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

[Shrimpet steve]

Elvis is your target this week eh

No,but hes not been good enough in all the games hes played.

 

[Austin the Shrimper]

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.

Spot on

 

[Shrimpet steve]

Our problems go way back beyond what we are seeing now - most of the players you single out either didn't play a couple of seasons ago or have now left. No player deserves to be singled out for the blame for our current mess. As a matter of interest when we were all at Roots Hall whereabouts do you sit and are you as vocal at matches as you are on here ?

I sit in the west stand and no im pretty calm when watching but i do have my moments! I think its iffollow and the pandemic making me more critical and its getting to me lol

 

[gatecrasher]

I see Sam Barratt seems to be smashing them in for fun in the league we are not far off of joining ...he was worth keeping for another season i think

 

[greyerfox]

Let's be very clear. The performance today was so poor as to be worthy of the severe criticism handed out on here. I did not see many games last season but today's performance was unutterably dire. Alone it offered no hope of surviving in this League. But I did watch last week also and that had given me some optimism that we could at least finish in 20th position. However, after today I do doubt that view.
As he makes his way home to Dorset, the game today will have given MM and his team so much to chew over. The game on Tuesday up at Salford will be on him all too soon. So little time to pick up the players and attempt to restore some semblance of confidence. And Ron will not be sleeping easily after the dispiriting showing today. He will surely have at the back of his mind the nagging thought that MM does not have the experience to turn this round.
For me, the most worrying thing of all is that we do not look like a team which has the basic ingredients to survive. Cheltenham, like most of the other teams we have played thus far, have the sort of players (and the game)who make up what is generally conceived as being the types who will ensure at least survival in Div 2. MM is managing at this level for the first time. Has he got his ideas and tactics sorted out to ensure that Ron's faith is not misplaced?
Four tough games now follow in short order. Further performances like today's will leave us getting cut adrift at the bottom. Those four games will bring up the ten, the number of games after which Zone members like to forecast the likely destination, survival or the drop.
Having followed Blues since the days at Grainger Road Stadium I have optimism as a prerequisite of that support. But tonight I am truly concerned that that trap door will open up come season's end. It is an awful prospect. I would have grave doubts that we would bounce back into the League any time soon.

 

[Evening Echo]

CHELTENHAM Town boss Michael Duff felt his side produced a near-perfect away performance to win 2-0 at Southend United.

Read more on this story


Help with Echo links

 

[Shrimpet steve]

I see Sam Barratt seems to be smashing them in for fun in the league we are not far off of joining ...he was worth keeping for another season i think

He was unlucky with the injury and was never given a fair crack,he just needed a new season with a run of games.

 

[duncan bulgaria]

Just a few emotional thoughts, maybe not logical but....

Sol got better out of the squad and had a plan and a plan B, sometimes.

This is very Bond esque in lack of spite and bite and guile and spirit.

MM stood on touchline looking on as Chris Powell did towards his end with no idea how and what we needed to do.

Bench is SO weak it wouldn't have been answer to any question.

I think your final paragraph answers your own question .....MM doesn’t know what to do as he doesn’t have the quality in depth to change things if plan A is not working

 

[davewebbsbrain]

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

Here's a little tip. He's a cut above the rest

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

I sit im the west stand and no im pretty calm when watching but i do have my moments! I think its iffollow and the pandemic making me more critical and its getting to me lol

You're not alone there mate

 

[mfurok]

The set up and tactics today we’re very poor and we don’t have the players we need to stay up but the worst thing today was that every player was outbattled by his Cheltenham (yes, those giants of football) counterpart.

We didn’t make any effort throughout and that is both unforgivable and incredibly worrying.

 

[rigsby]

The set up and tactics today we’re very poor and we don’t have the players we need to stay up but the worst thing today was that every player was outbattled by his Cheltenham (yes, those giants of football) counterpart.

We didn’t make any effort throughout and that is both unforgivable and incredibly worrying.

We were a boxer without punch and sadly we are not that good at avoiding them.

 

[LBBlue]

The set up and tactics today we’re very poor and we don’t have the players we need to stay up but the worst thing today was that every player was outbattled by his Cheltenham (yes, those giants of football) counterpart.

We didn’t make any effort throughout and that is both unforgivable and incredibly worrying.

When do you think he decided on the formation and set up?
No one seemed to have a clue what they were supposed to be doing.

Our first five games we conceded just 39 free kicks. Today Cheltenham conned us into conceding 18 and hardly any of them were for tackles. We are just not physically strong enough. Little Egbri is the only one who gets stuck in - the rest are just pussy cats. Academy players don’t seem to get taught that they can tackle.

