Post match interview: substitutions

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Like changing the manager all the time?!

Football really is fine margins. Those last 12 minutes last night changed things dramatically but not my opinion that we are playing our best football in years and we still have plenty to play for.

Which manager won last night?

The one who made a substitute and switched from a counter-attacking 4-1-4-1 to a more attacking 4-4-2 or the one who never wants to make a substitute and give the impression the team he picked to start the game hasn’t worked?

We’ve lost 12 league matches this season.

At half-time we were winning 2 of those games, drawing 7 of those games and losing just 3.

That tells you everything you need to know about Hurst being consistently undone by proactive managers who don’t wait until it’s too late to change things.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

We finish 8th on goal difference, the club stable and improving but we get rid cos we didn't finish 7th ?

I think he has done enough to deserve another season and I don't think there is any chance the owners would make a change.

Improving on what ?
The second  worst season in our history ?
Hurst has been around the block since the last time we was in this league , he should know how to change games or hold onto a lead but most of all he should know how to deal with constructive criticism

Quoted from GollyGTFC

That tells you everything you need to know about Hurst being consistently undone by proactive managers who don’t wait until it’s too late to change things.

I'd say it also says a lot about the squad we have. How many of those losses came from a lapse in concentration by an individual or missed chances up front? Or course, Hurst signed them all so needs to take some responsibility for that situation as well.

I look at the squad we have and think we've got a lot of decent players in there, but I don't get the feeling that any of them are irreplaceable. That includes McAtee who obviously has ability, but is ineffective too often (which is why he's playing in the 5th tier).

More stats…

In 34 league matches we’ve had the same matches outcome at half-time and full-time in 19 matches. In 6 games we improved the result & earned 14 extra league points. In the other 9 games (all defeats at full time) we lost 13 points from winning/drawing at half-time.

So our half-time league table is 1 point worse than our full-time league table. That is spectacularly bad.

Compare that to Stockport. They have lost 3 points in the 2nd half by losing 3 games that were level at half-time. However they have earned 20 extra points in the second half by turning 4 half-time deficits into 3 wins and a draw & by winning 5 games that were level at half-time.

So Stockport have earned net 17 points in the 2nd half compared to our 1 point. That’s 16 less points than them gained in the 2nd half. And we’re “only” 20 points behind them in the league.

Ironically the obsession with subs comes from Hurst himself.  Unless there's a dismissal or an injury, you can pretty much set your clock by his rigid approach that it's the 75 minute mark where he makes his first change.  That's irrespective of how the game is panning out, that's when he wants to make a change.

Saturday and last night we played a side who will be challenging with us for a play-off place, a side who we should have put to the sword but we didn't - to varying levels because we refused to go for it a bit more.

Yes there was an injury to Efete and yes there was the fact that JMD was exhausted, but there was still a third sub that he held back until the absolute death when we were 2-1 down in the final minutes.  He left McAtee and Taylor on all game, even though they were blowing just as hard as JMD and largely ineffective throughout the whole game.  You can also argue that Taylor was walking a tightrope of a red card for most of the game too.  

He didn't bring his final sub on because he's always in that 'just in case' mind frame.  He won't use all his subs because he's terrified that something might happen where he needs to use it to cover an injury.  

If I'm honest I find his comments a bit disappointing.  I didn't spend the best part of 6 hours travelling on Saturday to see him settle for a point because he's too rigid to go for it even when a team is there for the taking, equally so I didn't rush about last night to see him refuse to freshen it up in attack when fresh legs could have been the difference between a defeat, draw or even a win.

If we're talking purely on the subs that were made.  Smith going to full-back is far from ideal, he's anything but a full-back in my eyes.  Personally I'd have found a way of moving Clifton there but I also get that JMD wasn't going to last the full game so that maybe wasn't an option.  But to then line-up with a right hand side of Smith and Sousa was just bonkers.  At least switch Clifton onto the right side and pair Sousa up with Amos so there's less of a imbalance.  Solihull very quickly cottoned on that our right hand side was made of paper and they exploited it.

Hurst may have more experience at playing and managing games than all of us, but he certainly does a good job of showing that experience doesn't equal expertise.  

