Taking Ogrady off. The one player you'd trust to hold the ball up. The one player capable of playing up front alone. Then, he takes off Jennings ... Our only outlet. So even when we were 10 v 10, we had little options up front. Not sure what he saw in Shea today.
I was puzzled by that. It made me think he's obliged to play the loanees. Shea had hardly had a touch by then and Mellis could have easily gone to the left.
spot on, an absolute mare!! naive starting 11, then trusts in a guy who's been here five minutes over our top scorer and best hold up player (also motivated against his former club to boot) leaves Shea on again
It's not what I would have done. But it didn't cost us the game. The biggest three contributions to that were Frimpong getting himself sent off, the referee sending off Mellis and Jim's awful clearance when he had time to pick out a man or blast it up field. Personally I'd also add Cywka's corner a minute earlier as it was a chance for us to score but we just gifted the opposition possession who took it up our end from where they scored.
Agree totally about O'Grady, jaded Jennings had to come off though. Worrying thing for me this season (well, apart from the fact that we've been **** and keep losing) has been the number of players who can't do 90 minutes. We hardly ever get an option to make tactical substitutions because we need to replace players who after 60 minutes appear to be as fit as I am on a Sunday morning at 8am after a good night out.
this happens with every single manager though. they bring their own players in for a reason, and naturally show allegiance to them. rightly or wrongly
Just to add to that, I think Wilson thought Proschwitz was more likely to score a goal and actually win it for us, but as it happens we didn't create a chance for him. I would have kept O'Grady on to hold up the ball personally, but I don't think that substitution had any bearing on the result. We just made a mistake in injury time.
Why jimbob decided to try pick out a pass in such a dangerous area is beyond me, he should have gave it a "have it" up field especially with time almost up,
Jennings asked to come off because his legs had gone. I'd have taken O'Grady off the same. Proschwitz looked sharp, and he used to be a defender, would help with our backs to the wall and set pieces. I don't understand the cheap shots against Wilson.
what about the two central midfielders? I think that was asking for trouble? before the red card we were being dominated
I don't think fitness was a factor in today's result. Yes, Jennings and Hunt looked shagged, but the rest of team were battling just as strongly at the end as they had been for the rest of the game. We lost because we gave the ball away in a vital area, but that wasn't from a fatigued player, it was one of the subs.
Cheap shots? It's my opinion. I like Wilson, but I think Ogrady would have given us a better outlet. The ball didnt stick with Proschwitz. It kept coming back at us. I think we could have given them a lot more to deal with had we kept COG on.
So who would you pick? Dawson and Digby? Or Frimpong and Mellis? CLEARLY the best 2 central midfielders at the club. It's all too easy to sit here after the game and say 'oh Wilson got this this and this wrong, I'd have done this this and this and we would have won 8-0'.
Pitch was so heavy, it would have knackered any legs. Plus with 10 men we were chasing the ball for a good hour. Jim was fresh enough at the time, that wasn't the problem. He was probably trying to get an attack started rather than clear the lines. It's a bad mistake, but he'll be beating himself up far worse than anything the critical of fans could muster.
Hasn't there been an ongoing school of thought on here that COG doesn't benefit from playing as one up on his own?