Ron must be getting worried that he has messed up yet again,
Is Akinola really going to make much difference? He has had one season at this level scoring 5 times for a club that finished second bottom.

 

[Gridelet's contact lens]

I have never so felt so impotent as a Southend fan as I do at the moment. If we feel bad, how do the players feel, they look beaten and scared at all times. Tuesday night up against the wound up Paul Scole’s Salford, we could be splattered all over the Park and squashed. The team is disjointed and has no winning spirit. MM, sadly, is too inexperienced for this level of professional football and is not the leader we need.

 

[flangejackrabbit]

It was a poor performance and worthy of criticism - however:

I think Cheltenham are an excellent side and will be promoted this season. I've spoken with Michael Duff and he's a very tactically astute manager who knows exactly how he wants his team to play, and most importantly had had the time to instil that into them. It's an attractive and progressive brand of football, I would say to an extent similar to Wilder's but with a higher press in operation. It was always unlikely we would get much out of this game.

The switch in system was not totally illogical and indeed Grimsby undid Cheltenham last week having changed to quite a similar setup (though they did have their share of luck too). The issue was in the execution - our front trio was not pressing their defence and wing backs hard enough, having successfully forced them wide most of the time when attacking we were not quick enough to close down and cut out the options for their wing-backs, and we were not getting onto the wide counter quickly enough when we did win the ball back. If I am honest I think they would have overpowered us through the middle with a 4-4-2 and we would have seen a worse scoreline.

I thought Elvis unfortunately went missing at a couple of crucial moments and we needed much much more out of Sterling and Goodship in terms of pressing them in their own half.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

If we feel bad, how do the players feel, they look beaten and scared at all times.

Not that bad according to Rhys in the other thread.

Actually the comment is that 'there is a feel good factor back at the club again'. So that might not be the players feeling good, but maybe the non playing staff or it might just be Ron thinking about the millions he will make from housing at Roots Hall and FF.

 

[Shrimpet steve]

I have never so felt so impotent as a Southend fan as I do at the moment. If we feel bad, how do the players feel, they look beaten and scared at all times. Tuesday night up against the wound up Paul Scole’s Salford, we could be splattered all over the Park and squashed. The team is disjointed and has no winning spirit. MM, sadly, is too inexperienced for this level of professional football and is not the leader we need.

Salford lost today

 

[flangejackrabbit]

Salford lost today

One of my mates watched this and said there was not much quality on display at all from either side, but Salford's full backs looked decent players, and that one of their subs was lively.

 

[overseas shrimper]

Molesley: "We didn’t execute the formation well enough today but it’s not about formation or tactics.."

Well - wtf does that mean ?

If you read the next paragraph in the report you'd have hluf answer.

Molesley: "We came up short physically, mentally and tactically."

 

[Barling Magna]

Cast your mind back four months to the League 2 play offs. Cheltenham defeated Northampton 2-0 in the first leg with a performance and style very similar to today. Northampton looked very similar to us yesterday.

BUT four days later in the second leg Northampton blew Cheltenham away 3-0 and went on to demolish Exeter 4-0 in the final. How? By changing their style and formation and battering both their opponents with fast wingers and generally playing further forward, snapping at every ball.

This is Cheltenham manager Duff's explanation of why they lost:
"We got beaten up, no doubt about that. We didn't compete with them physically and that's the first time that's happened this season. When you don't do the basics and they do it very well.

The first 10-15 minutes I don't think we won a second ball. They scored a goal and we took a backwards step. We didn't do any part of what got us in this position and it's unfortunate we've turned that performance in on the night tonight."

We need to follow Northampton's example. Don't let the opposition settle, hustle them, out pace them. We have the fast wingers, we have a great lump of a centre forward, we have hard tackling defenders but yesterday only Demetriou and Egbri showed any toughness. Acquah needs to use his height and strength to bully defenders, Goodship needs to get in closer, Elvis also needs to use his strength more. I think MM is trying to be too clever in his tactics. Look again at what Duff said in June: "We got beaten up, no doubt about that. We didn't compete with them physically.....The first 10-15 minutes I don't think we won a second ball."

It ain't subtle, it ain't pretty but it is exciting to watch (I really enjoyed watching those play offs on TV) and at League 2 level it works......we are battling for survival and we need to toughen up and steamroller opponents like Northampton did back in June after being shown up by Cheltenham in the first leg.