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Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Reports and reaction from the 2014-2015 season as Walsall finished 3rd in League 1
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Leatherman
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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:36 am

Frustrated beyond belief.
We need a midfielder who can pick out the ball that puts Bradshaw through. He's making the runs and pointing to where he wants the ball played but to no effect.

In fact, from the service he gets you might a swell leave him at home.

Even the play-offs now look grim with Bradford looking the form team.

Still, we still have to play Gillingham and The Banthams so there is still the opportunity to put down a marker.

Otherwise, it's game over for another season.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:02 pm

Thought we were decent first half yesterday, kinda controlled it without being completely dominant, and Oldham weren't bad playing that badly. We spent a lot of time in their half, and we limited them to about two chances.

Second half we were worse, but after their goal we just didn't look like scoring. Not comfortable on the ball, started making silly mistakes. We were better than against Colchester though, which was the last game I saw.

Etheridge - didn't do a lot wrong. Gets a lot of stick from fans about being too slow with his distribution, I always think he looks to throw it out soon, and sometimes does, but other times the team don't give him any options.
Demetriou - good going forward first half.
Downing - seem to have gone backwards, doesn't look confident at all, especially when he has the ball. Cant seem to pick out a red shirt.
Pennington - very impressed with him. Won everything in the air and was always very quick to get back into position. Shame that his only mistake lead to them scoring. I'd like to see him with O'Connor when he's back fit.
Taylor - not bad, seems to be in decent form at the minute. Thought his freekick had gone in, especially when the players all seemed to run back towards him.
Chambers - Didn't do a lot wrong yesterday.
Mantom - he's so much better when we have the ball than when we don't. Doesn't get stuck in enough, especially when we're 1 down and need to get back into the game. This is what we have missed since Evans left, despite Mantom scoring a fair few since then.
Forde - quite good first half, got at their defenders well and always looked to get a cross in.
Sawyers - was better than Colchester game.
Hiwula - again, not bad. Looks good when he's running at defenders, but always seems to go one step too far instead of passing/shooting. Also skied out best/only decent chance. I would like to see him upfront with Bradshaw as a front two.
Bradshaw - had one chance all game. Hope he isn't out for a long time with what looked like a groin injury. And hopefully Hiwula steps up in his place. If he is out for a while, bring back Murphy and/or Bakayoko. Nothing to lose by doing so.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Sun Apr 10, 2016 6:39 pm

Only question one thing, the ability of our coach cum manager to motivate the players. Too forgiving, too friendly, too easy, too much talk and no action. If you're not happy with the result and their efforts then tell the players straight away, not tomorrow or Monday but the second they get off the pitch. The last few games have proved that it is simply too easy for the players to do as they please...............I'm disgusted with the lack of effort, urgency and desire to compete and I'm sick of the nauseous babble that we have to put up with after every game. We've been playing like cack and it's about time that Mr Whitney or whoever is in charge to tell us fans who go every week the fudge obvious and what they are going to do to rectify it.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:52 pm

Cully wrote:Only question one thing, the ability of our coach cum manager to motivate the players. Too forgiving, too friendly, too easy, too much talk and no action. If you're not happy with the result and their efforts then tell the players straight away, not tomorrow or Monday but the second they get off the pitch. The last few games have proved that it is simply too easy for the players to do as they please...............I'm disgusted with the lack of effort, urgency and desire to compete and I'm sick of the nauseous babble that we have to put up with after every game. We've been playing like cack and it's about time that Mr Whitney or whoever is in charge to tell us fans who go every week the fudge obvious and what they are going to do to rectify it.


I'm inclined to agree, and it's really sad and annoying to watch all of that earlier-season effort and success being "whittered away" with too little fight.

What finally brought home the failings of the last few weeks was seeing the league table at the end of the games yesterday, when we'd plummeted from 3rd to 6th. OK, we have two games in hand, but do any of us now really have confidence that we'll take any points from them, never mind the maximum that we need?

