My match report & thoughts.....

Terry Skiverton take a bow. People like me can pontificate about formations, tactics. "Our best eleven" and such things all they like, if you don't do the ugly stuff properly you are going to lose lots of football matches. Recently many of us have argued about all the little "icing on the cake" things, meanwhile the players and coaches have been putting in the hard yards on the ugly stuff. That much was obvious from yesterday's display, it doesn't happen by accident. Skivvers I reckon is the leader on this stuff, he deserves huge credit for the defensive aspect of yesterday.

Aside from allowing Charlie Goode a free header from which he really ought to have scored, it was a foot perfect effort from the whole eleven. We were at it from minute one, snapping into challenges and denying a very good team the opportunity to dominate us. I know it isn't always pretty to watch, but it's the result of a collective effort that much like when a university boat race team gets it together, ought to be applauded.

It would be wrong also to imply that we didn't at least try to get things going in an attacking sense. In a Top Trumps scenario, Omar Bugiels skied volley would cancel out the aforementioned header from their ex Premier League centre half. We had a go, and in a game of very few chances (or excitement to be brutally honest) we provided as much of both commodities as they did. I probably disagree with Johnnie's "We were the dominant team" comment, but Sheesh Kebabs if you can't be at least a LITTLE one-eyed when you're the manager, when can you?

The thing I liked the most from an attacking perspective is that we clearly were trying to mix it up a little. Gone were the mind numbingly predictable barrage of consecutive diagonals, we tried to go through the thirds a bit and hit channel balls too. I totally agree with the manager that at times we lacked conviction around the edge of the penalty area*, but going forward it was a much more varied and encouraging display. We've scored one goal in our last four league games, so obviously this is an area which we need to improve on.

All in all though a good point. I heard someone saying as we were leaving "Surely our football can't get any more boring than THAT?". I didn't do it, but I was tempted to do a Mick McCarthy "IT CAN!". I'm afraid if you are expecting total football or some kind of Pep Guardiola derivative as we battle to stay in the league (because make no mistakes, that's what we're doing) then you are living in cloud cuckoo land. I'll moan along with the best of you, but realistically we'd better strap ourselves in for some functional football.

On other things....

Around this time of year people talk a lot about "Signings". My own perspective is that we urgently need a midfield player and a left back. Obviously he could never play for us, but Dan Kemp fits the bill exactly of what I'd like to see us get, Isaac Hutchinson, that type. We need a left back because Steve Seddon can't play every game (he just can't, although no doubt he will if you ask him). The squad is though I'm afraid very unbalanced. While Marcus Browne & Omar Bugiels toiled away against excellent defenders yesterday, I counted FOUR strikers warming up (Stevens, Sasu, Orsi & Hackford). Junior NKeng didn't make the bench or it would have been five, Josh Kelly being out on loan makes it six. To have that many attackers on our books (I make it eight, nine if you include the lad banned for betting) while having to playing Jake Reeves, Ali Smith & Steve Seddon practically every week is mad. That needs sorting one way or another.

*Perfect example of "conviction" was Aron Sasu yesterday. At one glorious moment he got fed, to his feet, one on one with the left back. Now I would have been needing nappies if I was in that defenders shoes, but our lad made it easy for him. Conviction for Aron in my eyes means coming inside, at pace, accross the box and hitting it, scoring the match winning goal. MAKE HIM DEFEND, ask him the question, make him decide quickly what he's gonna do. If he defends it properly, chop back & burn him for pace on the outside, if he doesn't, then HIT IT! 

I'd be working Sas on that every day. Recieve it, set off across the box and hit it. If it's not on, chop out and cross it. Conviction in football is "I KNOW what I'm gonna do, what are YOU gonna do to stop it?". This.kid has so much ability that even if you KNOW what he's gonna do, stopping him from doing it is difficult. Mo Salah has made a career out of that (no I'm not comparing the two), Sas needs to get the "I KNOW what I'm gonna do" part sorted though, and sharpish.

Points hard to come by...

In the first Ashes test in Perth, at one point England led by 100 second innings runs and they had lost one wicket. The opportunity to bat Australia out of the match was in their grasp, but it slipped through their fingers like sandy BazBall through a tennis racket. Older readers will remember Jean Claude Van Der Velde, leading the open by two shots going up the 18th at Carnoustie. He mystified the world by not just playing safe with an iron but smashing his drive miles right. He ended up in a farcical ditch situation and his race was run in a never to be forgotten shoes and socks-off skit.

My point? Well it's that failure to adapt to the in game situation is not a sporting recipe for success. Sure it's great to have a game-plan, but the most effective sports people and teams adapt, change, modify and evolve as the picture in front of them alters. There are no doubt many reasons for our current poor form, I want in this piece of drivel to waffle on about this particular aspect.

Firstly an admission, I don't do stats. XG & all that stuff bores and baffles me in equal measure. All of my opinions are formed by watching with my eyes, taking only mental notes, kind of going "old school" on it. The result of that is there is a very significant chance here that I'm talking utter bollocks. There is every chance that Arash or Plough Lane by Numbers will completely take apart and factually disprove my thoughts, but it's never stopped me before so here goes.

Firstly, why has our form fallen off so dramatically? The obvious if slightly boring answer is that the players aren't playing as well anymore (and they aren't), but why is that? Well, it's my hunch that there has been a subtle yet significant change in the way that teams are setting up against us. As of yet, if we HAVE made modifications to counter it (I don't think we have but anyway), then those adjustments need to in my opinion be more marked.

