Otis
Well-Known Member
I get it. I totally get it. Teams learned how to stifle us and we just continue to trundle along on our own merry little way.I just dont get it.
Gone to shit
1. We try to play through teams. The opposition have sussed this and make it very difficult to play our way through.
2. We are too lightweight in midfield. Did you see any players at all in the Rochdale side who didn't have a bit of steel about them? Maddison, Lameiras, Murphy. All too lightweight.
3. Teams now double and triple mark Armstrong. We are so, so predictable in what we do and we more often than not totally fail to support him. We were at home today and three times in the first half we had the ball just outside the Rochdale half and only Armstrong in the box. One solitary player in the box, at home!
4. Ricketts as captain. We can't drop Ricketts because he is captain. Rochdale clearly targeted him today in that first half and kept trying to get round the back of him. He's too slow and he needs resting.
5. We don't change tactics. Seems pretty clear to many that we should at least try Armstrong alongside Henderson. We need the physicality, we need the knock downs, Armstrong needs the support.
To me it seems quite clear where things are going wrong. Opposition teams know how to counter us and time and time again we have seen teams nulify us and stifle us. And to that, we seemingly have no answer!
I said we would lose today. Only way I could see anything different was if we set up differently ourselves and changed the way we play.
Thank God we've got 52 points, that's all I can say. I would be very, very worried if we had a few less and I'd be looking at the bottom of the table rather than the top.
Tuesday we HAVE to change the system!