Other teams, Burton and Gillingham especially, have given us a number of opportunities to take advantage of their failures over recent weeks, but every time we've failed to take those advantages, and finally it really tells in the league table.

Luckily Barnsley lost badly at home yesterday, so we are still in with a good chance of staying in the play-offs, but unless there's a massive change of attitude and results, we'd be going into those play-offs on a downer and that is never going to be a good omen.

With the mouth-watering local derbies available in the Championship next season, this looks like ending up as one giant disappointment and anti-climax, after so much promise up to a few weeks ago.

I just hope Whitney can find a way to lift the players enough to get some performances out of them in these last few games.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:25 pm

Big key players simply know they are moving on regardless.

Sawyers has been nothing short of criminal since January, Bradshaws head goes down after 6 long balls. Add this into a powderpuff load of players and you get WFC.

Basically, these players dont like it when it does no go their way. I hope they prove me wrong but they are bottling it. It not down to lack of effort. Do they believe? Its all mouth, no heart.

Up the Saddlers.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:02 am

Cowshed wrote:Not been the same since Evans moved on

He don't seem to be getting a kick these days.


And I can't find anything saying he's injured

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:24 am

Kevlar wrote:
Cowshed wrote:Not been the same since Evans moved on

He don't seem to be getting a kick these days.


And I can't find anything saying he's injured


I had a theory about Evans the other week. Not a "I know the head steward's next-door-neighbour's best mate, who said..." kind of thing, just personal speculation:

I think we all accept that SO'D lost the dressing room, the boot room and the canteen in record time, but up until just after he came in, Evans and City were happily renewing his loan every time it came up, without much fuss. With his recent experience of cutting-edge coaching at City, I wonder aloud whether, after 3 weeks or so, Evans was the first to suss out what was coming and got on the blower to City saying something like "there's no way I can train and play for this bloke for the next five months at this stage of my career. Sort me something else out, quick."

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:28 am

I think the biggest difference between the teams on Saturday was finishing, they had one sharp chance which they buried, we had 2 good chances and 1 sitter which we didn't. The pitch also didn't help our style. It was a terrible. A sand pit. This run of 5 away games in 6 isn't helping us at all.

Disagree about Forde being subbed, I would have taken him off too. In the 5 minute period before he was taken off Demetriou had the ball twice and was looking for an outlet and Forde was hiding. He didn't bother to make himself available or make a run out wide for a pass into space, he just stood behind and Oldham defender and left Demetriou with no options.

The tactical issue that left me baffled is why on earth we didn't try and expose Gerrard's lack of pace by isolating him with Hiwula and pushing the ball through for Hiwula to run on to? He was there for the taking. Instead we just played the ball into Bradshaw's feet every time. Once again we make the opposition central defenders job so easy. Everything is in front of them. We are so easy to defend against. We never try and make them turn. Look at Vardy's first goal against Sunderland yesterday to see what you do against a slow centre half. If that had been Walsall we'd have played the ball to Vardy's feet.

Overall it had the feeling of a game between two fairly average mid table teams.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:31 am

Well having seen the highlights we did create enough chances to win easily....perhaps the picture isn't as bleak as some of you say. I hope so......

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:30 am

Our players are to protected , there is always an under lying problem to why we lost or didn't compete.

Not once have i heard the players being criticised it's always someone else's fault. The team need to be told to grow some balls.

Take Downing he just doesn't want to tackle , Romaine try and beat his man, Mantom completely invisible at what is the business end of the season. Problem is these mentioned players are talented but their attitude is clearly the reason why they play in League 1.

Fans aren't stupid they can see it first hand, the rubbish in the press needs to stop. Realism is good and would probably act as a better motivator.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:58 am

aaaae wrote:I think the biggest difference between the teams on Saturday was finishing, they had one sharp chance which they buried, we had 2 good chances and 1 sitter which we didn't. The pitch also didn't help our style. It was a terrible. A sand pit. This run of 5 away games in 6 isn't helping us at all.

