Where to start ? | Vital Football

Where to start ?

hindleymonwafc

Vital Champions League
Absolute shite...both teams will be lucky to survive. We had square pegs hammered in round holes all over. Callum on bench and a full back trying to play on the flank...Evans on bench and Gibson getting ghosted past every 5 minutes.

Worrying times and those missed chances a 10 year old could have netted.

Bet those Chinese are thinking what the feck have we done all gether?
 
Might not be as popular as the traditional ‘the end is nigh’ reaction to a game we haven’t won, but here goes...

We’re still outside of the relegation zone despite working with a shoe-string budget and 4 starting XI players (potentially five now with Powell) out injured. Could be a lot worse, and all things considered it wasn’t that bad today - certainly not as bad as recent weeks in terms of chance creation.

KAL NAISMITH deserves a shoutout today, our second best player in my opinion behind James, despite playing in an unnatural position. Supplied a few dangerous crosses and would’ve had a couple of assists had our frontmen been more clinical.
 
I think it’s the first time I’ve seen our keeper at home wasting time at a Goal kick in injury time with us needing to score and still having 11 men on the pitch......and against Reading, rather than Derby or Norwich ?.

I know Naismith had just been clattered but still... (Naismith had a good first half as well to be fair)
Based on that showing, there’s trouble ahead I’m afraid, hopefully Blackburn have had a few crippled today otherwise we could be in for a hard time Wed night.
 
Might not be as popular as the traditional ‘the end is nigh’ reaction to a game we haven’t won, but here goes...

We’re still outside of the relegation zone despite working with a shoe-string budget and 4 starting XI players (potentially five now with Powell) out injured. Could be a lot worse, and all things considered it wasn’t that bad today - certainly not as bad as recent weeks in terms of chance creation.

KAL NAISMITH deserves a shoutout today, our second best player in my opinion behind James, despite playing in an unnatural position. Supplied a few dangerous crosses and would’ve had a couple of assists had our frontmen been more clinical.
Stick your shoestring budget bollocks up your arse. We paid 2.5 MILLION POUNDS for the worst player on the pitch today. More than half what PNE spent all window and they are currently above us in the table.
 
Reading committed 14 free kicks and each and every time kicked the ball away to prevent us from gaining any kind of momentum. Why didn't the inept officials clamp down on it? I detest Alan Pardew for his cheating f-wording management style and it seems his legacy has remained with the southern softies.
 
Stick your shoestring budget bollocks up your arse. We paid 2.5 MILLION POUNDS for the worst player on the pitch today. More than half what PNE spent all window and they are currently above us in the table.


Insightful as ever from the resident keyboard warriors. No wonder Latics fans everywhere point and laugh at this forum nowadays.

You seem to be forgetting that the signings of Windass/Evans/Garner were wholly funded by the sale of Dan Burn rather than some transfer kitty or war chest, but why let facts get in the way etc....
 
Poor overall performance, especially from Windass and Morsy.
At least we didn't loose though and ended our losing run.
Did seem like we were playing for a draw towards the end.
Although some will not agree, I thought Naismith had a decent game and put a lot of good crosses in especially in the first half.
Difficult to pick a MOM, as most others were only "OK" , however James probably just shades it but not exactly a stand-out performance.
We really do need to improve our finishing and closing down in midfield on Wednesday and next week otherwise it will be more of the same or worse.
 
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Go on then...... I'll say it....... We could/should have been 4 up at half time. We should then have added at least a couple more in the second half.

At times, we played really....... at others, we looked poor. But, like Cook said after the match, a point and a clean sheet stops the recent rot.

Roll on t' Rovers.
 
That game was there to be won and was 2pts dropped. Defence did okay but not enough urgency to get the ball forward.
Windass totally anonymous in the second half and Gardner needs to stand big. Naismith had a decent first half and I also thought Byrne did okay. Connolly came on to continue to give fouls away for going into the back.
Please give Callum Mac a try , nothing to lose.
 
