Styles

Really? He doesn’t look any better or worse than he ever has in midfield. He’s only ever played well as a wing back. I don’t think it’s a lack of effort he’s just poor as a central midfielder

 

after Roberts he was mine. Looked bright, caused them problems. To me gradient play halfheartedly, he got stuck into tackles.

 

Would much rather have Luca Connell in the side than Styles personally.

 

Styles was better than Kane and Russell tonight and is also being played as a 10, which isn’t his game.

 

Funny how people see games differently, I thought Styles was our best player by a long way.

 

I bet also that nobody was being picked out as having a bad game, until it all started going wrong in the fourth quarter.

 

Yep, pressed well and was central to a lot of our attacks. Bonkers that anyone sees him as the issue. We played pretty well for 50 minutes I thought today, but the way we collapsed after taking the lead could be a big issue.

 

Luca played under different tactics last season, I doubt he could close a third of the pitch down on his own

 

I love Luca but he's out indefinitely

 

I thought he was decent tonight. Though I can see why some want him out. It must be galling for someone of his ability to be playing at a Club like ours. He’ll get no better here and needs to move in order to progress as a player.

 

You’d lose your money in that bet.

There were very obvious issues well before the fourth quarter.

Everybody in the ground, other than Neill Collins, saw the goals coming.

Everybody in the ground, other than Neill Collins, saw that the shape and setup wasn’t working.

I imagine most people in the ground, other than Neill Collins, could see Jon Russell was struggling and treading water and that Herbie Kane is incapable of picking up the slack for him and covering the extra yards, that’s not his strength and not his fault. But he can’t do that.

I’ve seen some arguments on the thread about expectations based on our budget and so on. I’m not having it. I can take selling players and managers to balance the books, but there needs to be something. A blueprint, a skeleton.

The players man for man tonight were good enough to go toe to toe with Peterborough in terms of ability. But there were gaps in midfield you could reverse double decker buses through blindfolded, we were far to easy to play against, pass around, and might well have conceded more than we did other than for a goalkeeper who on early viewings looks like an upgrade on the two we used last season.

We looked tactically inept, rigid, unable to adapt and worryingly, rudderless.

 

Styles is not much better , if at all, than a few other midfield players that we have. He looks tidier but that doesn't get the ball in the net.

He's being played in the "10" position but he isn't right for it.

I don't think we do have a square peg for his round hole, unless he goes back to where he was a couple of years ago, which he would now hate. And he'd need to adjust cos he isn't a natural ball crosser.

Classy footballer but I don't think we have a place for him.

 

I said that nobody was having a bad game up to the time that we scored. Who do you think was having a bad game?

You seem to be blaming the manager for what went wrong, which may have substance. That does not detract from the submission that our team did well for the first 75% of the game.

How do I lose my money?

 

I may be in the minority but I'd definitely say Watters was having a bad game up to being subbed off

 

Not if you judge him by his own standards.

But it's hard to otherwise argue with you on that one.

 

You said you bet that nobody was being picked out as having a bad game before the fourth quarter. That isn’t right.

Russell was clearly struggling well before the fourth quarter.

Watters was ineffective all night as he has been in the previous games.

Kitching looks like he’s had his head turned and looked poor, most of the game but particularly second half - and not just the second half of it.

Kane was being overran with little to no support.

Cotter can’t defend.

Every single one of those things were very apparent well before the 68th minute.

Peterborough scored their goals in the last quarter but issues, tactically, individually and collectively, were pretty clear before that. To me and plenty around me anyway.

 

Bad game? Half the team? When we were 1-0 up and had been toe to toe with them all the way till that time?

I'll give you Watters but e.g. Cotter was a real livewire all night, scored and got MOTM. Yet he had a bad game for the first 70 mins or so?

I suppose we could run through the merits of each and every one of our players but on the whole we were pretty good till we scored. The opposition were a good team.

They turned out to be better - doesn't mean we were bad for the first three quarters. We weren't, in my humble opinion. Their goalie needed to be as good as ours up until it all went wrong.

 

Got to get luca fit

 

Our problems all resulted from cotter and cadden being out of position.
Cotter only wants to play in the opposition half. Cadden also missing leaving acres of space to play easy balls wide behind our defence.

 

Schoolboy errors on the first one. Ball chasing leaving oceans of room on our left hand defence side. Both Cadden and Shaw drawn to the other. Freedom of the borough never mind Oakwell.