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First half failings.....

First half failings.....

E

europne

Joined
May 5, 2009
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Why is it at home games we are absolutely useless in the first half.....we are continually playing catch up.....today we failed at that.

You have to get them performing from the kick off Ryan.....game after game we just don’t get started till the second half.....is it just the Evans factor?

And I’m not too keen on picking on players but was has happened to Captain Brown, I don’t even think he’s worth his spot at the moment, the lad against Bristol City and Swift today just bossed him, he looks weak....is it me?
 
We've scored 2 first half goals under Lowe. It's not just a problem at home. But yes the home performances have by and large been poor.

No point demanding fans show up in numbers if they're gonna be served up with trash like today.

Reading had a tough game in midweek. We had the whole week off for once. But it seems some of the squad spent it eating pizza on the couch.
 
europne said:
Why is it at home games we are absolutely useless in the first half.....we are continually playing catch up.....today we failed at that.

You have to get them performing from the kick off Ryan.....game after game we just don’t get started till the second half.....is it just the Evans factor?

And I’m not too keen on picking on players but was has happened to Captain Brown, I don’t even think he’s worth his spot at the moment, the lad against Bristol City and Swift today just bossed him, he looks weak....is it me?
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Until we get the right personnel to execute the way Ryan wants us to play, certainly in an attacking sense, I think this is going to be a problem until he's hopefully backed properly in the summer.
The wingbacks are such an influential part of his style an if they're not functioning like they should be then it's such a hinderence to us.
Credit to him changing the formation today but he's then having to play in a way that he probably doesn't want to.
For all that, I liked the way Reading got forward today, they didn't complicate things an it looked effective, given a hand of course with some shocking defending!
 
Dreyfuss said:
We've scored 2 first half goals under Lowe. It's not just a problem at home. But yes the home performances have by and large been poor.

No point demanding fans show up in numbers if they're gonna be served up with trash like today.

Reading had a tough game in midweek. We had the whole week off for once. But it seems some of the squad spent it eating pizza on the couch.
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When you look at it like that, it doesn't appear to be a 'home' problem, but the home performances have been particularly shocking.

We were 0-2 down at half time to Sheffield United. We should have been 0-2 down to Bristol City too at half time, but Andreas Weimann missed an open net. And today frankly it should have been more than 0-2 at half time.

The performances in the first half of all those games have frankly been that of a League 2 team. We simply fail to do the basics in clearing our lines, we give the ball away time and time again, and we offer zero quality in the final third. It's extremely worrying and something that the manager has to prioritise in terms of fixing it. It was worringing to hear him say on iFollow that today's first half was a 'one-off'. Because the examples I've just listed above suggest otherwise.

If things don't change, Blackpool will turn up in April and be 2 or 3 nil up at half time.
 
sedgwick__7 said:
When you look at it like that, it doesn't appear to be a 'home' problem, but the home performances have been particularly shocking.

We were 0-2 down at half time to Sheffield United. We should have been 0-2 down to Bristol City too at half time, but Andreas Weimann missed an open net. And today frankly it should have been more than 0-2 at half time.

The performances in the first half of all those games have frankly been that of a League 2 team. We simply fail to do the basics in clearing our lines, we give the ball away time and time again, and we offer zero quality in the final third. It's extremely worrying and something that the manager has to prioritise in terms of fixing it. It was worringing to hear him say on iFollow that today's first half was a 'one-off'. Because the examples I've just listed above suggest otherwise.

If things don't change, Blackpool will turn up in April and be 2 or 3 nil up at half time.
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Think it highlights the lack of quality we have in certain areas of the team.

Potts has done well at RWB but is a stop gap, we have no sustainable attacking threat from that flank.

Bauer been awful for a few months now.

LWB the best we have is an aged Sinclair, even though I thought he did well there but again not a top 6 ambitions option.

If Browne and DJ have a poor game we're bollockeds, they can literally be anonymous, when was the last time either of them properly had a quality game like we know they can do. No point doing it 1 in 5.

Whiteman is quality but without the resources around him the only option he has is to become a crab.

