I did not go to the game so I will not comment upon it. However, something I like to do is listen to the opposing manager's views on Audioboom as they often provide more insight than do our manager's after match comments. After the match Dean Saunders said that he had talked to LJ before the game and LJ had said that we could win 3-0 or lose 3-0 and he did not know which it would be. He also said that he knew that we would play a back 5 / 3, so on that basis he went with 4-5-1 to keep the wing backs occupied, give the Barnsley's 3 centre backs only one player to mark and out-number us in midfield. This sounds exactly what happened, but can anyone confirm it. Did LJ get totally out thought by a manager who I do not rate, at all.
Yes it was kind of like that. Their left winger had abit of pace and trickery which gave scowen a tough time so LJ had to swich formation and put scowen in midfield
I don't know what Saunders knew in advance, but I thought we were pretty comfortable for most of the first half. It was only when their winger went past Scowen at the end of the first half, that the penny seemed to drop with Chesterfield - that he's not a wing back. From then on they seemed to tear into us down the wings. We desperately need to sort the RB / RWB position out, and we need to decide which is our best midfield because we simply can't fit players in for the sake of it. Pearson, Hourihane and Winnall (up front) were all below par in the second half.
I can definitely confirm that LJ spoke at length with DS in the tunnel prior to the match, my son was mascot so I was stood near by. I could not however hear what they were saying..
End of day we came unstuck without holgate everything went down our r hand side they exploited scowern playing out of position. Also doesnt help when alot of players have poor individual games hourahine, pearson very poor. Also heard saunders midweek say we know what barnsley are all about through crossley. He isnt that bad of a manager he got donny promoted more or less didnt do well at wolves but took over at crawley last season when they looked down and almost kept them up.
Teams tend to be weak down the wings when they don't have wingers or full backs. I don't have a coaching badge btw.
Saunders was manager at Crawley last season. So in his last 2 games against us he has a 9-2 aggregate. It looks like he knows how to beat us.
Wing back is the most important position in a 3-5-2 and we don't have any. It's only effective against teams that play two up front which is hardly any nowadays. Back to the drawing board for me.
He was manager when we played them away surely ? That is what Didcot Red said ! They hammered us at their ground.
We have a history of being rubbish down the flanks when defending. When was the last time we had two solid full backs who knew how to stop pacy wingers? It seems to be the tactic that nearly every club adopts against us. You could see from mid way through that first half that we were being destroyed down the wings and it was only a matter of time before it paid off. Marc Roberts was defending heroically but a goal was coming. Just surprised it took 54 minutes
Regardless of tactics and formations, in all fairness they were a reason why we lost, the basics like getting to second balls, tracking runners and movement were missing. At times it looked like men against boys with Chesterfield out-powering us and generally out-thinking our passive play. Its early days and the last thing we need to do is start pointing fingers and blaming the 'head coach', individual personnel - given that the transfer window is still open we will hopefully be able to recruit another starker and a right back / wing back as that will allow for balance in the squad. Despite all that, Johnson failed to respond to the flow of the game and at half time, when we were leading 1-0, he should have changed the team round. Conor Hourihane should have been pulled due to his lack of pre-season and impact on the game in the 3-5-2 set up. This would have allowed Scowen to play centrally and take him out of the firing line at right wing back where he was getting 'battered'.
I looked at the teams at half time with us 1-0 ahead and saw the shape. I thought, we have all those midfield players and yet we are playing 5-3-2. I do not understand, but clearly, given the score, I know nothing about the game. So the final result, bad as it was, at least showed that perhaps I do know a little bit after all. I may yet be proven wrong, but I think that 5-3-2 is a system that has been rumbled generally, and particularly when a team is weak at full back.