Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-3 Bradford City

[RHB]

I'm struggling for words to describe how I feel after that performance. Maybe you can post your opinions and ratings.

 

[southendkid]

You can moan about the tactics but the reality is the squad (especially with so many injuries) simply isn't good enough, does anyone seriously think MM looks at that bench and thinks "this is fine"? We pushed forward far too much tonight and we were punished for it (we missed Dieng and Macca who usually would be covering for the defence, I don't think the 2nd or 3rd goals would happen with them on the pitch) but even so there's a clear lack of creativity on the pitch (and even when we do get a good chance there's no one that knows how to finish it unless it's a cross to Akinola).

People seem to think that now that the embargo is lifted players will be begging to sign for us. If you were a competent (or even a semi-competent) striker why on earth would you look at this team and be itching to sign? If I was looking to have a career in football I certainly wouldn't want to come here, half the sides in the National League would probably be better for my career.

The reason we're signing so many Bournemouth players is because the club wants to do their ex-coach a favour, no one else wants anything to do with us. Our best hope is that on deadline day some agents panic and offer their players to us purely because no one else wants them, there's no reason to sign for us if there's even the slimmest amount of interest in you elsewhere.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

The above is so sadly true and it hurts.

 

[RHB]

I'm not sure whether it was Paul Clark who said it, or whether he was quoting somebody else. but it went something along the lines of 'Are we a bad side that had a good patch, or a good side that's hit a bad patch?' Food for thought for me at the moment.

 

[Born In A Blue Shirt]

Unprofessional defending and attacking at key moments cost us tonight. The goals we have given away are nothing short of abysmal. Moreover the chances we missed - Im impatient of watching our front players consistently waste the limited guilt-edged chances we create. Time to get clinical.



The frustrating thing for me is that I actually believe this group are good enough to stay up. When they play to their potential, this team play some good football and look a threat. The positive is that the first half and start of the second clearly showed that.



However, I don’t care who the opposition are - no one is particularly exceptional in this division this season from what I’ve seen - 3 defeats in 3 consecutive home games, including two sides who aren’t a million miles away in terms of league position, is simply not acceptable. The players need to take a long hard look at themselves tonight and decide whether they want in or out of this fight.



I’m a big fan of MM and his team. They have been excellent and deserve credit for making us competitive again. However, it’s quite clear that this 5 at the back idea is a nonsense. It’s clear as day to see that this group of players are optimal playing a 4-2-3-1. I noticed it on Saturday and we got a carbon copy tonight. I appreciate we had Macca and Dieng missing tonight, fine. But don’t completely change the shape just to accommodate it.



When we play this 5 at the back we duly invite pressure, the midfield two get outnumbered and the front free have to feed off of hoofed scraps from our defenders (when they aren’t behind the ball defending themselves). Invariably we lose the ball, our opponents recycle possession at the back and the process repeats itself until we force a throw/corner/mistake in their half.



When we play the 4-2-3-1, the front four have the freedom to let the shackles off knowing that if they give the ball away they have JD/Macca or Dieng ready to protect the back four and break up the play.



It’s easy to get carried away, but there’s still a lot of football to be played. We’re not a bad side, but if we don’t address these matters now then unfortunately it’s curtains. No going to Port Vale and sitting in for a point - time to get some belief, have a bit of courage, take the game to them and make up the 3 points lost tonight.

 

[GBJ]

Same old story really, if you don’t take your chances, you won’t win football matches. it’s abundantly clear we lack strength in depth and we can only hope we manage to convince one of our targets to actually sign up.

As for the game, I didn’t think Bradford were anything special tbh. I didn’t feel we were really under the cosh, apart from a good spell they had in the opening 15 minutes. They cut us apart with the counter attacks in the second half, and Rowe is precisely the type of player we’re desperate for.

As mentioned, we created a few chances but if you don’t take them when they arise, there’s very little hope of getting anything from the match. If Elvis takes that one before HT, the game changes. If RHF takes that one and levels us up at 2-2, the game changes. Unfortunately for us, they took a (probably deserved) lead and sat back waiting to his us on the counter.

Few musings on the team; I thought the new guy looked ok at the back. ANG is as frustrating as ever. Great at running with the ball, but his end product needs a lot of work. Ox played well, made a couple of great saves. No chance with any of the goals. I like Akinola more and more.

The pitch looked like a ploughed field by the end of game. Remember the days when our pitch resembled the green baize of a snooker table?

Anyway, enough of all that, let the Mark Molesley crucifixion begin....

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

Agree on the 3 at the back. Doesn’t work. Looked really comfortable in the 4231 we were playing a few weeks back. Not 100% sure why we’ve abandoned it

 

[Gorgy21]

Einstein said insanity is someone who does the same thing and expects a different result, take note MM

 

[Rayleigh boy]

Agree on the 3 at the back. Doesn’t work. Looked really comfortable in the 4231 we were playing a few weeks back. Not 100% sure why we’ve abandoned it

maybe because the manager is clueless ?

 

[Oakley1]

well that's 0 points from 3 home games, that's just not good enough.

we needed to get something from these home games and we have failed to deliver.when you look at the table ,yes we can still get out of the bottom two but week after week its getting tighter already and there are 2 teams in the bottom 4 with games in hand over us now

if they pick up points in these games it makes our task of survival even harder.

