I said a little while back that if we continued to play in the manner we’ve done recently, then you’ll find that we’ll either win or lose a lot of games by the odd goal, and mainly 1-0 or 0-1 with the odd draw here or there thrown in for good measure. I don’t mean every game will end up with those scorelines, I just mean the actual play will be that sort of a game, and if a team gets killed off at the end because the other went for it, then that’s just how footbll can work. We’re in that cycle at the moment, it seems.

My main concern at the moment is that there doesn’t appear to be a plan. That’s what worries me. It’s like the players are simply doing just the basics without any remote sign of intelligence in terms of going forward or even defending resolutely with a clear plan of breaking with pace on the counter attack. Even the creative men are not sparkling but we’re also struggling to get any of them on the ball in the areas we want them to be in.

I don’t mind a performance full of grit and hard grafting. We’ve certainly added that to our arsenal this season, but we can’t rely on that all the time. In the end you stifle yourself and come up short, and so far in these recent games, that’s what’s been happening. Football is a game that requires skill , patience and the courage to take a gamble. The understanding of how and when to take risk is key to reducing the probability of something going wrong on the counter attack.

The shame about today is we grafted well for 40 minutes. In fact, up until then, it was an excellent first-half performance away from home against a top Championship side. We had just as much possession and had used the ball quite well without them ever really threatening us.

But, for 5 minutes there was a clear shift in our mentality and approach. We switched off and all the good things we did, we stopped doing, because we settled on the idea that actually going in at 0-0 was a good thing. This subtle change meant we began to drop off and sit deeper and deeper and allow Birmingham more time and space on the ball and then we got punished for it.

And the goal itself was a really poor one to give away. I mean, there was just so much wrong with it from a defensive point of view it’s hard to know where to start, but I’ll have a crack. Damion Stewart’s positioning as the ball came over the top was wrong. He played Gary O’Connor onside by about a yard but that didn’t stop him signalling that it was offside.

Fitz Hall then had a miserable attempt to try and block the cross and Stewart, who was covering behind that also got his position wrong. He was facing his goal towards the near post. It would be much better to shape your body outwards in that instance, so that you can sprint out and meet the flight of the ball as well as allowing you to see what’s coming into the box. He did neither and in the end, marked the area that Radek Cerny had covered.

On top of this, as that ball came over the top, there was really only Gary O’Connor and Kevin Phillips causing any sort of threat because the rest of the Birmingham players were well behind play. Damien Delaney could have tucked in and picked up Phillips as Stewart went off to the near post. Mikele Leigertwood could have been faster to pick him up, but really there were enough defenders there to deal with this situation and understand where the two dangermen were in all of this. Hard to blame any one man for the goal apart from several - it was so soft and really a result of the team’s change in mentality so we have only ourselves to blame collectively.

It’s these little details and small margins that make the difference between a top side and an avergae one an we’re showing signs that we’re in the mould of the latter right now. At the start of the season and having looked at the squad a lot during pre-season and the early games, I felt we would be a top 8 side with anything more a bonus. I still feel that way now but we’re still capable of breaking into that top 6 so long as we don’t hit too many sticky patches like this.

We already can’t afford too many more defeats because something tells me we won’t see a repeat of what Iain Dowie did with Crystal Palace or what Luigi De Canio did with us last season. The shame about us right now is I’m finding us a little bit on the boring side and a bit dull. We’re predictable too, which is amazing given the talent we have across the team.

I’ve been thinking a lot in the last days about what Dowie said about systems and that it’s about the players. I think it’s he’s got some points, but it’s really about both. If you want certain systems to work then you need a certain style or type of player. Buzsaky in a 4-5-1 behind the striker under De Canio was electric, but he’s still to be tried there in this system under Dowie.

