Swindon town V Hartlepool United official matchday thread

[DV]

McNamee defending?

must have missed that. Our wingers didnt get back once. For the most part we appeared to be playing 4-2-4.

[glos_robin]

I'm not going to pass much comment on today, it was shit and that's about the end of it.

It's status quo on our initial assessment of the squad at the beginning of the season. We need an attacking midfielder who will chip in with a few goals, a goalscoring forward and a consistant winger. Today we also missed the midfield/defence link man who will break up play but we have that one in the bag luckily with Douglas.
Left back is also proving to be a bit of a problem but out of the current options I would pick JLF everytime as he adds alot more than Kennedy does who I still think is nowhere near ready and the jury's still out if he will make it at all IMO. He seems to get away with a lot from the supporters for some reason whereas JLF gets hung for his every mistake (probably because he is local?). Both are young but JLF has more of the attributes to make it I feel.

[Summerof69]

Can't be arsed to read 12 pages, but I think they'll mostly say what I'm about to say :

Wilson played the wrong tactics all game and refused to change it, even though we were shite. We were lopsided as both McNamee and Tope can't defend, leaving both full backs exposed to their wide men, who had a field day in the first half. All it needed was for Wilson to make a change, Easton/Timlin for Hutchinson, who was absolute shite, and we would go back to a conventional 442, where we looked good at last week in the first 25 mins. In the second half they played 5 across the midfield to hold what they had, and turn the game into a scrappy game, which I want to forget very quickly, the sooner the better.

[Ralphy]

Worse game of the season. We were pretty damm awful. I can't think of much to say about the game to be honest, even my Cornish Pasty was cold.

Andy Monkhouse is a complete prick.

[chalkies_shorts]

We got out what we put in - fuck all. Hartleppol are a mid table side and they absolutely rogered us. They could have been 4 up at half time. Both full backs were dogshit and the centre backs marginally better. In terms of passing it was either hoof it up to one of their defenders or play a 2 yard ball back and forth. Could one of our fucking attackers actually receive the ball and turn and face the fucking goal instead of taking the easy, lazy option of playing it back.
Macca was MOM for me today but was the best of a bad bunch. JPM and Ferry were very ordinary.  . If we're gonig to have strikers run around all game but do fuck all then I'd rather have Austin or Macklin doing it.
If we weren't so desperate,I'd send all our loan players back. The front 3 just aren't natural goalscorers and unfortunately for Ferry he drifts in and out of games too much.
All in all a totally fucking depressing time that reminded me so much of that cunt Malpas.

[Crozzer]

Greer was complete and utter shit today, Cuthbert not much better. In the first half there was countless times when Hartlepool got in behind the defence and the marking was non-existent. In the second half there was 3 or 4 long balls played which weren't particularly dangerous yet somehow ended up with their player and the ball between our goal and our defence - Greer was the main culprit for this.

For the first 15 minutes Amankwaah was all over the place to the extent that it was impossible to tell what formation we were playing. It actually looked like a 3-4-3, which I thought was brave of Wilson until it turned out it was just Amankwaah played far too far upfield with the team being lopsided as a result.

How anyone can criticise McNamee is beyond me. He put in half a dozen decent crosses in the first half which was more than the rest of the team combined, and was defending pretty well. Our best player in the first half by some distance. He dropped out of the game a bit in the second half but was still one of our best due to the rest being so fucking shit.

My biggest problem with Tope is that he appears to be played out of position on the wing. Everytime he cut in with the ball he didn't seem to know whether he should be crossing it or heading for the goal and shooting and in the end he did neither. But I'd blame his poor performance on Wilson for failing to see that Tope is our best striker yet never playing him in that position.

Talking of strikers all four that we played today were shit and I doubt they would have scored even if they were still playing now. Hutchinson was terrible and always is. Revell runs around a lot but achieves little. Peacock did nothing. Paynter tried and there was some signs of brain activity but not much.

For my final criticism I'll come back to Wilson. His team selection and tactics are shit and the majority of the blame for todays performance lays firmly with him. His bizarre decisions make it difficult for the players to perform as well as they can. I really do wonder what the fuck he is thinking most of the time.

"Never ask a player to do anything they are not capable of."

Brian Clough

[Ralphy]

Callum Kennedy got a lesson in defending today. He was royally skinned alive by their winger.

[jonny72]

McNamee defending?

must have missed that. Our wingers didnt get back once. For the most part we appeared to be playing 4-2-4.

I was watching him and he was getting back, on a couple of occasions he got back quickly to cover the gap left by Amankwaah who had pushed up for example.

[DV]

surely he got a lesson in wing play then?

