Swindon Town V Leeds Matchday Thread.

[normy]

Looks like we're stuffed this season. Ifil and Aljofre between them make more basic mistakes and misplaced hoofs than any other central pair in other teams I can remember, for some seasons. (Or so it seems to me).   This is messing up other parts of the team performance, IMO. Can't see a solution at the moment. Leeds were mostly playing it out from deep defence, while we, with the extra man, were lumping it up to Paynter/Cox, who did quite well but had little support. Against a good strong organised team, I didn't think the others played too badly, but success means not making basic mistakes in defence as a starting point, and I think we are almost waiting for it to happen now.

[Bogus Dave]

I thought we looked quite good at the start when we were playing balls into the channels for cox and paynter. They had paul telfer playing at the back ffs!

[Lash_sumthin]

put it in up top today let down by defensive mistakes and a superb save by their keeper at 2-1. Delph ran the show didnt really notice they only had 10 men they moved it about so well. Didn't turn up first half either. whens vincent back?

[sonic youth]

the wise old man normy speaks sense. jerel and hasney is quickly becoming a kamikaze partnership and i lack confidence in them. however, the full backs did "okay" today and smith's error was absolutely criminal.

today's game was a catalogue of errors, not all of them punished. passing was poor and we gave away posession too often when trying to play out from the back, intercepted passes setting up attacks for leeds - we need to be more decisive and assured with the ball. not resort to hoofing it which destroys the gameplan and doesn't give our best player any chance to get in the game. however, with aljofree and ifil's distribution we're fucked.

i don't see how we can stop these individual errors but they're going to kill us. malpas can only do so much, once a player goes out on the pitch and makes elementary mistakes then it's damage limitation. i can't see how it is a lack of confidence when we can go to places like MK and win 2-1 or how players like cox, paynter, nalis, macnamee can play so well even when we're poor.

god forbid, do we miss vincent that much? phil smith is a shadow of the keeper he was sadly. is jerel returning to the ways of old when he played with such low confidence that he was a constant liability?

the game aside, our fans are mentally deficient.

[Nemo]

Is it bad that the thing I was most dissapointed about was their third ruining my prediction league streak?

I actually thought we played alright, bar two of the most hilariously inept bits of defending/keeping I've ever seen.

[Rich Pullen]

What does Malpas do though? Does he spend the whole of Monday (unless they're in tomorrow) teaching our players the complete basics?

Swindon Town are consistantly inconsistant... We have been for many, many years - it's no excuse, especially as our major let down is the bread-and-butter stuff. I'm looking at the division and I'm seeing more clubs in our situation than those who are not.

It's early days but we must get it sorted... I would like to see some competition for the defenders in the form of a loan signing...

13,000 today and I'm sure we didn't impress the day trippers which is disappointing.

[glos_robin]

I aint being funny but I said a few weeks ago that Smith is massively overrated in goal and he is just proving the point time and time again. With Smith not upto it and Brez horribly off form we have a keeper crisis which is unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg when it comes  to our problems. Everything Smith had to do today he pretty much fucked up. I don't know where this bollocks about him commanding his box came from..........the goal, dropping that cross, that pass back near the end it was just amateurish. He's a nice bloke but not really upto the job and unfortunately the same can be said about a large % of our players at the moment and most worryingly of all they seem devoid of any form of team spirit.

[THE FLASH]

Didnt go yesterday....had my daughter up and a 25th Aniv'y party to attend...whoop,whoop!

Listened on the Wireless and to be fair i could hear the mistakes coming........so i feel for you poor sods who had to watch it and SEE it coming!

Very worrying.as i have said before........We have a manager with international defensive experience, an experienced defensive coach and experienced defenders......so why is the defence a liability??

Im back for the Millwall game and looking forward to it.......and an improvement at the back.

PS...lets stop the players running off their mouths to the press about 'clean sheets' - Slags keep cleaner sheets than us!!!!!!!

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

What does Malpas do though? Does he spend the whole of Monday (unless they're in tomorrow) teaching our players the complete basics?

He might run out of ideas soon which is a worry. He's probably done shit loads to try and buck the defences ideas up.

[dell boy]

He might run out of ideas soon which is a worry. He's probably done shit loads to try and buck the defences ideas up.

An ideal way of getting results is to have a consistent starting 11, Malpas has made many changes to try and get that elusive clean sheet and he must do it again.
Ifil needs a rest, I've always been a big fan of his but he has gone stale, I thought he gave up yesterday.
Morrison must be given a run, not just the one game.
As much as like Cox and Paynter combination, it might be time to grind results out and play five across the middle and one upfront at the moment the midfield couldn't win a tiddlywinks match.

[RobertT]

Having watched the INDIVIDUAL errors from the last 2 home games I'm not sure there is much Malpas can do.  It's not a defensive system or coaching problem, it's absolutely school boy errors costing us goals.  All 3 yesterday were down to individuals not being decisive.  The only answer is a change of personnel I believe, which means a forray into the Loan Market asap for a centre half at the very least.

Ifil has had more than enough time to mature and show individual responsibility for the errors in his game, but he continues to make them and distribute the ball like it's a hot potato filled with helium.  Aljofree just doesn't do it for me, loses too many headers, equally poor distribution and doesn't as far as I can see LEAD anyone anywhere.  Shame, because both are comitted, seem to be trying and from time to time pull off cracking recovery challenges, but the two together simply will not work.

Smith in goal is not working.  He's too prone to bouts of complete confidence loss.  His games where he pulls off great saves are matched by yesterdays performance.  Brez has not played well, but has to be number one when available.

If the core of the defensive area are making such howlers, and it's part of their natural game to do so, we are in trouble.  We'll get games like Colchester & Leeds, and then a few games where it seems to work and we get some draws or wins.

Time to change them.  Smith unfortunately I fear has had his chance now and must be a back-up option.  Ifil and Aljofree require a steady eddy to partner them, and he doesn;t exist in the squad unless Vincent can do it.  Neither should play together unless there is no other option, we need a replacement in to provide the assurity at the back that is needed.  The rest of the team is good enough to hold it's own.  We can argue about Timlin vs Easton, or McGovern vs Marshall/Easton, but in all truthfullness, any of the options should be ok for League 1.  We created enough to win a game yesterday.  We have to concentrate on getting the solid base and quick, and I don't see that any Manager can get that with our current options in the back of the spine of the team.

[blinkpip]

I would like to see Easton and Timlin giving the chance in the centre. Nalis been alright, but with high tempo game yesterday, I thought we needed Beastie and Timlin with they're up and down work rate.

Bloody Beckford a dirty cunt, having little hacks at players off the ball.

[DV]

so, basically what were all saying is

our players who start are shit and ones not playing are better.

If Malpas does do and suggest drop Smith, JPM, Nalis, Aljofree & Ifil next week we'll be saying how great they are and how rubbish Brez, Timlin, Easton, Morrison and Kanyuka are....

[Don Rogers Shop]

No we are saying we are conceding too many fucking goals and yesterday lacked creativity,desire and spirit and would like to know why

[RobertT]

so, basically what were all saying is

our players who start are shit and ones not playing are better.

If Malpas does do and suggest drop Smith, JPM, Nalis, Aljofree & Ifil next week we'll be saying how great they are and how rubbish Brez, Timlin, Easton, Morrison and Kanyuka are....

I was actually suggesting that all the defenders who play in the middle have the same problem, so swapping them won;t make much difference.  We wither change formation and/or style or find new players, which I admit is easier said than done.