Aliayr76 Posted September 30, 2023 Share Posted September 30, 2023 If we have only won 4 games at somerset this year,why are folk on about playing 5-4-1, Should we no be playing a more exciting type of football. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Jaffo Posted October 1, 2023 Author Share Posted October 1, 2023 2 minutes ago, Aliayr76 said: If we have only won 4 games at somerset this year,why are folk on about playing 5-4-1, Should we no be playing a more exciting type of football. I don’t think it’s as easy as flicking a switch although I wish it was. People can criticise but also have to acknowledge improvement. I think a better barometer to base it from is the Arbroath game. We had just signed our new midfielders and the personal is exactly the same (batting Dowds) as to what we have now. There has been a clear improvement from then in terms of the likes of Syla, Young and Senga bedding in. The issue in the first half for me today wasn’t down to tactics but individual errors in key areas being punished. We lost two goals because of defensive errors in midfield. Easton should’ve been closed down or at least pressured in some way on the edge of the box. Imo Young or Syla has to cover him better. The second goal is just a nuke of a goal to concede. McGinty goes charging in to try and win a ball, I think Syla is in there somewhere and doesn’t get near it. You’re left with a huge space and Easton peels away from McAllister to score. Raith were excellent today although you’d expect that when they have a midfield of Stanton and Byrne who probably have over 300 senior appearances between them and we’ve got Syla and Young who, no harm to them at all as I think they’ve gotten better and are decent players, have got maybe 20 senior games between them, maybe less I can’t be arsed checking. When you’ve got that then it’s not purely down to ability. You could see from the get go that Raith are able to pass the ball quicker with most of it being either first time or a quick touch and moving it on. In comparison our players are taking more touches and the quality of pass it putting the recipient under pressure. Most of this is down to confidence and experience and everyone knows that our midfield at the minute is completely rudderless. Murphy might be 34 but he’s not playing in a position where he can talk Syla or Young through a game. You can see the improvement in Reading since he’s came back in though. I think it was obvious from the start that we weren’t going to get close to Raiths midfield today. Bullen could maybe have altered the starting eleven and included an extra midfielder in the team but again you’re just adding either Senga or Smith who are more inexperienced options. Ultimately Bullen will be the one who pays the price if we keep losing games but for me there has been improvement in the performances over the last few weeks. This needs to start by cutting out errors in midfield but that’s never going to happen overnight. It’ll hopefully come through time but I’m not sure how much time this team has. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrunitedfw Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 I’m not sure who I expected to replace Wattoo as the threads happy clapper but @diegomarahenry was probably the person I least expected. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 3 hours ago, ayrunitedfw said: I’m not sure who I expected to replace Wattoo as the threads happy clapper but @diegomarahenry was probably the person I least expected. There is a difference between being a happy clapper and giving credit where it is due. If we are shite next week and win, I’ll be all over it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malkyshotton Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 7 hours ago, diegomarahenry said: There is a difference from getting beat 3-1 not having a clue who is playing where, having no possession, shitting the bed, looking like we will concede at every attack and barely having a shot at goal and what we did today. But we shouldn't acknowledge improvement in any way, shape or form at all unless it comes with a win apparently. This is exactly how we looked first half. If we’re gonna give teams a 2 goal start we’re not going to win games. We were totally outplayed first half at home with a team that didn’t have a recognised striker and a midfielder as a centre half. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 minute ago, malkyshotton said: This is exactly how we looked first half. If we’re gonna give teams a 2 goal start we’re not going to win games. We were totally outplayed first half at home with a team that didn’t have a recognised striker and a midfielder as a centre half. Unlike the other games, we made changes at half time that made us the dominant team in the second half and we created enough chances to win the game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malkyshotton Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 minute ago, diegomarahenry said: Unlike the other games, we made changes at half time that made us the dominant team in the second half and we created enough chances to win the game. All about perspectives I suppose. Never felt like we were getting anything from the game yesterday. Just don’t think unlucky losers will be an high enough standard to keep us in the league. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 19 minutes ago, malkyshotton said: All about perspectives I suppose. Never felt like we were getting anything from the game yesterday. Just don’t think unlucky losers will be an high enough standard to keep us in the league. We weren't unlucky, we gave away two soft goals thanks to repeat offenders and have clearly done nothing to try and fix that either through coaching or personnel changes. We made positive changes at half time and on another day might have won the game. I have left games this season, the Partick and Falkirk games in particular thinking we need a full root and branch rebuild to save our season. Yesterday, Chalmers, Murphy, Reading, the two in midfield and Dowds all had a good game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 7 hours ago, Aliayr76 said: If we have only won 4 games at somerset this year,why are folk on about playing 5-4-1, Should we no be playing a more exciting type of football. We’ve lost 9 goals in our last 3 home league games. And for all we scored 5 against Queens Park, we could have conceded 3 or 4. I’d say it’s pretty clear where the first priority lies - you won’t win many games conceding that number of goals every week. