Just as a bit of pretext - I love this club and I’m totally behind both MM and this group of players; I feel when at full strength and set up correctly we’re a good side.
However, what I have witnessed today is nothing short of disgraceful. I’ve just paid £10 there to basically watch attack v defence - with us mustering one shot on target (albeit an excellent one). If the players and management think it’s acceptable to subject us to the last 4 performances, including the big crescendo today, they need a huge wake up call.
I won’t be posting ratings, frankly from what I can see I might as well get in touch with the club and play myself on the left wing, which believe me I will do if I see another performance like that next week.
However, All this hot air of MM losing his job is honestly hogwash. The work he has done prior to the last 4 games has been exceptional given the limited resources he has at his disposal. However, MM is most certainly responsible for the shambles that has been the last 4 games.
I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but it’s not learning that 5-3-2 does not work with these players that has angered me. One or two games? Ok no problem, worth the experiment. Continuing on having watched the sub-par performances against Cambridge and Mansfield? A wreckless decision. The results? Catastrophic.
I hear MM talk of limited options to play the 4-2-3-1 that was very effective during our recent unbeaten run. Definitely not the case today if we’d lined up like this:
Oxley
Bwonomo
White
Hobson
Hart
Demetriou
Dieng
ANG
Taylor
Hackett-Fairchild
Akinola
Basic stuff really. If you really wanted to, play Cordner in the CDM role. The guy looks like he can play with the ball at his feet, even if evidence he is competent at defending is lacking.
That said, despite MM’s recent shortcomings, to suggest he is worthy of being sacked for the performances over 4 games and indeed for the bad tactical set-up is crazy talk.
As for the players, well whilst MM has picked the wrong shape, the players could certainly make a better fist of executing it to say the least.
Basically, if you’re going to play a 5-3-2, it only means a flat 5 when you are defending. When in possession it should look more like 3-5-2, with the full backs pushing on to make the midfield. I can only guess the idea of sticking with the 5-3-2 was to utilise the wide pitch at Vale Park.
However, I didn’t see any willingness from either full back to push up. Instead what we did was sit deep and invite pressure, with absolutely no adventure to break out. That lack of execution of the formation is wholly the responsibility of the players. If the players aren’t familiar with the formation, they probably shouldn’t be professional footballers so I don’t think you can target MM for the players ‘not looking comfortable’ or ‘looking disorganised’ in this formation. The players need to pull themselves together on that front.
There was a lot of huffing and puffing in the second half, and even a marginal improvement but frankly we were dead and buried by then.
I still believe we will stay up. I still believe in MM and the players too. However, we are only staying in this division if show confidence in and utilise our creative players, specifically by playing them in a 4-2-3-1 irrespective of how our opposition choose to line up.
