Which isn’t surprising when there’s 5 central midfielders and just one young striker on the pitch. Something has gone wrong with the tactics today.
This could’ve gone on the ‘Bad day at the office’ thread. Yes it’s disappointing to lose and likewise to put in a poor performance, but it is only our 2nd league defeat so far this season. Long long way to go yet, with further disappointments to come no doubt. Hopefully, the better performances and results will far outweigh those.
Our expectations are not helped by the publication of statistics on here from time to time showing that we've had the most shots / chances to score etc. It's as though it will all magically come good next May because these stats say so. Plus there are these posts from here and there saying we have the best squad in this league - well .......they couldn't cut it in the league above last year. And it's the same squad. My own eyeballs have seen us struggle against a few teams at home. When we're on a surge we do look likely to swamp other teams. When we can't swamp them, we look like hoping there are no more than 6 teams better than us.
Looking from afar we started in a negative mind set by playing dougall and Mcgeehan with brown up front. Thiam or moore should have started although we never get much at. Charlton historically.
Who are these ‘few teams’ we’ve struggled at home against this season? I’ve seen us dominate for long periods, but sometimes not got the goals to give us the cushion to be comfortable. I haven’t seen an away team at Oakwell this season that have have left with less than they’ve deserved. Stats are stats, but isn’t it encouraging that all mostly show us in a good light. We are a young team who keep learning, We are not the same squad as last season, we have lost players and added new ones. We have had players come back from long- term loans. Finally, what is wrong with fans being optimistic about the season ahead particularly with the start we’ve had?
We struggled against Wimbledon and Plymouth. Both lower league teams. In my opinion anyway. We didn't do much against either Walsall or Gillingham at home either. It's alright saying "not got the goals". And "dominate". Means nowt. I prefer my own version of the truth to optimism.
Same squad, or have there been a couple of changes to our starting XI over that 80 years? History counts for nothing. Only here, now and the future.
Weren't many positive contributions from anyone so I wouldn't single anyone out. Some changes Tuesday to freshen it up and hopefully put it behind us.
Your own version of the truth, yet you call Wimbledon and Plymouth ‘lower league teams’ Jeez. ‘Not got the goals and dominate means nowt’ It certainly means we didn’t struggle. We were never hanging on in any of those games, and whilst most fair- minded amongst us (including myself) credited the opposition for their part in these games, we were disappointed at not taking all the points. That is not ‘struggle’ Gillingham, who we beat, were seconds away from winning against a top six team today. I love my optimism so far, simply because it stems from what has gone before. Don’t confuse optimism with expectation. As things stand, I’ll take my optimism against your version of the truth.
I thought we lacked any real quality today, and Charlton played us to perfection. They did a superb job on us. I’d rather look at it like that, that the opposition had a game plan, executed it, whilst we were not anywhere close to our best. Nine times out of ten, we roll them over. And I expect us to learn from this. Onto the next one.
Really don't think we can take such a passive attitude. What if everyone does "a superb job on us" - we end up in trouble then. We need to worry about ourselves and learn the lessons from yesterday and Coventry and determine our own destiny. I do accept that we weren't at our best, too many of the players who've been a revelation and great so far this season, Mowatt, Potts, Pinnock, Dougall, Davies all had off-days together. That meant that we couldn't carry the ones McGeehan, Pinillos, Cavare (defensively) and the wretched, woeful Moncur who are not consistently good enough (imho) and were really poor yesterday. At the end of the day both Charlton and Cov outfought us and outthought us too and we need to learn the lessons. There are some clear ones for me:- 1) Brown can't play up front on his own - he's a real talent imo but needs to be part of a two or three. 2) Playing a whole bunch of central midfielders together doesn't work - McGeehan, Dougall, Potts, Mowatt and Moncur as five of the front six means there's no real variety and we get stuck passing sideways with the ball and don't have the out and out pressing capability that two or three up front gives us. 3) We're better when we have a bit more pace in the team. 4) It's time to end the umpteenth ultimately frustrating dalliance with Moncur. His best role is the last twenty minutes coming off the bench when we're winning. Anything else (other than games against Peterborough) should be quickly stopped and a proper wide player with some pace, engine, consistency and commitment should replace him. 5) Both Charlton and Cov sussed Cavare out. How do I know? Well partly, my own eyes and partly because I had to hang around the Valley yesterday to wait for a lift and got talking to a member of the Charlton coaching staff. They had watched video and noticed how Cavare gets caught up field after his runs, is slow to get back and exposes Pinnock on his (weaker) right hand side. They doubled up Grant and Taylor on the right side of our defence and regularly had a man over (as with both goals) when Cavare went missing. They also think that Cavare is beatable on the outside because of his slow turning circle. Other teams will have seen this and have it in their game plans and we need to deal with it. 6) Our corners and crossing remains largely woeful! 5) above isn't me singling Cavare out, by the way, I like him and his barn-storming forward runs but I do think that to be ultimately successful at full back he needs a better engine, an improved sense of positioning and to be more mobile and fluid in his movements. He's young enough to improve. I have every confidence in the current manager to identify and rectify things and it was one of the few positives yesterday that he agreed with me as to three of the four players that needed to be substituted pronto after their sub-par displays. The other is that we have another game in three days and so can quickly get back on the horse and rectify things! COYR.