Disagree about Forde being subbed, I would have taken him off too. In the 5 minute period before he was taken off Demetriou had the ball twice and was looking for an outlet and Forde was hiding. He didn't bother to make himself available or make a run out wide for a pass into space, he just stood behind and Oldham defender and left Demetriou with no options.

The tactical issue that left me baffled is why on earth we didn't try and expose Gerrard's lack of pace by isolating him with Hiwula and pushing the ball through for Hiwula to run on to? He was there for the taking. Instead we just played the ball into Bradshaw's feet every time. Once again we make the opposition central defenders job so easy. Everything is in front of them. We are so easy to defend against. We never try and make them turn. Look at Vardy's first goal against Sunderland yesterday to see what you do against a slow centre half. If that had been Walsall we'd have played the ball to Vardy's feet.

Overall it had the feeling of a game between two fairly average mid table teams.


That's a really good post. Not just Gerrard's lack of pace, but their other centre half, the big lump Wilson, was also there for the taking.

Oldham were really slow and immobile at the back yet we persisted in the ludicrous tactic of slowing the game down by repeatedly pushing the ball wide in the last third and lumping it back into the middle for Bradshaw or should I say Gerrard and Wilson (how frustrated Bradshaw must have been). There were numerous opportunities to take Gerrard and pierce their defence, but we didn't take them. Our build up was painfully, painfully slow.

Not just that, more has to be demanded by Whitney. I disagree with Lat about Sawyers, he wasn't the problem on Saturday, but I hope that Jordy is as disappointed with his performance as I was. Not just the shot he blazed over, but he has the full goal to shoot at five minutes earlier but popped the ball into their goalies arms, then there was the one-on-one, and numerous really poor passes, simple passes that might have unlocked Oldham. That said Jordy wasn't the only one who couldn't pass on Saturday.

Oldham were extremely limited which makes the defeat doubly disappointing but they seemed to want it more - the body language after they scored was not good.

I fear that we have run out of steam. I think that tomorrow might tell us whether our season ends now, or whether we can get this bad run out of our system and there is still some life left in us.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:16 pm

geoffwhiting wrote:
Cully wrote:Only question one thing, the ability of our coach cum manager to motivate the players. Too forgiving, too friendly, too easy, too much talk and no action. If you're not happy with the result and their efforts then tell the players straight away, not tomorrow or Monday but the second they get off the pitch. The last few games have proved that it is simply too easy for the players to do as they please...............I'm disgusted with the lack of effort, urgency and desire to compete and I'm sick of the nauseous babble that we have to put up with after every game. We've been playing like cack and it's about time that Mr Whitney or whoever is in charge to tell us fans who go every week the fudge obvious and what they are going to do to rectify it.


I'm inclined to agree, and it's really sad and annoying to watch all of that earlier-season effort and success being "whittered away" with too little fight.

What finally brought home the failings of the last few weeks was seeing the league table at the end of the games yesterday, when we'd plummeted from 3rd to 6th. OK, we have two games in hand, but do any of us now really have confidence that we'll take any points from them, never mind the maximum that we need?

Other teams, Burton and Gillingham especially, have given us a number of opportunities to take advantage of their failures over recent weeks, but every time we've failed to take those advantages, and finally it really tells in the league table.

Luckily Barnsley lost badly at home yesterday, so we are still in with a good chance of staying in the play-offs, but unless there's a massive change of attitude and results, we'd be going into those play-offs on a downer and that is never going to be a good omen.

With the mouth-watering local derbies available in the Championship next season, this looks like ending up as one giant disappointment and anti-climax, after so much promise up to a few weeks ago.

I just hope Whitney can find a way to lift the players enough to get some performances out of them in these last few games.


Totally agree with Cully.
The interview after the Sheffield United defeat was cringe worthy.
I will never listen to Whitney again after that, it was simply PATHETIC!

The football we played as certainly been lost at United and Oldham. In all honesty we will be lucky to get in the play offs. If we did by miracle end up in them I cannot honestly see us doing anything in them.
Teams who do well in the play offs are teams on a good run, we are far from anywhere near that at the moment.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:23 pm

Providing Bradshaws injury isn't too serious, I genuinely think that Sawyers needs to be left out and we should go 4-4-2.

