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Just think that beacuse Benson has been such a good target man for us that we are becomming a little bit too predictable, much that same way Everton were with duncan ferguson and that we are more frequently mssing our midfeild out. Benson would be my first striker on the team sheet as he is a good target man, good in the six yard box and has collected a decent amount of goals for himself, just sometimes get the impression that he is an easy option for the other players and their first thought of what to do with the ball making us a liitle bit too predictable.

Also think that the idea of playing our wide boys on the wrong side so that they can cut in has blown a bit. Everytime ritchie or rooney have the ball the oppositions full back is showing them outside and covering the cutting in option as both rooney and ritchie are not great with their other foot.

Also I never realised how important caddis was to ritchie as since he has been injured ritchie has certainly missed him and been below par.

I dont have any answers and I will leave that too DiCanio but just thought I would mention a few of my observations over the last month or so.

My observation is we're going up as fucking champions and one defeat doesn't mean all of a sudden our game doesn't work.

We won a bigger game only last Tuesday.

Ritchie was below par even before Caddis got injured.

No reference was made to the last defeat and this was not the reason we got beat either. It was an observation I had made over the last month or two. I was certainly not pushing the "We're Doomed Button". Yes we are going up as champions as the opposition in this league is cerainly nothing to trouble us. I just think swindon are a better team that can play though the midfield as they have done more so in the past. With the success of Benson it just seemed that we were using this tactic more and more.

We're lacking a pacey poacher type that can play off Benson. Like Austin did with Paynter.

Im hoping we have some room to manouver in the transfer market in the summer and we can pick off some of the better players from teams that miss out on promotion. Much like swindon almost certainly loosing Ritche if we dont get promoted. Even though as a whole the opposition in this league is poor there are a few decent players that would be worth picking off, pack of cheltenham being an example.

We're top of the league for fucks sake. All these comments about getting new players etc, playing them in different positions is really pissing me off. Why change it after losing one game? It hasn't done us any harm in the league...

I have to agree with that totally.

He's been off his game for a few months now. He started the season so well but has not been the same player since January and although he still adds something I wouldn't be too gutted if he left.

If he gets another 2 assists on Saturday as he did vs Torquay then he's doing alright by me.

As long as he doesn't play like he did against Oxford on Saturday he'll do alright by me.

The times Richie struggles is when the opposition play him as they should. Even then he still has the ability of pulling something out of the bag. He still creates and i don't buy into him having lost form.
He was reluctant to outside of his man on sunday and it is the biggest flaw in his game and why he isn't playing in the championship.
Still a potent weapon for us and i like him playing on the right. Fortunately, most of the time he is far better than the defender he is up against.
Deffo needs a full back with him who can bomb on and fire in crosses with their natural right foot to get the best out of the right hand side of the pitch.

I remember DV saying that wingers shouldn't play on the opposite wing of their natural foot. And being critical of that system.

Ritchie is still the key man. He hasn't been as effective going forward recently but don't underestimate the amount of work he does for the team.

It's no surprise that he gets double and even triple marked at times. But while they worry about him it gives Rooney or Holmes a better chance.

Our main issue lately imo has been our fullbacks.I think it's easy to sometimes not realise that Caddis acts as a 5th midfielder and with teams doubling up on Ritchie on the right and Rooney/Holmes on the left it usually allows us to take teams apart.

Which is why in the other thread I said I would have Macca at RB, he's more likely to get forward than Devera is.

As was evident on Sunday. Ritchie was double marked and our only out ball was Ritchie inside to Ferry who'd then hit it cross-field to Holmes. With an overlapping fullback it gives the opposition something else to think about.

Exactly. We did this once and Devera got in behind, really easily. Just a shame we couldn't exploit it more.

As our game plan seems to be having 2 wingers and getting crosses into the box, it seems logical we need a big unit type striker to get on the end of them.

While Benson is a superb 'layer-off' he really hasn't got a physical presence.

The problem with this, obviously, is the easy option of just hoofing it forward.

But all season we have 'suffered' from not having a goalscorer - have never really twatted a team this season when some of our football warranted it

You say we need a big unit up front but to me that would just encourage hoofball. One of Bensons strong points is getting on the end of crosses, hense the amount of goals he scores close in. We hardly ever revert to hoofball because we know we are getting results by playing football. The sides in division two with the big beefy strikers will play hoofball but if we continue to play football and get plenty of crosses into the box we will continue to pick up enough points for promotion, hopefully as champions.

Have to admit Kerry i don't agree with the Benson point.I hand on heart think if he had a preseason with us we would of had 25plus goals from him.

Still not a huge fan of it.

...and I certainly dont think sticking to it as rigidly as Di Canio does is always good thing. I would have definitely swapped them over at half time for 10 minutes on Sunday.

Also think Benson would be up there with the leading scorers if he had been with us from the start and think he will be scoring regularly next season with us in division one. Not saying we won't bring in another striker next season but if we do I think it will be to play with Benson and not instead of him.

Still would have had 2 left footers on the flanks so i don't think it would have done much good. If we had right footed wide player on the opposite flank then maybe it would have been worthwhile. Don't think Di canio got it wrong personally. We were well on top going into half time too

Our fullbacks are so vital for us. We really have missed Caddis. He overlaps every chance he gets. I've noticed in recent weeks that Cibocchi overlaps as well but half the time when Rooney was playing he would just cut in and shoot as opposed to pass to Cibo. We really missed Cibo on Sunday. The new guy just didn't get forward at all at LB and that meant that our wings didn't have much threat at all. They had our forwards sussed and we had no plan B.

I do worry we're becoming too predictable a bit like we did in 09/10.

We do appear to be losing some potency of late. Fortunately, however, PDC does seem to acknowledge these things and tries to fix them.

Agreed, 3 defeats in a row away from the County Ground does seem to suggest some teams have worked us out but like you say PDC does appear to be aware of this and is doing something about it. Unlike certain ex-managers.

Its the way it goes at this time of year IMHO. We are top of the league, have a relative big budget and have PDC as manager. Everyone wants to topple us off out perch, some are fighting for promotion or against relegation.

That is why the wins against Torquay, Southend, Shrewsbury and Cheltenham have been impressive. Sometime the performances may have been patchy but we found a way to win when the chips are down in the league.

As Fergie said about Man U, every game from here on in is going to be a battle.

Good thread with some great points.

On the first goal in the final Ritchie got skinned for the cross leading to the opener,he spent far to much time backtracking and worrying about them.
I feel we play to deep at times and expect the wingers to be tracking down the wings from deep inside our own half.....that is why Caddis is so good because he usually brings the ball out and gives it to the wide men further upfield....Ritchie is a much better player with Caddis in the team bombing forward to help him.
I also think the benefits of Ferry is being lost as he seems to be playing a more defensive midfield game these days.....which is not knocking him because he is doing it bleeding well.
To be honest i feel we look a little jaded and three cup runs has caught us up along with nearly a season of footy.

I don't think there is any need to dwell on Sunday's performance - as a team and individual players. Even though the performance was poor overall, we still managed to create huge amounts of space and get crosses into the box. If we continue to do this against mid-table League 2 teams we will get rewards.

If the same team plays like it did last Tuesday in four of the remaining nine games we should get automatic promotion, and possibly top spot, although I think Crawley's form and run-in will see them go up as champions.

The only worry I have is that Sunday's result and performance will have a negative affect on the team (and the fans). If we lose against Rovers then the pressure will start to increase, with the fear that we might blow it. However, we've bounced back from defeat before, and it is easy to forget the position we were in at the start of the season.

Was Agent Mehdi sent to Shropshire this evening?