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beastie Russell Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 11 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said: We weren't unlucky, we gave away two soft goals thanks to repeat offenders and have clearly done nothing to try and fix that either through coaching or personnel changes. We made positive changes at half time and on another day might have won the game. I have left games this season, the Partick and Falkirk games in particular thinking we need a full root and branch rebuild to save our season. Yesterday, Chalmers, Murphy, Reading, the two in midfield and Dowds all had a good game. Interesting the perspectives on game, I thought the 1st was excellent play by Raith after a wee bit of keep ball. The sight of us keeping the ball whilst Bullen stood there arms crossed shaking his head was glorious, a return to Hoof ball hot you back in the game 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malkyshotton Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 19 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said: We weren't unlucky, we gave away two soft goals thanks to repeat offenders and have clearly done nothing to try and fix that either through coaching or personnel changes. We made positive changes at half time and on another day might have won the game. I have left games this season, the Partick and Falkirk games in particular thinking we need a full root and branch rebuild to save our season. Yesterday, Chalmers, Murphy, Reading, the two in midfield and Dowds all had a good game. Was being sarcastic with the “unlucky losers” . You’re saying poor goals, I’m saying outplayed first half and could’ve been more than 2 nil down. First half Raith looked a level above us. Again all about perspectives. Second half we were better but never felt we’d get anything from the game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 minute ago, malkyshotton said: Was being sarcastic with the “unlucky losers” . You’re saying poor goals, I’m saying outplayed first half and could’ve been more than 2 nil down. First half Raith looked a level above us. Again all about perspectives. Second half we were better but never felt we’d get anything from the game. We were less terrible against an under strength Raith side than we were against much stronger Dundee Utd and Partick teams. If people want to argue that’s progress then fair enough, but by God it’s pretty thin gruel. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibuya Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 I know a lot of people at the club use the excuse of Dempsey and Murdoch being out injured but even up at Morton we were getting run ragged and capitulated in the second half. You can lose games in a variety of ways and yesterday goes in to the 'might have had a point' category. Next week it will be something different but we will still lose the game to another decent passing side. Post match interview it sounds as if McAllister may be suspended soon so we will get to see if Bullen has any faith in Ahui. I thought Ahui would surely come on yesterday with McAllister losing the rag but it never happened. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 Yesterday felt like any one of a hundred games at Somerset over the past two decades or more. It wasn't 'sack the manager' bad, but they made it harder for themselves than it had to be and ended up having to chase the game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eez-eh Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 We had the same problems last season with the midfield offering no protection to the defence. It’s maybe slightly worse now but I don’t think things would be much different without the injuries. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UpInTheAyr Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 34 minutes ago, Shibuya said: so we will get to see if Bullen has any faith in Ahui. I thought Ahui would surely come on yesterday with McAllister losing the rag but it never happened. Had completely forgotten about him with Amartey taking all the spotlight. The fact that he didn't shows where he's ending up. Quite the little group forming of these type of players, almost have enough for a starting 11 by seasons end. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 As I said earlier, a result like yesterday wouldn't be so bad if we weren't in the position we're in and we had more than 4 league wins at Somerset in 2023. As it is, it's taking Bullen far too long to get a tune out of these players. As someone else highlighted, Raith played a central midfielder at centre half and you wouldn't have known. That's on us, we should have been targeting him. My real fear is that a manager change won't necessarily turn this around. Its going to be a tough season either way. I can understand why a number of fans aren't going. I've stopped going to away games and midweek home games. It's pretty soul destroying. You simply can't give teams a two goal lead and expect to win association football matches. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUFC 1910 Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 2nd worst points total and 2nd worst goal difference. No matter what is better, improving, not quite as bad, unlucky, nearly this, what if that….that’s relegation material right there folks. We either sleep walk into a position where we will not recover from, or we replace Bullen now and give the new person a fighting chance and a transfer window in January. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibuya Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 @AUFC 1910 I'm actually quite impressed that QP's goal difference is only -8 given all the doings they've had! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgreig Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 9 hours ago, D'Jaffo said: People can criticise but also have to acknowledge improvement. I think a better barometer to base it from is the Arbroath game. We had just signed our new midfielders and the personal is exactly the same (batting Dowds) as to what we have now. There has been a clear improvement from then in terms of the likes of Syla, Young and Senga bedding in. We have two very talented players in Murphy and Chalmers who allow us to create chances going forward. I don't think anybody can dispute that (and it's great to have players who can actually take decent corners at long last). However, we are just nowhere when out of possession. Our formation could be described as 4-WTF-2. As you rightly pointed out later in your post, the midfield is culpable in the first-half shambles. To me, this is a coaching issue since it's not something that has just been an issue since Dempsey and Murdoch were injured - it's a hallmark of Bullen's teams. Although you could say we were unlucky not to score one of the other chances we created, I also felt that Raith could easily have gone in 3-0 up at half time and they had one very good chance in the second half as well. It is very clear to me that Raith have better coaching staff than we do. Dowds looked good I thought and I think he's likely to start every week if he remains fit. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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