gandhisflipflop wrote: ↑Sat Mar 05, 2022 5:13 pm
There is no excuses for a premier league footballer to miss the chance he missed today.
Premier league footballers miss those chances every day. He did well to quickly react to the unexpectedly poor punch out and bring the ball under control to permit a shot. Granted, he should have put it in the net, but it wasn't an easy chance given the reaction time involved and the bodies in front of him and around him.
On the other hand, the moment when he was charging forward and appeared to be struck down with indecision was a concern.
Likewise, and more of an issue, was when he actively switched off while Rodriguez was still challenging for the ball. Jay did really well to keep the ball in play, but McNeill was away with the fairies when the ball came towards him. Switching off while the ball is still in play is unacceptable at any level.
In terms of his overall performance I don't think Dwight was any worse than anyone else today. We had a really solid first half which could have put us ahead, where it not for a few players missing chances or fluffing the vital last pass. The teams went in at the end of that first half and like us fans they must have been optimistic about getting something against a top 6 club. Let us not forget a draw and a point against Chelsea is more than we have got from them in a long while.
I do think we also looked to be getting a little to cocky and overly sure of ourselves at times. At one point I recall Collins charging up the left of the pitch under the impression that he was our new winger. Eventually losing the ball after a storming run and then turning round with a big grin on his face. It was fun to watch, but how exactly does that play with the idea of " keeping our defensive shape ". Such a move made sense when he was at Stoke, playing as a right back, but as a PL centre back it is risky and dangerous.
Cometh the second half, cometh the collapse. Our players came out looking to ease into the second half. Chelsea switched it up a gear, hit us early, helped by some poor defending, and then we completely imploded ...... making it easy for them to score and score again.
That wasn't because Dwight was poor it was because all of our players were poor. They switched off as a unit and gave a dangerous team the space and freedom they needed to carve us apart.
A loss today was probably the most likely result, but the manner of the loss was a concern. I can see goal difference playing a part this season and shipping four won't help our cause. The first of those goals was down to complacency and the other three were down to a complete breakdown in confidence. We lost lost the mental battle with ourselves.
Hopefully the steam will focus on the good first half and the second half will hammer home the " don't switch off and don't take teams for granted " message that we obviously need to learn.
Pieters is injured, but he has done very well lately. However, one of the reason is that he doesn't range as far forward as Taylor does. That makes it easier for him to fulfil his defensive duties. Cornet looked defensively suspect when he played on the the left earlier in the season. I don't think playing the pair of them will make us defensively stronger than the Taylor/McNeill partnership and nor will it increase our ability to notch up the progressive distance, apply pressure and create more chances.
Playing McNeill out of position, on the right, definitely affected him this season. It didn't work and his performances on the right set the snowball rolling, making him a focus for the constant criticism he is now receiving. Criticism that is not wholly deserved. However, it bears repeating that our small tactical teaks in the first 18 games ( minus the one against Brentford ) made all of our players look crap. Dwight was simply one of may players who were under performing.
The last few games have shown us what we can do and how well our team can play when we focus on doing what we do best. That is largely down to using players in positions that correspond to their strengths. We have also done well to quickly respond to the added dimensions that Weghorst brings to the team and our pressing, midfield link up play, has benefitted hugely from his introduction.
We just need to keep our heads, focus on the task in hand, maintain our confidence and strive to win awkward. Normally, I would say win ugly, but I think we have played some good looking football in the last few matches. Having chipped off some of our heavy schedule burden, the lads will now have added the benefit of a bit more recovery time, which should help a small squad like ours.
Keeping our place in the top league is still a possibility now that we have got back to playing the way that works. Its just a shame that we decided to stick with our experimental tactical tweaks for so long instead or reverting back to what works earlier. Persisting with a system that didn't work until the Leeds match forced the issue made a difficult task a lot more difficult.
Stick with what works, focus on the good performances in the last few matches, maintain our belief, look to Lennon to progress the ball down the right as well as McNeill on the left ( which could make McNeill less of an obvious target, buying him more time and space ).
We also need to take into account that Wout can carry the ball forward ( although not at great speed ) which sometimes makes him a respectable option for early central passes to his feet instead of looking to float in crosses from deep all the time.
Weghorst gives us far more playing options than Wood did as we have already seen. On the whole we have done extremely well to adapt to him in such a short space of time and capitalise on the resulting advantages. However, I do think that McNeill could maybe look to integrate with Wout a touch more instead of always charging forward as he is obviously being asked to do. Racking up the progressive distance to push us up the field is good, it is important to keep it up, but occasionally other options can come into play that can be exploited to good effect.
Earlier in the season Dwight regularly drifted into the centre, the left striker stayed in the centre and our left flank was left dangerously exposed as a result. I would also like to see Dwight trying to come into the centre occasionally, but not as frequently as he was being asked to do earlier in the season, providing that Cornet or Rodriguez move out to the left as a means of temporarily filling in the resulting gap in our shape.
Out of the two I think Jay looks the better partner for Wout at the moment. Wood was acting as a nurse maid, holding the defenders off Cornet when he was with us. Wout is a lot more mobile than Wood, which makes it difficult for him to do that without sacrificing all of the positives he has added to our play. Arguably, that requirement also diminished the effectiveness of Wood, albeit to a lesser degree given his limited game.
Despite his obvious commitment to do well for us, and all of his positive technical qualities, Cornet does seem to suffer when he doesn't have a dedicated protection detail keeping the oppositions defenders off his back. For my likening, he seems to get pushed off the ball a little to easily at times. Improving his defensive game and his contributions off the ball would seem to be the key to unlocking the next level of development from Cornet. That would also make him even more effective in our system, whatever role he plays.
These 2 users liked this post: boatshed bill Conroysleftfoot