Positive and Negatives

Positives -

Kieffer Moore makes a difference. He won header after header and put himself about. Should have done better with two chances but at least he had chances. Man of the match for us. Bradshaw should have been subbed.

Stevie Mallan - set piece delivery was excellent all game. Defensively he’s no worse than any other of the number 10s we’re playing out of position. Worth another start.

Dimi Cavare - I like him. He’s a bit slack at times but he’s definitely a Championship level footballer. Tidy up his lapses and he’ll be brilliant.

5-3-2- We know never to play that formation again.

Negatives -

Adam Davies - Same reasons I always give. He’ll be dropped by the end of the month if all goes to plan.

Jason McCarthy - Woeful defender. Early season link up with Hammill papered over the cracks with this lad. Need A LOT of work.

Hecky - First changing a settled back 4. Next playing McCarthy and expecting a different results. Third taking Moore off when it should have been Bradshaw all day. Not a good day at the office for Hecky but we forgive him.

Tom Bradshaw - Not sure how much longer we can persevere with a striker who continually breaks down our attacks. I understand he’s our top scorer and I know he’s a ‘fox in the box’, but like we can’t carry a number 10 can we really carry a player who only comes alive in the 6 yard box. For me Thiam was excellent against Sunderland and deserved the start after being dropped for the Wolves game.

In all I’ve come away from Villa park not feeling too bad considering the poor start to the game. A new keeper and a few bits of quality added along with Gardner and Williams and we should be okay.

 

Agree with all of that

 

If you’re prediction pans out as your match prediction,then we’re fooked Chris.

 

When you spend £30 on a ticket you’ve got to go feeling positive.

The formation killed it.

 

We need 2 championship quality strikers. Quickly.

And a championship quality winger.

And to cover any injury/suspension to Williams/Gardner we need a CM. If i’m being honest we need a CM far better than any we currently have.

4 big signings needed. Still think we’ll be ok.

 

No keeper?

 

Yep, we definitely need a quality keeper who can either bring out Davies best form, or take the heat off him when he’s dipped. The trouble is we have no one to take him out of the firing line when out of form.

 

Tell you what.. if we are relying on Moore and Thiam as a strike force to keep us up, then you'd best get out the A to Zs for Donny, Scunny and Rotherham now

 

He won loads in the air.

 

How did the young lad Dylan do when he came on?
I agree on Bradshaw, he is no kind of footballer outside the box, not sure we can afford such a luxury.

 

He was okay. Nothing to get excited about just yet.

 

Cheers for that mate. I sound like a broken record regarding Mccarthy however at the moment without some serious coaching he's nowhere near the starting 11. He's defensively scary. I would have rather had Pearson in there today.

 

I reckon Pearson would have played but after his stupid red card in U23s he needed to sit it out.

Jackson be back on bench next week. Although Lindsey needs to be a lot better against Fulham.

 

This is spot on.

Not feeling Bradshaw, top scorer maybe but how often do you get ball 6 yards out for tap in? if you cant score from anywhere beyond 6 yards then you aren't really a striker for me. Seen a few times where he has got to that perfect position to go across keeper to far post but hes hit it sloppy or too central. Another example of that was today. No idea how he has managed so many minutes in the team.

Mccarthys clear was awful for 3rd goal.. easily avoidable. Definately not a CB. Heard he has been poor at stopping crosses too..

Davies. No idea of when to come and not to come. Corner for 2nd goal was a bad choice, nowhere near it. 1st goal maybe shouldve got closer to hogan to try and be in his face instead of leaving him the whole net to aim for..

Mallan looks good, the set pieces were quality. The corner and the one where thiam shouldve probably scored.

Thiam I like because i believe he can link up well with players and he had created a lot of chances with flicks, etc.., he has some flair and also what I liked was highlighted in 93rd min where he picked ball up and drove forward with it, winning the freekick.

Theres only one other player who drives like that, which is Moncur, not a huge fan of him, feel like he doesn't apply himself as much as he could sometimes but he is at his best when he drives forward with ball.

Moore, looks oreyt, can win headers. Can create chances. Shouldve scored though when he got ball off chester in 2nd half.

 

cavare - I thought first half he looked awful. Skinned every time. Liked him against wolves though but today was a bad bad game.

Moore - offers us something different.

Bradshaw - can't fault his workrate but the ball just seems to bounce off him. He's got absolutely no strength at all and can't hold the ball.

Davies - needs dropping quickly for the good of the team and frankly for his long-term future as well. Rest him and let him regroup and come back better has got to be better than him getting worse and worse in the first team.

Mottley-Henry - really thought he looked good. Not hammill or isgrove good but for a young lad he didn't look out of place. Got a few lovely crosses in.

Thiam - strong, skillful but needs to spend more time in and around the box and far less time up and down the wing.

Hecky - bad bad day at the office. Showed villa far too much respect and it bit him in the arse. Needs to stop worrying about the opposition and start focusing on US.

Overall I thought we were abject in the first half but after the changes we looked the better team.

 

Agree about Hecky there.

Just listened to his post match. Says the team showed Villa too much respect.

To me his line up did that. We played a formation we have never played under him before.

Also for me forget we didn’t have a defensive midfielder today. Give 2 of them the responsibility to show they are Championship level midfielders. Basically he’s said to Potts, Moncur and Mallan whatever 2 of you I play today isn’t going to be good enough so I’m going to have to change formation.

At least give them the opportunity to show they can or can’t do it. We could have learnt A LOT today about how those players can perform in a 2. Instead we learnt absolutely nothing and still have 3 players who have it instilled in them that they aren’t good enough to play 4-4-2. That’s poor management for me.

Big them up and make them feel as though they can do it. Hecky was defeated before the whistle today he can’t just blame the players.

 

I see what you are saying but he knows, we know, that they are not good enough to play in a 442. They are not good enoiugh full stop. Time to **** Moncur off and Potts would not be far behnd hinm for me.

 

We don’t know though, we think we know but today he could have played them and if they flop like most expect there’s no hiding from it.

He could have gone to the board and said look I’ve got THREE centre mids here plus Mowatt and I can’t make a f*cking pairing out of any of them. Sort it out.

That chance is gone now but it was definitely a chance to learn something.