When I think about the defence I also don’t feel any of the current starting four are good enough when in possession on the ball. They are not passing players and the way we’re trying to play they’ve got to be better. Matthew Connolly is the best of the lot on the ball, but he didn’t start and only got five minutes but I also liked the look of Kaspars Gorkss when he had the ball at his feet. Maybe, with these two in the side we’d see some more controlled build up, better ball retention and a better solution to getting our creative men on the ball in the right areas.

Right now though, we seem to lack an attacking plan and need to work on some patterns and passages of play. If you do that, then you can get the front two working and not standing like statues, because they’d know where they’d need to be… either short to feet, up on their marker or down the channels and reacting to movement around them rather than an ad-hoc chase after a random punt into a zone and area of the pitch that they’re never really going to get to. It would also compensate for lesser technical ability at the back as the players will know what’s expected in a given situation. It’s something that De Canio did fantastically well in his time with us and I just hope Dowie and his team can use some of that nous too.

I hope we don’t continue to come away from games like today and feeling like if we just went for it, and just dared ourselves to have a go and try and scare Birmingham, then we’d probably been walking away with something from the game.

I noted on one particular occasion no fewer than four players strolling back at walking pace after we lost the ball. They were all in the Blackpool half and if I was in charge, that behaviour would have infuriated me. It’s downright lazy and it doesn’t matter if you are tired or not on form, you have to do the basics properly.

I thought Lee Cook didn’t have a good game from a defensive perspective. He drifted forward on occasion but never tracked back and a couple of times I was watching him looking at the players lurking and drifting free in dangerous positions and wondered why he wasn’t doing anything about it! Perhaps he was told to stick high up the park though to remain as a threat, but it was because he was so far away that we conceded a goal to a superb strike. Cook was behind the play and had he been closer he may not have got a tackle of challenge in, but he could have affected and altered the outcome had he been in a better position.

Having said that though, what a strike. As soon as Gary Taylor-Fletcher connected I couldn’t help but shout out “Oh great hit, it’s in!” before watching it sail into the top corner. It was such a deceiving strike because the way the ball moved and the pace it travelled still made it look like Radek Cerny might be able to stop it, but it was travelling away from him and upwards all the time and at a trajectory that was perfect!

I really liked Blackpool. They popped the ball about well, had good movement and got stuck in where they needed to. They were impressive in the air too, winning many of the aerial battles on display out there.

Daniel Parejo is just a kid, as is Emmanuel Ledesma, but we’re seemingly looking to these guys to pull all the strings and take the game by the scruff of the neck, but that’s what the experienced players are there to do and that’s when you need your leaders on the park to do their business. We seem to be lacking that in our side, even though it was a fairly experienced line-up.

We have to give the younger players the time to develop and they will make mistakes, so asking Parejo to control and boss the game from the back didn’t seem to be the right way to approach things. He is good enough to dictate play and has the skill and ability to do so, but when the others around him are not used to that sort of style, then you have to wonder what the point is and whether they’ve worked on this properly on the training pitch?

I noticed as well that whenever we had the ball, especially Parejo, Gavin Mahon was dropping into a centre-back position. This often made us a back of four or five, depending on where Peter Ramage was lingering. This didn’t help Parejo as it gave him fewer options for a forward pass and just seemed counter productive and led to him giving away possession cheaply. It’s not easy for these guys to come in and play three times in a week, with a style of football that’s very different to what they’re used to.

Another thing that has gone missing from our play is the counter attacking football that made us so dangerous in some of our previous games or under Luigi De Canio. The players we have means we are capable of breaking really fast, but even Cerny isn’t throwing the ball out as much to his full backs of late and we appear to be forcing the play a little which is a sign that the players are not quite sure of their roles or how to deal with certain passages of play as they materialise on the pitch.

We did do some things better than against Derby on Saturday though. I was pleased to see Martin Rowlands, Lee Cook and Emmanuel Ledesma all pushing further forward and supporting Dexter Blackstock. Cook and Ledesma came inside far more and picked up some better attacking positions and Rowlands was joining the attack a fair amount, but it wasn’t really enough on the night. I’d have preferred Parejo to be behind Blackstock over Rowlands myself, as having Rowly on the ball more deeper gives us greater balance than at the spearhead of a packed midfield.

