Shrewsbury (H) | Page 4 | Vital Football

Shrewsbury (H)

I'm not sure why posters are upset about Watts being left out. I accept that he's done little wrong (losing his place through injury), but Tilt's not done much wrong either since coming in.

For me, if anyone should be upset, it's Kerr. He's got better and better in recent games, whether it be in a back 4 or a back 3/5. He's by far the most comfortable of our central defenders on the ball, and probably has the best pass too.

I'm not saying he should have played last night ... team selection is up to the manager. He knows all the reasons behind his decisions ... people like us simply make up our own truths.

Just happy that we now have all 4 of them fit again.
 
Made in Wigan said:
Watching from my angle he seemed to go down in instalments. I think he’ll be disappointed and to be honest if it was Jamie Jones letting that effort in he’d be getting all amounts of stick.
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From where I was I thot he caught the ball just right & on looking at highlights he took the shot well & ball just seemed to bounce just a yard or so in front of keeper to go in. Also thot their keeper made a few good saves especially those two towards end of second half from CL......
 
TBH Watts has had a couple of moments in the last couple of games were his inexperience should have cost us.

Against Colchester he was lucky to get away with a penalty shout against him, in my view and I suspect a few others, he clipped the player and got away with it. There was another incident in a recent game that slips my mind but at the time I thought he was lucky to get away with.

I think Tilt has been brought in for his experience and his ability in the air along with the fact that he will always give you 100% whenever called upon.

For me, Watts will no doubt be a better player but at the moment he lacks the experience and composure to deal with teams playing long high balls forward, his time will come.
 
Frustrating game where yet again we leave it until the last 15 mins to start applying some pressure. We were very sloppy in possession but we're converting our chances which is positive.

I thought Naylor played pretty well (in particular in the second half). They stood off Darikwa seemingly happy for him to be on the ball, and I thought he linked up pretty well but maybe needs to be a bit more threatening (much like his goal when he ghosted in). Massey had a good game for us. I felt our attack didn't really work with Keane and Massey behind Lang. We struggled to keep the ball in their half and Lang through the middle wasn't as effective as when he cuts in.

Thought Shrewsbury were fairly solid and probably a bit hard done by not to get a result, but they didn't threaten us a great deal.

Thelo's goal was maybe slightly soft but the keeper was maybe unsighted a bit. He played surprisingly deep but that did get him onto the ball and moving it forward which he looks to do.

I thought Bennett was a little off the pace but clearly has quality.

Hopefully we'll see a big improvement on Saturday against stronger opposition.
 
jocklatic said:
From where I was I thot he caught the ball just right & on looking at highlights he took the shot well & ball just seemed to bounce just a yard or so in front of keeper to go in. Also thot their keeper made a few good saves especially those two towards end of second half from CL......
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I think if you look at the goal Thelo managed to get a decent amount of swerve on the ball and it definitely took a bounce just in front of the keeper. Great goal and not much more the keeper could have done.
 
exiled tic said:
I remember when we sold Cosgrove some complained and indeed some urged us to resign him earlier this season!Have to say after last night thank God these folk were ignored!To say he hasn't progressed would be somewhat of an under statement!!
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Coterill was not happy with him last night
 
Pubey said:
Frustrating game where yet again we leave it until the last 15 mins to start applying some pressure. We were very sloppy in possession but we're converting our chances which is positive.

I thought Naylor played pretty well (in particular in the second half). They stood off Darikwa seemingly happy for him to be on the ball, and I thought he linked up pretty well but maybe needs to be a bit more threatening (much like his goal when he ghosted in). Massey had a good game for us. I felt our attack didn't really work with Keane and Massey behind Lang. We struggled to keep the ball in their half and Lang through the middle wasn't as effective as when he cuts in.

Thought Shrewsbury were fairly solid and probably a bit hard done by not to get a result, but they didn't threaten us a great deal.

Thelo's goal was maybe slightly soft but the keeper was maybe unsighted a bit. He played surprisingly deep but that did get him onto the ball and moving it forward which he looks to do.

I thought Bennett was a little off the pace but clearly has quality.

Hopefully we'll see a big improvement on Saturday against stronger opposition.
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Possibly improve by going with three at the back with Lang and Humphries up top. Power and McClean as wing backs with Naylor Asgard Keane in the middle.
Other than that it will be exactly the same turgid boreball.
 