Riis can be electric or rugbyesque, can't rely on that if we're going to chase the top 6, consistency has to find it's way into his game.

Substitutes, the only one we have who really can make a difference is 32 year old Evans, definitely got plenty to offer at this level but nobody else has.

McCann needs to be given a run of games and Browne or DJ dropped, personally it would be Browne for me, the best thing I can remember him doing in the last few games is a simple pass to Archer for his Peterborough goal.

Massive build needed in summer.
 
Ron Burgundy said:
Think it highlights the lack of quality we have in certain areas of the team.

Potts has done well at RWB but is a stop gap, we have no sustainable attacking threat from that flank.

Bauer been awful for a few months now.

LWB the best we have is an aged Sinclair, even though I thought he did well there but again not a top 6 ambitions option.

If Browne and DJ have a poor game we're bollockeds, they can literally be anonymous, when was the last time either of them properly had a quality game like we know they can do. No point doing it 1 in 5.

Whiteman is quality but without the resources around him the only option he has is to become a crab.

Riis can be electric or rugbyesque, can't rely on that if we're going to chase the top 6, consistency has to find it's way into his game.

Substitutes, the only one we have who really can make a difference is 32 year old Evans, definitely got plenty to offer at this level but nobody else has.

McCann needs to be given a run of games and Browne or DJ dropped, personally it would be Browne for me, the best thing I can remember him doing in the last few games is a simple pass to Archer for his Peterborough goal.

Massive build needed in summer.
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I agree that we need to add first team quality to the squad. Frankly we've been paying the price for our summer 'recruitment' all season.

But I think some of these first half performances at Deepdale go beyond a lack of quality. We look 2 or 3 yards off the pace, we don't compete physically, we make simple errors such as failing to even do a one-two from a throw in. The way we consistently failed to clear our lines when the ball was in our own box today was something you'd see at kids Sunday league level. It's just basic stuff.

Whether it's an arrogance thinking we'll just turn up and play well or another sort of mentality problem I don't know. Whatever it is, it needs sorting out very quickly or else as I said above, Blackpool will turn up and have the opportunity to score 3 or 4 goals in the first half.
 
We have had some really poor first half performances over the past season or so and today was as bad as any, truly woeful performance in front of a fairly large home crowd more especially with the kop opening - which should have added to the atmosphere and encouragement.
It would seem that the current core First Team cannot motivate themselves to start off on the front foot, i.e Browne, D.J. Bauer, etc and they can only get in the groove after a half time bollocking after being dire.
Very frustrating that some AB & DJ in particular only seem to perform against the bigger Teams but cannot impose themselves on the (so called) lesser where we would hope for a win.
Its happening too often and something needs to change!
Maybe starting off on the front foot with a desire and urgency with some zip rather than a feel our way into the game in a pedestrian way, might help!
 
........or is it just that we start off with shit tactics.......

Or...............is it simply the Evans factor that changes these games.
 
europne said:
........or is it just that we start off with shit tactics.......

Or...............is it simply the Evans factor that changes these games.
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I think it's none of the above.

The tactics can never be good without the players to suit them, and we sorely lack the players.

While the "Evans factor" started against Huddersfield but it changed nothing.
 
Thracia said:
I think it's none of the above.

The tactics can never be good without the players to suit them, and we sorely lack the players.

While the "Evans factor" started against Huddersfield but it changed nothing.
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Interesting, Huddersfield was the only home game recently where we had a decent first half.....and we didn’t have to chase the game.

And if we haven’t got the players how come we have upped our game in the second half...??

Surely a managers job is to get the best out of the players he has, he can’t just play his favourite system .......
 
europne said:
Interesting, Huddersfield was the only home game recently where we had a decent first half.....and we didn’t have to chase the game.

And if we haven’t got the players how come we have upped our game in the second half...??

Surely a managers job is to get the best out of the players he has, he can’t just play his favourite system .......
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If we could start off with the opposition pre-tired, that might help.

Personally I thought the Huddersfield game was awful, and I found Evans particularly ineffective.

