PUB TEAM DEFENDING !!!

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Red&WhiteArmy
Posts: 58
Joined: 01 Dec 2009, 12:54
Total shambles at that back yet again today! Total embarrasment. Has been all season to be honest. It need resorting months ago, it's beyond a joke now. Old fashioned warrior needed at the back to take command. Sort if out Johnson!! :evil: :evil: :evil:
I-Love-CTFC
Posts: 1538
Joined: 09 Jul 2011, 15:55
Manny was absolutely terrible. How many headers did he miss? How Grimes is captain is beyond me. We have a serious lack of leaders in the squad. Square pegs in round holes once again.
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Nesty
Posts: 6652
Joined: 18 Jun 2011, 09:17
I-Love-CTFC wrote:Manny was absolutely terrible. How many headers did he miss? How Grimes is captain is beyond me. We have a serious lack of leaders in the squad. Square pegs in round holes once again.
We have lacked full backs all season
Red&WhiteArmy
Posts: 58
Joined: 01 Dec 2009, 12:54
Full backs not at fault for goals today. One free header from middle of goal direct from a corner. Criminal lack of marking. And one long punt straight through centre of our defence. Manny misjudged it and left strike to run through. Dog & Duck would genuinely have done better with those situations
Robin
Posts: 15948
Joined: 20 Nov 2009, 11:19
Other than the goal, I thought Manny was fine, his pace is a big asset back there. However Grimes simply needs to be dropped, not at fault for either goal but at least 3-4 mistakes again today.

Easy to criticise defending but I think Accrington had three shots, scored twice, we must have had three times as many chances and failed to score once.
Red&WhiteArmy
Posts: 58
Joined: 01 Dec 2009, 12:54
Robin wrote:Other than the goal, I thought Manny was fine, his pace is a big asset back there. However Grimes simply needs to be dropped, not at fault for either goal but at least 3-4 mistakes again today.

Easy to criticise defending but I think Accrington had three shots, scored twice, we must have had three times as many chances and failed to score once.
Yes Robin it is is to criticise because that level of sending simply isn't acceptable. They were gifts! When do we e we recieve such gifts? Doesn't happen. Hardest thing in football is to score a goal and we have given away goals like confetti this season.
Yes we missed chances too, but all clubs miss chances tbf.
Robin
Posts: 15948
Joined: 20 Nov 2009, 11:19
I'm not excusing the defending but we had more than enough chances to still get something from the game, Eisa was wasteful up top, so was Sellars, we had it cleared off the line, hit post, hit bar, Pell missed a free header etc. it needs to improve too.
Robin
Posts: 15948
Joined: 20 Nov 2009, 11:19
Manny worse than Taylor Moore and Grimes? Thoght they were our two weakest players today.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
Posts: 29756
Joined: 21 Nov 2009, 03:27
Injury to Forster a huge blow. Nigh on impossible to sign someone off his experience and quality in January without spending good money on a fee. And a club like us will be going to great guns to sign another like him in the summer. So expect to see Forster marshalling Boyle or Grimes next season.

