Crawley Town vs Swindon Town Buildup & Matchday Thread

[Jimmy Quinn]

Good point but Evans is making them tick

[WEBBERhyde]

What I find so alarming is that it looks like any kind of attacking instinct in and around the penalty area or final third seems to have been coached out of the players. There weren’t loads of instances that I saw yesterday but at least a few where you would expect a player to get the shot off with half a yard of space, but instead, they have to take an extra touch or pass before inevitably getting closed down and concede possession.

There were times under garner where we were moaning that they seemed to want to walk the ball in, but this is a different level. I watched the two min highlights package the club puts on YouTube to check I didn’t miss anything, but not one Swindon attack making our own highlights package tells you everything you need to know. Fucking criminal.

Lindsay pre match talking about having a high number of entries into the box has boiled my piss thinking about it retrospectively. Whether it’s him or Sandro masterminding this I’m not sure, but I’ve seen enough to run out of confidence in the system. Tactically we are completely inept. Something needs to change.

[Bob's Orange]

This will be an interesting read back!!

After watching almost all of the World Cup, going back to League 2 football was somewhat of a comedown, that's not to say I didn't look forward to it before the game! I suspect a lot of what my thoughts are, have already been said. First half I can't really remember a lot of note, a few teasing balls into the box by Gladwin was about it. Gladders looked a bit dawdly to me - he got dispossessed a few times taking too long on it.

Second half was a bit 'better' Darcy came on and we seemed to have a little bit more urgency, unfortunately what is appearing to be our Achilles Heel conspired as Darcy had a great opportunity to run into the box and square/cross to the waiting Jeff Cott, only to put the bloody ball out for a throw in. Later on, Shade was also in acres of space wide left which led to absolutely nothing. And then of course, when we were 'on top' (this was merely us being slightly better than an appalling Crawley side) we conceded a fluky goal. I guess the mantra is, if you don't buy a ticket, you won't win the lottery and a shot on target from a corner deflected in past a flat-footed Brynn. A woeful second (finished well to be fair) followed after terrible play by Reed and that was that. Sad to see Khan stretchered off, was a bit worried, but saw a tweet that he has been released from hospital so that's good news all around. I guess he will be out for a couple of weeks for concussion protocols etc?

And so we are 20 games into the season and sit in 9th. If we go on a good run we move into the play-offs, if we go on a poor run we slip down to mid-table and below. What looks most likely at the moment is the latter unfortunately. I would say I am one of the more patient members of the fanbase but I'm really starting to lose the goodwill for our management team. After fashioning a 4-diamond-2 away to Mansfield that worked a treat, SL has gone back to dour 3-5-2 which has seen us CRASH out of the cup and pick up 1 point in 3 games which on paper seemed very winnable. Yes, we missed Jonny Williams and having him back after the World Cup will be like having a new player but for me it's the same problems that we have had all season. And that is that we just don't look a dangerous team at all - when we get into the final third, we never seem to work the keeper, (unless it's to collect a loopy cross) we just seem to be going through the motions. Take our corner 'routines', this is basically to either play it short or lob it in the box and hope FBT get his head on it.

It just doesn't feel right at the moment under SL and I'm not sure it's going to change. He seems dead set in his ways to play 3-5-2 even though it has Garnered (yes, I went there!) not very many points. With our attacking players we really should be doing a lot better at the moment the happiest member of the visiting sides is whoever does their goalkeepers laundry, as they are the most unused thing on the pitch. Reed has gone backwards, (suspect there is mitigating circumstances) we are conceding stupid sloppy goals and present zero danger going forward. A side containing Wakeling, Jeff Cott, Jonny Williams, Ben Gladwin etc should be causing defences nightmares and it really isn't, it's just too easy to defend against us. SL has to turn this around. If nothing changes over Christmas, then I think Clem and Rob Angus really need to look at a change being made.

[Briggany]

Over the past five season managers have tried a back 3 with wing backs and every single time it has failed. Then we switch to a back 4 and suddenly we start picking up points and put in some good performances. Then for some unknown reason we switch to a back 3 with wing backs and we turn to shit switching to a back 4 again to late to make a difference to our season.

I simply don't understand why this happens every season. We know its doesn't work and yet we continually try to play this piss poor formation.

4 at the back
1 holding midfielder
one attacking midfield
two wingers and two strikers.

4-1-3-2 is what's going to start delivering decent performances in my opinion. I'm using my armchair managing badges here though 

[Bob's Orange]

I really felt that we had stumbled onto something away at Mansfield, but we haven’t played that way since, or seemingly tried to.

Since then it’s P4, GF 1, GA 8 and only managed 6 shots on target in that time. By any measure that’s a travesty.

What is the attacking plan? Because it clearly is not working.

Why drop the 4 diamond 2 immediately? The mood after Mansfield must have been buoyant, surely you go again with similar tactics.

Really deflating period for us. If we do miss out on promotion again, (and that looks a given at the moment) I think this is the period of the season we will end up reflecting on as the point it was lost.

I hope I’m made to look stupid, but that is 4 fairly shit performances in a row, it’s hard to get past the recency bias.

I can't remember which episode it was, but Joe thingmy on the Loathed Strangers podcast that does the presser episodes asked SL about the 4-Diamond-2-formation and he said he doesn't see it as a permanent formation, merely one that could be used for 45 minutes here and there.

I'm not totally sure he's right and his subsequent stubbornness not to use it is biting him in the arse and firing us down the table.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Seriously seriously dire. Not sure its even worth expanding on. Proper shite.

[MangoRed]

Spineless, weasel like and all round shit performance from start to end. Getting bored of it. Pointless talking about the game, same old shit, if anything, worse than usual. This team ain’t getting autos, and right now you can forget the play offs come May (anything less than top 3 is  a failure this season). Top 3 sides miles better sides than us, Orient got the best manager in league. We’ve got an average squad with a bang average manager. Been split all season but pretty convinced these players/management ain’t got it in them to go up.

It’s even worse when you lose away like that to gutter clubs like Crawley.
Need a miracle in January and for the others to fall off.

[Robinz]

With all the media hype and what formation we should or shouldn't be doing. Diamond this and a flat back four that.
I really don't f*cking care. I just want to be entertained and surprised with some quality football possibly a few goals scored with some passion thrown in as well.
Is this to much to ask for?

[Robinz]

If I want to watch a game of chess i could go to a local library. Even a darts tournament has far more attitude than watching Swindon currently.