I know it's easy to criticise him because his nonchalant approach sometimes gives the impression of lack of effort/commitment (similar to how the Arsenal fans get onto Ozil when he's having bad games) but for large parts of this season the performances just haven't been there.

He has managed 2 assists and 0 goals in the last 19 games, and for a creative/attacking midfielder playing in the number 10 role you surely even at league 1 level have to expect a fairly consistent contribution of both? At the moment I'm struggling to see what he's bringing to the team apart from slowing down build up play and lots of pointless possession.

At least 4-4-2 will allow Hiwula and Bradshaw to combine and then Lalkovic and Forde to get at the oppositions full backs. For me there's too much harmless possession in our own third, followed by a clip up to Bradshaws throat asking him to hold off two 6ft+ CB's!

The team selections and formations are currently based on accommodating Sawyers and allowing him to play behind either Bradshaw, or Bradshaw and Hiwula. But i personally don't think he should be accommodated for if the contributions aren't there ..

You're welcome to tell me I'm being too harsh on him, but it's just what I feel!

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 5:50 pm

So I decided to make the trip north to see some exciting football and hopefully a win!
What I actually witnessed was a typical walsall home game, yes I did say home game.
It was like watching us at home against bury, Chesterfield or infact oldham.
Oldham just sat back and defended the edge of their box and hoped to snatch a goal on the break which of course they did.
Once they scored they shut up shop and im afraid we were dreadful.
Most teams have worked us out and we have no plan b, we needed a big strong centre forward months ago to at least give us some presence up front but we got hiwula who for all his running doesn't make the right decision and loses the ball all to often.
Ah well thanks my whinging out of the way, I hope I'm wrong but I think that's it for this season, we might scrape the playoffs but not the playoff final. Watch them win at gillingham now lol

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:31 pm

Ryanponder18 wrote:Providing Bradshaws injury isn't too serious, I genuinely think that Sawyers needs to be left out and we should go 4-4-2.

I know it's easy to criticise him because his nonchalant approach sometimes gives the impression of lack of effort/commitment (similar to how the Arsenal fans get onto Ozil when he's having bad games) but for large parts of this season the performances just haven't been there.

He has managed 2 assists and 0 goals in the last 19 games, and for a creative/attacking midfielder playing in the number 10 role you surely even at league 1 level have to expect a fairly consistent contribution of both? At the moment I'm struggling to see what he's bringing to the team apart from slowing down build up play and lots of pointless possession.

At least 4-4-2 will allow Hiwula and Bradshaw to combine and then Lalkovic and Forde to get at the oppositions full backs. For me there's too much harmless possession in our own third, followed by a clip up to Bradshaws throat asking him to hold off two 6ft+ CB's!

The team selections and formations are currently based on accommodating Sawyers and allowing him to play behind either Bradshaw, or Bradshaw and Hiwula. But i personally don't think he should be accommodated for if the contributions aren't there ..

You're welcome to tell me I'm being too harsh on him, but it's just what I feel!


First post and you're questioning the untouchable Sawyers??? You're a brave man :mrgreen:

I agree. too much of our play is forced through Sawyers who, while very talented, is not producing the goods.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:43 pm

Bloomin heck some good honest posts on here for a change!
We are usually bombarded with happy clapper nonsense telling us that all is well and our team are brilliant and will win the League etc etc.
At last most are realising that our squad seem to have lost interest, lost their bottle, and ruined what should have been our promotion season.
As Sheff and others above put so eloquently, yes we probably will get to the play off's but the way we are playing without energy, enthusiasm, guile or quality, we will get knocked out at the first hurdle, how sad after such an exciting year.
So lads it's up to you, prove us wrong, avoid defeats at Gillingham & Bradford, put that 'high & mighty' ****hole Brown "I think we can get three points at Walsall (who are dropping like a stone) on Saturday" in his place......pleeease!!

