Barnsley V Swindon Town Official Matchday Thread

[BruceChatwin]

Need to sort out fullback positions, seem to look a shambles whoever plays there.

Hopefully we'll never see Kasim, Rogers, and Traore in the same midfield again.

Cooper's certainly got a lot of thinking to do, trying to fit this team together. We've got such quick, dynamic players up top now. Persisting with the same slow, pedestrian passing no longer looks like it plays to our strengths.

[FormerlyPlymRed]

Cooper's certainly got a lot of thinking to do, trying to fit this team together. We've got such quick, dynamic players up top now. Persisting with the same slow, pedestrian passing no longer looks like it plays to our strengths.

Not sure about that, playing that way means the opposition want to press us otherwise we will just pick passes off at will. With them pressing it means ajose/thomas etc will have space in behind which worked today at times. We definitely need to speed things up when in the final third

[BruceChatwin]

Not sure about that, playing that way means the opposition want to press us otherwise we will just pick passes off at will. With them pressing it means ajose/thomas etc will have space in behind which worked today at times. We definitely need to speed things up when in the final third

Maybe you're right. It looked horribly disjointed yesterday though. Doesn't seem the best use of our assets, to have so much threat up front, only for 90% of the play to be between GK and defenders, and to rely on Branco picking passes over the top from centre-half.

I think it's going to be a test of the possession philosophy, trying to fit in this many attackers. Based on Crewe and Barnsley, we're going to lose a lot of our control of the midfield, which our domination of has previously been a key part of the way we play.

Still very early days though.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Didn't think I'd ever say this, but I can't help but wonder if it would have been better if someone had come in for Kasim during the transfer window.

That thought had crossed my mind as well. If he carries on under performing though, Cooper's just got to be brave enough to drop him - and to be fair I think he will if the need arises.

Power playing 'Transfer Window Poker' where he gets players in right on, or even after the deadline clearly brings it's rewards. One obvious downside though is the fact that Cooper now has a brand new squad of players in the middle of September and is having to figure out what his best XI is and the best formation(s) and to get them all gelling as a cohesive unit. You would normally be looking to do this in mid-July against the likes of Supermarine and Petersfield.

So if you could figure all of that out by next Saturday Mark, that will be lovely thanks  

Edit: meant to quote Joteddy there - without it, that first paragraph makes no sense 

[THE FLASH]

That thought had crossed my mind as well. If he carries on under performing though, Cooper's just got to be brave enough to drop him - and to be fair I think he will if the need arises.

Power playing 'Transfer Window Poker' where he gets players in right on, or even after the deadline clearly brings it's rewards. One obvious downside though is the fact that Cooper now has a brand new squad of players in the middle of September and is having to figure out what his best XI is and the best formation(s) and to get them all gelling as a cohesive unit. You would normally be looking to do this in mid-July against the likes of Supermarine and Petersfield.

So if you could figure all of that out by next Saturday Mark, that will be lovely thanks 

Excellent post IMO.

A downside of Powers canny dealings is that we start the season late...there is enough quality to improve I'm sure of it.

Burton will not be easy next week...if we can stay top tennis has I reckon we could have a good season.

[Berniman]

Didn't think I'd ever say this, but I can't help but wonder if it would have been better if someone had come in for Kasim during the transfer window.

I have heard that they did, and we turned it down.  This could be the reason for the strop and poor performances of late..

[Skinny Pete]

A midfield 3 of Kasim, Rodgers and Traore is very samey. The reason why the build up is so slow and ponderous.


If we need, and we do, a midfielder spoiler it has to be Traore. Rodgers seems to attempt the difficult too often - obviously trying to impress - Kasim has lost/been caught in possession a lot in games this season that it appears his concentration isn't there.

If, as has been said by a few who went yesterday, the actual defence weren't too bad, then the finger has to be pointed at the midfield screener(s).

[brocklesby red]

I thought Barry had a good game yesterday,got some good tackles in but got sold a couple of times by Traore who has an annoying habit of playing short balls to a teammate who then gets clattered. The midfield was indeed ponderous and there seemed no urgency. I expected it to improve a bit when Louis came on but not a lot changed. Crap refereeing again which saw Louis get almost cut in half for a yellow and a few moments later, Louis himself get a yellow for a slight tug at a Barnsley player.

[Honkytonk]

Cooper said earlier in the season when there were bids for byrne etc. floating around that he would prefer the transfer window to finish first day of the season. You can understand why for precisely the reasons OST has said.

[Skinny Pete]

The only reason it doesn't is because it gives the elite clubs the chance to buy themselves out of a poor start.

[donkey]

I thought Barry had a good game yesterday,got some good tackles in but got sold a couple of times by Traore who has an annoying habit of playing short balls to a teammate who then gets clattered. The midfield was indeed ponderous and there seemed no urgency. I expected it to improve a bit when Louis came on but not a lot changed. Crap refereeing again which saw Louis get almost cut in half for a yellow and a few moments later, Louis himself get a yellow for a slight tug at a Barnsley player.

How the ref equated those two challenges is beyond me.

[Skinny Pete]

This is a pretty good summing up from a Barnsley fan

'I struggle to see how passing and moving about at a slow pace in areas that just don't have any effect on the game can be seen as playing tidy football, it's just time wasting. If you're going to " play the game in the right way" then it needs to be done at pace with plenty of attacking content and players that can also play with the ball their feet beating men and isolating players in dangerous areas, think Messi, Carzola, Robben, Silva, otherwise it just looks like they're running the clock down. pass and move football only looks good to me if its played at the right tempo and I very rarely see that at this level, it's mostly negative possession against banks of 5&4 with no real quality to break them down which nearly always results in a turn over of possession.'

[Batch]

he's got a point. though I'd add even Spain and Barcelona send me to sleep for large periods of their games.

[THE FLASH]

This is a pretty good summing up from a Barnsley fan

'I struggle to see how passing and moving about at a slow pace in areas that just don't have any effect on the game can be seen as playing tidy football, it's just time wasting. If you're going to " play the game in the right way" then it needs to be done at pace with plenty of attacking content and players that can also play with the ball their feet beating men and isolating players in dangerous areas, think Messi, Carzola, Robben, Silva, otherwise it just looks like they're running the clock down. pass and move football only looks good to me if its played at the right tempo and I very rarely see that at this level, it's mostly negative possession against banks of 5&4 with no real quality to break them down which nearly always results in a turn over of possession.'

The key point is 'at this level of football'...

The need to change your game to suit the opposition and go toe to toe in midfield is sadly lacking at times, thus, the defence becomes over run.

[REDBUCK]

Except where you can afford to put a team that competent in all departments and then you play in a specific way regardless of the opposition as the three promoted teams did last year.

Maybe two ways, one for home and one for away.