Post-Match Thread and Ratings Salford City 3-0 Southend United

[duncan bulgaria]

Our best player of the past few weeks moved out wide , persistence on playing around at the back , as soon as we went 1-0 down it should have been told to get it up the pitch with intent .

At one point in the evening we broke and 4 Salford players sprinted back into position and made it an 7vs3 situation in their favour , making them so hard to penetrate ,We just ambled forward .
us on the other hand play dangerously around our box and then put our keeper under pressure who then surrenders possession . Throw ons put us in trouble with Salford nicking the ball numerous times , there was just so many sloppy things going on tonight which made us easy to beat .

I’d love to be able to give Elvis and R Taylor a break from this downward spiral as their confidence is shot to pieces .....poor Elvis has probably only ever won 5 games of football in his pro career .

I was not worried in the slightest this season but having seen teams that 5 seasons ago were 4 or 5 levels below us turn us over with ease has got my attention and MM needs to act fast to stop this rot

 

[RobM]

Interested to hear which magical managerial appointment you think we can make that’s going to make a squad of players barely good enough to stay up in the Conference, stay up in League 2.

Exactly. Do people honestly think it's all MM's fault? I despair.

 

[camden shrimper]

I can't see any real positives re us, which other teams in L2 are looking as ropey?, that's already where my head is turned......

 

[bazzashrimper]

Exactly. Do people honestly think it's all MM's fault? I despair.

I don’t think it’s all his fault and I don’t think he should leave. I do think he needs to wake up and realise he’s not coaching an academy team and he needs to get the team to play it longer and stop messing about passing it around the back.

 

[Willie Coulson's Red Cheeks]

Oh dear.

I have now watched every game this season and have never had the heart to write anything too negative so early in the season.

The club is in a mess. We all know that. Nothing is going to put that right overnight. The best way out of that is to get a win, build a little confidence and then move on. The trouble is, with current tactics, I cannot see where a win will come from. At the moment, the tactics are to have a number of players deep to receive the ball when Oxley has it; this often gets us into trouble but when it doesn't we usually end up playing a long ball after 10 short passes at the back but we don't have sufficient players further up to win a second ball.

MM needs to realise that to get a win we might need to be ugly. Get Oxley to play long more regularly and get bodies up the pitch. We need to spend more time in the opposition half and, if we want to play some pretty stuff, play it there. It's really not rocket science. We are just not good enough to win games playing the way MM wants us to play.

Sturrock got us out of a hole by creating an ugly, but successful, side. It was never pretty to watch but we had players who bullied the opposition game after game. We were just horrible to play against. At present, we must be a joy to play because we gift opportunities to our opponents and hardly ever threaten at the other end.

The tactics really do need to change or we will be in bigger trouble in a month's time than we are now.

 

[Jai]

The destruction of this football club has taken place over the course of four years. Four years of neglect, poor recruitment, and treating people appallingly.

I really don't think it's fair to expect one man to turn it round in two months.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

The current situation is not all MM's fault

BUT

Question: Who tells his team to look for a spare man every time rather than either try to beat the man, push it further up the field or even try out a defence-splitting pass?

Answer: it can only be MM

The current tactics are clear to see for some time now - pass around and try not to lose the ball - until we do.

The results are clear to see - we will NEVER score with these tactics, and as our defence is weak at best then we will lose every game

A totally amateurish and despondent way to play the game

 

[Rayleigh boy]

Exactly. Do people honestly think it's all MM's fault? I despair.

I think bad decisions have been made about

:: formation and tactics

:: team selection

:: coaching - dead balls etc

:: recruitment

professional sport is a cruel results driven business -

Pressure ? we are bottom of the football league ..

 

[manor15]

Painful to watch as we were just not good enough tonight. No amount of huff and puff effort can make up for an inability to pass to another Blue shirt rather than the opposition. And the whole bloody thing was compounded by having to listen to that total dick Stuart Smith. It was so much better when there was no commentary.

Smith is the annoying bloke who sits behind you at Roots Hall and you constantly think who on earth can put up with listening to him for 90 minutes? Only BBC Essex pay him to do it for everyone listening every week. Anyway, it’s a nice distraction from the crap on the pitch.

 

[E for B and Billy Best]

NURSE! I need more medication.

 

[Danshrimper]

I think bad decisions have been made about

:: formation and tactics

:: team selection

:: coaching - dead balls etc

:: recruitment

professional sport is a cruel results driven business -

Pressure ? we are bottom of the football league ..

Have you considered that the recruitment has been underwhelming, because the signings we’ve made are the best that’s available to us given our situation. Do you not think MM would have signed more experienced/proven players if he had the option to?

 

[SUBBlue]

This mess really does all sit at Ron Martins feet.
His club, his recruitment, his rules..
I don’t read too much into his words any longer.

Sad truth though is without him we would have probably gone under years ago.

 

[Evening Echo]

PROBLEMS continue to mount for struggling Southend United.

Read more on this story


Help with Echo links

 

[Austin the Shrimper]

That was a bad performance for even a pub team. Not once did we ever look like getting anything from this game. We all knew it, Salford knew it and our players knew it.
What is the game plan? Pass it out from the back!!! Where have you been MM.. every **** team tried that last season with disastrous results.. We tried it under Bond and Campbell at first. Maybe it works in the Prem under 23 practise leagues.. not on lower league football.. especially with quality we have. That much should be evident to a decent manager. Play to your strengths man.

Again, I hope I’m totally proved wrong and it all works out. from what I’ve seen so far this season So far, we’re going down without a fight and teams are literally not getting out of 2nd gear to best us.

Oxley. 3 what happened to that other goalkeeper we were looking at? Oxley needs to go
Elvis 4 terrible. Aimlessly runs. Offers nothing. Put Demi back in his proper position.
Dieng 4 this player has been at the heart of everything this team has achieved the last 2 years.. says it all really.best moment, Shot almost hit corner flag.
R Taylor 3- not good enough, can’t control ball.
K Taylor 5- anonymous, liked him. Last 2 games been very poor
Egbri 5- not good enough. Will never play league football after this stint.
Olayinka- 5 typical prem 23 that we get. Not what we need. Bet MM has never even seen him play, but puts him straight in like the useless
Sterling- 3 didn’t touch the ball all game, when he did bounced off his shin and he was offside.
Goodship- 4 can’t pass to feet, can’t beat a man, can’t shoot. Useless.
Demi 4- just play him right back for crying out loud.
ANG 5- comes on same time every match. Didn’t notice anything but game was well gone.. even with 20 minutes to play.
Hobson- 6. I don’t mind him tbf

MM and crew- 3- what are you doing till 10/11 at night at Boots and laces?? Got it all wrong... again. I want it to work out but you’re making it hard for me to get on board when you deploy negative, Bondesque tactics.

He is happy with this Squad ... God help us!

 

[OllieSteph44]

The trouble with u23 kids is they can only play u23 kids football.
No committed tackles
No cleverly winning free kicks
No sprinting just stroll about for show
Lots of pointless passing to feet , not in front of the runner.

That’s way to easy a way to lay blame. The U23s football and footballers from West Ham and Brighton seemed to do ok against us!

It maybe that the U23s players we have or are loaning in aren’t good enough, fair enough.

It may be how they’re being asked to play or being coached, fair enough.

It may be the more experienced players who are letting down some of the younger ones?

It’s more than likely a combination of all of these but to just say it’s the U23s and how they play football, is way too simplistic.

 

[Shrimp and two veg]

Need a new keeper, sorry Ox but thats not good enough.
Elvis, get him out of that defence, i wont tolerate not running back, its disgraceful.
There's no outball to take the team forward. Green injured, Ralph (who should be playing left midfield) injured. Egbri on the other side cant take the ball down the wings.
And a striker. Aquah has to come back in, if we can get that outball with at least one attacking winger.
R Taylor at right back, Hobson and Dieng in the middle and Clifford completes the defence. Not perfect but Harry needs a rest and at least that back four will try.

