Tell me, did the players pick the team? Did the players decide to go with the most attacking formation we have seen all season with no suggestion of a screen for the back four? Why can't the big fat brainless cnut get it? Play 4-4-2, you can't start Nolan. Play 4-4-2, and you certainly can't play Vaz Te and Nolan! Play 4-3-3 with Vaz Te and Maynard in advanced roles and you simply have to have a holding midfielder to screen the back four. This is basic stuff. These are the tactical details that a PE teacher could explain to a Junior School team.
Why is Allardyce going on about the third goal? It was the first two goals that were the killers, and Birmingham waltzed through us because of the lack of protection for the back four! I was watching on a dreadful stream in Brasov, Romania, and I spent the first 10 minutes trying to work out the team. I spotted Tomkins and assumed he was holding. Then he was in the right back berth and I thought, oh shit. It was so obvious what would happen as soon as Birmingham got hold of the ball! And sure enough, Mutch strolls forward, unchallenged, advances on out flat lined back four, grubs a shot and Green doesn't bother to move! 1-0! Then the stream went down. Three minutes later it was up again, but the score was two bloody nil!
It's time for Allardyce to face up and admit he fcuked up as he has fcuked up with his team selection week after week after week. Last night's team would have suited Doncaster at home and Bristol City at home and maybe even Palace at home. But Birmingham? What an oaf!
So we now have to pray that Reading lose at Brighton, Birmingham and Southampton. Mind you, even then we have to win at home, and that doesn't look very likely does it?
Allardyce claims: "We've paid for a sloppy first half yet again and unfortunately while it's a magnificent comeback once again it's only one point and not three and three is what we wanted." Nope. We've paid for numpty tactics yet again. The magnificent fight back came when a semblance of shape was given to the team by the replacement of Maynard with Lansbury.
7 comments:
I couldn't agree with you more- we dropped two points( as opposed to salvaging a point) by a dreadful bombardment that would have shames stoke city. Even then we only got back into it as they lost their best CB.
BFS is a clueless and has shown again he doesnt know how to make this team play and set a team up gainst the better sides.
DOnt get me wrong, we got out moeny's worth but 7 goals conceded, at home, in two games doesnt bode well , does it
sometimes you get it wrong but your post is spot on fat man is useless with his tactics yet again roll on the play off semis
Fat Same Out, PDC In now so we can go up via play off's (same effect as Travor Brooking when he was caretaker)
Kevin in Manchester writes..
Nolan is our top scorer. we can't go up against the top teams without him.. he scores too many vital goals and(despite you perpetual slagging of him) he's also responsible for a fair few goal scoring assists. The tactics didn't change in the second half when Birmingham were penned inside their own half and we scored twice (and were unlucky not to bag hatful more). The difference was the players stepping up to the plate, not the tactics. You can't have it all ways; slagging him for not being attacking and adventurous enough at home and then slagging him for not being defensive enough when he goes with an all out attack formation. The second half proved there was no need for a defensive screen if the players played to their ability and stopped fannying around like they did in the first half.
When I saw the team sheet, I said this is crazy. Three forwards and no midfield! Birmingham packed that area with 5 midfielders. Moreover, NoBall (a more accurate spelling of his name), NoLand (because he can't cover much of it) and O-No-Neil because I am not really sure what, if anything, this player is any good at, were the weakest midfield line in all of the Football League. They can't create anything going forward and most importantly they give zero protection to the defenders as you very accurately point out.
In fact, if I have learned anything from last night's game is that the Allardyce way might work if we don't pretend to play through the middle at all and just keep banging the ball directly to the forwards until something happens - score a goal or win a penalty and so on.
So, its really our fault for insisting that we should have any midfield at all. Let's just forget about it and keep kicking the ball into the opposition's penalty area until we score. It's the pinball effect. You hit the ball until you score. I wish we did this a lot more in the past. I am sure we would have picked a lot more points this way. Pack the defence, pack the attack and keep kicking long balls into the opposing team's penalty area. If we do this in the playoffs we may have a chance. If we try to play football, we are doomed!
These last few weeks are the culmination of what you have been saying all along, Im afraid. We have not been very good all season. All those 1-0 wins from spot kicks or the lone goal gave us points, and those are the points that gave us a false sense of security. Me included.
I thought Allardyce was the best man for the job. I was thrilled at his appointment. But he is like a chef that has run fancy steak houses his whole career with great cuts of eat. Slap em on the grill, time em well, and off you go. But now has to be creative in a kitchen with a bunch of ingredients he has never used before. He blames the servers, the purveyors, even the barman. But the reality is this.
The food sucks.
Anony-mouse says,
Blame Allardyce if you must for the first half. Although it was individual errors by players not the manager that put us on the back-foot. Any chance of a bit of balance though and giving him credit for the second half? No, of course not.
You've got the general mood wrong of our fans wrong- I put it down to you being 100s of miles away- and incorrectly believing that some of those who inhabit this site are typical of the fan-base. The mood of most of us is, and this will surprise you, up. Sure we know that automatic promotion is more than unlikely now (come on Brighton and Saints on Friday) but that second half performance was excellent and means that a Brum with our bete noire Zigic in it isn't guaranteed to walk all over us in the play-offs as I keep hearing from you and yours.
You wanted 4 4 2 HF- you got it. You've been banging on about it all season, and now that you finally get it you still use it as a stick to beat Allardyce with. Please don't tell me you really want a 4 4 2 without Nolan our top scorer who for the first time this season is adding form to his crucial goals.
Pete- Sam out now? And PDC in right now? Brilliant! What about to complete this alternative universe scenario of yours we also get Trev and Dev out of retirement too- they must be free agents so they can play- yay! I'm loving it (til my medication runs out anyway).
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