I was pleased with a point in the end. We had more of the play in the second-half and we kept on going and in the end got a reward for our perseverance. We played better in the second period too, even if it wasn’t that much better than the first but we had better shape and energy once we brought on Mikele Leigertwood and Patrick Agyemang.

Akos Buzsaky’s strike from the free-kick was fabulous and you have to give credit to Dex for continously putting himself in there. Sure, he missed a few, but in the end he stuck one away and that meant we got something from the game. I thought the goal that was disallowed was a foul, even though most fans around me had no idea why it wasn’t given or didn’t feel anything was wrong.

Overall it was an abject display that seemed to be somewhat lacking in passion, desire and form. But these things happen in football and you go through these little lulls throughout every season. We’ve just got to try and snap out of it quickly ad find a spark from somewhere and there are more than enough players at the club who are capable of jump-starting us again.

I said a little while ago that we didn’t seem to have a real plan when going forward with the ball and this performance brought those memories flooding back. It seems like the idea is to try and get our creative players on the ball and then let them decide what to do with it, except, we rarely got the ball to Emmanuel Ledesma and some of the others, especially in the areas and positions that they can do serious damage, which is after switches of play and possession and on the counter. The style we’ve adopted in the last few matches has not really allowed us to do any of those.

When those players are not on form or being tightly marked, it’s giving the rest of them a headache because they’re opting to pump it long and go very direct, which when you’ve got one bloke up top scrapping for service against four defenders, well, it’s not rocket science to realise it’s tough for that guy to win the ball, hold up play or get a quality flick on. We need an alternative plan if we don’t change this system we’re using and although I want us to win and be up there from the off, I am fascinated watching it unfold and evolve.

When I saw the starting eleven I felt that we were probably asking for trouble. It was practically the same team that had won so fantastically well against Aston Villa earlier in the week to secure an easy tie at Old Trafford against the Premiership and European Champions.

The Villa game wasn’t really as physical a battle as it could have been, but it was definitely a mentally exhausting one for the players. We were up against better class opposition, on their home patch and it was a cup tie so we had to ride our luck once or twice and put in a really disciplined and focused display.

We did that really well, but in that match, we didn’t actually create a great deal in the final third and that’s fine. What does one expect us to do against a team who are now sitting in third place in the Premier League? We did what we had to and needed to do to get a result.

In this match however, we started with the same 4-5-1 formation and played it like a real 4-5-1 which is what we did against Villa. In some of our other games this season, this 4-5-1 system has often turned into a 4-3-3 due to the personnel and that’s allowed us to be creative. Today though we played it like it looks, 4-5-1 and that led to many of our problems.

The play seemed congested from the off and was far too condensed with little width. This was a problem for both teams, but we didn’t seem as keen as normal to spread the ball wide and that played into Derby’s favour. They kept it nice and packed in the middle and this led to lots of challenges, misplaced passes or moves breaking down with nobody having the space to play.

We never really got going or took the onus to really take the game to Derby, when we should have being the home team and with so much creative talent on show. At the same time though, the players didn’t look like they had the legs to do it and I wonder whether we could have done with some fresh legs in there. The sun was out as well and that didn’t help us in the first-half as it appeared to be causing us difficulty when attempting to deal with high balls. It did annoy me when Radek Cerny got stick from the fans for missing and easy catch which bounced off his chest… he quite clearly couldn’t see it at all… I had to tell a disgruntled fan who effed and blinded about it to give it a rest, but then he started going on about how he kept punching the ball against Villa so I put my fingers in my ears (I didn’t really, but I wanted to!)

