Two matches on iFollow and so one or two observations....

...final ball needs work (as most have said). Without falling into the trap of criticising individuals too much I did not understand the comments about Potts when I watched the first match. He looked strong, holding the ball up and driving forwards. Yesterday I understood the criticisms. He dwelt on the ball for an age more than once and got easily dispossessed. His mind seemed somewhere other than the pitch and frankly he was a shadow of the player he was in the previous match. IMO he needs to be far more consistent.
Much has been said about Moore, quite a lot of them positive. He iS consistent. Unfortunately, and again it is just my opinion, in both matches his touch was awful. I commented on that last game and someone countered, saying for a big lad he is OK with the ball at his feet. Hmmm!! His lack of touch negates many of the good aspects in his game.
When reviewing yesterdays game I think the game pattern was determined by a poor ref who waved away (in fact gave the decision the opposite way) a penalty for a clear foul on Moore who was clear on goal. Had that gone in Wimbledon would have been forced to abandon the 10 man defence approach.
Poor game overall but we have all seen good sides in the Prem and even internationals where one team parks the bus hoping for a breakaway goal and sides cannot break them down and often only get a result from a moment of inspiration or skill from a standout player (which yesterday we did not have)
EDIT: Forgot to end on a positive - both Moncur and Dougall looked lively and pacy.

 

We are going to see a lot of games this season where the opposition park the bus with 10 at the back. We need to get cleverer at unlocking stubborn defensive teams. Or else we need to get into the habit of steaming out of the blocks looking for the early goal that forces them to abandon it.

I am hoping that there could be a few occasions this season where we score early and go on to get a bag full when they have no plan B

 

Agree. Bloke in front of us said exactly the same about it being a game (with hindsight) that scoring the first goal would have made a big difference.

There was an interview with Andreas Winkler on Radio Sheffield, I think it was in the build up to the game not the one after it, where he suggested that he and Stendel were learning day by day about the players, the opponents and the need to find out different ways to beat the opponent. We're well away from being the finished article by the sound of that, and whilst we still have the loan window, you get the feeling they want to develop the players we have and feel that they can do it.

 

Seems a fair summary to me. Potts is frustrating but can be effective when channelled correctly. Moore seems to be worse playing the L1 than he was in the championship imo.

 

We need to bring in a couple of quality loan players. August is the month when every team discovers their deficiencies, once they are playing competitively. It sounds like O'Hare from Villa could be one. It remains to be seen whether he's job ready.

 

Four games in and we have just one goal from our main strikers between them (admittedly Moore did not play all of the Blackpool match). We're going to need a better return than that if we're going to make an impact.

 

We need wingers, we had no quality out wide yesterday, we failed to get round the back of them enough.
Potts had a poor game & doesn’t link up with Cavare very well.
Thiam didn’t get down the other side either enough.
The speed we can break at is great but only good if we get balls into dangerous areas.
It’s early days & the management team will be learning more after each game.
Let’s hope they can make us more consistent

 

Crosses were extremely poor, from Cavare especially and Pinillos. They played a pressing game at times which caught out our defenders of forced them into poor passes.

Draw to me was a fair result.

 

We need more pace quality and trickery on the wings. Without it we will struggle.

 

I agree about Cavaré his crosses were poor, Moore is being marked by three men at times how can you expect much from him when he can hardly move? We went too long and played into their hands, we didn’t pass the ball around them like what was needed. There’s going to be a lot of this in the coming months so get use to it