Lincoln City 1-2 Fleetwood Town: Michael Appleton Talks To The Press | Vital Football

Lincoln City 1-2 Fleetwood Town: Michael Appleton Talks To The Press

I said in the match thread that we were being mentally weak and using tiredness as an excuse. As Appleton said, the last 30 minutes showed we weren't actually tired. I wonder if Appleton's opinion is 'rubbish' like mine was?
 
He does usually strike a good balance between giving an honest assessment of a game and managing not to over-criticise the team and individuals.

It's a pity that the tiredness excuse wasn't nipped in the bud last month though instead of it being built up into an actual thing.
 
He does usually strike a good balance between giving an honest assessment of a game and managing not to over-criticise the team and individuals.

It's a pity that the tiredness excuse wasn't nipped in the bud last month though instead of it being built up into an actual thing.

Exactly. Mentioning tiredness in every interview hasn't helped bearing in mind we are have such a long run of Tuesday/ Saturday fixtures coming up. Appleton is doing an amazing job but I really do feel he has added to the attitude recently rather than saying "If you think we're tired, imagine how Fleetwood and Swindon's players must feel when they're failing to win most weeks".
 
Exactly. Mentioning tiredness in every interview hasn't helped bearing in mind we are have such a long run of Tuesday/ Saturday fixtures coming up.

They were at it again on commentary tonight (when I could bear to listen to it), and they've been taking their cues from somewhere.

Referring to Scully the excuse made for his uncharacteristically lacklustre display was that he "has played 35 games". But 11 of those were off the bench, he's only made 25 starts. General tiredness from being overplayed cannot be the reason.
 
They were at it again on commentary tonight (when I could bear to listen to it), and they've been taking their cues from somewhere.

Referring to Scully the excuse made for his uncharacteristically lacklustre display was that he "has played 35 games". But 11 of those were off the bench, he's only made 25 starts. General tiredness from being overplayed cannot be the reason.

As my wife said to me the other day, 'they only play two games a week, how can they be tired?'. Fair point, although I did try to argue the case, but wives are not there to be argued against. Scully wasn't tired, he was running around like the proverbial headless chicken – I have compared him, at times, to that keen kid at school who just chases the ball, but isn't quite good enough or quick enough to get it. I think he's a great little player, but for me, he's not a wide sort of player. He just seemed to be off it from the first whistle. Trying too hard, perhaps?
 
As my wife said to me the other day, 'they only play two games a week, how can they be tired?'. Fair point, although I did try to argue the case, but wives are not there to be argued against. Scully wasn't tired, he was running around like the proverbial headless chicken – I have compared him, at times, to that keen kid at school who just chases the ball, but isn't quite good enough or quick enough to get it. I think he's a great little player, but for me, he's not a wide sort of player. He just seemed to be off it from the first whistle. Trying too hard, perhaps?
I think usually his harrying is first rate, but last night he was still putting the effort in but getting nowhere near the ball. Didn’t look sharp to me
 
They were at it again on commentary tonight (when I could bear to listen to it), and they've been taking their cues from somewhere.

Referring to Scully the excuse made for his uncharacteristically lacklustre display was that he "has played 35 games". But 11 of those were off the bench, he's only made 25 starts. General tiredness from being overplayed cannot be the reason.
That's what I thought about the Scully comment, stupid statistic, older players made many more starts.
 
I think usually his harrying is first rate, but last night he was still putting the effort in but getting nowhere near the ball. Didn’t look sharp to me

Trying to close down a wing back when he has 3 central defenders and 3 central midfielders to deliver the ball to who are effectively being closed down by 1 central striker and 2 central midfielders is an almost impossible job. He was doing the same job he normally does it's just that their formation allowed them to bypass him.

The only way you can really close down someone on your own at this level is if they aren't technically great or the pitch is terrible

Both their wing backs were technically excellent and so it needed more than just Scully on his own to close them down, unfortunately our full backs rarely got far enough forward to assist in that and our central midfielders never got out wide enough to help him either.
 
Trying to close down a wing back when he has 3 central defenders and 3 central midfielders to deliver the ball to who are effectively being closed down by 1 central striker and 2 central midfielders is an almost impossible job. He was doing the same job he normally does it's just that their formation allowed them to bypass him.

The only way you can really close down someone on your own at this level is if they aren't technically great or the pitch is terrible

Both their wing backs were technically excellent and so it needed more than just Scully on his own to close them down, unfortunately our full backs rarely got far enough forward to assist in that and our central midfielders never got out wide enough to help him either.
Not sure how many times our full backs sold themselves, or were easily beaten by their wing backs. It was several times too many. In their defence, support was often lacking.
 
Not sure how many times our full backs sold themselves, or were easily beaten by their wing backs. It was several times too many. In their defence, support was often lacking.

Yep, on our right often because Scully had legged it over to close the wing back down and then to the central defender or central midfielder, closing neither down effectively, leaving their wing back one on one with our full back, both of whom had blistering pace. Their right wing back made Edun (who is not slow) look stationary at times...
 
I said in the match thread that we were being mentally weak and using tiredness as an excuse. As Appleton said, the last 30 minutes showed we weren't actually tired. I wonder if Appleton's opinion is 'rubbish' like mine was?

The happy clappers won't allow it, you should know that by now :wagging: