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Reality Check

Reality Check

Former Member

Former Member

Football Expert
Joined
Feb 18, 2018
Messages
4,595
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Tapiola
Not to overreact, but we are where we are. We're still in the play offs on merit, but we can't become complacent. Some thoughts on tonight:

Rudd - Lovely lad. Honest bloke. But he is simply not good enough to be our number one. He made one or two decent saves in the first half (that to be honest I would expect him to make), but he has to save that penalty, and the less said about the fourth goal the better.

Ledson - Won't get any criticism coming from me. We don't even know if he's good enough for the Championship in his favoured position yet. Putting the poor lad at full back against one of the best wingers is poor management from AN.
Bauer - Poor against Derby and poor again tonight.
Storey - Played like he was playing 3 v 3 with his mates on a beach in Ibiza.
Rafferty - Did alright.

Gallagher - As a poster said, played as if he was playing at Vida with his 45 year old work colleagues. Probably his worst performance in the shirt and he will know that.
Pearson - Not much he could do with that around him tonight.

Bodin - Very disappointing tonight. Didn't get as involved as he would've liked.
Johnson - When you play for North End you have to play every game like it's your last. He played tonight as though he was forced to against his will.
Maguire - I'm going to be honest, I don't think he's good enough.

Barkhuizen - Poor tonight but at least you know he isn't going to set the world alight every week.

Credit to Nuge and Harrop who came on and played as if they actually cared.

We move on and trust AN to make the right adjustments to give us every chance of beating WBA on Monday.
 
kingpne said:
Not to overreact, but we are where we are. We're still in the play offs on merit, but we can't become complacent. Some thoughts on tonight:

Rudd - Lovely lad. Honest bloke. But he is simply not good enough to be our number one. He made one or two decent saves in the first half (that to be honest I would expect him to make), but he has to save that penalty, and the less said about the fourth goal the better.

Ledson - Won't get any criticism coming from me. We don't even know if he's good enough for the Championship in his favoured position yet. Putting the poor lad at full back against one of the best wingers is poor management from AN.
Bauer - Poor against Derby and poor again tonight.
Storey - Played like he was playing 3 v 3 with his mates in Ibiza.
Rafferty - Did alright.

Gallagher - As a poster said, played as if he was playing at Vida with his 45 year old work colleagues. Probably his worst performance in the shirt and he will know that.
Pearson - Not much he could do with that around him tonight.

Bodin - Very disappointing tonight. Didn't tell as involved as he would've liked.
Johnson - When you play for North End you have to play every game like it's your last. He played tonight as though he was forced to against his will.
Maguire - I'm going to be honest, I don't think he's good enough.

Barkhuizen - Poor tonight but at least you know he isn't going to set the world alight every week.

Credit to Nuge and Harrop who came on and played as if they actually cared.

We move on and trust AN to make the right adjustments to give us every chance of beating WBA on Monday.
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Big argument for both Harrop and Nuge to start on Monday at the expense of Maguire and Bodin
 
Game plan went up in flames early on- couldn't deal with the press at all. Romaine Sawyers is going to destroy us if we play like that.
 
we are struggling to keep clean sheets we need to get back to basics.
Rovers are starting to get 1.0 wins with very little possession we need to sort out our defence can't buy a clean sheet at the moment.
 
kingpne said:
Not to overreact, but we are where we are. We're still in the play offs on merit, but we can't become complacent. Some thoughts on tonight:

Rudd - Lovely lad. Honest bloke. But he is simply not good enough to be our number one. He made one or two decent saves in the first half (that to be honest I would expect him to make), but he has to save that penalty, and the less said about the fourth goal the better.

Ledson - Won't get any criticism coming from me. We don't even know if he's good enough for the Championship in his favoured position yet. Putting the poor lad at full back against one of the best wingers is poor management from AN.
Bauer - Poor against Derby and poor again tonight.
Storey - Played like he was playing 3 v 3 with his mates on a beach in Ibiza.
Rafferty - Did alright.

Gallagher - As a poster said, played as if he was playing at Vida with his 45 year old work colleagues. Probably his worst performance in the shirt and he will know that.
Pearson - Not much he could do with that around him tonight.

Bodin - Very disappointing tonight. Didn't get as involved as he would've liked.
Johnson - When you play for North End you have to play every game like it's your last. He played tonight as though he was forced to against his will.
Maguire - I'm going to be honest, I don't think he's good enough.

Barkhuizen - Poor tonight but at least you know he isn't going to set the world alight every week.

Credit to Nuge and Harrop who came on and played as if they actually cared.