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exiled tic said:
I remember when we sold Cosgrove some complained and indeed some urged us to resign him earlier this season!Have to say after last night thank God these folk were ignored!To say he hasn't progressed would be somewhat of an under statement!!
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I don't think anyone complained when he was released 5 years ago as he'd done nothing on any of his loans.

I don't blame people thinking we maybe missed the boat on him when he was scoring for fun up in Scotland a couple of years later - he looked a beast. But he's just a one of many players who looked a player in Scotland but for whatever reason struggles in England.
 
Made in Wigan said:
Watching from my angle he seemed to go down in instalments. I think he’ll be disappointed and to be honest if it was Jamie Jones letting that effort in he’d be getting all amounts of stick.
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I also thought their keeper would be disappointed with conceding that goal but i did wonder if he had bodies in the way and saw it late. Also the ball seemed to bounce right before it got to him which maybe put him off.

Either way i'll take it.
 
On a side note where the friggin hell have they acquired these bar staff int SC from....I gave up after queuing for 15 minutes with nobody seemingly getting served. Got a pint in ground no bother.
 
We didn't deserve that win but we didnt get a last minute winner or equaliser in other games we did deserve so you happily take it and say 'that's football'.

It's another valuable 3 points in the bag that we desperately needed after yesterday's results and credit to the players for again never giving up and keeping plugging away and finding a way to get the points at the death. I don't think you can fault the effort and heart of the squad.

But last night highlighted many of the same problems we've often seen from the start of season; not enough movement, too many long balls to no one, leaving the centre of the pitch vacant, struggling against teams who pass the ball etc. So no point repeating the same talking points but I've got to be honest I am growing a bit concerned that we don't seem to be putting those things right.

We've got one of the best squads in the league and have the individual quality to pull out results despite not playing well over the 90 mins. It's often said it's a sign of a good team to get a result without playing well and I'd agree to win on your off days is a very positive sign but i am increasingly worrying about how often we aren't playing well. I feel we are starting to rely more and more on the superior quality of player we have getting us out of jail rather than our overall style of play being effective in itself. If you have the squad we have and are not playing well that often are we really a good team scraping out results or are we scraping out results because we aren't making the most of what we have? When you compare our players to the opposition man for man the opposition sometimes seem to get more out of lesser players through their method of play. Surely the players we have should be capable of playing as good passing football as anyone else rather than so often resorting to aimless long balls?

It's a results business and at the end of the day the league table is very healthy reading - no complaints there. If you just looked on paper at where we are you'd say it's all looking great but I have a bit of an uneasy feeling watching so many of our performances that we are going to come unstuck unless we can start to improve in our areas of weakness. If we keep grinding out results then I'm not that worried about our style of play - but I do worry our style of play is making it harder to get results than it should be sometimes.

I'm not thinking we need huge drastic changes or asking for the tikka taca style or under the asumption we should beat everyone 5-0 but we need to really get players moving off the ball and get someone into the centre of the pitch so we can start playing through the lines rather than always being forced wide or long due to a lack of options. It's not stuff we can't do, we see it in patches but we need to do it a lot more consistently.


I felt Shrewsbury were the better side for a lot of the game but as it went on they seemed to settle for the point and started sitting deeper, stopped the high press and playing through us - basically they stopped doing the things that were effective and let us back into the game.

I felt Bennett looked pretty good on his league debut. Tilt and Whatmough dominant as usual and protected Amos very well. McClean and Darikwa never hid and kept plugging away trying to make things happen and you've got to respect that but they really had stinkers after they combined for the goal. After seeing Cousins and Naylor reunited after about 6 weeks without them I'm not sure you can play both at once as neither drives the play on or does enough water carrying or play the pivot. I think you need one of them in there with someone like Power who can do the defensive part as well but can also play make a bit too. Massey wasn't hiding and was decent for me, put in another superb cross that someone should've got on the end of. I'm growing a bit concerned about Keane, he used to run games and now is more and more operating on the fringes of the game popping up every now and again before disappearing for a while - he's been getting goals and assists which is obviously crucial but his overall involvement in the play has drastically decreased in recent weeks. Lang was relentless up front in his work rate but before a ball was kicked you knew long balling it at him wouldn't work but that's all he had to work with. Assgaard looked classy but seemed to completely wonder out of central midfield where we needed him and float around the left side which was already over crowded and limited his influence on the play. Edwards and Humphrys didn't get long but both looked decent in their cameos.
 
I agree with you that there is reason to be worried and that our style of play is not consistent, but I must admit to putting this down to the ability to recruit in just one window.