Anyone know how Boyle broke his jaw?
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Nesty
Posts: 6652
Joined: 18 Jun 2011, 09:17
Red&WhiteArmy wrote:Full backs not at fault for goals today. One free header from middle of goal direct from a corner. Criminal lack of marking. And one long punt straight through centre of our defence. Manny misjudged it and left strike to run through. Dog & Duck would genuinely have done better with those situations
the full backs may not have been at fault, but playing midfielders and or CB's there puts a strain on the other CB's
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
Posts: 29756
Joined: 21 Nov 2009, 03:27
Nesty wrote:
Red&WhiteArmy wrote:Full backs not at fault for goals today. One free header from middle of goal direct from a corner. Criminal lack of marking. And one long punt straight through centre of our defence. Manny misjudged it and left strike to run through. Dog & Duck would genuinely have done better with those situations
the full backs may not have been at fault, but playing midfielders and or CB's there puts a strain on the other CB's
Correct. Defence is a unit first and foremost. Accrington showed how to do it.
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longmover
Posts: 2821
Joined: 23 Jan 2012, 18:55
PUB TEAM SHOOTING!!
robinsrule
Posts: 881
Joined: 25 Nov 2010, 16:00
Our defence is a mistake waiting to happen.
mozzo
Posts: 108
Joined: 20 Feb 2016, 08:14
I live in hope that I will one day see our strongest midfield quartet of Atangana, pell, Winchester and Dawson playing together. Please Mr Johnson make this happen. Also Mo and Graham back up front together.
horlickfanclub
Posts: 3907
Joined: 04 Aug 2011, 11:02
Winchester was the best of the back four but is needed in midfield.Manny was doing ok until his blooper. Grimes struggled and his distribution was pub level. Taylor Moore was yesterdays square peg.Tried his best but was off balance and looked lost on the left.
Accrington used the full width of the pitch and exploited our weaknesses at the back. Although we were poor at the back we could have still achieved a draw with better finishing.
Oldun
Posts: 795
Joined: 02 Feb 2011, 20:12
Not sure TM did much wrong yesterday once he settled, but not sure how much he will play if we get new left back.
Can't see that you have room in midfield for Winnie though . Pell Nige Joe plus Winnie means leaving out Daws and/or Sells. Daws has to be one of first names on team sheet and Nige needs to play too. Surely Joe is too good for bench. Maybe Harry will warm the bench for a bit when all other would be midfielders are fit. Winnie I suspect has to stay where he is.
Biggest problem though is loss of Forster. Roll on March and his return. Just in time to take us in to the play offs!
Robin
Posts: 15948
Joined: 20 Nov 2009, 11:19
We need to go back to 4-3-3, considering we don't really have wingers it allows us to play more players in their correct position and Winchester/Dawson could play right wing back.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
Posts: 29756
Joined: 21 Nov 2009, 03:27
Oldun wrote:Not sure TM did much wrong yesterday once he settled, but not sure how much he will play if we get new left back.
Can't see that you have room in midfield for Winnie though . Pell Nige Joe plus Winnie means leaving out Daws and/or Sells. Daws has to be one of first names on team sheet and Nige needs to play too. Surely Joe is too good for bench. Maybe Harry will warm the bench for a bit when all other would be midfielders are fit. Winnie I suspect has to stay where he is.
Biggest problem though is loss of Forster. Roll on March and his return. Just in time to take us in to the play offs!
Pell and Nige should not play alongside each other. Need a creative in the middle.
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Nesty
Posts: 6652
Joined: 18 Jun 2011, 09:17
horlickfanclub wrote:Winchester was the best of the back four but is needed in midfield.Manny was doing ok until his blooper. Grimes struggled and his distribution was pub level. Taylor Moore was yesterdays square peg.Tried his best but was off balance and looked lost on the left.
Accrington used the full width of the pitch and exploited our weaknesses at the back. Although we were poor at the back we could have still achieved a draw with better finishing.
Bobby Moore would have struggled at full back.
Benctfc
Posts: 1353
Joined: 29 Dec 2011, 16:54
Location: Whaddon road
Robin wrote:We need to go back to 4-3-3, considering we don't really have wingers it allows us to play more players in their correct position and Winchester/Dawson could play right wing back.
Agree with this don't have good enough natural wingers or full backs to play 4-4-2 so don't get why we persist playing it.
horlickfanclub
Posts: 3907
Joined: 04 Aug 2011, 11:02
There are no wing backs in a 4 3 3 system Robin.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
Posts: 29756
Joined: 21 Nov 2009, 03:27
horlickfanclub wrote:There are no wing backs in a 4 3 3 system Robin.
We all thought it, glad someone said it.
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Shade
Posts: 16823
Joined: 27 Sep 2010, 13:02
Location: Cheltenhamshire
Let's be honest, Saturday just summed up our season, and Cheltenham Town over the years, in several ways:
1) we score 4 once in a blue moon. We then don't score for at least the next game, and barely score for about a month...we'll see about the second half of that sentence, of course.
2) although we weren't as dominant on Saturday, we still had the lions share of good chances but still squandered them all...
3) we then made two stupid errors and conceded two stupid goals - same old story, our opponents punish us and we don't punish them.
4) we should have won 5-2. We genuinely had 5 openings that we should have scored from, but blazed the ball high and/or wide or hit the woodwork, or had the ball somehow cleared off the line. If we had stuck away 3 or 4 of those, quite frankly, easy chances at L2 level, would anyone be unhappy with the performance? I'm asking that as a serious question. If we'd conceded those same two goals, but Mo, Dawson, Adebayo, Mo (again), Graham and Pell (I think?) had stuck their chances away, would we care what the rest of the performance was like? They could have played a blinder but we wouldn't have scored if we were still playing, the double woodwork smash pretty much proved that.
5) As others have said, Accrington are 4th for a reason. Yes, it's annoying given the size of their gates and the money they get (boosted by larger than average club merch sales, I've read), but they've been putting this side together for quite a long time now. Several of their players have been there for at least 2 seasons, which helps when putting the other pieces into place. Kee, McConville, Scott Brown...they have location on their side when recruiting, also. Kyle Storer said last week that petrol/travelling was a big factor in him going to Solihull rather than Morecambe.

All of that leads me to believe the formation wasn't at fault at all, but some of the players weren't composed enough. GJ has obviously prepped them and sends them out to win but he can't do anything about them missing fairly easy chances or missing headers. In terms of recruitment, I'm sure he does what he can and if a couple of decent enough full backs turn up he'll try to sign them.

We're a mid-table-ish side this season...I'm afraid that we're just going to have to get used to it unless a couple of very good L2 players pop up for next to nothing in the next 2 weeks.

PS, two other things - it was Moore that was marking Kee for the first goal but got nowhere near him (experience vs youth) and Manny did jump for the second goal but only got a bit of his head on it, which actually knocked it even more perfectly into the path of their striker. Grimes was also caught in no mans land, allowing the first bounce to go behind him, leaving Manny in trouble.
Robin
Posts: 15948
Joined: 20 Nov 2009, 11:19
Your post is spot on Shade, people go crazy on the two defensive mistakes but we still had more than enough chances to win the game but fluffed several good ones. We are no where near a relegation side, and a long way from a promotion one too. I'd like to see a settled team with a proper full back added in the next few weeks and ideally a signing or two with an eye on a more sustained play off challenge next season like we did with Boyle and Winnie last year.

Oh and let's get Winchester tied down right now rather than wait for a league one club to snap him up please.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
Posts: 29756
Joined: 21 Nov 2009, 03:27
Agree with both Shade and Robin. (What a triumvirate). Mo's blast high and wide reminiscent of Kayode vs Newcastle.

What is promising is that even in a game where received wisdom is that Stanley spoiled and killed the second half and we, to quote the manager as well as fans, were poor, we still created enough clear openings to win two games.

If we create so much in a game where we are poor and the opposition playing well tactically, what will we be like when playing well against worse sides?
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