Kyle Taylor has to come back in the centre of midfield, the Arsenal lad hasnt got his engine.
Let Elvis fight for the midfield right with Egbri and ANG down the left. Sterling isnt up to L2 football yet, Goodship is a bench player. Akinola needs to earn his pay, as well as ANG, we need these boys in now. Macca needs to give Demi a rest.

Tonight was just awful. Desperate times. I dont want to hear these lads are not fit enough, we havent got the luxury to wait for them. I honestly cannot believe a pro footballer cannot keep up his fitness, enough to slot into a game and give his all for 90mins a week.

 

[Born In A Blue Shirt]

Incredibly disappointing evening. Overall, I actually thought we responded really well after going 1-0 down and if we’d have taken one of the two chances we created either side of half time, it could have been different. That said, from 3-0 it could have been a cricket score!

Desperately needs to be an improvement in intensity on Saturday.



Oxley - 7
A very basic error for the first goal, indefensible. However, some excellent saves to keep the score line barely respectable and dealt well with some horrific back passes from Lennon. Barely put a foot wrong sparing the goal. That said, Ox needs to get consistent, he’s a senior player and we need our limited senior players to be reliable.



Bwonomo - 5


Started ok but looks devoid of all confidence at the moment. Was at fault for the second goal; the alarming thing for me was that he didn’t even track back once the ball had been flicked past him, he just watched on and left it to Egbri and didn’t even try to get back into the box to press the ball. It’s a shame because I enjoyed his wholehearted performances last season, this year he looks a bit lost. I’d take him out for a few games, try and give him time to recapture his enthusiasm.



Ralph - 6

Always looks good on the ball, hopefully not too serious on the injury front as he’s started the season well.



Lennon - 7

Made a couple of excellent tackles, I think he’s a good player at this level. That said, some pretty horrific pass backs to Oxley that had my heart rate going!!



Dieng - 6.5

Looked comfortable on the ball, didn’t do too much wrong that I could see.



Taylor - 6

Not his best game, didn’t retain possession well, done bright spots later in the game.



Demetriou - 7.5

Good performance from JD, good distribution and ball retention too. Clearly going to be important to keep him fit.



Olayinka - 7.5

Very good on the ball, recycled possession well. Could be a good addition and offers some creativity in the middle of the pitch. His quality is evident.



Egbri - 6.5

As always, plenty of effort and showed a couple of glimpses of his creative spark. Needs to work on his end product and moving the ball quicker.



Goodship - 5

There is a player in there, but unfortunately his decision making and final ball always seem to let him down. Gets in good areas, but needs to learn to take on the shot more or commit a pass. He rarely does either and then gives away possession. Confidence looks shot to pieces, and I’d perhaps try Sterling flanked by ANG and Egbri on Saturday.



Sterling - 5
That said on Sterling, a pretty ineffective display. In his defence, a serious lack of service but he hardly created much for the team either. Irrespective of stature/style of play, if your going to be a striker you have to hold up the ball and bring others into play when playing in a front 3 and he failed to do that.



Subs:



R. Taylor - 6

Did ok, a couple of good deliveries into the box but as others have mentioned doesn’t look the most natural on the ball. I actually think he’ll turn out to be a good player in a year or two, he’s just not ready for this level on a consistent basis yet.



Hobson - 6

Not a great deal to do, did what he did have to do fairly well.



Nathaniel-George - 6
Not sure I really saw him touch the ball, but I’d lost interest a bit by then ?

 

[gatecrasher]

If Sturrock isn't too poorly with his Parkinsons could we get him in to help guide Mark? Both from the same neck of the woods so may know each other.

 

[mfurok]

Getting an error message when trying to submit ratings mate

Not surprised.

Were you trying to rate higher than nil?

 

[OllieSteph44]

This mess really does all sit at Ron Martins feet.
His club, his recruitment, his rules..
I don’t read too much into his words any longer.

Sad truth though is without him we would have probably gone under years ago.

Rons biggest mistake was to allow pressure from fans inside Roots Hall to push him to sack Chris Powell. I defy anyone to say we didn’t at least resemble a proper football club with him in charge and even with a possible relegation in sight that the club didn’t have a clearer future ahead of it.