Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:01 pm
Last night pretty much summed up why we won't be in the playoffs this season. After we went 1 down, we had no plan B other than to hoof the ball into Bristol Rovers half, which suited them down to the ground.
I thought Smith had a solid game considering he had to deal with one of the best target-men in the league, in difficult conditions. The same could be said of Gerrard, to be fair. Other than that, there wasn't really a lot worth talking about.
Whoever said last night's effort was a good game needs to get watching some more football. If I wanted to see a row of defenders hofing the ball long to a 37 year old bald striker who can't jump, I'd go and watch the fourth division of the local Sunday league, where it's expected.
The tactical decisions all came without reason. Our best player in attacking terms in the first half was Betsy, who looked well up for the game and seemed to be enjoying the stick he was getting from their fans. So what do we do? We play him on the wing in the second half and don't give him the ball, of course. Similarly with Holmes, who's consistently been our sole attacking threat from midfield since Sweeney left. He wasn't helped by being backed by a right-footed left back, as a couple of others have said, but how do you expect your good players to perform if you don't give them the ball?!
I was both surpsised and disappointed to see us playing with such little width in general.
Mooney's legs have gone, and so has his Walsall career, as disappointed as I am to say it. I struggle to see how Deeney has a future in League football at times, but he contributed much more than Mooney when he came on, which makes him the man to start the next game. That really does highlight the 'bare bones' nature of our squad, but there's nothing we can do about that now.
My final point regarding the way we played is this....
I reckon we probably had about 65-70% of the possession last night, and yet couldn't create a decent chance to score. They used the ball so much better than us, it was unreal. And we're talking about a side who were winless in 10 games and in a bit of a battle to stay up. I remain hopeful that we'll be able to rectify things on Saturday, but with absolutely clueless decisions like the ones made by both the manager and his players last night, 'hope' is about all I can muster.