Just back

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Well said. Teams who come down will always have better/better paid players and Robins is a decent manager at L1/L2 level. We were missing Vernon, Asante, Mills, Osbourne, Clements, McAlister, Kelly & Clifton yesterday and we were still in the game up to 68 minutes. Then we concede a soft goal and Slade becomes the Devil Incarnate because he dares to set up solid against a team with better players than ours. One up front with three supporting behind is potentially more attacking than a 442 and I suspect that Mourinho will set ManU up the same today with 3 behind Lukaku.

But Slade appears to have reverted to " hoofball " judging by the first half so surely two players up front would have been more constructive. I doubt Mourinho will set up Manure to play " hoofball".

Chaos makes some good points and they are similar to my thoughts on things. Everybody has their ideas on who and what we should be playing but there is no evidence that we would have done any better with Vernon or Jones up front and a winger on the side Jones occupied. You can rant and rave all you like about the merits, or otherwise of Berrett and Summerfield but those are the players we have available and Slade is the man to make the decisions, whether we agree or not. Basically, we have the budget we've got, the players we've got and the management team we've got. Sometimes the other team just has better or performs better on the day. We could play the same players in the same formation next home game and win 3-0, that's football.

I'm not a big fan of the way Slade sets up his teams and the way he has them play, but he is the manager and you have to trust that after 800 odd games, he knows a bit about how to gather the most points with the players he has at his disposal. We can all say after the event that he should have done this that or the other, but do we really believe that we know more about tactics and players capabilities than he and Wilko do?

We will lose games, it's a given. What we hope is that we win enough to first be safe from battling at the wrong end, and second that we get enough to trouble the top 7. It's way too early to judge at the moment and when players are all fit, or we have another signing or two, things could look completely different. We may have an entirely different starting 11 in a months time. McAllister, Vernon, Osborne, Asante, Clements all unavailable yesterday, two players making their debuts as subs, Dembele playing in only his second full time game. Cardwell, who is 20 years old and has little experience thrown in at the last minute. It was too much too soon for him and he struggled against a decent back line; not his fault.

Quoted from ginnywings

Chaos makes some good points and they are similar to my thoughts on things. Everybody has their ideas on who and what we should be playing but there is no evidence that we would have done any better with Vernon or Jones up front and a winger on the side Jones occupied. You can rant and rave all you like about the merits, or otherwise of Berrett and Summerfield but those are the players we have available and Slade is the man to make the decisions, whether we agree or not. Basically, we have the budget we've got, the players we've got and the management team we've got. Sometimes the other team just has better or performs better on the day. We could play the same players in the same formation next home game and win 3-0, that's football.

I'm not a big fan of the way Slade sets up his teams and the way he has them play, but he is the manager and you have to trust that after 800 odd games, he knows a bit about how to gather the most points with the players he has at his disposal. We can all say after the event that he should have done this that or the other, but do we really believe that we know more about tactics and players capabilities than he and Wilko do?

We will lose games, it's a given. What we hope is that we win enough to first be safe from battling at the wrong end, and second that we get enough to trouble the top 7. It's way too early to judge at the moment and when players are all fit, or we have another signing or two, things could look completely different. We may have an entirely different starting 11 in a months time. McAllister, Vernon, Osborne, Asante, Clements all unavailable yesterday, two players making their debuts as subs, Dembele playing in only his second full time game. Cardwell, who is 20 years old and has little experience thrown in at the last minute. It was too much too soon for him and he struggled against a decent back line; not his fault.

Everybody sat around me was saying that 15 mins before kick off and even more so 10 mins into the game we could all see how it would pan out when we saw the line up and then how we set up.

Just watched extended highlights,confirmed just how ineffective we were.

Quoted from Madeleymariner

Everybody sat around me was saying that 15 mins before kick off and even more so 10 mins into the game we could all see how it would pan out when we saw the line up and then how we set up.

Best get your CV into John Fenty then.

Clifton was one of the first to sign a new contract if I recall.

Real shame he's been injured as I think he would've finally got his chance. Not sure we'll ever see McAllister play a run of games for us, Osborne is out and although I like Clements, im not sure he is a Slade type player..

Why is it that the management can't see that Jones doesn't work out wide? Why can't they put him in the middle and put Bolarinwa out wide?

What I also noticed yesterday was that when their defence won headers, there was a massive gap between our midfield and defence. Against a slow defence like ours, that's suicide.

Had a gander at the Cov forum too; noticed that the Astute fellow is relaying all his info back to his mates, keeping with his 'I'm right, you're wrong' schtick. Obviously their whole board thinks there's nothing with the free kick. Having a go at our players for some heavy challenges but later saying that they hoped their players were horrible to play against and it was good to have some fight for a change . Thought that they should have had about 3 penalties (I've checked, they only have a case for one). Finally, they're in ecstasy at winning two games in a row.

Having thought about yesterday, in my mind it comes down to one thing. We didn't start with the players that suited the formation we were playing - that are able to get us up the pitch. We had no genuine width or pace down the flanks. Jones isn't a wide player and as good as dembele is, we can't rely on him because he will soon get isolated and marked out the game.

Slade wants pace and power in a 4231 formation, but he didn't pick the players to suit this?? We shouldn't have started with Rose, Berrett AND summerfield. We only have space for two of these to sit in front of the back four. Jones should have been played behind the striker (in this natural position) in the middle of the 3, with any two of Kelly/Dembele/Bolarinwa/DJ who are all genuine wide players either side of him.

Slade bottled it by going too defensive and putting square pegs in round holes which completely cut off our attacking threat. We've finally established balance within the team and he never made use of it.

Quoted from Davec

Regarding Mitch Rose he certainly adds more energy to midfield but technically he looks rather poor

I like Mitch Rose. I think some fans misunderstand the role he is being asked to play which is holding midfielder in front of the back 4 to frustrate opposition attacks and he is doing this well. He is fairly quick and physically strong. Think of the good old fashioned shoulder charge he did to win us the ball or the countless times he closed players down and nicked the ball. We have not had someone like him for ages. Key player in my eyes. Only criticism he sometimes gets too deep and ends up on top of our central defenders going for the same ball. Otherwise get off his case!!

Quoted from oldun

I like Mitch Rose. I think some fans misunderstand the role he is being asked to play which is holding midfielder in front of the back 4 to frustrate opposition attacks and he is doing this well. He is fairly quick and physically strong. Think of the good old fashioned shoulder charge he did to win us the ball or the countless times he closed players down and nicked the ball. We have not had someone like him for ages. Key player in my eyes. Only criticism he sometimes gets too deep and ends up on top of our central defenders going for the same ball. Otherwise get off his case!!

Pointing out a strength then a weakness in his game is hardly me being on his case?