I like Hurst, I think more often than not he comes across well.  I think he's got an incredible eye for talent but unfortunately I also think he's as big a part of the problem as he is any solution.  With him in charge we'll always be on the back foot and we'll always worry about everyone rather than try to make them worry about us.  That'll always likely come in a division where there's a lot of sides with managers who are willing to be more aggressive and it shows.  Jury still firmly out for me.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

We were well on top so why would he make unnecessary subs?

Subs are a gamble, as  is a change of formation etc. Sometimes they work probably most times they don't.

Efete going off injured and JMD tiring cost us the game.

Actually it was excrement defending for both goals that cost us the game.

am i imagining it , didn't we win with a 95th minute winner against Woking with one of Hurst's subs?

We did.  But I'd be quite confident that the amount of times we've seen any sort of impact from Hurst's substitutions is quite low.  

In comparison it seems an awful lot of teams use their subs to better effect against us.  I'm not expecting every game for Hurst to make subs that will have incredible impacts.  But it's this reluctance to even use them in the first place that continues to frustrate me, especially in games where we're chasing it.

Just looking at recent games where we've dropped points.... 3 of the last 4 games in fact.

Southend away - They take the lead around the hour mark.  Hurst makes 2 subs with 12 minutes to go.  Doesn't use his final sub.  Scannell and JMD sit on the bench.

Boreham Wood away - Two subs made on 74 and 80 minutes respectively.  Abrahams and Scannell sit unused on the bench, McAtee blowing out his bottom for most of the second half.

Solihull at home - Completely get the fact that one sub was due to injury and the second (JMD coming off) was probably planned.  But the third sub was only made because they scored in the last minute.  Abrahams wasn't even warming up at this point.  Taylor and McAtee were spent for the previous 30 minutes and totally ineffective.     Taylor was getting caught up in scuffles with their centre-back and potentially looking at getting sent off.  

He holds back a sub nearly all the time just in case.  Just in case what?  Ardley summed up his approach when he said 'We either win or we don't".  Hurst's mindset is "but we might lose....".  That's a key factor in why Solihull took 3 points off us on Tuesday and why we've a dismal record against those above us in the table.  Effective use of subs is part and parcel of the game. Hurst seems to view them as cover for anyone tired/injured than an asset to be used.

I don’t get why he’s so cautious about using his subs when his approach to a keeper getting injured or sent off is “just put the centre half in goal”.

Quoted from diehardmariner

We did.  But I'd be quite confident that the amount of times we've seen any sort of impact from Hurst's substitutions is quite low.  

In comparison it seems an awful lot of teams use their subs to better effect against us.  I'm not expecting every game for Hurst to make subs that will have incredible impacts.  But it's this reluctance to even use them in the first place that continues to frustrate me, especially in games where we're chasing it.

Just looking at recent games where we've dropped points.... 3 of the last 4 games in fact.

Southend away - They take the lead around the hour mark.  Hurst makes 2 subs with 12 minutes to go.  Doesn't use his final sub.  Scannell and JMD sit on the bench.

Boreham Wood away - Two subs made on 74 and 80 minutes respectively.  Abrahams and Scannell sit unused on the bench, McAtee blowing out his bottom for most of the second half.

Solihull at home - Completely get the fact that one sub was due to injury and the second (JMD coming off) was probably planned.  But the third sub was only made because they scored in the last minute.  Abrahams wasn't even warming up at this point.  Taylor and McAtee were spent for the previous 30 minutes and totally ineffective.     Taylor was getting caught up in scuffles with their centre-back and potentially looking at getting sent off.  

He holds back a sub nearly all the time just in case.  Just in case what?  Ardley summed up his approach when he said 'We either win or we don't".  Hurst's mindset is "but we might lose....".  That's a key factor in why Solihull took 3 points off us on Tuesday and why we've a dismal record against those above us in the table.  Effective use of subs is part and parcel of the game. Hurst seems to view them as cover for anyone tired/injured than an asset to be used.

I pretty much agree with the above, one thing to note about the home defeats to if I recall right Chesterfield & Notts their winners came because our keeper couldn’t keep the ball versus Notts and LJL was left to mark Tschimanga at the set piece for the Chesterfield winner. All that said making subs to stretch games doesn’t seem to sit in Hurst’s play book as the Yanks call it.