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:50 pm

tinned wrote:
Ryanponder18 wrote:Providing Bradshaws injury isn't too serious, I genuinely think that Sawyers needs to be left out and we should go 4-4-2.

I know it's easy to criticise him because his nonchalant approach sometimes gives the impression of lack of effort/commitment (similar to how the Arsenal fans get onto Ozil when he's having bad games) but for large parts of this season the performances just haven't been there.

He has managed 2 assists and 0 goals in the last 19 games, and for a creative/attacking midfielder playing in the number 10 role you surely even at league 1 level have to expect a fairly consistent contribution of both? At the moment I'm struggling to see what he's bringing to the team apart from slowing down build up play and lots of pointless possession.

At least 4-4-2 will allow Hiwula and Bradshaw to combine and then Lalkovic and Forde to get at the oppositions full backs. For me there's too much harmless possession in our own third, followed by a clip up to Bradshaws throat asking him to hold off two 6ft+ CB's!

The team selections and formations are currently based on accommodating Sawyers and allowing him to play behind either Bradshaw, or Bradshaw and Hiwula. But i personally don't think he should be accommodated for if the contributions aren't there ..

You're welcome to tell me I'm being too harsh on him, but it's just what I feel!


First post and you're questioning the untouchable Sawyers??? You're a brave man :mrgreen:

I agree. too much of our play is forced through Sawyers who, while very talented, is not producing the goods.



Haha I know :? Should have probably started with a 'we can still make automatic' post really .. Needed to let out some frustration!

Exactly though, no doubt about his ability, just isn't contributing anywhere near enough at the moment.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:50 pm

Ancient Moaner wrote:We are usually bombarded with happy clapper nonsense telling us that all is well and our team are brilliant and will win the League etc etc.


Yes, I hope you will now refrain from the above.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:51 pm

Ryanponder18 wrote:
tinned wrote:
Ryanponder18 wrote:Providing Bradshaws injury isn't too serious, I genuinely think that Sawyers needs to be left out and we should go 4-4-2.

I know it's easy to criticise him because his nonchalant approach sometimes gives the impression of lack of effort/commitment (similar to how the Arsenal fans get onto Ozil when he's having bad games) but for large parts of this season the performances just haven't been there.

He has managed 2 assists and 0 goals in the last 19 games, and for a creative/attacking midfielder playing in the number 10 role you surely even at league 1 level have to expect a fairly consistent contribution of both? At the moment I'm struggling to see what he's bringing to the team apart from slowing down build up play and lots of pointless possession.

At least 4-4-2 will allow Hiwula and Bradshaw to combine and then Lalkovic and Forde to get at the oppositions full backs. For me there's too much harmless possession in our own third, followed by a clip up to Bradshaws throat asking him to hold off two 6ft+ CB's!

The team selections and formations are currently based on accommodating Sawyers and allowing him to play behind either Bradshaw, or Bradshaw and Hiwula. But i personally don't think he should be accommodated for if the contributions aren't there ..

You're welcome to tell me I'm being too harsh on him, but it's just what I feel!


First post and you're questioning the untouchable Sawyers??? You're a brave man :mrgreen:

I agree. too much of our play is forced through Sawyers who, while very talented, is not producing the goods.



Haha I know :? Should have probably started with a 'we can still make automatic' post really .. Needed to let out some frustration!

Exactly though, no doubt about his ability, just isn't contributing anywhere near enough at the moment.


Watching the highlights, he played a lovely ball through to Jordy who then bollocksed it up.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:53 pm

chestersaddler wrote:
Ancient Moaner wrote:We are usually bombarded with happy clapper nonsense telling us that all is well and our team are brilliant and will win the League etc etc.


Yes, I hope you will now refrain from the above.


You know me...always positive.......ask 'Optimist', he's thinks I get carried away with too much enthusiasm!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:05 pm

chestersaddler wrote:
Ryanponder18 wrote:
tinned wrote:
Ryanponder18 wrote:Providing Bradshaws injury isn't too serious, I genuinely think that Sawyers needs to be left out and we should go 4-4-2.