So how are they lining up different then? (Silly bollocks) I hear you ask. Well the most obvious alteration that teams have made is that they've stopped pressing us high anywhere near so much. When we first came into the league many people thought we were going to be cannon fodder, me amongst them, and teams felt that they had to smash us 4-0 not just beat us. They swarmed all over us feeling confident they could kill us off quickly, but they were wrong. We handled the high press very well, confounded our "They can only play one way" critics and played our best football under Johnnie Jackson. We played through teams, around teams and created many chances. Our opposition paid a heavy price for not giving us the respect that we deserved, and for a time we were solid playoff contenders. The trouble with professional sport though is the other team get chance to watch video, make new plans, and that's what's tripped us up.

Teams now sit off us. They're happy to let our possession stat percentage be largely made up of us rolling it around at the back between the defence and the goalkeeper. They know that they haven't got to go and get the ball back, if they wait, either Joe Lewis or Ryan Johnson will launch it to them on the diagonal. Obviously for them there is a risk in allowing us to drop the ball onto the corner of their penalty box, but they can comfort themselves with a couple of points. Firstly, unless Omar Bugiel is on the pitch we are very unlikely to win the header. Even if we DO win the header, because we don't get many bodies around the contact area we are a heavy underdog to win the knockdown in any case. So what tends to happen is we spend thirty or forty seconds manoeuvring the football into the correct diagonal launchpad spot, then concede possession once the ball gets bazookered forward. It makes the "How long did you have the ball" numbers look alright, but it doesn't do your chances of winning football matches any favours.

From there teams have worked out that if you come out with a bit of pace, you have a good shot of playing through our midfield and getting at the back five. Back there, even our best defenders are beginning to look shaky as the threats come at them from all angles.

The good thing is that our "underestimated" period saw us rack up a good few points, so I should think that any AFC Wimbledon fan would have bitten your arm off at the shoulder joint to be where we are today. Ask last seasons League Two Champions or the team that finished second (Port Vale and Doncaster are bottom and second bottom respectively) if you don't believe me. To be where we are has been an incredible effort by the players and management group, they deserve huge credit.

Given we've picked up two points out of the last seven matches though, obviously we need to arrest the slide sharpish. I'm fairly convinced that teams are going to continue to let us smash it forward from 50 yards away, this is what I'd like to see us doing a little bit more of going forward.

1. Encourage the centre halves to bring it forward occasionally. They are ALL easily good enough footballers to do it, if they did it would open the game up a bit and ask a question of the opposing team. Yes it carries an element of risk with it, but there is significant potential reward too.

2. Encourage the central midfielders to drop in and take it on the half turn occasionally, commonly referred to as "playing through the thirds" or "playing through midfield". I've lost count of the number of times we have the opportunity to go forwards yet take the safe option and go back. Too often we aren't just passing the football, we're passing the responsibility too.

3. Occasionally play it earlier and rather than ALWAYS going on the diagonal, have the full backs bend it into the channel and work from there. It's a bit old fashioned this one, but the ball into a channel into a willing runner will outlive all of us as a legitimate football tactic.

I think if we do these three things, as well as obviously keeping the long diagonal occasionally, we will be much more difficult to play against. We'll keep the football in meaningful areas for much longer periods of time, we'll decrease the amount of defending that we have to do.

I'm convinced we'd get more points, and that's the crux of it really.

Aron Sasu-Cometh the hour.

Never before (nor hopefully since) has a player who has barely scored a goal nor even registered an assist generated so much debate.I must confess that to some extent I've always felt guilty that I was probably responsible in part, so convinced was I and am I that Aron Sasu is going to be very good. The opinions on the kid amongst our fans form just about the broadest spectrum of any player I've ever come across. There's been a few believers at one end, then some in the middle but lots and lots of doubters.Those doubters have formed a sub-section all of their own, from those who say "he needs a loan" to those who say he'll never make a footballer while he's got a hole in his arse. Listen to some and Sasu wouldn't get minutes in their Sunday League team.

For my part, there have been plenty of occasions when I've watched him and had to remind myself that I really HAD seen a player in there at some point. I really had seen that little dip of the shoulder and an explosion from a standing start. I really had seen that awareness and head movement which always reveal quality in a footballer. I'd really seen that step, that glide of a good player in possession. I had to remind myself because there has been occasions where his performances have lacked all of those things, times when at best he has been ineffective at best and insipid at worst.

But I know what I've seen when I've seen it, so I've had to wait. Much like Johnnie Jackson (who incidentally deserves huge credit for sticking with the kid), I've copped my fair share of ridicule and derision for my belief in Sasu, but you can't unsee something so significant, can't forget something so potentially exciting.

And what is it that the kid has? Well pace obviously, in it's most blistering and brutal form, as well as the ability to go both sides, hit it off feet. His heading has improved a lot but still has some way to go, ditto his awareness and ability to get his body in the right position to protect the ball better. I've always felt though that with young footballers you're far better off talking about what they CAN do rather than what they can't. If as is the case with this boy the "can'ts" are readily teachable while the "cans" are things shared with only a tiny percentage of footballers and stuff that you really either have or you don't, then you have something really worth working on. That's what Aron Sasu is, a footballer who is REALLY worth working on.

And at last he showed it, by scoring four goals in one match. Pay no mind to those neighsayers who tell you the goalie wasn't very good and Cardiff didn't have their first team out, for any striker in any game of professional football to score four times without penalties is an extraordinary achievement. Haaland likely wouldn't score four times against non league Cup opposition, to do it at ANY level is incredible.

Does that settle the debate as to whether he'll make it with us? Of course it doesn't. I personally think it settles the "Has he got huge potential?" discussion, but much like the "Is his best position as a striker?" argument, my stance will surprise nobody.

Hopefully from here, what last night has done has settled the debate in the PLAYERS head, that's often the most important bit. Hopefully from here Aron Sasu goes on to achieve something like his full potential. Even partially fulfilling that would see us in my opinion have a striker who is far too good for League One.