[Crozzer]

Can't be arsed to read 12 pages, but I think they'll mostly say what I'm about to say :

Wilson played the wrong tactics all game and refused to change it, even though we were shite. We were lopsided as both McNamee and Tope can't defend, leaving both full backs exposed to their wide men, who had a field day in the first half. All it needed was for Wilson to make a change, Easton/Timlin for Hutchinson, who was absolute shite, and we would go back to a conventional 442, where we looked good at last week in the first 25 mins. In the second half they played 5 across the midfield to hold what they had, and turn the game into a scrappy game, which I want to forget very quickly, the sooner the better.

The conventional 442 was fully discussed in this thread at HT.  I hope at Norwich, we play 442 with Timlin/Easton recalled (today it was insane not giving one of them playing time for match fitness reasons alone with Douglas out), for a Macca, Ferry, Timlin/Easton, JPM midfield, with Tope and Revell up front.

When players come on loan, the loaning clubs expect the loanees to play.  This can be a problem long term.  I hope that this is sorted by the end of January.

Long term, no Tope, Hutchinson, probably no Ferry.  As for Revell, pick whether Paynter or Revell is first choice and either not sign Revell, or sign Revell and allow Paynter to move on, wages too high for a benchwarmer.  If Charlie looks decent, decide which combination with Revell/Paynter works best.  As for Peacock, Sturrock is nobody's fool use in midfield as cover for whomever is injured or suspended and up front as cover/sub for who's left out of Revell and Paynter.  Then find another striker to compliment Revell/Paynter.  The lack of a replacement for Coxy has meant too many loans.

The defence doesn't work without Douglas in front of them, I hope in training this week they Douglasfy somebody.

[DV]

Lucas

Amankwaah
Cuthbert
Greer
LJF

Easton
JPM
Ferry
Timlin

Topi
Paynter

....is what I'd look at going for next week. JPM has been great in the middle so i'd leave him there and Easton has played wide right before. If it really isnt working these two can swap easily enough.

I feel our wingers defensive duties todays was seriously lacking. I'd play Timlin on the left to shore things up down our left.

Despite, what people thought today I'd try Topi upfront for 2 reasons. 1 he is actually a striker and 2 he has pace.

A few people have said, rightfully we still havent replaced a Cox like player. We seem to have enough support strikers but no goal scoring strikers. I dont think Topi is the answer to out goal scoring problems but he's probably best suited to give it go. If we get hammered he can drop in left midfield and we can go 4-5-1.

That leaves a bench of Smith, Morrison, Kennedy, McNamee, Peacock, Revell & Henshall (could be anyone really!!)

That gives us cover for each position and the ability to bring on and out and out winger if we need/want to. We can also mix around with the front pairing if we need to.

On a note about todays game. Revell is tall, which means we look for the long ball too often. Same thing happened with Rory Fallon. Tall striker = long ball.

[Stef Troll]

Lucas

Amankwaah
Cuthbert
Greer
LJF

Easton
JPM
Ferry
Timlin

Topi
Paynter

....is what I'd look at going for next week. JPM has been great in the middle so i'd leave him there and Easton has played wide right before. If it really isnt working these two can swap easily enough.

I feel our wingers defensive duties todays was seriously lacking. I'd play Timlin on the left to shore things up down our left.

Despite, what people thought today I'd try Topi upfront for 2 reasons. 1 he is actually a striker and 2 he has pace.

A few people have said, rightfully we still havent replaced a Cox like player. We seem to have enough support strikers but no goal scoring strikers. I dont think Topi is the answer to out goal scoring problems but he's probably best suited to give it go. If we get hammered he can drop in left midfield and we can go 4-5-1.

That leaves a bench of Smith, Morrison, Kennedy, McNamee, Peacock, Revell & Henshall (could be anyone really!!)

That gives us cover for each position and the ability to bring on and out and out winger if we need/want to. We can also mix around with the front pairing if we need to.

On a note about todays game. Revell is tall, which means we look for the long ball too often. Same thing happened with Rory Fallon. Tall striker = long ball.

Spot on

[JPC82]

disagree with DV on one point, id wouldnt have JPM and Ferry and a central 2 again, too lightweight, Easton in the middle to add that bite that we missed today without Douglas

[Luci]

If we weren't so desperate,I'd send all our loan players back. The front 3 just aren't natural goalscorers and unfortunately for Ferry he drifts in and out of games too much.
All in all a totally fucking depressing time that reminded me so much of that cunt Malpas.

with the utmost respect I disagree with the comment re Ferry. To me he has been a fantastic loan signing, knows how to pick a pass, calm on the ball, normally not scared to go in for challenges. Today he had a bad day as did the rest of them but overall he's been quality.

[Mexicano Rojo]

We met wilson today and he hopes to sign ferry in jan, doesnt know if he will be able to, but wants to give it a try.