We move on and trust AN to make the right adjustments to give us every chance of beating WBA on Monday.
Click to expand...
Hard to disagree with any of that a very fair assessment
 
kingpne said:
Not to overreact, but we are where we are. We're still in the play offs on merit, but we can't become complacent. Some thoughts on tonight:

Rudd - Lovely lad. Honest bloke. But he is simply not good enough to be our number one. He made one or two decent saves in the first half (that to be honest I would expect him to make), but he has to save that penalty, and the less said about the fourth goal the better.

Ledson - Won't get any criticism coming from me. We don't even know if he's good enough for the Championship in his favoured position yet. Putting the poor lad at full back against one of the best wingers is poor management from AN.
Bauer - Poor against Derby and poor again tonight.
Storey - Played like he was playing 3 v 3 with his mates on a beach in Ibiza.
Rafferty - Did alright.

Gallagher - As a poster said, played as if he was playing at Vida with his 45 year old work colleagues. Probably his worst performance in the shirt and he will know that.
Pearson - Not much he could do with that around him tonight.

Bodin - Very disappointing tonight. Didn't tell as involved as he would've liked.
Johnson - When you play for North End you have to play every game like it's your last. He played tonight as though he was forced to against his will.
Maguire - I'm going to be honest, I don't think he's good enough.

Barkhuizen - Poor tonight but at least you know he isn't going to set the world alight every week.

Credit to Nuge and Harrop who came on and played as if they actually cared.

We move on and trust AN to make the right adjustments to give us every chance of beating WBA on Monday.
Click to expand...
I'd agree with those sentiments, but would add.

Pearson - was/is he carrying an injury?

Stockley - the reason we were very successful against Charlton athletic and Blackburn rovers was because we were able to play a lot of the football in the opposing half/last third by humping it long and winning the second balls 8 times out of 10. If we are going to struggle against a great attacking threat like tonight we perhaps need to approach the game a little differently by going longer? To be fair with Pearson looking unfit for most of the game, Browne out and Ledson playing as emergency full back I think we were always going to get a tonking. They would have probably out battled us for the second balls anyway.

We'll see how the season unfolds from here I guess!
 
Preston Lad said:
A couple of those first half saves from Rudd were superb.

One from Bowen where it looked a nailed on goal and the one from Magennis from around 5 yards out....

Yet you’d expect him to save those!!!

?
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Don‘t forget he was supposed to save the goal on Saturday as well (according to some) maybe even come for the cross that he wouldn’t have got halfway towards. ?
 
Personally I think you've got to question the manager, he plays Maguire consistently who in truth offers very little at the moment and when does get a run on goal more often than not looks indecisive and weak.

As fans the least we expect is ? effort and il be honest watching Johnson for their 4th goal made me cringe, he jogged back then watched him put it past Rudd who should not be beaten from there.

Away form is a big worry.
 
Not signing a LB and letting Earl out on loan was a joke, it is now impacting on results. Trevor needs to sort that in January, let's hope with big games to come January isnt too late.

Putting Ledson there tonight against an international winger was criminal from AN. He has to take a lot of the responsibility for that performance.

For the players.. no confidence on the ball, no pressing (which is what we have done so well previously) and no grit. We didn't battle or get stuck in. Not good enough.
 
Pretty fair all in all but pointless going after Rudd tonight, he made some really top drawer saves. Ok he gets beat at the near post for the 4th but Bowen was nearly inside the 6 yard box when he hits it.

Ledson had a shocker in an unfamiliar position and wasnt even our worst player, I think sf said a few months back that Gally needed to be phased out in favour of Bayliss. On the evidence of recent performances Bayliss surely has to be getting a look in soon.

At least when he is on the pitch can Harrop take the set pieces?
 
HunterLionheart said:
Game plan went up in flames early on- couldn't deal with the press at all. Romaine Sawyers is going to destroy us if we play like that.
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I didn't see it tonight but it we struggled with the press against Blackburn and Derby so may be a weakness has been spotted by the other managers. It's up to AN to find a way to combat that tactic.
 
Think a large majority of the club needed the reality check. Gallagher last game before international break mentioned we're only looking at top 2, Neil mentioned we're on the verge of doing something special. Myself and some fans included went along with it. It's not even the of November and by the weekend we could be out of a play off spot. Big reality check.
 
norky84 said:
Think a large majority of the club needed the reality check. Gallagher last game before international break mentioned we're only looking at top 2, Neil mentioned we're on the verge of doing something special. Myself and some fans included went along with it. It's not even the of November and by the weekend we could be out of a play off spot. Big reality check.
Click to expand...

True but its not like he is going to come out and say: 'yeah I think we will finish 9th and pick up a couple of big scalps along the way.'
 
If the back 4 is unbalanced then the whole team is unbalanced.

Our lack of quality defensive cover let us down.

It’s ridiculous sniping at individual players. We all know they are capable of better, but not when the manager has got it wrong.

It’s a team game, formation and tactics were wrong tonight and at this level you can’t get away with that.
 
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