mediocrity
miːdɪˈɒkrɪti/
noun
- the quality or state of being mediocre."the team suddenly came good after years of mediocrity"
synonyms: ordinariness, commonplaceness, lack of inspiration, passableness,adequacy, indifference; More
Todays game was beyond frustrating- and I'll preface this by saying Ipswich deserved the win, but they were poor today. Had we showed up we could have very feasibly gotten a point from the game, but we didn't. Since the Sheffield Wednesday game, with the exception of the First Half against Forest we've been almost universally poor- and had "he" been in charge for those games the fans would be going nuclear.
All The goals today were poor from a defensive standpoint. Firstly, the corner for the first goal shouldn't even have been a corner- Bettinelli should have came and collected the ball rather than staying on his line and that led to Hutchinson booting it out. Then the goal itself was a catalogue of errors, eventually ending up with Stafylidis slicing what should have been a routine clearance. The second, between Stafylidis and Bodurov we should have closed down Murphy- even a little bit to put him under some pressure so he didn't have enough time to work out his angles take a few touches and place it in the Right Corner, leaving Bettinelli no chance. I'm not sure who messed up the clearance from Stafylidis' cross- but the only way we were going to get a goal today was through a defensive error, and thankfully McCormack was on the end of the mistake to convert it.
Bettinelli was helpless for both of the goals, and I thought he had a pretty good game in all honesty. He kept us in the hunt at stages of the game- and it was good to see him put in some of the saves he did, especially one around the 85th Minute mark when I was convinced they were going to score. I've already said my piece with regard to the first goal- and me thinking Bettinelli should have come for the cross prior to the Corner, but that isn't exactly a mistake- as opposed to poor decision making and Hutchinson's urgency is good to an extent; but he could have put it out for a throw/given it to Richards had he no panicked.
Its funny, around a Month ago (give or take) we couldn't score to save our lives- now a month on we can't defend to save our lives. I've already said my piece for the goals, but all of our defenders- and especially Bodurov looked really panicky on the ball today; and while Ipswich were pressing to an extent its not like they were constantly on the defences shoulders and its quite uncharacteristic of Bodurov who I've thought has generally looked quite calm on the ball- which has been one of his major pluses. Stafylidis is a strange player, I hold him culpable for both goals, for different reasons and he looked really unsure of himself in the first half- in all honesty he couldn't have been worse in the Second Half, but I thought he improved and from an attacking standpoint he looked dangerous; and he also improved defensively which was characterised by him doing a much harder block at around the 80 Minute mark than the one in the First Half when it resulted in a goal. Hutchinson had a pretty indifferent game, the defence as a whole looked really shaky today; and Hutchinson isn't the calmest of players anyway- that said there was people playing a helluva lot worse. Richards was another one who was remarkably unremarkable today- the only thing I have to say with regard to Richards was what the hell happened between him and Tabb (?) for both of them to end up on the deck in the First Half.
The midfield was largely abject today. Tunnicliffe was frustrating today- and he can rightfully feel frustrated because when he tried to kick on and push up, making runs etc. he wasn't picked out in favour of a 5 Yard Sideways pass. Parkers return was welcome by me, but he didn't look at the races today- while he's never the most dynamic of players he usually has enough urgency about him to give us a bit of a kick; but he slowed it down a lot today unnecessarily and he didn't offer much today when he's usually the one shifting the play around and indirectly speeding the play up. Christensen was pretty indifferent today, which now I'm looking back is a common theme, its more frustrating to see Christensen putting in indifferent performances because we've seen what he is capable of on numerous occasions- and he's looked overwhelmed since he's come back in the Starting XI. I hope Kit trying to rush him back for the Wolves FA Cup (Home) game hasn't had an adverse long-term effect. Kacaniklic was indifferent as well (shock), he's had such varied performances since he's come back into the team- and this was definitely one of his worse ones. Kacaniklic performs better when the players around him are also playing well- because that in turn generates more space for him which he needs. The problem with that is when we're poor as we were today Kacaniklic is exposed to an extent, and his flaws become apparent.
I'm not going to dig at Hugo today, yes he was quiet- but when he has almost zero service and has to feed off scraps I'm not sure how much of that you can put on Hugo. Hugo is played in the most forward role of the team- but the problem with that is Hugo almost universally gets dominated by the opposing Centre-Backs and I don't think he even won a single header today, but again that isn't Hugo's fault- you can't turn around and tell him to grow; its just a fundamental flaw with the tactics we're employing. McCormack was quite similar to Hugo in his generally indifferent game- yes he scored, but had he not more questions would have been asked. McCormack showed his poacher side today, which makes me more determined to see him play a further forward role.
The Subs Kit made were mixed in my opinion. Woodrow for Christensen was the right move in my opinion, I've already said that Christensen had an indifferent game today- and it was right to bring him off when we did; if not a bit earlier than we had done. Woodrow coming on was a good offensive move, which makes me question why we didn't do it earlier when it was clear we weren't really up to much. Bryan coming on was a welcome sight- he brought a level of composure with him that every single other player in a white (and grey with orange bits) shirt lacked, and you could tell just by his presence it gave the players a lift- and while the goal was what energised us, Bryan was definitely a contributing factor in my opinion. I've said it before and I'll say it again- Patrick Roberts is not ready. I'm not sure how many different ways I can phrase that. While Fofana is far from perfect he brings a definite energy to the team- and in the situation we were in when he had to feed on scraps- his energy would have been useful. The only thing Patrick Roberts did was get outmuscled by the opposing Right-Back when he tried to get the ball passed him.
This was a game I'd rather forget, it was 75 Minutes of mediocrity- with a good finish, and while that is alright when we defend well; when we defend like we did today we don't have a hope in hell of getting anything- especially against teams such as Ipswich who are really resolute and difficult to break down.
Thanks for reading as always, we're off to The New Den next week- and given the situation we find ourselves in the game next week is most definitely a "must not lose". While we should be aiming to win the game- we can't afford to lose under any circumstances, because if we do we'll be right in the Relegation Battle when I'd argue we're on the periphery at the minute. One of the things I've noticed on things like 606 is people calling in saying "X" should be sacked- and the next question is always, who would you bring in? So on that basis I'll have another blog up sooner rather than later saying what in my opinion we need to change, in terms of Tactics and Player choice; but thats for another time- stay tuned for that, and thanks again for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment