After feeling pretty chipper about Town’s prospects after the friendly against Norwich, last night’s defeat to Fleetwood caused me to recalibrate my expectations of what to expect from Town.
While friendlies don’t mean a great deal, the familiarity of Town’s failings last night suggests that we’re likely to see many of last season’s problems repeated in the forthcoming campaign.
Here are my thoughts on the game…
Naby Sarr isn’t as good as Colwill
I don’t like to single out individual players for criticism but Naby Sarr had a stinker in the first half last night. He got caught in possession all the time, slowed the game down by almost standing on the ball at times (though the options ahead of him weren’t always great) and his passing was wayward even by his standards.
Naby Sarr played more minutes than any other Town player last season so Carlos clearly likes him. I like him too when he’s at his best but he kept being selected through some horrendous patches of poor form last season because there weren’t any better options. This can’t have been good for his confidence and didn’t allow him time out of the team to work on his weaknesses.
Now Colwill is with us, we have genuine competition for the left side of central defence and the youngster looks better in almost every area than Sarr, at least based on the friendlies we’ve seen. While it’ll most likely sting his pride to lose his place in the starting eleven, it will be better for him to only be selected when he’s in good form. So for now it’s Colwill’s shirt to lose.
The second string are still a long way behind the best XI
I was quite excited when I saw the lineup before the game as it was a chance to see what some of our second choice players are capable of with a bit of time on the pitch. Only Sorba Thomas came out with any real credit, which makes sense given he has been our standout player of preseason. Even then, Thomas needs to improve the quality of his final cross or shot to make sure his good play actually changes games.
The rest of the original lineup didn’t impress me much, to paraphrase Shania Twain. Pipa, Sarr and Koroma were the most experienced starters and all three looked rusty at best, which is no surprise given they’ve all missed chunks of preseason. Actually, Sarr might not have missed much but he still looked way off the pace.
Rhodes gave a decent example of why he’s never flourished as a lone striker. He struggled to get into the game and the game largely passed him by. I can imagine he’ll play better when played alongside another striker, which might have been considering before we signed him, seeing as we don’t usually play with two strikers and we’ve just given him a three-year contract.
Reece Brown and Josh Ruffles were neither good or bad really, just sort of neutral. Ruffles had a bending and swerving shot smothered by the keeper early on but didn’t contribute much otherwise. Brown wasn’t able to find much space on midfield and struggled to stamp his authority on the game, which he needed to do given the inexperience of his midfield colleagues.
Youngsters Diarra and Austerfield had a big opportunity to show what they can do but neither excelled. Both have bags of potential but struggled to show it in this game. I’m not surprised as the whole team struggled to get going, mostly because it was a second-choice eleven, so they didn’t benefit from having our better players to bring them through.
The second half was better
Even before the wholesale changes to the team, we asserted ourselves better in the second half. However, changing almost the entire eleven meant the players most likely to feature against Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday were able to show why they are currently the first choices.
Our passing had more zip and the movement off the ball was significantly better. While it’s not exactly a shock that bringing on our better players led to better football from Town, it was jarring how big the difference is between the two different Town teams we saw last night, particularly in midfield.
While the rumour mill suggests we’ve got a forward coming in on loan from Norwich imminently, it looks to me like midfield should be the priority as we’re two injuries away from disaster in that area of the pitch.
Schofield – one clanger too many?
I would consider myself one of Ryan Schofield’s advocates among Town fans. I think his ability to pull off remarkable reflex saves is enough to justify picking him even though he struggles with crosses and makes the odd mistake. But the poor clearance that led to Fleetwodd’s opener was horrendous and can’t be glossed over.
While it’s not a big deal to do that in a friendly, if he continues to make those kind of mistakes in competitive games it will cost us points and ruin his confidence. Every keeper does it occasionally but it’s becoming a habit for Schofield.
Nicholls seems like a safer pair of hands, literally, so I’d like to see him be our first choice at least for the start of the season. It’s possible that we may chop and change in this area until it’s clear which of the two keepers is best. Schofield could come out as the preferred choice in the end but his tendency to make costly mistakes needs to be overcome before then.
Trying to find creative ways to write about a lack of creativity
I’m so bored of writing the same thing about Town’s lack of creativity in the final third after every game and the season hasn’t even begun. Maybe I should just cut and paste the same complaints every week until it actually improves.
Or I could try to express my frustration through interpretative dance or a modern art piece using my own bodily fluids. I’m going to have to think of something to keep things fresh because as it stands it’s impossible to write about this team without highlighting the lack of creative spark but it’s crushingly dull to repeat the same whinges every time.
