One of my best friends said to me yesterday that my match report on the Doncaster game might "piss off" the coaching staff and the players. I hope with all of my heart that he's wrong, that is never my intention when doing player ratings or writing the blog.
I've never been one for booing at matches, hurling abuse at the players, accusing them of "not trying" or any of that nonsense. Similarly, I thought we were 100% correct to give the management team new contracts, I said so at the time and I still believe it now. Those contracts were hard earned, a couple of dodgy results doesn't change anything. A quick note here, I'll STILL be of the same mind if we lose on Saturday.
So onto the football.
Our problems at the moment are numerous, but players not trying, not being up for it and/or having a crap manager are not amongst them. Chief amongst our problems of course is that we've lost the guy who either caused all of our goals to be scored or scored them himself, and we've lost the best centre half pairing in the league. ANY manager is going to struggle to find a solution to those issues, and that's where we are right now, trying.
And so far, despite being severely depleted, our defence has held up really well. Lee Brown has been a warrior stepping into centre half, we've conceded only a goal a game in the last three as well as two worldies at Accy. Despite us stinking the place out at Donnie, we restricted them to very few openings. So defensively we've done really well, those lads deserve a huge pat on the back.
I'm not exactly providing earth shattering insight here, but it's elsewhere that our problems are most obvious. Many people have theories, the one thing we all have in common is that none of us work in professional football. You've got plumbers telling the manager to play James Ball, bricklayers saying play Ryan McLean from minute one, taxi drivers urging the recall of Ethan Sutcliffe, and publicans saying lots of other nonsense. Do they have a right to an opinion? I think they do, such as they are. Similarly though, the people who actually make the decisions and whose job depends on the outcome, have the right to completely ignore them.
That's one of the reasons why football is the beautiful game isn't it? When Lee Brown passes it to Jack Currie, you've got fat blokes who have barely kicked a ball in their lives standing up to shout "Don't square it you moron!", and when he knocks it long a bespectacled badminton player who works in the NHS ("I played in the regionals once you know") telling him ""Square it you dickhead!". That's football, we ALL have a theory, ALL of us think we know better.
I'm no different, so here are mine on where we're at. It looks unlikely that either Joe or Ryan are going to be back soon, so the "deep lying" defence is going to persist. I've seen people suggesting we should play the new John-Jo bloke. I've nothing against that (I don't know him and have never seen him play) but from seeing him warm up, I'd be surprised if he's a speed merchant. My guess is whoever we play, we ain't gonna be pushing up to the halfway line to "pin them in" anytime soon.
So......what are our options. We COULD push Isaac into centre half (he played there as a kid) and play three in there. That would give us a little bit of pace/protection. Also, that would give license to Huss & Jack to bomb on a bit.
We COULD drop James Ball in there. I've never seen him play as a centre half but he no doubt could if asked. Once again I suspect that'd be as a three rather than a two.
We COULD play three in centre midfield. That'd be James Ball again, or even the lad who is best suited to it, Morgan Williams (whatever happened to him?). With that system, you'd be playing Kelly or Bugiel up top on their own.
We COULD do both of the above. Push Isaac inside to make a three, play Huss & Jack to provide width, play three in central midfield and play with two strikers.
All could and shoulds. Me? I'd play 4-5-1.
I'd leave the back four as it is, they're defending well. I'd play an extra central midfielder ( James Ball), I'd play Omar on his own up top and I'd rest Josh Kelly (he looks to me like he's carrying a slight strain). Out wide, given the opposition are gonna be playing high, we are going to need pace to hurt them. We have two players that can scorch the grass and will scare the shit out of any aging full back. Josh Neufville and Aaron Sasu come on down. BOTH start for me on Saturday, with young lightening McQueen & James Tilley as first swaps.
We are going to be without the ball for lengthy periods at the weekend, let's not fight against it. We aren't going to be able to string twenty passes together and play through the thirds, that's ok. Our back line isn't going to get much further than ten paces ahead of the edge of our box, that's sensible. I think though that if we dig in, Armani Little rats like only he can, Bally plugs gaps, Jake orchestrates and Omar provides a focal point, our two quicks can get in behind.
We can win on Saturday. I'm not scared of saying who we are playing against either, we can beat MK. The key is having a plan and sticking to it.
Sorry (genuinely) if I pissed anyone off with my match report, it was simply how I saw it. I say this to the players and coaching staff, if you're angry, smash these on Saturday. Then come to the Alex, I'll buy the lot of you some beers. COYD.
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