under pressure, when we start games poorly. If we start games well and come out raring to go then we usually play good football- as we did against Hull and City - but as soon as heads drop, the ball is just hoofed up over the midfield. It's quite obvious that this problem is the midfield and we've been playing more long ball shite with 3-5-2 than we were when playing 4-4-2. The defenders just don't have the confidence in the midfield's capability of holding on to the ball, so they'd rather put their foot through the ball and send it sailing over the midfielders and leave Parkin/Roberts/Fallon to deal with it. This simply isn't playing to our strengths as we've shown constantly and consistently over a period of time, that when we get the ball down and pass it around we can completely annihilate teams. Again, this points us to the type of midfielder we need - somebody who can hold onto the ball, use it and also win it back if we do lose it.
I'm sick of hearing people calling for King's head as well. I really don't think a change of manager would do us any good whatsoever, I've more or less given up hope on this season but whilst we are underachieving it's ludicrous to sack a manager who has done pretty well on a small budget and in difficult circumstances. This season is a write-off, we need to consolidate and improve the squad and look towards next season. What we don't need to do is ruin the stability at the club that has only been recently achieved by upheaving the manager and the structure he has built. The club is moving forward, albeit slowly, and now would not be a good time to change it all around. Does anybody honestly think that if a new manager came in tomorrow we'd get promoted this season? I don't. The problem isn't the management, it's the midfield, which is the manager's problem.
Strange how I'm not really gutted tonight. I just sat and watched most of the game in disbelief, incapable of comprehending the ineptitude of some of our players and alternately laughing and screaming bloody murder at the referee. It's a funny old game.
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