Danny got it wrong

I went on Saturday and although it was a terrible performance I'm still 100% behind the recruitment/building process moving forward.

However on the day I think Danny got it all wrong.

Donny are a team that like to play football and their main threat is through the middle of the pitch. It was so important that we competed in that area and stopped them coming through us. We could have quite easily packed the middle of the pitch and said to them "if you're gonna score you're gonna have to go down the outsides". They are not a threat down the flanks at all and could have put crosses in all day with no joy.

If we had played 451 with a 3 in midfield we would have been able to put pressure on their midfield and won the ball higher up the pitch. For example Digby/Scowen/Hourihane.

The only problem with playing that system is it leaves Waring up top on his own and he could very quickly become isolated if the two wide players don't give him enough support and Donny dominate possession. I thought Danny might take that opinion too and therefore play 442 with Lita alongside Waring to give him some support.

Danny did neither of those things and went with a 4411 with Lalkovic behind Waring. This left us short in midfield AND left Waring isolated on his own. I didn't understand this from the off and even more frustratingly he didn't change it for 90 minutes when it clearly wasn't giving us any kind of platform to get into the match.

I am a huge Wilson fan and feel positive about the direction the club is going in, but I didn't understand the tactics on Saturday at all.

 

You're quite right. I really don't understand why Scowen or Digby weren't played in the middle in favour of Berry, who for all his enthusiasm just isn't a defensive-minded midfielder.

As for pumping the ball up to a lone striker, that was inexcusable. Doncaster had won 2 of their home games before Saturday, the second worst home record in the division. I could just about understand us doing that next weekend at MK Dons, but not against Donny. It ensured we created nothing against a poor side and constantly gave them the ball back, as shown by their 60% possession. Baffling approach to the game. We're currently averaging the second best support away from home in League 1, but there's going to be very few willing to make some of the longer trips we've got coming up if Wilson carries on with the negative tactics away from home.

 

To be honest I've been quite surprised at Danny's thinking several times since he returned to the club. Just hope he knows what he's doing because, re-building or no re-building, I definitely don't want to see my club back in the 4th division.

 

I wasn't there on Saturday, but I have to say I am not surprised by your comment that we kept giving the ball away. For whatever qualities young Berry has, and a few on here seem to rate him, his wastefulness in possession is something that is a big concern. In my opinion, one of the few times this season we've looked like we could retain possession was during the second half against Yeovil. The contrast between Pearson and Berry in that respect was obvious. Hourihane can also be wasteful, but at least he chips in with goals and assists. I want Berry to succeed, but he really needs to sharpen up that aspect of his game.

 

Poor team selection and formation it says something than BFJ was probably our best player.

 

You have to ask if Wilson knows exactly what he is doing.
He is an old campaigner and knows how to play the manager game.
He has had a lot of support from the board and Ben. His turn over of players compared to other clubs in this league is outstanding for our club. I think his performance rating is well below the norm, and he will fall on his sword shortly.
i anticipate that after the Swindon match the results by then will have us in the relegation bottom four.
He talks the talk, but cannot walk the walk.
sorry lads but he will never get to complete his long term plan, because he deep down has not got one

 

I still have faith in Danny and think it's important that he has genuinely bought into the same plan as Mansford/Watkins/Cryne. I'm even sure that Danny has logical reasons for the team/system he played on Saturday, but they have definitely gone over my head! I'd love to sit down with him so he could talk me through it.

 

So would I. as soon as I saw the team I felt like getting back in the car and going home. Donny dominated the midfield at Oakwell and to set the team up like he did on Saturday was just asking for trouble. I was relieved to get to half time at 0-0 and expected Wilson to change what was obviously not working. But no, we just carried on regardless with the only changes being like for like positionally. Truly mind boggling.....

 

You do know where the goal came from dont you ?
It was not through the middle,it was from the wing !!!
Ok I think we were poor n, but your logic is wrong, they did not score from all the possession they had through the middle, it was from the wing they scored, so yes we were poor, but we didnt lose because they were better down the middle. We lost to a fecking fantastic goal from the wing !

