Nicky Eaden on Player this afternoon..

As great a full back as Nicky Eaden was, if your precise is an accurate reflection of what was said, I'm going to have to disagree with some of the points.

Wiseman has received the usually panning on here following a defeat. I am a fan, and remain a fan in spite of the weight of opinion against. Wiseman was marking no 32 (Dawkins), who's starting position was left wing. Part of the Derby strategy was to move Dawkins inside towards the centre forward. Wiseman followed, as he should do. This left lots of space in the right back position, space that should have been filled by Etuhu who was playing ahead of Wiseman. Instead, Etuhu thought he needed a short nap, and whilst he was doing so, the space got filled by the Derby LB (no 3). It was easy for most of the ground to reach for their well established prejudices in moments of stress. Consequently, Wiseman received bucket loads of unjustified abuse. Nevertheless, I do accept that for the first goal, Wiseman was too far away from Dawkins. Barnsley were trying to play him offside which worked on three other occasions. On this occasion, we were caught. Wiseman closed the gap, but in my view, he did not get close enough and there was not enough pressure on the player to rush his final pass. Wiseman must accept part of the blame for the goal, but to suggest his play was as poor as has been suggested is to look for a scapegoat for a loss, in my opinion.

There has also been much criticism of Kennedy. Kennedy does not have pace, and has shouldered much of the blame for the second goal as a result, even though the player making the cross was the right back, and therefore theoretically the responsibility of the Barnsley right winger. He does continue to be picked however, and he gets picked because he takes most of the dead ball kicks including corners. It was not just the full backs who were embarrassed by the Derby pace. The whole of our team looked slow in comparison.

I have never understood why O'Grady is allowed to constantly take up a position close to the left touchline, even when there is no room out there because the opposition full backs are in position. This is particularly true when he is playing up front on his own as he was today. The fact that he continues to do so even under a changed management structure suggests to me that he is doing so under his own volition rather than under instruction.

I wondered whether Nicky Eaden mentioned McCourt specifically, and perhaps you have chosen to edit out his comments. The team certainly improved following McCourt departure. Some posters have said that this was because we brought a second forward on. I disagree. In my opinion, when McCourt plays behind the front man he slows our play down and allows the opposition to set their defensive formation. His departure allowed us to move the ball forward much quicker.

To blame any individual(s) for today's defeat simply ignores the fact that Derby were better than us in almost every position. Most of our most notable defeats at home have come as a result of pace, and today is no exception.

 

She's a boat

 

nicky eaden wasn,t a great fullback might be better than what we have now but I would not class him as great by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Sometimes you talk a lot of sense , but other like today you baffle me.
Ok sometimes Wiseman had to follow the winger inside3, Yes then Tutu should get the fullback who is overlapping, but this only happened few times, the majority of the times Wiseman had just wandered off and left the winger completely on his own, 30 yards away at times, the when the ball was p[layed to said winger Wiseman had a look of total surprise at how far he had to run to get near him, also how can Wiseman only take part of the blame for the first goal? He was yet again nowhere near his man. Ethuhu was just gash.
Kennedy is so slow it is unbelievable at times, but there is NO WAY on earth that the right winger should get blamed for the left hand side of the defence! Not in theory, you are wrong there !!

I accept you have the right to your opinion and I hope you do not take offence.

 

He continues to get picked because there is no other option. His dead ball plays are, for the most part, aimless floated punts.

 

Of course I do not take offense. I come on here for a discussion about the game and you only get a discussion if two people take a different view of the game.

I started to watch the Wiseman situation closely because he was getting loads of what I considered unmerited stick from those around me. I can assure you that he was marking their 32, which was creating all the room down our right. Indeed, I thought that McClaren out thought Danny today because essentially both teams set up 4-5-1, but McClaren's tactics created room where there should not have been any by taking Wiseman inside and overloading players into the space created.

You are right that the 32 was given a lot of room, but that is simply Wiseman backing his pace against that of the winger. He never got away a second time after the goal and was caught offside at least three times trying to get a start on Wiseman. It is the modern way to pull the full backs narrow, especially if they have pace. This denies the opposition the pass between the central defender and the full back, which is potentially a more dangerous pass than leaving the pass to the winger open.

I accept that you do not agree, but nevertheless, that is what I saw.

 

Yeah, you'd think Nicky never had a bad game, wouldn't you?

 

It wasn't just a bad game for the current two fullback it was just another inept display. In fact their usual

 

I was working today and managed to get home 15 minutes prior to kick off, so had the pleasure of listening to Matt, Adam and Nicky. At the time he was representing us I was playing as a full back in junior football, but on the left. I preferred Barnard if I'm being honest, because he played my position. But yes, I used to model myself on the pair of them, and so I found it very interesting today listening to Nicky. I was especially intrigued beforehand, wondering whether his opinions would be close to my own, on - in particular and quite obviously - our two full backs. Because I played the position pretty decently for a time, enough to get to the level that Athersley Rec now play at by 18 years of age. Injury put paid to that dream a year or so later. The 'dream' being playing any kind of competitive football. I was never going to make it much further I don't think, but as I say, I had that taken away from me and it's bloody years since I've so much as kicked a football. To be paid to play football is such a privilege in my opinion. And if you're getting paid to do it, I reckon the basics should be applied first and foremost. Unfortunately - and I doubt I'm alone with this view - our current full backs lack the basics so often that I find it amazing they've got as far as they have in the game. I guess some of us are more lucky than others?

