MDT - Little Dogs V Big Dogs

I remember the famous Middlesbrough team with Ravenelli, Juninho and co that was too good to go down.

If you're playing like a bunch of seeyounext Tuesdays. You'll get fingered in your 5h I tter.

 

I didn't see any bother all day, but there is an handful of posts saying differently here.

https://downatthemac.proboards.com/thread/120319/town-tykes?page=12

What happened?

 

Having not seen anything after the first 15 minutes (& the two minute highlights) how did we play? I’m assuming Huddersfield deserved it with the stats & the general unhappiness.

How did Gent play? I noticed the goals came after he went off. Were we better with him on the pitch or was that just a coincidence?

What was the crowd like? How did our fans react to Duff & Kane?

 

Very lightweight and didn’t really notice him going forward as we seemed to spend the majority of the game playing in our own half. Can see why been reluctant to use him and really poor we couldn’t find a LWB on either a free or paid money for someone ready to go.

 

That’s a massive worry. It ought to be a sackable offence for someone to have built the squad to play 3-5-2 & then only have one left footed wing back who’s only 19 & inexperienced

 

The whole team were poor for the entire game, other than Slonina who kept us in it first half. For me, Gent was the worst of the lot and had to be subbed before he cost us a goal. He got skinned every time. As it turned out, a couple of our other defenders provided Huddersfield with the opportunities to score, but I believe if Gent had stayed on we would have conceded sooner.

 

Motherwell fans raved about Gent and Blackburn fans were very upset that he was allowed to leave. Cosgrove was decent at Plymouth and scored a lot of goals for Aberdeen. DKD and Craig were brilliant at their former clubs. It stands to reason that they're probably not bad footballers. I genuinely don't buy it when people claim that the squad isn't good enough. It's unbalanced for sure, but we have enough decent players to put out a 3rd tier side that at least looks organised. We've had plenty of players over the years who looked pretty inept with us, yet who've gone on to have excellent careers and even play in the Premier League.

Footballers do what they're told on the field. While the management can't legislate for some of the atrocious ball retention we saw yesterday, they are fully responsible for the lack of system, organisation, and movement in the final 3rd.

 

The only bit I saw was at the end of the game in the stand, where their fans celebrated by hanging over the divide and throwing at least 3 bottles and a can into the away end. A few of ours took exception to this and the police moved in. I cannot believe they get away with such little segregation in that stand.
On the way back to the station there was plenty of verbals between fans and at one point the police penned our fans to one side of the road. We were further up so didn't really see it properly but it all looked like something and nothing.

 

MLH got chanted Michael Duff is a ****** and ya getting sacked in the morning. They chanted to Kane about his hair and that he basically does nothing.

Gent played alright for someone thrown in to any away local derby with hardly any game time. Could have blocked a few more crosses and a few times he didn't appear to know who to mark, but he did OK overall and I would start him at Blackpool and maybe Tuesday too.

It was so odd. Huddersfield outplayed us and couldn't score. We brought on lots of subs, looked much better (it wasn't hard) and then that's when we start conceding.

 

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Wrong thread

 

We should persist with Gent.

I can’t imagine he’s feeling great having been subbed off early twice, then randomly starting a Yorkshire derby up against one of the best RWBs in the division.

To ditch him again now would be stupid.

He wasn’t that bad yesterday either. No worse than anyone else. So let’s keep him there please. Give him a proper run and let him develop.

 

The substitutions by the gaffer seem utterly random. I agree he was OK, just getting into his game & subbed. If we'd gone on to win the game, fine, We didn't. Cosgrove, the biggest waste of a shirt I've ever seen stays on. He has not got a clue. Set up was all wrong today at the start. 2-0 was a fair result.

 

I remember a few weeks ago saying Cosgrove had a bad game and got lambasted! Not many defending him now he’s been awful.
When’s super Max back ?

 

I thought he looked ok, apart from that ridiculous bit of play at the edge of the box after a corner.

He was no worse than any of the other players on show, and far better than a lot. The fact that the Manager drags him off before other players says more about his decision making rather than Gents performance.

 

I feel like we’ve got to give a Gent a run now. It’s either that or spend the next 3 months playing Earl or O’Keeffe out of position there. He might need some defensive work but we’ve got 3 centre backs & two holding midfielders. He should have plenty of freedom to go forwards & show us what he’s good at.

 

Worrying that the manager has deemed that the only left wing back at the club has had to be subbed as he’s the weak link in all three of his starts up to now.

 

Because people disagreed with you. Just because you praise a player you can also criticise him and vice versa. If I don’t rate a player I don’t criticise just because of that. It’s simple really

 

I’ve seen him criticised because twice he was beaten down that flank by Lasse Sorensen. Easily one of the best RWBs at this level. As if O’Keefe or Earl wouldn’t have been skinned more often. They would have. We all know that.

Gent was ignored most of the first half by Earl who insisted on those aimless floaty long balls into the channel instead. When Georgie was given the ball in the Town third I felt he did well to try and progress us up the pitch. He’s a left-footed, attacking wing-back. It’s what Cadden was. He couldn’t defend for toffee either.

The setup is all wrong for me. If you’re playing three at the back, you need two attacking wing-backs. You know this as well as anyone, but this club is renowned for playing this sort of system. Davis (Moses), Appleby, de Zeeuw at the back, Eaden and Thompson wing-backs. Latterly Barnard. And even more recently, Williams and Cadden bombing on under Duff with Thomas, Andersen and Kitching behind. So why have we signed an attacking left wing-back only to play either a bang average right wing-back there, or a similarly average, slow centre half? It’s proper daft.

Yesterday looked more like a 3-4-3 to me, to be fair. So Gent and Cotter as wingers. But both Humphrys and DKD were too deep for that to be the setup, surely?
Under Big Val we played that system. But properly. Sollbauer (Sibbick), Helik and Andersen with Brittain and Styles wingers. But the likes of Chaplin, Frieser, Morris and Adeboyejo would be right up there, out wide but pushed right up. With a Woodrow or Dike central. James (Palmer) and Mowatt anchoring midfield.

My god. I feel so sad having named all those players. In the space of a few years we’ve gone from that lot, to the likes of Cosgrove and MDG. No offence to them either. Nothing personal. They’re just miles off the standard I’m used to seeing at BFC. And it’s not like we had any cash when we recruited the likes of Mads, Mowatt or Woodrow either. It was great recruitment alongside great coaching.

 

I actually thought that when Lofty and jalo got wide we looked Pacy and looked like we could nick it .
Then basics at the back again cost us.
Worst defence in my lifetime we need to score on average 2/3 a game to win.

 

Cosgrove played 783 minutes of football this season and returned 1 goal while looking unable to hold the ball up or bring others into the game, commits needless fouls I'm sick of him. Not sure super max watters is the answer either.