Naive

I completely agree that they haven’t played that well although I think both have improved from last season but they are able to be fit & combative for 90 minutes.

I don’t think Jalo’s started a game this season & whenever he does get on he looks really unfit to me. He seems like a young developing kid who you chuck on after 75 minutes if you’re chasing the game & want to take a gamble to try & get something. I just thought it was reckless to start him in that kind of game given the lack of football he’s had.

 

You think they have developed? Based on what? I think they are getting more of a chance because we lost Cole and macatee who would both be above them in the pecking order and failed to replace them.
Like I said watters and Cosgrove or watters and jalo would have been the same outcome. No complaints from me plenty of calls after the **** show at stevenage to start jalo.

 

Tactically just so wrong. Playing wing backs and expecting them to track back after contributing to attacks would never end well with Garnacho and Rashford playing for them. Should have played a flat back four, played Earl at left back and not bothered with a right footed player in O’Keefe.

The issue is we can’t be flexible in certain games as we have no wingers. It would have been ideal to have had someone attacking their full backs without our full backs getting caught up top. Jalo would have played on the left wing but nobody worth their salt on the right hand side.

Recruitment has been poor but Clarke got it so wrong last night as he did Saturday. He seems to be very inconsistent tactically. He got it so right at Lincoln despite the onslaught, Sheff United in the League Cup and Crawley. And then he’s got a couple horribly wrong and unfortunately two of them have come in the last few days alongside our first impressions of him against Mansfield.

 

Yes, not loads but a bit.

I thought Watters confidence was shot to bits last season & he was hiding on the pitch. It was like he was scared of making a mistake. However he’s not at the standard required for a side with ambitions to be promoted from league one so I’m disappointed we didn’t recruit better.

I don’t mind Cosgrove. I’m not proclaiming him to be anything special but I think he’s a perfectly fine league one forward who needs a finisher alongside him. I thought he had a really good game against Bristol Rovers last week.

It’s not necessarily what they would’ve done on the ball it’s more off it. I don't think either Jalo or Yoganathan have the discipline or fitness to play effectively in such a big game yet.

Completely agree we would have lost regardless but I think a midfield of Craig, Connell & Phillips behind Cosgrove & Watters would have given us a better chance to stay in the game longer by protecting the defence better.

 

Watters hasnt had a good game this season, I don't think Cosgrove deserved a start after the stevenage game although he's not alone there. Cosgrove has never been a big goalscorer apart from one season in the spl. I've said it a few times on here but we lost near on 30 goals in macatee and Cole I can't see Cosgrove, watters, jalo, Humphrys and Marsh getting 30 combined this season.

 

This.

I sat back for a while yesterday trying to observe what made the two teams different.

ok there were physical differences. Rashfords acceleration for example, his sublime shimmies and so on…

but I also thought there were two big differences. The first was the movement. Theirs was rapid and the other players seemed alive to it.

the second was that they rarely ever wasted the ball. If a pass wasn’t on, it wouldn’t be risked. We forced it , which resulted in the ball going back to then, or out of play.

surely that can be taught?

 

I agree with that. I think there’s a good chance Phillips finishes top scorer.

 

A normal tactic would have been a 4-5-1 formation with two conventional full backs who keep their position and Craig in front of the back 4 and four others to compress the space in midfield.
A bit like when any low-level international team frustrate England for 60 minutes before England win 2-0. Clarke seemed to just treat it as a learning experience for the kids though.

 

@Stephen Dawson come on mate……

 

I'm not saying it was Clarke's fault, but I know he could have done more

 

Simon jordan wasn't impressed skip to 2.30.