Defensive Problems & Tatics

sufcintheprem · Aug 8, 2005

**warm appluase to wiggy's reasoned post from sufcintheprem**

(S)(U)(F)(C) · Aug 8, 2005

[b said:
Quote[/b] (BoyWonder2 @ Aug. 08 2005,18:27)]Blimey one loss and its all "lets make changes", jeez you'd have thought we'd never have suffered a defeat before. Granted it is disappointing to start life in League One with a defeat but, in my opinion, their were more positives than negatives to come out of the game.

For the first half hour, no one can take any credit at all. We were awful all other the pitch. The back four transformed for solid to sloppy, the midfield changed from fantastic to fraile and the two up top didn't get the service required and were well marshalled. Once the second went in, strangly, everyone knew their jobs again, we started to go back to the way we played last season. We played with the commitment, work effort and passion again and created a string of chances, most of which came in the second half. Tilson made some good subsitutions replacing Guttridge, who showed me exactly what I've been saying on here, good player but can't play out wide, with Gower who showed glimpses of the class that made us offer him an extension to his contract and win player of the year. Hunt replaced an injured Spinner, pretty much a like for like change at the back. Lawson replaced the tired looking Mitchell Cole.

I agree. It's only one game and its not like we got whipped. In the end it was a close game and I thought our 2nd half performance was quite good. As dissapointing as our start to the game was, it was only the first game of the season and we should give the lads time to settle. If games are still going like this in 10 games time, then I think we should start contemplating changing and swapping things about. I think people are getting slightly carried away after just 1 game.

overseas shrimper · Aug 9, 2005

[b said:
Quote[/b] (wiggy @ Aug. 08 2005,23:55)]We must get Jay Smith back in the team. He is classy and an attacking playmaker whom when he was fit stood out a mile. As much as i respect Mahers play he is still too negative for my liking and as for Gutts, still havent seen anything to excite me.

Agreed, but what we don't want to do is rush him back into the squad / team before he's absolutely ready. I'd rather wait a bit longer and have him fit for the season than bring him in early and have his season and (most probably) SUFC career bought to an early end.

By his own admission, he's still a few weeks away from being 100% ready for the strains of league football.