Gunning

For me, Gunning was a bit out of it during the early stages of the game but then got more involved as the first half went on and he did a decent job helping out the defence,especially in the air. I was a little disappointed by his distribution and the accuracy of his clearances when he did get the ball. Just aimlessly whacked away more often than not. If he continues to play that role, I hope we'll see improvement in this area in future games.

Quoted from Tommy

Thought it was quite clear from the off he was playing as a deep-sitting midfielder yesterday. In front of a back 4.

And he was positionally very good. Screened the back 4, dropped deep when the full backs went forward (allowing then to effectively play as wing-backs) and was there to stand right in front of the Mansfield striker they kept lumping the ball up to. With Gunning on his toes and Collins/Pearson goalside right behind him he had no chance of winning headers.

I don't see how anybody can disagree with this post. It was a very good piece of management to play him in front of the back4. When you play this system it stops the 2 centre backs being drawn forward out of position. I don't know if people noticed that it allowed the 2 full backs to attack with Gunning dropping back when one of the centre backs covered the full backs. He played a very intelligent role yesterday - their forwards were completely nullified and all the team fitted into this new formation perfectly. I can see good times ahead.

Only problem may be how quick the centre halves tot up bookings in upcoming games ?

As one who feels that Gunning should not be in the team in front of Gowling or Boyce, yesterdays performance definately confused Mansfield as it did our defence and the crowd, going to head the same ball as Pearson and Collins was school boy stuff and his distribution was poor.
What he has is physicality and thats it, to say that he had understanding with the rest of the defence is IMO naive.

If Marcus insists in playing him, lets hope he proves me wrong, I don`t like to be negative on such a great effort by the team and management but I can`t just except that he really knew what he was doing yesterday.

Credit to Marcus as I reckon he out thought Evans with Gunning's position yesterday. We actually have a few players at the club who could take that role if required as well. The man sitting gave us a better balance I think and seemed to fit well with the FBs and mid field

I thought Gunning got to grips with it in the end despite some passes that he over cooked. One thing I would say from where I was sat his talking seemed to make a difference and helped keep us shape better

Gunning is a funny lad he even wanted to take the penalty apparently 😀

There's only one naive-There's only one naive-there's only one naive'  a lullaby to Garth  

I think he did a good job in there. With our formation, mansfield were always going to get crossing opportunities, so his physicality helped. There were also a few times were his brute strength really showed, easily out muscling people while he was actually on the ball.

I think he did ok yesterday, would like to see Maxwell in that role, with him being a Birmingham prodigy he might have physicality and technical ability whereas Gunning just looks like a thug who will scare players, his communication was dreadful yesterday as was his distribution.

Quoted from Mariner_09

I think he did ok yesterday, would like to see Maxwell in that role, with him being a Birmingham prodigy he might have physicality and technical ability whereas Gunning just looks like a thug who will scare players, his communication was dreadful yesterday as was his distribution.

Good call that on Maxwell, funny about the communication thing though we sit in the Upper Smiths/Youngs/Findus I though the talking was much better overall yesterday and some of that came from him? People in the lower and Ponny would have a better perspective though TBH.

Quoted from Mariner_09

I think he did ok yesterday, would like to see Maxwell in that role, with him being a Birmingham prodigy he might have physicality and technical ability whereas Gunning just looks like a thug who will scare players, his communication was dreadful yesterday as was his distribution.

It's about time we had a 'thug' in the team..
Every team we have played for the last few years has had one and in consequence we have been bullied out of a lot of games because of it.