Pedagogue wrote:Our midfield is just not good enough - not defensively, where we work hard enough to cancel out the opposition, but in the creative department. Very few penetrative passes come from midfield, just the usual slow, tippy-tappy possession stuff which allows opponents to re-group. As for midfield players making positive runs, supporting the man-in-possession AHEAD of the ball - absolutely no chance! Perhaps Deano could show our midfield players a video of John Wark in his heyday at Ipswich and Liverpool (Yes, I know that gives my age away!). Cain and Adam Chambers both played very deep. I'm sure that they would get nosebleeds if they ventured upfield more than 10 yards in front of our defence. I was a bit surprised at the words of praise for Grimes in a couple of the posts above. I thought that he was totally and completely anonymous. He didn't do things badly - he just didn't do anything! I watched him closely to see if his work off the ball was helping others - no, it wasn't. However, I don't feel critical of Grimes, rather sympathetic. He is being asked to do a job for which he is clearly unfitted - a regular criticism of DS, playing players out of position (e.g. Baxendale). The manager says that Grimes is a good striker. If that be true, why not try him there? We are vulnerable by relying so heavily on Bradshaw. On the subject of Baxendale (played on the right wing), he is technically very gifted and never hides or shirks responsibility but is clearly not comfortable with the physical side of the game. He can't head a ball, under pressure, to save his life, either.
I would apply the same positives and negatives to Sawyers as to Baxendale. I would like to see him and Baxendale making runs from midfield into the penalty-area and trying some shots (see comments in previous paragraph). Cook is another player who seems to be in search of a rôle. I wonder if DS and ROK know what his best position is?
I'm not going to disagree with you completely, but I think you're being pretty harsh on Grimes and Baxendale, who both had good games. Baxendale was constantly an outlet on the right, carried the ball forward a number of times, and helped us to keep the ball in their half for large parts of the first half in particular. Grimes did similar on the opposite side.
If what you're after is a pair of wingers who repeatedly get to the byline and whip crosses in (can't say I know who John Wark is!), Baxendale and Grimes certainly don't do that, but nor should they. Who exactly would they be whipping these crosses in for? Our system, which is completely, 100% dependent on Sawyers making us tick from 'the hole' means we're never going to have two out and out strikers challenging for the ball in the box - like it or not, that's how Smith sets us up to play.
I completely agree with you on Cook, who for me is ideally suited to the roles Baxendale and Grimes played in yesterday. Our shortage of options up front means that Cook's essentially the fall guy (quite literally given the way he was assaulted by their centre halves yesterday), who's the least worst option we have in that position when Bradshaw can't play. I'm not quite sure why Smith keeps saying how good a striker Cook is when he didn't play in that position last time he played for us and can't have played there since, but there you go.
When Sawyers isn't creating chances, scoring goals, or playing well, there's an argument to say we'd be better off playing with two 'wingers' and two strikers. Given that he had a good game and scored yesterday, and that we claimed three points away from home, I don't think now's the time to make that argument though.
