Biggest game in the history of Barnsley on Saturday

Well.......... not quite perhaps exactly, but let's face it, it'll seem like it by Thursday.

No tossing around with formations please.

Back to the one we used against Sheff Utd.

 

Back to 433 for me biggest game since Walsall in play off final. Must win if we lose that's it i think start looking forward to blackpool away.

 

Millwall?

 

The one that saw us we losing 2-1 or the one we changed it to before going on to win 3-2?

We started the game 4-3-3 against Sheff Utd, but when Bradshaw came on we went 4-4-2. Similarly we started 4-4-2 yesterday, but were already changing it round towards the end of the first half.

 

I don’t like 4-4-2 especially but last night was a fairly typical ‘this season’ performance. A promising first half where we played quite well and a lacklustre second. Formation had nowt to do with the defeat just a lack of ability and quality.

Onwards and upwards.

 

More being able to play two halves of football than the formation.

 

The way we played in the first half against Sheff U was fine by me. If we could keep that up we'd be OK. We seem to tire more than owt else.

It was Sheff U who had to begin changing things because it wasn't working for them. So what we started with was fine.

I'm no expert on formations and to be honest think alot of it is a smokescreen.

I do know that in the last quarter of a game formations all tend to go to pot and mean precious little.

e.g Burton at home - was it 4-4-2 first half when we were worse than ever? And 1-1-8 when we had em on the run?

 

Agree with that, we have players who can't last the 90 and it seems to affect us in a lot of games.

I don't think 4-4-2 is necessarily all that great, but I do think it suits some of our players.

What we have to contend with and what we've been contending with all season whatever system we play is that the quality of the squad isn't very good at this level. It's not that they don't try, it's just the skill isn't quite there.

 

Be one of the most high pressure games a lot of these lads have ever played in.

 

Our fitness & concentration levels are far more of concern to me than what formation we play.
If Moncur is not available for the weekend I'd be thinking of recalling McGeehan. Mallan can hit a decent
ball, but has the heart of a pea. In the middle we are down to Potts & Gardner, who are a decent middle two,
but Potts only usually has 70 minutes in him.

 

Fairly sure you can't recall players outside of transfer windows now.

 

Then we have fecked up again. Could have done with him or Bird.

 

I think our lack of ability means we have to work so hard to keep up that we just run out of steam and the oppositions quality then comes out. You can only hide so much through discipline teamwork and effort.

 

Think you are right. Also players in their early 20's don't have the stamina of ones who are mid to late 20's. If you look at endurance sports like the Tour de France all the top riders are over 25.

 

When i've seen us this season, I've been surprised at how low the intensity has been. We don't close and we don't press anywhere near like we did with the previous set of players.

I can only think of 3 reasons for that. The players aren't fit enough to. The manager doesn't want them to. The players don't have the desire to.

Seeing as Isgrove would run and run in his loan spell, it seems its either more a case of instruction or motivation. Unless the fitness team has radically changed its approach.

 

Ipswich Bolton leeds and forest are all in the bottom 5 of the championship form table and on paper should be the perfect opposition to play to get us out of this mess yet somehow we always seem to fail to beat teams who are on terrible runs i.e Ipswich last night.

 

Surely lads in their early 20's should be able to compete for a 90 minute football match tho, its not like their cycling the length of the country. The amount of sports science, nutritional guidance and time they have available to train fitness should be the last thing to worry about, surely?

 

To some extent, but given all the analysis on the players in the squad in terms of running, I think it is unlikely they are simply unfit. Most teams have a few youngsters, we have nearly a whole team of them, which I think has an impact & why really we should be looking at having a better mix next season. If you look at long distance runners, triathletes, cyclists, & lots of sports that require endurance you will rarely find anyone at the top before their mid 20's.

 

Yeah thats a fair point, im hoping its something we improve on next season definitely. High energy and pressing was a big part of our game in the past and it was extremely successful especially with the likes of scowen, isgrove, winnall etc

 

We 'fecked' up by not keeping someone who's last 5 games in league 1 have been:

-Unused sub
-Unused sub
-Unused sub
-86th minute sub
-87th minute sub

Some of our fans. Honestly.