Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-2 Cheltenham Town

[GBJ]

Who agrees with me that acquah is one of the worst players in sufc history? How he ever made it as a pro is beyond me! Hes slow,he cant pass,he cant dribble,he cant control the ball,cant shoot,just poor all round football ability and would be lucky to get in a sunday league side.Why on earth we wanted to resign him after he even admitted he wasnt sure about his future? The only thing he does is work hard and trys to hold up the ball,the quicker the elusive akinola gets back the better

Yet another scapegoat ???

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Has, for us, playing 3 centre backs ever worked?
Elvis needs a wide man in front of him who will know to work back when needed.
Emile needs to get an attitude, he seems too nice for defenders bully him too much, he needs to really keep moving not just jog about.
Any dead ball situation we are crap from kick off, goal kicks, throws, free kicks or corners, both our own and the oppositions. Why do we kick back or throw back at seemingly every time?
Did anyone other than Goodship try a shot?
Did our defence ever catch CTFC offside?
So so poor all over the pitch AND desperately need Macca back to show some spirit.

 

[Smudger]

Right, I may need to have waited a while to post to let the dust settle but i'll give it a go.

That was one of the most inept performances i've had the displeasure of witnessing.

From start to finish there was absolutely nothing there, anywhere, nowhere. We don't just have a team of young inexperinced players, we have a team of below par, young, inexperienced players. I think most of them would struggle to get anywhere near league football anywhere else than at this circus show.

I truly believe our club is dead and it's bordering on the criminal.

100% this. In some cases you have to wonder if we have players who would welcome getting paid off/moved on (not that we could afford to do it...I get it) as opposed to losing with us again and again and again. We must be destroying their confidence/mental health week after week.

if you’re Nathan Ralph and you haven’t started a competitive game that you’ve actually won in over a year, what does that do to you?

 

[Barling Magna]

I didn't expect us to beat Cheltenham. They are too good and experienced a side who have made a strong start. Yet Grimsby managed to thrash them on Tuesday night. How did they do that? Did MM study that game carefully? Is that why he changed the system?

Whatever the reason, we were poor. A big disappointment after a good display against Exeter when we deserved to win. It is clear that Exeter's last gasp equaliser has punctured our growing but fragile confidence. It's back to square one.

Who deserves credit on our side? Demetriou perhaps.....Egbri maybe, with a couple of decent runs and showing a bit more strength too...Goodship? A couple of good touches but not great I'm afraid...
Taylor? Gave away a clear penalty for no good reason and seemed out of sorts....

I'm struggling...

We have to get it right against Salford, rediscover the good football we played against Exeter and sweep the plaything of the "Golden Generation" aside on Tuesday evening. COYB! COYMM!!

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

we surrendered this game before a ball was kicked ..

tactically ridiculous - absurd - a sort of 5 2 3 mess.

3 forwards doing nothing .. Goodie, EA, Premloanee -

Demi and Taylor overun in the middle and 5 backs falling over one another.

All our who players who looked like they could play were out of position - and WTF drop Egbri when at least he can pass and win freekicks and gives width.

this looked like exercise in mangerial ego - not a realistic attempt to win a game of professional football ...

Oxley - a keeper of limited abilty .. remeber he was kept out f the team by a 20 year old - you can see why

Elvis - played well - no midfield wide man for hom to play off

Hobson - played well

Lennon - played - his mobility looks restricted

Dieng - played well -

Ralph - no midfield wide man in front of him

Demetriou - played well when system changed to 44

Taylor - outnumbered

Goodship - not a midfielder - great effort but a squad player at this level - missed a sitter.

Sterling - can he play ? Dunno ... seems to have no confidence at all - inefffectve for 95 mins.