I was a bit embarrassed by how hard we found it to create clear cut chances when Fleetwood carved us open with nearly every one of their, admittedly few, breaks into our box. We just seemed so sterile in comparison, too nice and maybe even scared to try anything too.
What can we expect from Town this coming season?
When I think back to the football we played from September to Christmas last season I start to feel optimistic about the season ahead, then I think rationally about how we’re repeating the same mistakes in every game and I find it hard to imagine anything but another season of struggle.
I’ve watched most of Town’s preseason games (barring the few times they literally sent me to sleep) but I don’t feel like I’ve learned a great deal about our prospects.
The new signings look alright. Only Pearson is a genuine first choice player but the others provide better backup than we previously had.
Our tactics under Corberán don’t look any different from last season. So that means some nicely buildup play, a lot of tapping it around at the back and a struggle to break down stubborn defences. Oh, and lots of individual errors, which isn’t exactly a tactic but it’s a byproduct of the tactics we play that doesn’t seem to have been properly addressed yet.
Town had a miserable second half to last season and though injuries and fixture congestion are now the officially cited reasons for that slump, I am a bit concerned that the problems may be deeper than that.
My suspicion is that Carlos is currently on thin ice with the board and will need a good start to avoid coming under pressure. I really hope that happens as I want Corberán to be a success at Town and really can’t be bothered with another “transitional” season with a new head coach and the inevitable squad rebuild that follows.
You rightly reflect the mood of most Town fans this morning, even those who might not have watched the match just need to look at the scoreline which, allegedly, doesn’t matter in a pre-season friendly. Oh yes it does! It matters to Town supporters and our attitude going into a new season; and it must surely matter to the players as a non-confidence booster. If we lose to Fleetwood, what hope is there? must be a thought going through all our minds.
I take no pleasure in saying “I told you so”. I was advocating the dismissal of CC well before the end of last season and I’ve seen nothing in the pre-season friendlies nor in the 6 signings to change my mind. But, sadly, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to go into this over the next few weeks.
And you’ll know that I have absolutely no time for Schofield. The best thing about last night’s match was when Schofield made yet another distributional howler after only 5 minutes, I messaged my son to say “That at least should silence those who are leading advocates of Schofield being first choice.”
I agree with your summary of individual performances – Sarr was really bad and a number of others were just bad.
The Koroma scoring bubble has burst. He’s not a great footballer but has had the happy knack of scoring. But, like like Karlan Grant before him, once defenders realise he has no left foot, he has nowhere to go other than cut inside and that’s bad news for whoever is our central striker. Fleetwood had him going nowhere. He doesn’t make my starting XI.
The biggest disappointments for me from last night were the performances of Reece Brown and Diarra. This was a big opportunity for either one or both to really stake a claim and neither took it. Neither were in the ‘bad class’ but they really needed to stand out in the crowd (like Colwill does) and neither did. Great shame. I hope they get another go.
This is like being unable to wake up from a nightmare that has been going on for 8 months!
Spot on with the assessment as usual. Nicholls, Pearson, Colwill and Toffolo should be nailed on starters in goal and defence, suspect CC will start a rusty Pipa over Turton. I note the comments from Simon but, in fairness to Brown and Diarra, I feel it was a bit unfair to have a midfield of both them and Austerfield, as there is no way CC would consider starting a league game with that midfield (cup is anyone’s guess). I just wonder if either would have performed better with Hogg and O’Brien, around them to bring that extra experience and guidance for them. Reality is, I suspect, Vallejo will be back up for Hogg with Brown ahead of Diarra as back up for O’Brien or High unless, of course, Bacuna leaps ahead of them all because we can’t sell him.
I agree with you, Ian, about starting Diarra & Reece Brown together with Austerfield; except let’s not forget, Fleetwood finished in the bottom half of Div 1 last season; this was not top quality opposition.
Why play what is a second string almost in its entirety for the first 45 mins ? If you play a team of what we assume are mainly back up players then any mistakes made will have no chance of being rectified by a more exprienced player along side them. Its done nothing for their confidence to be dropped in wholesale for a full 45 mins and as we all know football is also a game of confidence not just skill levels.
Naby Sarr was dreadful last night and until he gets some more game time under his belt with the back up squad should be second choice. He slowed up play from the back and put the rest of the players under pressure so any runs made were meaningless as he just squared the ball or passed it back
Schofield has lost all his confidence and it shows every time he plays now, so he’s not number 1 choice for me.