My growing up and playing football for over 10 years allows me to certainly remember a fair bit with regards to the basics of 'being a full back'. Hell, I was coached by a bloke who coached Eaden. And I know for a fact that I'm a much harsher critic of our full backs than I am any other position based purely on my experiences. I adore Barnard, Eaden, Thompson, Hassell, Trippier and even to an extent Barker and Fleming. But then, I've been quick to lambast the likes of Gibbs, Regan, McEveley and now Kennedy and Wiseman. I'm definitely biased with my praise and criticism in so much as I always focus a little more on the full backs we employ.

So after all that back story I've just given, I will admit that one of the reasons I posted this thread was because the best right back I've ever seen represent us gave what I would call a 'qualified' opinion on our current full backs. But in the main, I knew folk who were at the game would probably find his comments interesting also.
There was no agenda behind it. I typed out the bits I remembered and which I thought to be noteworthy. I certainly didn't edit out particular bits, although, the quotes I've included probably equate to just 1% of his entire commentary so I suppose yes, I've edited out 99% of what he said...

He did mention McCourt. He mentioned probably every player at some point. But having listened to the match, read various reports be it via media outlets, from friends or on forums such as this, I think the key area highlighted all so blatantly today was our full back positions. That was the common theme I was picking up on, so that is why I focused the thread on that. Although, I'm pretty sure my original post does also refer to other areas of the team.

However, I wasn't at the game and so I can't comment on particular phases of the play today, nor the goals, nor much else. And I haven't done. But, I've seen these full backs quite a lot over their respective times with us and so I will share my opinion on them if I'm arsed. And to be fair, in my report on the Leeds game I praised the efforts of Wiseman. In fact, I've spent most of 2013 praising him. His performances warranted it.
As for Kennedy, in my Bolton report I said he played ok. He did, in my opinion. So I will never submit to anyone on here who suggests I'm 'against' certain players, or that I'm looking for a scapegoat. I'm not saying that's what you're doing, by the way. I'm just waffling on....

Bed soon. Work at 5.45am. If only I was a professional footballer...

 

In my summary of the game I pointed out this too, Wiseman followed the 32 inside and Etuhu tried to fill in at right back. This failed because either Kelvin simply ignore the plan, such as it was or was simply to far up field when we lost possession to get back. If the instruction from Wilson was for Wiseman to mark 32 regardless of who was inside him on our team while leaving whoever was outside him from the Derby team then it was pretty stupid. Because a number of times we had effectively 3 centre halves marking 2 players narrow and acres of space wide right for their left back.

 

To be fair, I don't think anyone (including Nicky himself) would suggest such a thing. But he was certainly a much better full back than we have at present and he called the game how he saw it - the full backs just weren't doing their job today.

 

New book coming out.
Where's Wiseman?
He's behind you.

 

I did suggest during the game he should turn his shirt round then it would at least look like he was facing the right way when defending......

 

totally agree -

 

I had no idea that you played at such a good level. Praise for that, and I am so sorry that you had to finish through injury. Unfortunately, I was not so talented and never played competitively after the age of 16.

Nevertheless, I like to think that after all these year of studying the game, I know what it is all about. In my opinion, Nicky Eaden is the best right wing back to have played for the club in my lifetime. When I play the 'my all time best 11 game', he is always the one that I pick at full back. Nevertheless, the game has changed since Nicky played for Barnsley, and might I suggest, since you played at full back. Now the full back is expected to play much closer to the centre backs because the ball to the wide player is not considered to be as dangerous as the ball between the wide full backs and the centre backs. The full back is then expected to close down that space after the winger gets the ball, rather than preventing the winger receiving it in the first place. My problem is that so many do not appreciate this change in the game and would prefer to see Bobby Hassell playing the old way. The biggest problem with this Barnsley team is its lack of pace. And yet many would cast aside the only player we have who possesses any.

 

''Now the full back is expected to play much closer to the centre backs because the ball to the wide player is not considered to be as dangerous as the ball between the wide full backs and the centre backs. The full back is then expected to close down that space after the winger gets the ball, rather than preventing the winger receiving it in the first place.''

Correct. When you listen to any of the former pro's they will always say that.
I was trying to explain it to Fired earlier but you've put that better than I did.
Surprised me that so many of our fans don't get the basics of football.

 

I totally agree with you regarding our lack of pace. And not just physically, speed of thought too. So pedestrian.

I've always said Wiseman would make a better midfielder. Because whether he's improved or not, his defending is just not good enough for what is and always has been a crucial position in football. Kennedy is actually worse than McEveley, and I'm even thinking Gibbs now as well. Golbourne was a lot better than some suggested.

I'd like to see a huge clear-out. Whether it's feasible I don't know. And I would like to see some kids thrown in now. Let's prepare for the future.

 

It is the way WE play it, but it does not work for us, stick with the winger and therefore prevent them getting the ball in a dangerous [position, if they want to try and thread a ball through, if you have Wiseman`s pace, the winger cant get there, he makes it harder than he needs to.
I also think that it is the likes of yourself , who lets face it, have NEVER played a fecking game in your life, that does not know the basics of football, just the newer better version served up by Sky etc. that over complicates a very simple game.

 

why are you talking about me. I think you should listen to them that know.

You probably think you know more than Azpilicueta and Ashley Cole who both defend the way I says the correct way.

 

Wiseman's best game for Barnsley was as a winger at home against Leeds, can't remember if it was last season or the one before?