The disparity between 1st & 2nd half.....

must be down to Clarke?


https://www.soccerstats.com/halftime.asp?league=england3

 

A lot of it is I think.

The goals aren't on him per se as he's not on the pitch and I'd expect any professional defender to be able to deal with those, especially the second one.

But his bizarre tactical changes after that killed any hope of us getting back into the game.

After throwing the team under bus last week and saying they clearly aren't adaptable etc. he decided to try a 433 which I have never seen us use this season at all with DKD up top on his own. Square pegs in round holes, Earl LB again after trying this several times this season to no avail.

He's not learning, making same daft mistakes week in week out and he's lost his positivity completely. His early interviews brought such optimism and now he just moans and groans and likes to berate the players

 

It’s not just Clarke though. Players have to shoulder some of blame too. They’re just spineless, no bottle whatsoever when the going gets tough. There aren’t many of them that I’d want to hang on to. Hope the majority are off in the summer, pathetic bunch.

 

Talk me through the 'must be down to Clarke'.

I'm not saying you're wrong, I just don't understand the logic that is being applied (not just you, I've read it several times).

Because, to me, our first half performances demonstrate we're capable of performing better than our league position suggests. But we let ourselves down badly in the second half. For me, that's the players.

For example, I read yesterday that we lost because of the substitutions. And yet we went 2-1 down before a sub was made. It was the same players that took the lead in the first half that subsequently went behind in the second. There's no way the manager told the players to stop playing in the second half. It was the players that stopped performing. By the time a sub was made all 11 players could have been dragged off, they were all awful. But Clarke had nothing much to bring on that could change anything. Lewis may go on to be a player that can do that, but not when he only arrived a few days ago and hasn't played for months.

Our midfield disappeared in the second half. Nwakali and Russell offered the defence no protection at all. They hid. That's not Clarke's fault, that's the type of player they are and that's who he's been given to work with without any alternatives.

 

How does that translate to must be down to Clarke?

It suggests to me that we have such a weak squad that there is absolutely nobody to bring on in the second half to strengthen a tired (physically and mentally) team against rivals who have better options off the bench.

 

I was taught....if a player/ team can "do it" in 10 minutes they can do it 20 minutes...and so on and so on.
What this squad of players has shown this season is we can do a good 30 / 35 minutes (genrally). Why is that?.....the usual answer is lack of fitness/ lack of professionalism/ lack of organisation.
I would suggest its probably all three for us....but I will still maintain we have the wrong kind of players assembled to produce consistent football to compete at the top of this division and thats despite having some very good technical players, well certainly in midfield.

 

It was so glaringly obvious that Hudds would come out fired up after the break. Why, then, did our players look so completely unprepared for it, like they'd never seen such a thing before. Duff had clearly put a rocket up his side at HT. I can't begin to think what words of wisdom DC imparted to our sorry lot....

 

It's down to too many players being losers. They have no bottle, no fight, are spineless and cannot follow instructions.

 

Totally agree with this. I’ve said it a few times, when teams (except us, seemingly), fall behind in the first half, they come back out fired up, it’s probably spaceman’s whale music still playing at half time in our dressing room that does it, or maybe Clarke just sparks up a hamlet…

 

Last season at home we'd win games where we scored, first this season we're losing them. That's a big difference.

 

Fascinating to see that Charlton are the exact mirror of us in that table. We're 3rd in the 1st half table, and 17th in the second half. They're 17th and 3rd respectively.

The full league table shows which way round is the better one to be.

 

basically Clarke has been unable to get the team to hold on to a lead. Its down to tactics so his fault IMHO

 

Not down to personnel at all then?

 

Cant understand how in some people's eyes this squad isn't culpable. Makes no sense to me

 

A mixture of poor coaching and poor players. As a team we're just not that good. It clicks every now and again, but we soon revert to type.

 

If you or me were a decent manager after that first half would have congratulated the team as they came off and in the dressing room.I would have said great half lads keep up the good work and let’s get into them in the 2nd half don’t let them settle.God knows what he says probably let’s keep it at 1 nil and give out a couple of bollokings players are not going to respond to him if he is pulling them down.

 

Biggest annoyance for me was how good they were first half, a poor slow start to second and a few mistakes and we are behind. Rather than rallying them and getting them back into that first half flow where we were good, he rips everything up and swaps to a 433 for no reason with players out of position. How did he expect that to work.

Formation yesterday was never the issue, but he had to change it, why?

Same story be Northampton at home too. 2 up, not playing superbly but comfortable and winning, randomly goes 4 at the back and we then looked useless and they got a point. Yes slonina dropped a major error for second but it all comes from that tactical change.

 

I'm not sure it's as black and white as that.

There's definitely something in it though. It was obvious Huddersfield were going to come out a different side in the second half, they had to if they wanted anything the game. As soon as Clarke sees that they've removed a striker and brought on a midfielder he should have been looking to change something, whether that be the shape on the pitch or personnel and shape via a substitution. Instead he remained passive, allowing Huddersfield to dominate the midfield and get a foothold and then goals.

I also wonder what he said at half time because the players came out looking like lost kittens for most of the second half (DKD aside, thought he was the one bright spot yesterday).

So, I agree Clarke has to shoulder some blame. But equally, those players on the pitch should have been up for that game. We're in poor form, so are Huddersfield. Our run of matches coming up will be much tougher in theory so dig deep, play for the shirt, the fans, your colleagues and put a shift in. A win would have given some confidence for the Rotherham game and then who knows, maybe we're starting to look upwards again. But instead there was nothing, just DKD turning to teammates and trying to encourage but getting no response.

 

Huddersfield swapped one attacker for another attacker not a midfielder but it did change their influence on the game and Clarke did nothing in response.

 

I think (and I might be wrong) but we have conceded the most goals in the last quarter of the game