Acquah - needs players around him -


The ref was the usual lge 2 idiot and was useless - not a penalty

I completely put this one down to the manager and his 12 assistants. Dreadful



I

it was a stonewall penalty

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

Who agrees with me that acquah is one of the worst players in sufc history? How he ever made it as a pro is beyond me! Hes slow,he cant pass,he cant dribble,he cant control the ball,cant shoot,just poor all round football ability and would be lucky to get in a sunday league side.Why on earth we wanted to resign him after he even admitted he wasnt sure about his future? The only thing he does is work hard and trys to hold up the ball,the quicker the elusive akinola gets back the better.

give it a rest mate, it's honestly getting draining. every single day it's a new player is the worst thing ever. do us all a favour and chill out.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

I don't know why people are worried, Ron said we'll be challenging for promotion.

He didn't, he said he always wants the best for the team and the club. Read his actual words

 

[Shrimpet steve]

give it a rest mate, it's honestly getting draining. every single day it's a new player is the worst thing ever. do us all a favour and chill

give it a rest mate, it's honestly getting draining. every single day it's a new player is the worst thing ever. do us all a favour and chill out.

Another whos content with being at the bottom of the table.

 

[Shrimp and two veg]

Awful line up. Molesley should be changing that halfway through the 1st half. Defenders were too far away from the midfielders and the midfielders too far away from the strikers, meaning we chased shadows. Somewhere you have to double up and we just couldnt when we had the ball, not until 85mins !

The players are not good enough in L2, nor is the manager BUT i think it will come good for all of us yet. Today just showed that we cant afford to give other teams space when they have the ball and we cannot play with urgency when we have the ball.
Taking Taylor off in the 2nd half? Tbh i'd rather seen Demi have a rest. I dont see Demi picking the ball up and playing passes like Taylor does, Demi throws them wide and we lose the ball often.
Sterling and Aquah didnt really get the service because of Molseslys tactics. Let's keep off their backs for now.

Come on you Blues ...looking ahead to Tues night. Shame ive put my boot through the telly...

 

[Shrimpet steve]

Amazing that they’ve left and yet our woes continue.

It’s almost as if they weren’t the root cause of our downfall, and the problems we have are somewhat more complex than just simply blaming X, Y or Z for playing badly.

No im glad we got some money for these players,i dont think we would get much for others right now.

 

[Shrimper44]

Not going to rate players, we obviously played the wrong formation today as so many others have already stated. A difficult watch on iplayer and not helped by rubbish BBC Essex commentary by Stuart Smith!!!

I was so optimistic after the last game against Exeter but today seemed a big step backwards.

We had no width today and next game we need to revert to 442 and I would start Clifford at left back and move Ralph forward to left midfield.

On the right hand side I would revert Demetriou to right back and move Elvis to wide midfield. Hopefully Macca will be back soon to put some battle in the middle of the park.

We never looked like scoring today and we need to change our front two but not sure what options we have to change it up front. Maybe if we create more from the wide midfield players the forwards would have a chance.

Hoping we have a better shape and performance on Tuesday.

Up the Shrimpers

 

[Lincoln Shrimp]

I am trying so, so hard to be patient and to see this as a medium-term rebuilding project. But that was such a hard watch today. Abject from start to finish. No passion, no excitement, no drive, no confidence, no real quality. We showed nothing today. Just lifeless, soulless, drab and ultimately inept.

There is just no energy going forward. We are completely devoid of creativity, of killer instinct, and of intelligent movement off the ball. I can't for a second believe that MM is TELLING them to keep passing sideways and backwards, so I can only put it down to a complete absence of anybody offering a good forward option. We desperately need a spark in there, someone who will make good runs off the ball and some players who have the balls to try that killer pass, or to swing a cross into the bloody mixer.

I can't see where goals or even decent chances are going to come from and that's what makes any light at the end of the tunnel disappear. 2 attempts, 1 shot on target, 1 corner and 1 successful cross. Honestly, just woeful.

I couldn't have put it better myself.

We look vulnerable all over the pitch right now. No invention, no attacking intent and we even manage to turn a half decent attacking position into a defensive one by playing the ball back, then back again, allowing the opposition to get back into a perfect defensive shape.

