MaineRoad_96
Vital 1st Team Regular
Completely agree.
Personally (and I’ll probably get shot down in flames for saying this), but I thought DC got his team selection and tactics wrong over the two games.
Clearly, injuries made that process significantly more difficult, but for me, not having Eardley at right back in both games, and not having Bostwick in midfield yesterday were errors.
Eardley has the most assists this season and is by a mile our best crosser from the right hand side. Putting him on the left doesn’t change much defensively - he’s still solid and dependable (as we saw at the start of the season) - but we lose our most creative source on his natural side. With people like Rhead and Palmer on the pitch, crosses are a massive part of our game, and although Wilson and Anderson (and Eardley on the left) did their best (Wilson’s cross for Rhead in the first leg was maybe the only really good ball we put in over the two games), we were sadly lacking in that department. It may be pushing it to make this comparison but you’d never consider lining up David Beckham on left midfield. I honestly think the same rule should have applied to Eardley in this tie - by hook or by crook, he HAD to be found a place at right back.
So how do you do this with no Habergham available? Well he could have played Wharton there from the first leg... and maybe even Williams could have drafted in... he certainly has the legs and the battling qualities for full back.
Tough one given all the permutations with availability but you do wonder if DC/NC might look back on this and think this was one factor in us losing the tie.
Yeah I thought we missed Bozzy in midfield. Might have been a result of our small squad rather than tactics/selection but we’re certainly not the same side without our first choice full backs in position.