Personally I am not too worried about the result as we saw the vast improvement once the main squad players came on the park. But as usual with Town fans its up like a rocket and down like a stick for many, we are either world beaters or the worst football team in history
I agree with all Simons comments, especially about Schofield and Koroma who’s ability has been much overstated. We were supposed to have exciting attacking football under Corberan but the first idea of everyone seems to be to pass the ball back or sideways. There has been quite a bit said about Sarr standing on the ball and looking round but that’s because there is no-one ahead of him to pass to or making a move and he then gets into difficulties. The goalkeepers have the same problem. It all comes down to the fact that Corberan isn’t good enough in this league and he has proved all last season and in the preseason matches that he doesn’t have much idea what to do when plan A (if there is one!) doesn’t work. The fact that the new signings are pretty mediocre doesn’t help. We were League 2 level in the first half against Fleetwood and League 1 in the second. Against proper Championship sides I dread to think how we will perform.
With all the friendlies out of the way (although some may say next Sunday’s Cup match constitutes a pre-season friendly), maybe we should all start playing the game of picking our ‘best’ starting XI? Here’s mine in a 4-1-3-1-1 formation:-
Nicholls
Turton; Pearson; Colwill; Toffollo
Hogg;
Thomas; O’Brien; Ruffels
Diarra
Rhodes
Defensively it looks better than last season. You’ll note no Pipa. He might re-emerge but Turton looks the better bet at the moment. Where to find the creativity? Thomas, O’Brien and Diarra are all capable on their day and picking Ruffels gives Toffollo the opportunity to get forward. Can Rhodes score? We just don’t know but we have our fingers firmly crossed. Playing Diarra in a Number 10 role at least won’t completely isolate Rhodes.
I’m not averse to Vallejo in a starting spot but I can’t see where without leaving out the attacking threat of Sorba Thomas. Others I’m happy to omit but fear might feature with CC are the likes of Sarr, High, Koroma, Holmes & Ward.
I expect Holmes and Pipa to start instead of Ruffels and Turton. If previous years are anything to go by, the cup match will be treated as though it’s a preseason trial so there’ll be quite a bit of experimentation.
I agree with everyone’s comments noting the negativity outweighs the positivity. I was actually there, ticking off another ground!
So saw the big picture, not a pretty sight in the first half especially for Schofield, Sarr and Rhodes, incompetent is a kind description, not that anyone excelled. One change at halftime – goalkeeper, a clear indication of the future?
The rest of the team showed a bit of desire, what was said during the break?
Wholesale changes continued the improved performance and O’Brien scored with his standing leg. The goalscoring problem, is still the elephant in the room and the powers that be insist on solving it with weasels.
Spot on. It doesn’t matter. But it does matter. Same old players making the same old mistakes. And same old problems with creativity.
The confidence starts at the back. Abject in the first half. Schofield is going to be behind Champman if he doesn’t watch himself.
Agree with most posters for once (although I’ve no idea what solving the elephant in the room with weasels means 😀 ), and think this was one last experiment to see who’s ready for Wendies.
Same old clueless coach!
OK Jay, clumsy choice, everyone knows about the goalscoring forward problem but the solutions so far have proved to be inadequate at best.
I forgot to mention the crowd. There was surlrisingly very little animosity towards the players. A lot of disbelief, exasperation and hilarity. The chap next to me to whom I spoke to at length, shared similar views on Town past and present except on Hogg, him pro me anti.
Hogg is a big problem, especially now that he’s captain. He is going to be a fixture in the team however well or badly he plays and it means the likes of Vallejo won’t get a game. It also restricts how the midfield is made up as there only ever going to be 2 places available and if you add O’Brien as an automatic pick as well there’s only 1 place to fit in the creative midfielder we so badly need.
Come on TS: cheer up man! I was standing behind the goal last night and there were definite good bits appearing through my smudged varifocals. OK the first half was dire and Big Naby and “Shaggy” Schofield did themselves no favours but the second half was a different story, even before the first team came on. Here are my three highlights:
1. Sorba’s corners (at least a dozen of them) all going straight into the box without any frustrating short play or clearance by the “first man” on the near post
2. Sorba, Lewis and Harry Toffolo ripping up the left side of the park and the ball actually being crossed into the box at the end of it
3. Very solid looking defensive duo snuffing out attacks quickly (with occasional brutality) and receiving the ball quickly from the keeper before moving it on with purpose
Fleetwood’s very stubborn and well-organised defence was all that saved them.
I am determined to go to Hillsborough with an optimistic spring in my step.
Keep up the good work!