Just back

Sure we've had a club captain and a team captain for a match before.

Why not let Macca be club captain and have an outfield player as team captain in the day?

Quoted from rancido

I've never liked the practice of having the goalie as a captain. It has to be an outfield player and preferably a central midfielder who can control the play and see what's going on all around. No slur on Macca but I don't think goalies should be captains.

The only goalkeeper captains who have been any good are those who never needed to do anything except pick up a trophy. Most of them were international team captains. The best captains are in midfield or defence. Strikers are lousy captains because their job is to be selfish and shouting at players about getting the ball to them makes it personal. Or, they stop being selfish which is what is happening gradually to Kane.

Macca is getting better with age why upset him by reliquuishing or watering down his captaincy.

If those players need any more guidence than the back up they have now on and off the field something is wrong.

Expieriienced players liike Hanson can still give advice to the young kids  

Some thoughts reinforced by Saturday's game.

Hendrie is looking less of a player this season than last. Too many defensive errors and not doing much going forward. He's not been particularly bad, but not nearly as good as we know he can be. Hope he regains his form soon.

I've not been impressed by Green very often. I haven't seen his goal at Chelsea and was on holiday for his goal against Colchester. Other than that, just a few decent bits of play from the other home games and he goes missing too often. Is he playing in the wrong position or is it just that his partnership with Hanson isn't working out?

We just don't use Hanson effectively. The accuracy of the balls into him either from the back or set pieces just isn't good enough and we don't get anyone in close enough to him most of the time to give the option for lay-offs or to pick up the pieces if the ball runs free. The midfield three tend to be too deep and end up doing more defensive work than offensive. For team set up to look for set pieces (aerial strength of Hanson, Ohman, Waterfall), why don't we have anybody who can whip in a decent corner or free-kick? Too many lofted to the back post. Mansfield were awful in every way but put in an excellent cross for their goal (still think they had players offside, however).

In general I don't think our formation with a front 3 is working out well enough. Might be worth trying more of a 4-3-1-2 with somebody attacking from behind a front two instead?

Quoted from Maringer

Some thoughts reinforced by Saturday's game.

Hendrie is looking less of a player this season than last. Too many defensive errors and not doing much going forward. He's not been particularly bad, but not nearly as good as we know he can be. Hope he regains his form soon.

I've not been impressed by Green very often. I haven't seen his goal at Chelsea and was on holiday for his goal against Colchester. Other than that, just a few decent bits of play from the other home games and he goes missing too often. Is he playing in the wrong position or is it just that his partnership with Hanson isn't working out?

We just don't use Hanson effectively. The accuracy of the balls into him either from the back or set pieces just isn't good enough and we don't get anyone in close enough to him most of the time to give the option for lay-offs or to pick up the pieces if the ball runs free. The midfield three tend to be too deep and end up doing more defensive work than offensive. For team set up to look for set pieces (aerial strength of Hanson, Ohman, Waterfall), why don't we have anybody who can whip in a decent corner or free-kick? Too many lofted to the back post. Mansfield were awful in every way but put in an excellent cross for their goal (still think they had players offside, however).

In general I don't think our formation with a front 3 is working out well enough. Might be worth trying more of a 4-3-1-2 with somebody attacking from behind a front two instead?

Agree about both Hendrie and Green, Hendrie seems to have lost some pace for me and Green Just gives far too many fouls away.

As for the Mansfield goal, if you are referring to the actual shot there was McKeown on the line as well as a Town defender who ended up on his bottom.

Whilst agreeing with some of what u say I am not sure 4-3-1-2 is the answer. We are short on width anyway, apart from Wright, going to that formation eliminates what little width we have.

Quoted from arryarryarry

As for the Mansfield goal, if you are referring to the actual shot there was McKeown on the line as well as a Town defender who ended up on his bottom.

It was the first cross for me. It looked as though they had a couple offside when it was taken. I was expecting Cook to score so kept an eye on him and he looked a couple of yards ahead of the defender which should surely have been interering with play as he was in the middle of the box. I haven't seen the highlights so could be wrong but that was my impression at the time.

Quoted from toontown

Whilst agreeing with some of what u say I am not sure 4-3-1-2 is the answer. We are short on width anyway, apart from Wright, going to that formation eliminates what little width we have.

If we are trying to create for Hanson, I'd like to see us get both Hewitt & Robson in the team as our best two crossers of the ball. Maybe those two wide in a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1? I'd certainly be thinking about leaving Green out for a while as he's been pretty ineffective for a while apart from the goal at Chelsea.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

If we are trying to create for Hanson, I'd like to see us get both Hewitt & Robson in the team as our best two crossers of the ball. Maybe those two wide in a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1? I'd certainly be thinking about leaving Green out for a while as he's been pretty ineffective for a while apart from the goal at Chelsea.

And yet it was fantastic cross from Green that gave Hanson the chance to score his first one away at Walsall

Both Green and Hanson were in good positions that afternoon to capitalise but unfortunately we don't seem to get the ball wide and send it across with any pace to our target man. Most of the balls that Hanson has to deal with are long balls up from the back

If we played through the middle a bit more and then out wide for a cross to come in I think Hanson would do a lot more damage than just trying to flick a long ball on ( though Frank Lampard probably won't agree with me on that one!    )

Difficult to argue with the vast majority of point already well raised here.

The officials were absolutely dreadful, played right into the hands of a horrible side in Mansfield.  Doesn't seem to matter who is in charge of them, just a horrible team.  Fair enough they left with 3 point but I don't think I could bring myself to watch a side like that every week.  Watching Neal Bishop left me slightly envious that we don't have anyone savvy enough to influence the game like he does.  I think the closest we came was Scott Brown when he first arrived, he was always in the refs face but Bishop is next level stuff.  That envy soon disappeared the more his antics continued as it just becomes tedious.  

As bad as the ref was, we were our own worst enemy.  Should have had the game out of sight in the first fifteen minutes.  Hindsight is wonderful but, as others have said, bringing Green on for Wright was the wrong move.  Pace is what terrified them and Rose would have brought that.  Green disappointed, again I'm sad to say.  Early on in the season his enthusiasm and willingness to work the channels was an asset, now he seems either tired or less interested.  As per the Salford game he appeared to be more interested in getting one over on his old club than doing a job for the team.  In the end he struggled to control the ball at times.  

I don't think anyone had a good game if I'm honest.  When a few players have off days you can maybe cope, when the whole team is 6/10 at best you're going to struggle.  Don't quite know what Hewitt has done to be dropped from right-back, at the minute he's head and shoulders above Hendrie, who is in poor form in my opinion.  

Go again next week and try to make up ground again.  In the space of a week we've shown our biggest flaw, inconsistency.  Nothing we didn't know before but it highlights where we can be and what we need to work on.  There's a very good side brimming away in this squad, we just need to get it out on a consistent basis!