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

maybe because the manager is clueless ?

We’ll get you in shall we? Bring Sol with ya

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

It's got to the stage, that i dread to turn on Final Score on a Sat afternoon.

 

[Blue Yonder]

On the basis of this evening the addition of a goalscorer is not enough. If we were dominating games and creating multiple chances then maybe. We were poor defensively, played little constructive football, too much hit and hope, not enough movement, delivery into the box was dreadful, second to the ball too many times, and given our perilous situation a bit languid. A squad of 35 professionals with about a third recruited in the last few months by the current regime.

 

[Evening Echo]

BRADFORD City condemned rock bottom Southend United to a third home defeat in the space of eight days tonight.

Read more on this story


Help with Echo links

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

This side will be relegated.
The right tactics for a limited set-up are wrong.
Play to your strengths, so the axiom has it, and we're shuffling ideas and scratching around for answers without any real hope they'll work.
The quality is below average.
Zoners sing praises for the likes of Hobson, but his shape, passing and awareness are National League. He'll fit in well.
Those 'experienced' get injured frequently, and loanees are never going to commit the same way as the full-timers. Note, Sterling.
I have no hope other than the Conference goes into shutdown, and that needs to happen sooner rather than later.

 

[in the know]

Every blxxdy first ten mins of the second half we throw games away. I don't get why we can't have more awareness and see that period out, or do something different like when we press for the first ten of the first half
It's always so predictable

 

[gatecrasher]

The only joy I can glean from all this now is we probably will go down but at least we will end up on more points than I originally thought we would go down with

 

[blueblueblue]

We’ll get you in shall we? Bring Sol with ya

The manager is clueless, that facts show we're bottom of the lg.

 

[MisterStubbs]

Like the rest of you, I’m struggling right now to put in to words just how bad that performance was. This latest defeat really hurts though and although we are still mathematically capable of surviving the drop, I absolutely fear the worst right now, much like I did before that good run of form in December.

It is however because of that good patch last month that I’m still backing the manager, even if it is to just do enough come the end of the season to keep us up. Those games we won we looked like a well organised team, we were strong at the back and we looked like a team that had a game plan. For some reason though in the past few week MM has decided that the way to go is with 5 at the back and in my opinion that’s the reason we have had such a poor run of form. It simply doesn’t work. Tonight was a prime example of that, two of Bradford’s three goals came from a two vs one situation. How does that happen once let alone twice? The fact that the last three games MM has changed back to a back four just makes it even more inexcusable that he continues to start with the same formation the following game. It’s for this reason I’m finding it difficult to defend him tonight, a manager who doesn’t learn from his mistakes is a manager that sooner rather than later will get the sack.

On to the game itself and boy was it a hard watch. Much like the previous home games we’ve been punished for not taking our chances. The Elvis one at 1-1 and RHF blazing over from 10 yards spring to mind. You can hardly blame MM for that but what can blame him for and I said as much after the Mansfield game is this constant game plan of hitting it long to Sim and hoping he can win a header whilst up against two big centre backs. Even if Sim does win the first ball because there is no one within 10/20 yards of him some times the second ball is lost and the opposition come at us again. It’s a game plan that is really making me question what MM is seeing on the sidelines and what he is analysing after the game if he can’t see that it simply doesn’t work. On Bradford, although they were by far and away the better team tonight albeit for about a 10 minute spell in each half, I don’t happen to think they are a very good side, certainly not like Cambridge and Mansfield were. What Bradford were tonight though is organised and benefited from having a striker up top who causes defenders no end of problems.

Sadly though, from what I’ve seen tonight and over the last few games going back to the bore draw at Grimsby, I don’t see how we survive the drop. Tonight was yet another chance for us to get out of the drop zone and once again we’ve bottled it. Not only that, the squad right now with all the injuries and suspensions is as weak as it was in the early stages of the season. The bench tonight was an utter joke. Mark has come out and said tonight that he will work around the clock to find us a striker which is great but a) we should have had one in much early in the window and b) please, no more kids from Bournemouth. I was actually impressed with Tyler Cardner tonight but I can’t remember who said it but right now, we shouldn’t be relying on kids looking for experience to get us out of the mess we are in.

All in all a throughly miserable evening. We now move on to Port Vale on Saturday. Once again a vitally important game but one in which we won’t get anything out of if we set up and perform as we did tonight. Will I be watching? Well me and my fiancé are expecting our first born this weekend so I don’t know. If I can’t, I’ll be cheering the lads on in spirit!

 

[Rayleigh boy]

probably the same as everyone else really getting reallly fed up with the lock down, the bad news and having family working in the NHS - carers etc - vulnerable family members and would not mind the vaccination please - please - but waiting my turn patiently ....

AND on top of it all -

football being a big release valve being off and then the complete and utter sh@t show at Southend United is not helpful...

So 92nd in the league is what i never could have imagined .. ..

I never thought it could happen to us..

So apologise if I have been rude or narky but am really upset with the situation ..

compared with the situation n the hospitals or what some families are facing it is really really unimportant

BUT still a blooming blow .. ffs ..

can't even shout at the ref - same for everyone I guess ..