Bernie wrote:I hope Smith spends a lot of time watching the DVD of today's match. Not just to see how poor most of his players were, but to see the way that Scunthorpe played the game. They kept the ball on the ground, passed to each other and frankly were a pleasure to watch. OK their strikers could not find the net most of the time, they wasted a lot of chances and nearly lost to a couple of flukey goals, but I wish Smith would tell his players to try to play the game like Scunthorpe did today.
I have often wondered what managers actually see when they watch the re-run of matches. During yesterdays game and in conversation with everyone around me both in the seats and at half time everyone appeared to agree on players, tactics, the managers decisions and the opposition. Beevers and Martin are both absolutely terrible players. I note that a number of posters had 'excused' our latest loan signing performance on Tuesday with various excuses translating to not match fit and needs time to bed in. It doesn't matter whether he has played regularily or not, if he was any good we would at least see something of promise - we haven't; he's useless. Beevers; a complete mistake by Smith, what on earth does he see when he watches players? A terrible player. Stop picking Nicholls, what's the point?
The players body language showed not only were they lacking in confidence but they also had a very poor committment not only to themselves but to whatever plan Smith had programmed them with was clearly not being implemented. A series of half hearted tackles, poor passing and marking, a total lack of any meaningful communication with each other made for an awful performance. Taundrey appears to be losing the remarkable transformation he has undertaken since last season, Chambers looks dreadful alongside him and even the slightly improved performance by Jarvis was only a reflection of the poor performances of others around him.
We are looking like certain relegation fodder unless Smith can turn things around, what has happened to the players since the Sheffield performance, why did one of our most skilful and intelligent players, Hurst, not start? We only started to play in the last 10 minutes when he came on and linked quite well with Patterson.
Bernie is right, Smith clearly has a problem with his decision making on players and tactics; SORT IT OUT!
