Sat Aug 07, 2010 5:12 pm
We just looked very rigid today, against a side who looked sharper all over ther pitch.
In terms of the system we played, we were hindered from the off by the fact that Nicholls and Byfield isolate themselves up front. They just can't play together as they both look to run along the opposition's back four - neither drop in the hole to get the ball to feet.
As a result of our limits up front, we proceeded to boot it from the back, and hoped that chasing shadows would get us somewhere. I felt for McGivern, who offered himself as an option for Brain to roll the ball to a number of times, but was just waved away as we booted the ball down the middle.
Criticism of Richards is completely misplaced now I'm afraid. He was the only one of our midfield who went looking for the ball, and at least tried to keep the ball on the floor. No, he's not the quickest and he won't dominate things in the air, but he's so limited by what's around him, it's untrue. Taundry battled, just as he always has and probably always will.
Unfortunately, we didn't get the ball to Jones and Gray enough either. Last season showed that they're potentially our best players going forward, yet we kept forcing things down the middle. Without a striker to hold the ball up, that's a complete waste.
Just to re-inforce the point I made earlier, Byfield and Nicholls can't play together, and as Bernie has already said, if Nicholls had been a new signing (like Parkin this time last year), there'd be calls for him to never wear the shirt again. He keeps getting the benefit of the doubt, but he looks completely lost most of the time. I only have so much time for players who base their entire game on chasing defenders down, and that's all he seems to have.
The positives were that Lancashire and McGivern looked decent, whilst Lescott didn't do too badly. That said, as a defensive unit, we need to look at those two goals. The two centre backs had instances where they didn't appear to be marking anyone, which meant that MK Dons were able to play the ball with ease in our half. In contrast, at the other end, we literally just chased shadows.
Hutchings post match comments were interesting. Those 2 or 3 new signings could be make or break.