 

Yes I do know where the goal came from, but that was just a fantastic strike after Holgate naively got too tight. That goal would have gone in no matter what system we had played.

The point I was making was that the system we used played right into Donny's hands and that showed throughout the game. Ok they didn't score as a result of all their pressure, but that was all down to them not taking advantage rather than us keeping them out.

Even though it was a dull match and was settled by the odd goal, they dominated the middle of the pitch ALL game.

Your post is getting too caught up in the 30 seconds that led to the goal. We should be more worried about the other 92 and a half minutes.

 

We did not lose it in those other 92 and half minutes though did we? #We lost it in one fantastic strike !
It makes no difference to the result how much possession they had or where, they only scored one goal, from a fantastic strike !
We dont lose anymore points because they were better in the middle, they still only got 3 points for dominating the game, it was the same earlier in the season when we had 20 odd shots, no extra points for that, only the one that go over the line count !

 

3 points lost to a fantastic strike is correct.

Rest of game carp

Players carp

And until the Messiah bites the dust plenty more carp to come.

Perhaps that Fishing Lark will yield more excitement.

 

He talks the talk and most of it bears no resemblance to what folk have witnessed.

The Sword is being sharpened as we speak

 

We surrendered the middle of the pitch. We gave a decent footballing team all the room they wanted to play football. Just because they failed to take advantage of that doesn't justify Dannys tactics. Just means he got off lucky.

That is just looking at it defensively too. If we had any sort of control of the middle of the pitch we may have been able to build something going forward and bring some of the players like Waring into the game.

 

He talks a load of ***** after each game we lose. Im still quite annoyed even today tbh not only with wilson his poor team selection and tactics and the drivel he comes out with post match. But some of the players did the no know it was a derby hearts of peas hourihane jennings spring to mind. Im losing patience with the bloke he has two more games for me for performances to improve because we played better football that that under simon davey keith hill and flicker, it was appalling and I still dont know how he can try justify it after.

 

Because he has lost the plot and is clutching at straws

 

I think he needs to take a gamble next game change the midfield totally hourihane and berry arent tough enough and give away possesion too cheaply and jennings isnt interested id play scowern and pearson in middle and if he has to play hourihane play him behined the front two. He has to take a gamble or do summat diffrent because that was pathetic on saturday.

Can garentee he wont though he will line us up same very defensive and deep for a narrow defeat or a draw then post match he will bang on about how good mk dons are and how we minimised there chances its getting very predictable.

 

When we got relegated people said that they wanted to abandon short termism and look to the future developing players both in terms of signings coming in and our own younger players. This is not an easy route and anyone who tried to convince themselves that you can both do this and have Instant success is well daft frankly.

It's a longer term strategy made more difficult by the SCMP rules which pretty much meant us ditching all our senior pros.

I think, by and large, the younger players we are playing have all shown flashes of promise. Some good and some bad performances which is exactly what you would expect. The disappointments gave come from the players drafted in to provide experience and guidance. One we have had to pay off and the other not really worth his place.

I think the manager had made some mistakes. He has also made some pretty astute and excellent signings.

At some point the madness of chopping and changing managers has to stop. It is self defeating and has seen us go backwards as a club.

For me if we abandon the current policy I will chalk **** on it and go support Athersley Rec. Enough is enough.

It's alright for the keyboard warriors who rarely go to games to whine and whinge and think in the short term but for those of us who actually go home and away things needed to change and they have. I didn't expect this change to take 5 minutes. We are about where I thought we would be this season (possibly 4/6 points down on where I expected).

Onwards and upwards.

 

The club have said that some of the signings haven't worked out and they are looking to move the players on, Brown being one example. Could the club say the same about the coaching staff and let Hitching go?

 

Fair point I dont want to see manager after manager leave but the performances have been mostly dyer all season. And saturday was worst I have seen in years. I dont mind losing but id like to see some entertaining football. We could have been still playing now and we wouldnt have scored. And I keep telling my self that but then we keep bringing in loan player after loan player blooding premiership u21 players.