When I heard the line up I thought Johnson had gone mad. And perhaps he had. Either way it worked, or part of it worked anyway. Disagreed with most of his changes really. I dont think Davies needed dropping, nor did Roberts and I thought it was harsh on Winnall, though I can at least see why he did that. Anyway. That keeper. What can I really say that hasn't already been said. He had an absolute nightmare. Having said that, how much was his fault and how much was down to those in front of him? The **** up with Nyatanga for the goal for example, I felt Nyatanga was a little slow in setting off and looked like he was going to be beaten (for a split second) so can understand why he came off his line and when he was off his line he couldn't stop or he would have really struggled to control ANY header back to him with a striker coming in as well so at that point he's stuck and has to carry on. Nyatanga really should have realised that and either left it for him or made sure he headed it somewhere else. Not that it matters as Mawson should really have stopped it from creeping into the net anyway. Ah well, it was a balls up and it's better coming in a win when the manager (sorry head coach) can show the video to the team and explain what they all did wrong and show the entire team what to do next time it happens. I thought Smith struggled at left back with the balls over the top of him (in fact all 4 struggled with them) and struggled to find a red shirt going forwards too. Not his best game and the sooner we get a proper left back in the better. That's not me slating Smith as I really like him but he's young and still learning, probably rushed into the side a little too early last year but now he's in it you can't really send him out on loan or drop him to the academy again without damaging his confidence. Not sure if i'd want a new left back to replace him and have smith as back up or the other way round to be honest. Watkins looked head and shoulders above Winnall in the lone striker role. He's strong and surprisingly fast too without actually looking fast.Took his goal really well when many before him have fluffed their lines. I'm looking at you Mr Odejayi! Out on the wing he was quieter but still performed his job well. Williams struggled but that was probably down to fitness and confidence more than anything else. The decision to take him off so early was a brave one but it seemed to work so happy days. Hopefully Williams wont have had his confidence knocked too much by it. I noticed Johnson was trying to settle him down a bit before he took him off. He seemed to be telling him not to panic and to just calm down so hopefully his post match talk with him will be in a similar manner. Pearson and Scowen are what they are, there isn't much to say there really. Going back to Winnall for a moment, he looked poor up front on his own in the first half. I say poor but i'm not really sure thats the word I'm looking for. He basically looked like he has looked for many games on his own up front. In the second half he looked like the old sam winnall though and that was down to one thing, the formation and tactics (ok thats two but you get the point) Hourihane was superb. In the first half I didn't see him actually doing a great deal exciting but I did notice that when the ball was at our end so was he, when it was at their end he was there too and that was literally a few seconds apart from each other so somewhere along the line he must have been running up and down the pitch without me really noticing him doing it, he was just somehow there. In the second half he went up front for a while with Winnall and in my opinion that was our best part of the match, we were ripping them to pieces. He dropped back a bit then but still stayed far further forward than in previous games (when we had the ball) and he was a lot more central too which I think made a huge difference to his game. That should be a lesson to Johnson. Play him wide left and ask him to cover the full back and he's not very good at all. Play him deep in midfield in front of the back four and he's useless. Play him behind the strikers and he can be unplayable. I don't like 4-5-1 at all. Well what I mean is I don't like 4-5-1 with centre backs wide, a central midfielder wide and no real wingers on the pitch. It doesn't work with the players we have been using. Playing out and out wingers, full backs at full back and a creative midfielder up the strikers arse and it works a dream. In the second half (And parts of the first) thats exactly what we did. Hourihane high up the pitch, Harris and Watkins hugging the lines and suddenly Winnall wasn't on his own, when we went forwards there were a minimum of 2, most often 3 and sometimes 4 players up there with him. I suspect that's what Johnson has been trying to do for a while but he's been picking completely the wrong players for the job. Play square pegs in square holes and you get what we got today, a well deserved victory. Oh and it was as nailed on a penalty as you'll ever see.
That's exactly how I saw the game. Playing Hourihane higher up second half finally transformed us into a fluid 4-2-3-1. Gotta agree about Smith. We need a new left back. Things finally starting to click tho & hopefully we can build on this. Onwards & upwards!
I thought Smith had a decent game. Some thought he was MOTM. I can understand why Roberts was dropped too. Been our best defender IMO so far this season but if we are to play a back 4 with proper full backs (amazing that we won a game when we finally do) then one of Roberts, Mawson or Nyatanga have to sit it out. Mawson is our skipper so it's not gonna be him, Nyatanga is our 1 experienced player (and is a good CB himself) so it's not gonna be him either. I'd not have necessarily chosen to drop him myself but I can see why it had to be him.