The system didn’t help poor old Damien Delaney either or the entire defence actually. Whenever they had the ball the middle looked so rammed (see what I did there?) that none of them felt comfortable to play a short ball in fear of losing it, so they pumped it long to Dexter Blackstock, who had little or next to no service and just couldn’t get himself into the game.

I had hoped we’d switch to 4-4-2 at half-time, or early in the second-half, but it wasn’t until just over 10 minutes to go that we made this change, but by then, we got suckered into conceding two goals from set-plays and the game was dead and buried.

I didn’t really think we deserved to lose, but by the same token, I didn’t think we deserved to win. Derby seemed to get the basics right and better than we did and they did a perfect smash and grab by taking their chances when they came… a bit like what we did to Villa on Wednesday.

Oh well, it wasn’t disastrous and had we drawn I would have been happy with the point considering the performance. I was still pleased with Damien Stewart and Fitz Hall. In my book, good old Stewpeas has two Man of the Match performances in a week and he should be really pleased with his current form. Long may it continue.

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Album 1 

It was interesting watching us against Aston Villa in the Cup. I wondered how we would perform against Premiership class opposition and learned a lot from the match.

Villa weren’t at the races, that much was clear, but they still had quality in their side that was always a danger to us.

It was the pace of the game that interested me most. The players on both teams had much more time on the ball. Villa granted us that, which allowed us to play football and take control of the middle of the park.

With five-men in the midfield, we packed it and Villa didn’t really find the answer to breaking that barrier down. We also pressed quickly when they had the ball and ushered them into forced and unforced errors.

Having said that, we didn’t create a great deal of chances ourselves, but we still generally made more than Villa did. I kept thinking to myself that if we could fashion out one golden chance and get it on target, we would be able to take something away from the tie.

In the end, Damion Stewart stepped up to the plate. I didn’t think it was our corner in the first place, but the referee awarded it to us despite Zat Knight’s protests. It was whipped in and not cleared properly and Daniel Parejo planted the ball on Stewpeas head and that’s all we needed.

Stewart, bless him, played out of his skin. We looked comfortable and not out of place against Villa. From a technical perspective it was fairly even and their direct style suited us actually. They are more direct than most of the better Premiership teams and play less technical football. But at the same time, they are direct but at a slower pace than Championship football. So this worked in our favour and they didn’t seem to capitalise on the height of John Carew or Zat Knight. We did really well to snuff their aerial threats out of the game.

I was also pleased with Parejo’s performance. Sure, he misplaced a few passes here and there, but he tracked back well and got stuck in with some excellent tackles.

I thought Gavin Mahon did great too in a positional sense. He helped us maintain shape and when our creative players ran down a blind alley and had no where else to go, he was always on hand to take it from them and keep us the ball. Martin Rowlands and Fitz Hall also had good games.

I’m still slightly concerned about Damien Delaney. I think he’s missing that final quality at the moment from his game. It’s form. He’s not in the best of form and he let his man cross far too easily all ngiht and didn’t really have any quality in his attacking play or passes. We don’t have many other options at left-back though, so hopefully he can pick up soon.

The word of the day for the performance was resolute. If we can continue playing with as much professionalism and discipline, then we are going to be thereabouts in the Championship at the end of the season.

If I was to offer any constructive criticism to the guys, we hit it long too often in the sense that we panicked when there weren’t options on. With one man up front, the ball never really stuck with Patrick Agyemang and on the night his first touch let him down. You can’t afford that against Premiership players and ball retention is important at that level, or any level!

But other than that, it was a really pleasing display. Fourth round? Oh my.

I had the pleasure once again of filling in for Clive and did a match report for him over at Loft For Words.

(more…)

I said Tuesday’s performance against Swindon would live long in the memory and today’s performance against Sheffield United will too. Except, for the wrong reasons because it was a bloody nightmare from the moment I boarded the train at Kings Cross!

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Despite the brilliant performance and absorbing game of football on show at the County Ground on Tuesday, we were still prone to old bad habits that have plagued our game for the past couple of years.

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