Rob wrote:MTFCMusings wrote:There’s just no spark in the team. I thought all three strikers were shocking today. You can bemoan bad service but how are the team supposed to get up the pitch when they offer no runs into the channels and all three of them couldn’t trap a bag of sand today. Johnson and Oates both had at least two shooting opportunities each with clear shots on goal and all four were shanked, one even went out for a throw.
The midfield is all huff and puff with no quality. Lapslie doesn’t look fit, Clarke isn’t fit and Charsley is very fit but poor on the ball. Ward looked good when he came on by simply just passing and moving.
Shout out to Hewitt who I thought was good today. He played three or four excellent diagonal balls in the second half, two of which Bowery completely miscontrolled. McLaughlin and Clarke were ok. Bishop made two of three good saves.
Our set piece defending is still awful. The oppositions gets the first contact more than 50% of the time. Our attacking set piece delivery was rubbish.
Oldham were utter garbage. Watch and Oldham game this season and you’ll see Piergianni giving a goal away. Today we made him look like Bonucci, we won pretty much every header in both boxes.
Apart from that, we got a point, kept a clean sheet and nobody got sent off. Hope Maris is ok, good to hear he is up and talking.
Totally agree with all that, a much better summary than some of the hysterical nonsense on this thread. Hewitt was my MoM today. Two more key players injured, we started the 2nd half with just 4 players who would be 1st choice given a fully available squad, it's almost unprecedented.
It's a fair reflection. We're so mentally fragile and our confidence is shot. No one dares to make a mistake so they play safe. That's what we're seeing.
It won't be tactics or formations that unlock this. It'll be the managers ability to set the players free.
Today we weren't good, but we weren't terrible. We've got an absolute threadbare team but we have got no alternative. Hopefully Forrester allows Hawkins to go back up top.