Bolton 1-1 Mansfield

wessy wrote:Nothing to do with overplaying, it's only playing for 30 minutes that finds us out, we looked slick for half an hour but you knew that by not scoring they would capitalise on our shocking defence of corners.

To be fair to Mansfield they changed from being awful to first to every ball, Santos thank god we have him.

I don't understand how we can have defenders who are 6'5 + yet never trouble the opposition from corners or set peices or dominate our area at the other end.  Great pass from Crawford but bloody hell it's soul destroying to watch.  Gordon not good enough by a long way.

I know there are several reasons why we are not performing but overplaying it when we're near their goal is definitely one of them IMO. I saw at least 4 killer passes that were on that they prevaricated over - an extra touch, a poor pass or simply the wrong pass. We were just not direct enough in the final third. It wasn't until Crawford spotted Sarcevic's run and played that great ball that we even looked like being vaguely threatening. 
We can knock it about in the middle and the back ad nauseam - and today it was almost entirely between the middle and the back apart from the occasional hoof and Santos, Baptiste and Delaney getting forward - but if we don't hurt teams they get brave, and to me we were focusing too much on keeping the ball and not enough on hurting them with it even if that entailed risk. I suspect they were given a defensive mindset after the 4 nil. Crawford can pass but he muffed far too many today as did the entire midfield. Kioto was good in defence and is great in the air but got no joy going forward today - we didn't on either wing really. Santos and Delaney were great but I feel for Crellin as his card is marked now and teams will plan to pressurise him so it's going to be a sharp learning curve for the lad. I liked Gnouha again today - he's a trier, athletic, awkward, reasonably physical and I think there's an effective player in there somewhere.
Gordon is nippy and potentially a good player too but was as guilty as anyone for overplaying it e.g. trying to beat players and losing it instead of putting the ball into a scoring area first time - most dangerous cross of the night was from Baptiste FFS. 

More urgency in attack please - not just when the clock is ticking down.

The goals -

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Is it the first time in our history that we are the lowest placed team from our region?

wanderlust wrote:
I know there are several reasons why we are not performing but overplaying it when we're near their goal is definitely one of them IMO. I saw at least 4 killer passes that were on that they prevaricated over - an extra touch, a poor pass or simply the wrong pass. We were just not direct enough in the final third. It wasn't until Crawford spotted Sarcevic's run and played that great ball that we even looked like being vaguely threatening. 
We can knock it about in the middle and the back ad nauseam - and today it was almost entirely between the middle and the back apart from the occasional hoof and Santos, Baptiste and Delaney getting forward - but if we don't hurt teams they get brave, and to me we were focusing too much on keeping the ball and not enough on hurting them with it even if that entailed risk. I suspect they were given a defensive mindset after the 4 nil. Crawford can pass but he muffed far too many today as did the entire midfield. Kioto was good in defence and is great in the air but got no joy going forward today - we didn't on either wing really. Santos and Delaney were great but I feel for Crellin as his card is marked now and teams will plan to pressurise him so it's going to be a sharp learning curve for the lad. I liked Gnouha again today - he's a trier, athletic, awkward, reasonably physical and I think there's an effective player in there somewhere.
Gordon is nippy and potentially a good player too but was as guilty as anyone for overplaying it e.g. trying to beat players and losing it instead of putting the ball into a scoring area first time - most dangerous cross of the night was from Baptiste FFS. 

More urgency in attack please - not just when the clock is ticking down.

I think the high number of sideways/backwards passes are a symptom of a lack of runners and possibly a lack of confidence amongst some to play it forward. Sarcevic’s run for the goal was basically the only burst beyond the back line I can remember one of our forward players making - Kioso tried a couple of times but certainly wasn’t as effective as he has been in previous weeks. 

Doyle is a clever runner so long as he’s not having to drop too deep and I think Darcy can do this. Maybe Isgrove can do too and I hope the plan is to play him at LWB as we're weak there, but I don’t know anything about him. 

Agree Gnahoua can be effective but I don’t think he’s good enough technically to be starting in a team playing this brand of football.