Morecambe Away - Player Ratings
Le néant est enroulé dans le cœur de l'être - comme un ver.
The most disappointing thing about today? Our tactical approach and team selection. Six defenders, with Liddle preferred in midfield ahead of Joyce, Stockton upfront instead of Nadesan and only one creative outfield player (Devitt). We were playing Morecambe, not Manchester United and we clearly had to go for the win – but we played for the draw. It was only during the last quarter of the game we tried to play a bit of football and to attack, you have to give yourself more of a chance to win the game from the start – if that’s what you want to do.
Promotion is never a bad thing, is it? But are we failing deliberately? Clearly, we lack quality all over the pitch and just to be competitive at tier three level would take a level of investment way beyond the reach of any of the current directors (and we certainly don’t have the crowds to support it). Once you get in the playoffs, you never know, and the perverse thing is – Curle has built himself a squad capable of reaching the top seven (and you have to say this is due to the financial backing he’s been given by the owners). The irony is, he doesn’t seem capable of making the best use of the resources at his disposal to actually get there (or beyond). It seems likely it would be catastrophic for the club to win promotion and then to let this buffoon loose with the purse strings again. The level of investment required to compensate for Curle’s ineptitude would be Oligarchic.
Now the season is over we need to pack all the loan players back home quick smart (unless we plan to sign them) and give players we actually own an opportunity before next season. Brown, Twardek, Bonham, Nadesan – it’s time to wave them all goodbye. We have squad players who deserve an opportunity and a youth team which just won 0-6 away from home, there’s no point looking to the present we must look to the future. I’d even rest our dinosaurs in JCR and Clint Hill, there’s no point playing them any longer this term when we can be blooding youngsters and looking to next year.
Bonham – 2 – Nowhere for the goal. The usual bag of spilled shots, dropped / missed crosses and really abysmal use of the football. His crowning moment was being beaten in a sprint to the ball by 750 year old Jamal Campbell-Ryce.
Brown – 4 – Won the free-kick from which we scored with a surging run into the box and left helplessly exposed by the lack of a right-midfielder for most of the game, however he didn’t ever look sure whether he should attack or defend. A good right-back in a back four but he’s not a midfielder, we’re asking too much of him.
Grainger – 3 - Worked his flank quite well but defensively vacuous and his crossing all game was really terrible, along with his pedestrian passing. In theory, allowing Grainger licence to get forward gives us the advantage of his clubbing left boot – but today his influence was minimal – and the cross for Morecambe’s goal came from the position he should’ve been covering.
Ellis – 2 – Some awful passing and was lost in space for the goal we conceded. Sometimes you need technical ability and positional awareness more than a big heart.
Hill – 2 – Again, supposed to be organising the defence – so see a really poor goal to concede. His partnership with Ellis, while effective recently, is too one note.
Parkes – 3 – Combined quite well with Grainger on the left and was far from our worst player on the afternoon. Much more effective than Liddle, although this being said, he did look like he’d arrived straight from the pizza shop again. His substitution says more about the current pecking order than actual performance today.
Liddle – 1 – Lost in space entirely. I’m not sure even Liddle knew what he was supposed to be doing. He’s been an improvement in defence this season, but in midfield? Just no. We have actual midfielders who can play in midfield, it proves you’re not fit to be a football manager if you play Liddle in the centre of the pitch ahead of them. Morecambe dominated in the middle of the park until Liddle was moved out of there.
Jones – 4 – Busy, but spent most of the afternoon chasing shadows. When we finally decided to bring some players on to help him in midfield it brought him into the game more, but his final ball and shooting were extremely poor today. He hasn’t been the same player since his injury – but in fairness anybody playing alongside a midfielder with the technical ineptitude of Liddle and the disastrous positioning sense of Devitt would struggle to hold things together.
Devitt – 3 – Looked world class for the first fif**** minutes, however unfortunately the game is ninety minutes long. Morecambe’s wall positioning was shocking for our goal, but in fairness Devitt’s technique to exploit this from the free-kick was first class and his shot unstoppable. Again, I can’t knock his effort, but as a central midfielder his movement and positioning are awful and when he gets on the ball in deep positions he struggles with the accuracy of his passing. I am a broken record, but his natural position is on the wing – and we need to get him on the ball more frequently in the final third of the pitch. When we ask him to play as a central midfielder we lack cohesion as a team and struggle to retain possession.
Stockton – 0 – Same old garbage from useless face. An insult to the shirt and to every fan. Walking and jogging around and coming off the pitch (again) with clean white shorts. He should be embarrassed to call himself a footballer after another dishonest performance and Curle should be embarrassed to have picked him today and to have signed him in the first place. I’d pick any of our youth strikers instead of this, any day of the week.
Bennett – 4 – Not the best afternoon for Bennett, but he was having to try and take on four defenders himself. It’s tough when your forward partner has the mobility of the Exxon Valdez, the pace of a Galapagos Tortoise and the awareness of a Banana Slug.
Subs
Joyce – 4 – Did improve us, gradually, in midfield, but it’s tough when you’re trying to reclaim ground you might’ve owned from kick off (if you’d been selected).
Nadesan – 4 – Not his most effective game, and it’s no compliment to say he was more effective than Stockton. However, it made a huge difference to have a footballer on the pitch. Again, we lack anybody with the technical ability to provide him with the ball in the penalty area.
Campbell-Ryce – 4 – Morecambe looked scared of him, I’m not sure why. He has no pace at all, which means he can retain the ball with his technical ability but creatively he can’t get to where to he needs to be or move the ball fast enough to be truly effective. The key would be to get him on the ball with a bit of space in the final third, but we lack the guile to do this (see Nadesan)
I can’t single anyone out for a star man today, nobody deserved it.
