Maher

[sufcintheprem]

Good to come back on the board to see he's getting slammed today again. Missed a few passes but perhaps his critics are being too harsh.

Where does the ball go every time coming out of defence? Who do the full backs always pass to? Who always makes sure other players have a passing line? Who was targeted by Wrexham, Oxford and Leyton Orient for pressing but, notably not by Macclesfield and what's the pattern?

There's only one answer, Maher. Today, the number of times he took the ball, looked up to see nothing on, turned, looked up again to see nothing on and then either tried an ambitious pass or got booed for passing back to the centre backs was ridiculous.

We were done on the dressing room tactics board when we decided that Lawrie and Freddy would deal well with high balls and that we didn't need any natural width to get around a team likely to defend deep, with their slow back line.

I'm happy to admit that he played some really poor passes but it seemed to be frustration at having nothing on. Let's not lose sight of who was seeing the ball every three or four passes when we were attacking and who played a delightful ball in to the box in the second half that somehow wasn't turned in.

 

[Kris]

Quote[/b] (sufcintheprem @ April 24 2005,00:00)]Good to come back on the board to see he's getting slammed today again.  Missed a few passes but perhaps his critics are being too harsh.

Where does the ball go every time coming out of defence?  Who do the full backs always pass to?  Who always makes sure other players have a passing line?  Who was targeted by Wrexham, Oxford and Leyton Orient for pressing but, notably not by Macclesfield and what's the pattern?

There's only one answer, Maher.  Today, the number of times he took the ball, looked up to see nothing on, turned, looked up again to see nothing on and then either tried an ambitious pass or got booed for passing back to the centre backs was ridiculous.

We were done on the dressing room tactics board when we decided that Lawrie and Freddy would deal well with high balls and that we didn't need any natural width to get around a team likely to defend deep, with their slow back line.

I'm happy to admit that he played some really poor passes but it seemed to be frustration at having nothing on.  Let's not lose sight of who was seeing the ball every three or four passes when we were attacking and who played a delightful ball in to the box in the second half that somehow wasn't turned in.

A very thoughtful and intelligent post. I couldn't agree more.

 

[Upminster Blue]

Quote[/b] (sufcintheprem @ April 24 2005,00:00)]Good to come back on the board to see he's getting slammed today again.  Missed a few passes but perhaps his critics are being too harsh.

Where does the ball go every time coming out of defence?  Who do the full backs always pass to?  Who always makes sure other players have a passing line?  Who was targeted by Wrexham, Oxford and Leyton Orient for pressing but, notably not by Macclesfield and what's the pattern?

There's only one answer, Maher.  Today, the number of times he took the ball, looked up to see nothing on, turned, looked up again to see nothing on and then either tried an ambitious pass or got booed for passing back to the centre backs was ridiculous.

We were done on the dressing room tactics board when we decided that Lawrie and Freddy would deal well with high balls and that we didn't need any natural width to get around a team likely to defend deep, with their slow back line.

I'm happy to admit that he played some really poor passes but it seemed to be frustration at having nothing on.  Let's not lose sight of who was seeing the ball every three or four passes when we were attacking and who played a delightful ball in to the box in the second half that somehow wasn't turned in.

Spot on.

As was Tilly's post match comment re not playing the game at a high enough tempo ie no-one making runs into space to receive the ball and hence Maher had no one to pass to!

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Quote[/b] (sufcintheprem @ April 24 2005,00:00)]Where does the ball go every time coming out of defence?  Who do the full backs always pass to?

Adam Barrett...

Whilst I don't disagree with the tenor of your post, I still think that he had a poor game as a leader. Berating a younger player such as Nicky Nic - even if he was at fault for the first goal - was not what I call leadership.

He had a poor game - heck, no one had a great game in the middle of the park, we were pressed out of it by Oxford, who got their homework spot on. Hope he bucks up by next Saturday.

Matt

 

[sufcintheprem]

Quote[/b] (Matt the Shrimp @ April 24 2005,01:07)]

Quote[/b] (sufcintheprem @ April 24 2005,00:00)]Where does the ball go every time coming out of defence? Who do the full backs always pass to?

Adam Barrett...

Whilst I don't disagree with the tenor of your post, I still think that he had a poor game as a leader. Berating a younger player such as Nicky Nic - even if he was at fault for the first goal - was not what I call leadership.

He had a poor game - heck, no one had a great game in the middle of the park, we were pressed out of it by Oxford, who got their homework spot on. Hope he bucks up by next Saturday.

Matt

Well, I disagree about the passing bit but certainly a couple of our most inspired moments were when Barrett stepped forward with the ball. Of course, there's a pretty strong case saying that this was because it gave us 5 across midfield instead of 4. After all, who's job is it to press the roving centre back!

Still, interesting point about his gob. I noticed he was having a go at a few poeple, a lot of the time with some justification. He's like Peter Schmeichel but in the middle of the park if you do something wrong near him. Howeve, this certainly isn't something new.

I didn't see the goal reaction as I had my head buried in my hands with a slight crazy grin at how football can never be done the easy way.

Perhaps he should have a go, perhaps he shouldn't. End of the day, Tilson knows what he'll get from Maher as captain and has done since he took over, presumably agreeing with his approach.

If Barrett's a better captain then so be it but until Tilson and Brush feel that he offers that much more, Maher and his style of captaincy will continue.

Incidentally, I saw something special today. Maher apologised for a bad pass to Jupp.