Going to stick my neck out and disagree and say although the game was poor, we did more than enough to finish a poor Reading team by 2 goals minimum, but our finishing was awful, too many being wide or too easy for their keeper.

I don't fully understand your square pegs in circle holes analogy as there was only 1 player in the wrong position and that was Naismith who had a good first half, but he is never a left back, he's defensively naive. As for Byrne he was initially a right winger, it wasn't until we kept playing him at right back which upset him and we then sent him to Charlton who also kept playing him in right back so he just accepted it and adapted. We also had 5 of our main 11 injured, 1 of which just got back today and now we may even have Powell injured. These run of fixtures will be vitally important if we want to survive which is our main aim remember.

Windass and Morsy were poor with Gibson not far behind. I don't know what to say about Walton, can't say he had a bad game because he practically had nothing challenging him except 1 good save mid way through the 2nd half. But not coming out to collect the ball and time wasting late in the game was poor. Reece James again was great up front but was a bit shaky in defence. Powell was good but should have finished his chances along with Burn and Kipre, apart from that it was just a mediocre performance against a very poor Reading who really gained a point today Overall it wasn't the worst home performance (a back handed compliment I know), I'd say Leeds, Hull and Bristol were far worse, a points a point but we really did lose out on an easy win.
 
First half we played well considering we parked the bus and played with everyone behind the ball. Naismith was motm for me in the first half, James in the second. Thought Gibson did alright, until he started the hit those trademark flat passes straight at opponents whilst having time on the ball. But a better performance from him today then in the last few, think he's being selected as since Evans has returned he's played too many sideways passes. Being a regular for Sheffield in different role possibly has increased his tenancies to play the safe passes being the central defensive midfielder in a midfield 3. Hopefully he gets back to switching the play and back in the team soon.

I thought the decision by Cook to increase the pace of the horizontal passing from our back four in the first half was a really good one. Helped reduce the amount of long balls by giving the receiving player an extra second on the ball instead of being immediately under pressure and forced to knock it long due to the ball usually taking an age to find a team mate. Wasn't as quick in the second half, hopefully something we continue to do as i was moaning about that on here after Middlesbrough. Also having a player short on the corner i like to see as well, an under rated tactic in my opinion which nearly worked for us today. Almost always draws two players out to the edge of the box even if the short corner isn't played the players in the box have that extra bit of space and less numbers to get on the end of a delivery.

In the first half we looked like scoring which hasn't been the case in my opinion since West Brom.

One thing to moan about, the goal kicks. Can't put in to words how much i dislike the long vertical ball. It's actually a benefit to the other team as defenders will win around 75% of the goal kicks to the nature of the situation, the issue with it being straight is that after they head the ball it's easy for them to direct it towards an attacking player giving them a good chance to hit us on the counter as it usually bypasses the midfield. Hopefully if we continue with placing the ball in the middle for a short pass the forward or target for the keeper to aim for goes wide, at least then we don't lose out on our own possession almost every time if we need to go long.
 
If chances had have been finished we would all be enjoying a nice evening tonight even though it was a dire drab affair. Thought Roberts worked hard but was nothing special. Naismith did well but was never really tested. Gibson just blows hot and cold. Windass is utter tripe and just not good enough. Byrne looked like a right back playing as a wing back. Morsy was poor too.
Poorest performance was by Paul Cook. Powell is missed so much in midfield when he is played up top so why Cooky played him up top and left three strikers on the bench is baffling.
Gibson too, why on earth was he started ahead of McDonald or Evans?
Better to have Powell in position, drop Windass and start with one of the strikers.
Big question to about every one of the substitutions.
Connolly needs shipping back to Everton asap and to be used ahead of Evans is verging on the ridiculous.
Please God tell me what on Earth is going on with the Macca situation. Not to be used today at all in a relegation dogfight is again ridiculous.
So yes, today the worst performance within an hundred miles today was by Cooky. Bloody awful.