I know it's easy to criticise him because his nonchalant approach sometimes gives the impression of lack of effort/commitment (similar to how the Arsenal fans get onto Ozil when he's having bad games) but for large parts of this season the performances just haven't been there.

He has managed 2 assists and 0 goals in the last 19 games, and for a creative/attacking midfielder playing in the number 10 role you surely even at league 1 level have to expect a fairly consistent contribution of both? At the moment I'm struggling to see what he's bringing to the team apart from slowing down build up play and lots of pointless possession.

At least 4-4-2 will allow Hiwula and Bradshaw to combine and then Lalkovic and Forde to get at the oppositions full backs. For me there's too much harmless possession in our own third, followed by a clip up to Bradshaws throat asking him to hold off two 6ft+ CB's!

The team selections and formations are currently based on accommodating Sawyers and allowing him to play behind either Bradshaw, or Bradshaw and Hiwula. But i personally don't think he should be accommodated for if the contributions aren't there ..

You're welcome to tell me I'm being too harsh on him, but it's just what I feel!


First post and you're questioning the untouchable Sawyers??? You're a brave man :mrgreen:

I agree. too much of our play is forced through Sawyers who, while very talented, is not producing the goods.



Haha I know :? Should have probably started with a 'we can still make automatic' post really .. Needed to let out some frustration!

Exactly though, no doubt about his ability, just isn't contributing anywhere near enough at the moment.


Watching the highlights, he played a lovely ball through to Jordy who then bollocksed it up.


There's probably been a few similar occasions throughout the season, should probably go more by chances created rather than assists I guess ..

I remember the fake cross off the corner away at Donny which lead to the 2nd goal, moment of genius, but too much in dribs and drabs for me

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:20 pm

What a sad depressing read.....the first time this season we have lost 2 consecutive games and we have posts calling for players to be dropped, the manager to publicly slate them and for them to be accused of not trying!!! Well i don't agree with any of that....we may not get promotion but I am proud of the team who have played so well all season and until last week had the best away record in the league. This team always tries,we are without our best defender and because our squad is small changes are difficult to make.
Instead of writing off our chances get behind our team who have done so well ....you also have to remember we lost our Manager mid season who had brought in,coached and nurtured a lot of these young men. The effect of that has been underestimated in my view and will probably the main reason we have lost a lot of fluidity.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:46 pm

Walsallone wrote:What a sad depressing read.....the first time this season we have lost 2 consecutive games and we have posts calling for players to be dropped, the manager to publicly slate them and for them to be accused of not trying!!! Well i don't agree with any of that....we may not get promotion but I am proud of the team who have played so well all season and until last week had the best away record in the league. This team always tries,we are without our best defender and because our squad is small changes are difficult to make.
Instead of writing off our chances get behind our team who have done so well ....you also have to remember we lost our Manager mid season who had brought in,coached and nurtured a lot of these young men. The effect of that has been underestimated in my view and will probably the main reason we have lost a lot of fluidity.



I'd refer you to Ancient Moaner's post above at 8.43pm, for a bit of a reality check. For those of us old enough to remember, this is nothing new, it is known as the fight against promotion. Not sure it's quite the same this time around, but the end result appears to be heading for the same.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Tue Apr 12, 2016 4:54 am

Walsallone wrote:What a sad depressing read.....the first time this season we have lost 2 consecutive games and we have posts calling for players to be dropped, the manager to publicly slate them and for them to be accused of not trying!!! Well i don't agree with any of that....we may not get promotion but I am proud of the team who have played so well all season and until last week had the best away record in the league. This team always tries,we are without our best defender and because our squad is small changes are difficult to make.
Instead of writing off our chances get behind our team who have done so well ....you also have to remember we lost our Manager mid season who had brought in,coached and nurtured a lot of these young men. The effect of that has been underestimated in my view and will probably the main reason we have lost a lot of fluidity.


