Just Back

Not much more to add other than a couple of things I saw. Yes Waterfall is starting to look like he's off the pace at times but for me the issue is that for both of their goals their guy just strolled through the middle with no one near him. Is this what to expect every time Conteh is missing?
The other thing is the lack of accuracy of the passing again. Their passing movement was so quick and precise, ours are so often underhit or half a yard wide of the intended target, you can almost count to 4 passes before the poor pass happens and we concede possession.
It sometimes looks like Hurst is constantly caught between 2, even 3 styles of play and we end up with a mish-mash of all of them, and Rose for me is being wasted in this approach.

Quoted from SpiritOf98

Not much more to add other than a couple of things I saw. Yes Waterfall is starting to look like he's off the pace at times but for me the issue is that for both of their goals their guy just strolled through the middle with no one near him. Is this what to expect every time Conteh is missing?
The other thing is the lack of accuracy of the passing again. Their passing movement was so quick and precise, ours are so often underhit or half a yard wide of the intended target, you can almost count to 4 passes before the poor pass happens and we concede possession.
It sometimes looks like Hurst is constantly caught between 2, even 3 styles of play and we end up with a mish-mash of all of them, and Rose for me is being wasted in this approach.

It looks to me like we’ve recruited several decent players but are still searching for a way to fit them together. Rose is a great asset but we’re not getting any runners anywhere near him. Rodgers looks great (and confident) when Maher plays but not Waterfall. Conteh is another great signing but he spends too much time cleaning up after Clifton, Holohan and Hunt lose possession.

It can only be described as disjointed.

My husband , a Wiltshire lad is a Swindon fan and he and his mate's reaction to the game was that they were lucky to get 3 points "we've got away with one there" they think a draw was a fair reflection of the game and in the last 20 mins thought we would score and get the draw. I'm still optimistic that with Maher, Conteh and Wilson fully fit we can turn it round and agree Gav ahead of Hunt

Quoted from MuddyWaters

It looks to me like we’ve recruited several decent players but are still searching for a way to fit them together. Rose is a great asset but we’re not getting any runners anywhere near him. Rodgers looks great (and confident) when Maher plays but not Waterfall. Conteh is another great signing but he spends too much time cleaning up after Clifton, Holohan and Hunt lose possession.

It can only be described as disjointed.

We must get some support up to Rose absolutely, we looked a much better side yesterday when we went 2 up top and brought Gav on

Holohan should be one of the players named first on the team sheet

Basic premise of football...

Score more than your opposition to win the game.

Facts hindering that;
1.We struggle to keep a clean sheet
2.We have minimal attempts on target in a game
3.Our chance conversion rate is poor

Items 2 & 3 need the attention. As the squad is now the squad , until January, we need to swap the approach / system to either increase item 2 enough by at least 100% to compensate for the misses......or hope that Wilson comes in and can massively increase Item 3.

Personally I would prefer Wilson to come in alongside Rose and see what two up front can produce as Alex Rodman said a few times yesterday Rose looked pretty dejected , isolated  on his own with poor service.

Would be interested to know from others how we fit Rose and Wilson together. Do we go 442 like so many of Hurst’s previous teams, with one winger and the other wide man in a narrower role. If we stick to 4141 with Rose behind Wilson, or vice versa, who drops out of midfield? Any thoughts?

Despite all the fanfare when we signed them the players haven't been good enough. Hurst wanted to play a more expansive game with better players but they are not good enough to play like that.

Eisa has been good by virtue of his individual brilliance and Conteh for his Interceptions but after that?

He will have to change to two up top and adjust the system because we haven't got the passing the fluidity or pace to play as he wants.

Four of the last five goals we’ve conceded have been caused by midfielders not tracking their runners and defenders not spotting the danger and shifting across to cover to protect our goal.

I know Hurst signed these players. I know he trains them every week. But the players have to take some responsibility themselves.

Swindon’s first goal - how can Efete not realise there is a massive gap between him and Rodgers? I know the two of them are playing out of position but it’s basics. Why has no midfielder followed the runner - again!

The second goal - yes, I know Waterfall’s turned slowly and what pace he has appears to have disappeared. But why has our midfield just allowed Cain to stand 10 yards behind them. Why aren’t Rodgers and Efete covering Waterfall when they know he’s short of pace and they can see there is a midfield runner?

They had a warning in the first half when Andrews got caught the wrong side of Cain and there was a huge gap between our non-existent midfield and our defence.

I realise Maher and Conteh missing is huge. But the same thing happened last week when Holohan couldn’t be arsëd tracking his man or bothering to run back (twice).

All this talk of our problems upfront - it’s our defensive work in midfield that’s worrying me more.

Another point about yesterday.

`Hurst doesn`t use subs and can`t change a game the way other managers do against us`

He brought on 3 together yesterday, switched the formation and took the game to them. He made the last quarter very difficult for Swindon.

I left the ground very frustrated that we didn`t get the draw.