We know the manager's job is to get the best out of his players - this may be the best we're going to get out of these players.
 
We never start off at that high, pressing tempo that characterized Moyes's teams - (twenty years ago 😮!) As post #8 (Dd) noted.
Yet very often the visiting teams do, and so have the initiative. Our strategy v. that is to soak that pressure up, wearing it out, and then counter - attack.Sometimes this works, and I reckon it's more likely the teams with less skill, and at the lower end of the table who take this stance against us, & possibly why PNE seem do better against the more skilfull teams at the top of the table.
 
noelpne said:
We never start off at that high, pressing tempo that characterized Moyes's teams - (twenty years ago 😮!) As post #8 (Dd) noted.
Yet very often the visiting teams do, and so have the initiative. Our strategy v. that is to soak that pressure up, wearing it out, and then counter - attack.Sometimes this works, and I reckon it's more likely the teams with less skill, and at the lower end of the table who take this stance against us, & possibly why PNE seem do better against the more skilfull teams at the top of the table.
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We did start like that with AN, mainly in his first season before it became less frequent an towards the end, hardly ever seen again
 
It's a tactical thing for me. People criticised Alex Neil (possibly rightly) for over thinking and worrying about the opposition too much. In contrast I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a plan for John Swift yesterday - probably the best player in the league in his position.
We appear to be quite gung ho in terms of committing numbers forward which leaves acres of space for Whiteman and the back 5 to defend - I assume this will be more of a back 3 when he gets the wing backs he wants. Yet on the flip side I wouldn't say we were creating a great deal more than previously.
Important to remember that Lowe is new to this level, not sure if he even played at championship level. He's learning and he's done great in bringing back the feel good factor and connecting with the fan base. I do think he'll have to learn quickly and possibly adopt a more pragmatic approach at times - I can see us getting a right humping at deepdale if these tactics continue. Just hope it's not off the Lashers.
 
europne said:
Why is it at home games we are absolutely useless in the first half.....we are continually playing catch up.....today we failed at that.

You have to get them performing from the kick off Ryan.....game after game we just don’t get started till the second half.....is it just the Evans factor?

And I’m not too keen on picking on players but was has happened to Captain Brown, I don’t even think he’s worth his spot at the moment, the lad against Bristol City and Swift today just bossed him, he looks weak....is it me?
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I totally agree with OP but I would take it further.

It doesn’t seem to matter who the Manager is or which bunch of players we have, we’ve been poor/average at best in the first half for years. I bet you can count on one hand the amount of times that we’ve been excellent in the first half over the last 5-10 years.

I don’t think it’s just North End, I’m sure lots of home teams go through the motions in the first half and then raise their game in the second half when kicking towards the majority of their fans.

RL says he wants to get Deepdale rocking! Well Ryan, you need to send them out with a rocket up their arse. IF you don’t go for the jugular right from the start, you allow the opposition time to settle Into the game which also gives them belief that they can get something out of the game.
 
It’s not having leaders on the pitch in crucial areas. I don’t think Brown has stepped up to the mark as captain. I actually part wonder with Hemmings departed and the way he was kinda sponsored by him , might mean an unexpected sale in the summer. Might need a sports psychologist in!
 
The biggest problem at the club is the list of players drawing a good salary,on long contracts, but never considered capable enough for selection on matchdays, I give you. Ripley, Hudson, Rafferty, Huntington, Storey, Harrop, Olusunde, I.Brown, Murphy, Walker, Barky, Bayliss, plus all the young lads, ridiculous waste of resources.
Personally don't get why Barky is amongst that group !!
 
Conceding 3 goals in a row whilst at home is just not good enough.

I don't care if your playing top of the league and your bottom.

Just not good enough and I'm sure RL knows this. We don't look any good in most first half's either. Something seriously needs to change there.
 
I think at times we are just too easy to play against, especially at home.

We move the ball too slow and either get caught in possession or we now attack in numbers and then we don’t hold the ball up and we get caught on the counter attack

We don’t have the players to play the formation Lowe keeps starting games with
 
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