It's not just the last 2 games is it? Prior to those both Fleetwood and Colchester we were very lucky. Then If you want to go further back say the SOD era where virtually again the whole team gave up week on week Crewe away anyone?

Now facts are we have been awful since January Rochdale at home , Millwall at home , Reading away now these last two performances. It wasn't all the fault of SOD he wasn't the one kicking the ball.

Fans will get frustrated and why shouldn't they? What a golden chance we have thrown away.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Tue Apr 12, 2016 7:45 am

Walsallone wrote:What a sad depressing read.....the first time this season we have lost 2 consecutive games and we have posts calling for players to be dropped, the manager to publicly slate them and for them to be accused of not trying!!! Well i don't agree with any of that....we may not get promotion but I am proud of the team who have played so well all season and until last week had the best away record in the league. This team always tries,we are without our best defender and because our squad is small changes are difficult to make.
Instead of writing off our chances get behind our team who have done so well ....you also have to remember we lost our Manager mid season who had brought in,coached and nurtured a lot of these young men. The effect of that has been underestimated in my view and will probably the main reason we have lost a lot of fluidity.


Firstly, its not the first time we have lost 2 consecutive games this season. We lost to Morecambe and Bury.
Secondly, look at our last 11 matches LDLDDLWWWLL, so that's 3 wins from 11 and 12 points from a possible 33. That's relegation form.
If you want to go into the play offs in relegation form, that's up to you. I can safely say we will be in them and that's all, we wont do anything.
Whitney's first match was a 4-1 win against 10 men for 29 minutes.
He followed that with wins against a poor Fleetwood side. Closely followed by a struggle against a team second bottom.
So his actual 3 wins have been gained against poor teams.

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chunkster
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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Tue Apr 12, 2016 9:42 am

Just as another issue, I read the comments from whitt's in the E&S on the game. And then I read the reports on here from fans who went to the game. And I have come to the conclusion that they where at different games :lol:

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tinned
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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Tue Apr 12, 2016 12:08 pm

Walsallone wrote:What a sad depressing read.....the first time this season we have lost 2 consecutive games and we have posts calling for players to be dropped, the manager to publicly slate them and for them to be accused of not trying!!! Well i don't agree with any of that....we may not get promotion but I am proud of the team who have played so well all season and until last week had the best away record in the league. This team always tries,we are without our best defender and because our squad is small changes are difficult to make.
Instead of writing off our chances get behind our team who have done so well ....you also have to remember we lost our Manager mid season who had brought in,coached and nurtured a lot of these young men. The effect of that has been underestimated in my view and will probably the main reason we have lost a lot of fluidity.


Keeping an optimistic outlook is all well and good. I think it shold be served with a side dish of reality though.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Tue Apr 12, 2016 1:37 pm

Well in life it is best to be optimistic...I agree we haven't played that well but we do have good players and we should all know that when we are at our best we can beat anyone. I still believe although I do accept that defeat tonight will be a severe blow...anyway time will tell.
One additional point to Sheff....yes we did lose two consecutive games earlier but one of them was in the JPT not the league and what was our response after that?
To Mr Whiting I have supported Walsall for nearly 60 years and I have never given up on them or had a strop because of the Chairman! Some of the players we have at the moment are as good as any I have seen but as I said earlier the loss of the Manager and the failure of his replacement has undermined our fluidity which is crucial to the winning of games.

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Tue Apr 12, 2016 2:24 pm

Losing Evans put a real dent in the promotion challenge. 7 wins in 12 when he was here, with only 2 defeats, then just 5 wins in 14 since he was recalled.

And recalled for what reason? Taken away from regular first team football challenging at the top end of league 1, to barely making the bench in the championship!

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Re: Oldham Athletic (A) League One, Apr 9, 3pm

Tue Apr 12, 2016 4:52 pm

One thing I forgot to mention, when defending corners we don't seem to have players on either post now. I noticed this against Colchester, and again on Saturday.

Was this the case under SOD, or just a change since Whitney came in?

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