I think that because of the excellent season so far it is being forgotten that we only had five contracted players at the start of the season. I think that LR would probably have had other targets as well that were unavailable at the time due to budgets etc. and would like to have had other players in. I have no doubt that some of those issues will have been identified and will hopefully be rectified in January if the money and player are available.

In my opinion if we can get to January in the top four and recruit well to bring in those players required we will be in prime position for the run in and a top two spot should be attainable.

This is far above what I thought possible during the dark days of last season.
 
TRUE BELIEVER said:
I agree with you that there is reason to be worried and that our style of play is not consistent, but I must admit to putting this down to the ability to recruit in just one window.

I think that because of the excellent season so far it is being forgotten that we only had five contracted players at the start of the season. I think that LR would probably have had other targets as well that were unavailable at the time due to budgets etc. and would like to have had other players in. I have no doubt that some of those issues will have been identified and will hopefully be rectified in January if the money and player are available.

In my opinion if we can get to January in the top four and recruit well to bring in those players required we will be in prime position for the run in and a top two spot should be attainable.

This is far above what I thought possible during the dark days of last season.
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I wouldn't say it's down to needing more players as teams with far less quality of personnel have been able to play good pass and move football. I think the players we have are capable of playing a better style but for whatever reason we seem quite keen on going long.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
I wouldn't say it's down to needing more players as teams with far less quality of personnel have been able to play good pass and move football. I think the players we have are capable of playing a better style but for whatever reason we seem quite keen on going long.
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I would agree but for the fact that we don't seem to have solved the problem of a midfield player capable of linking up play between the defensive mids and the attack. I think Bayliss was brought in to do this but has so far proved ineffective. I think Max could be the answer but because of our LB problem he was forced to play in the RB role, which he exceeded at.

I commented on Wednesday to the lads around me that we are so slow in transition that opponents are able to get back and set themselves to repel our attacks. I think this is symptomatic of the fact that we haven't got a midfield player who is prepared to run the ball out or play the quick forward pass. We seem to be laboured in our build up and play the ball sideways across the back line before looking forward. On a number of occasions the pass forward was on but the ball was played sideways without so much of a glance forward and I think this is due to the fact that we have not had anyone in position in earlier games and players have become accustomed to simply recycling the ball and starting again.

Hopefully this is just a matter of the right player in the right position and not a flaw in LR's planning and can be remedied soon.
 
TRUE BELIEVER said:
I would agree but for the fact that we don't seem to have solved the problem of a midfield player capable of linking up play between the defensive mids and the attack. I think Bayliss was brought in to do this but has so far proved ineffective. I think Max could be the answer but because of our LB problem he was forced to play in the RB role, which he exceeded at.

I commented on Wednesday to the lads around me that we are so slow in transition that opponents are able to get back and set themselves to repel our attacks. I think this is symptomatic of the fact that we haven't got a midfield player who is prepared to run the ball out or play the quick forward pass. We seem to be laboured in our build up and play the ball sideways across the back line before looking forward. On a number of occasions the pass forward was on but the ball was played sideways without so much of a glance forward and I think this is due to the fact that we have not had anyone in position in earlier games and players have become accustomed to simply recycling the ball and starting again.

Hopefully this is just a matter of the right player in the right position and not a flaw in LR's planning and can be remedied soon.
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I can cope with us playing badly or having a poor side but I find it hard to cope with watching turgid boring football like we churn out at home games.
 
jeffs right said:
I can cope with us playing badly or having a poor side but I find it hard to cope with watching turgid boring football like we churn out at home games.
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It might be turgid boring football at times JR along with lots of sideways passing but I'll gladly endure all that if we are still in the same current position we are in at the end of the season....only thing I'd change would be to go up as champions 🏆..... we'd all love a fast attacking, high pressing game with exciting football but we can't have everything 😉
 
jocklatic said:
It might be turgid boring football at times JR along with lots of sideways passing but I'll gladly endure all that if we are still in the same current position we are in at the end of the season....only thing I'd change would be to go up as champions 🏆..... we'd all love a fast attacking, high pressing game with exciting football but we can't have everything 😉
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I know what you mean, Cambridge and Preston put up with John Beck's style because it lead to success.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
I don't think anyone complained when he was released 5 years ago as he'd done nothing on any of his loans.

I don't blame people thinking we maybe missed the boat on him when he was scoring for fun up in Scotland a couple of years later - he looked a beast. But he's just a one of many players who looked a player in Scotland but for whatever reason struggles in England.
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I think even I'd look a decent player in the Scottish leagues.
 
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