My initial concerns about whether Sterling was what we need right now were confirmed today. He reminds me of Barrington Belgrave. He doesn't possess either the electric pace or enough tricks to worry any defence at this level. I wonder now whether MM will regret not bringing in a more experienced target man?
We looked even worse after Emile departed and were chasing shadows again.

Acquah was well marshalled by the excellent Cheltenham backline who barely broke sweat all afternoon. It's hard to see where the next goal is coming from as others have mentioned. The worrying thing is, that even if we did whip in a first time cross, I don't think we'd find any of our players anywhere near getting on the end of it. Acquah hasn't got that natural instinct to take up goalscoring positions, whilst Goodship and Sterling often do much of their work outside of the box.

With Kyle Taylor well below par, any chance of us getting anything from the game was gone.
Ralph was very quiet today, and I barely noticed him for long spells, whilst Elvis was back to his usual frustrating self, horribly out of position leaving us susceptible down his side.

It's going to be a long winter. Wrap up warm everyone.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

Of course not, but it's not only a choice between being happy losing and picking a random scapegoat every day and saying they're the worst thing ever. It's boring mate

 

[Floval Flyer]

Who agrees with me that acquah is one of the worst players in sufc history? How he ever made it as a pro is beyond me! Hes slow,he cant pass,he cant dribble,he cant control the ball,cant shoot,just poor all round football ability and would be lucky to get in a sunday league side.Why on earth we wanted to resign him after he even admitted he wasnt sure about his future? The only thing he does is work hard and trys to hold up the ball,the quicker the elusive akinola gets back the better.

Nope, and FWIW;

At least he (Emile) can spell and understands grammar. Also you need to understand that names start with a ‘capital‘ letter.

Have a day off mate!

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

I think this game was won and lost in the technical area. They were well drilled, well coached, stuck to a clear game plan with discipline. We do not have these things.
I have much respect for their closing down. They go in packs and close angles. We just run at people, overcommit and they pass around us.

 

[South Bank Hank]

Sercombe navigated his way round the pitch...

Well played. I’d been thinking throughout the game that Sercombe sized us up well.

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

I'm going to have to force myself to comment, because I don't think this season is going to end well.

This is normally the place where one says: 'If X had done this, and Y had a little more etc, etc'
But there is nothing this collective can do that will make a difference.

There are at least six players who are nowhere near Lge 2 standard at the moment.
NO team will ever win a game with five bodies; games are abandoned for anything under eight on the pitch.

Tactics? Who cares! If you haven't got the skill or nous, the system doesn't matter.
Motivation? For example, Egbri appears motivated, bless him. He offers next to nothing no matter how hard he tries.

I've supported Southend through thick and thin for 58 years, and our only hope is the injured and the new can inject something, anything, that will save us from the National League.

 

[Shrimpet steve]

Of course not, but it's not only a choice between being happy losing and picking a random scapegoat every day and saying they're the worst thing ever. It's boring mate

but wouldent u agree certain individuals deserve to be singled out? And the point of this site is to have a opinion on the game and the players.Right now thats incredibly easy to do.

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

Who agrees with me that acquah is one of the worst players in sufc history? How he ever made it as a pro is beyond me! Hes slow,he cant pass,he cant dribble,he cant control the ball,cant shoot,just poor all round football ability and would be lucky to get in a sunday league side.Why on earth we wanted to resign him after he even admitted he wasnt sure about his future? The only thing he does is work hard and trys to hold up the ball,the quicker the elusive akinola gets back the better.

He's an easy target - but have to agree.
When he made ONE successful foray past a Cheltenham defender, he fell to his knees, the shock was clearly too much.
He doesn't jump well; he can't control; he's not fast, and he can't shoot.
And if I see him lumbering back and forth much longer, I'm going to need counselling!

 

[Mr Browns Ghost]

Why did elvis play? Hes out of form and was poor again today we got positive results whilst he was not in the side,i have rated elvis but hes not been the same player and looks like another who wants a move.

He’s been awful from the start of the year, the fans favourite ain’t so good when theirs no fans to perform too