Another Lowery and Ainley bashing from you.
What an absolute shambles. Really do not know how they only scored 2 goals. If you could have changed all four of our midfielders you would have had no objections. For me they are getting in the team far too easily. Offered no help to our 2 forwards who struggled all game.
Why is it our best midfield player by far cannot get a start? Beggars belief. He is head and shoulders better than any of them.
Another Lowery and Ainley bashing from you.
Lowery was the man of the match for me and improves with every game he plays. Once they had scored the two quick goals they parked the bus and we failed to get to grips with it . I feel George Cooper needs to drop to the bench as his form has deserted him and he thinks he is better than he actually is. For me players off the ball failed to get close to the opposition when we were trying to win the ball back and this allowed them to pass themselves out of a tight corner.
We will turn the corner but it might take a while
Not sure about that, I honestly don't remember them having another shot on goal. Lowery was my man of the match for what it's worth. Definitely better when Walker went on, not sure though whether he can last the full game in midfield. I can remember us scuffing at least three shots when going through on goal in the first half and at least twice in the second half somebody should have been gambling a bit more on crosses that flashed across their six yard box.
All in all a strange game and after watching two of the "top" teams in the last week it seems like a top seven finish is there for the taking if anybody takes the initiative. The Vale anybody.
Lowery man of the match. How do you arrive at that? Went his usual walk about for the first goal. He is a central midfielder who totally ignores the role he is supposed to be playing, instead wanting to roam around and mostly play behind the forwards where his running about only unbalances the whole team. Yes I can understand MOM if you base it on 5 yard passes which are mainly sideways or back passes. Any player can do that with the light weight match ball.
But in fairness let the stats decide. How many goals has he scored? None. How many assists? None. How many goals conceded has he directly or indirectly been responsible for? 8 or 9. Sorry if you want a balanced side with a proper midfield do not play Lowery. He leaves the whole of the middle of the pitch exposed.
What does concern me more is the decisions taken by the management. He has bigged up the home wins against Stevenage and Notts County. But in truth neither team turned up for the game and they made it easy for us. Basing decisions on matches like those is wrong. But instead he is totally shocked by yesterdays performance. That should not be happening. We have a completely unbalanced side and he should be aware of this. Yesterdays result was no surprise for quite a few supporters near me.
Very interesting, because he was mine at Yeovil too.
Always available, very efficient when he has the ball - 2 traits you would want in a midfielder.
Assists and goals are one thing but maybe that's not his game.
N'Golo Kante isn't very high in those charts either but that doesn't stop him being recognised as a top player.
I had something to add regards what midfield players should be doing and that is not least attacking, assisting and probably less defending as other players are allocated that role and if you are not scoring and not assisting then what the heck are you doing on the pitch? But the adverts and constant jumping of them and the addidas advert is driving me nuts....and see many newspapers are starting to do that too and as always, its the big sell..I thought footymad were going to address this?
That is why Jones is by far the better player in that position but alas he is injured. How come they are all not coached to do what he does? Remember, the game is about scoring more goals than the opposition..Otherwise put 11 men on the goal line...
I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought we played OK on Saturday, so am relieved to see I’m not! Can’t see how Lowery was to blame for the first goal, when an experienced CH misjudged the bounce, let the Number 10 get ahead of him and then showed his lack of pace before bringing him down. There was me thinking it was his job to mark a CF!
We did look better when Walker replaced Grant, and George certainly had one of his off days. Lowery was the pick of the midfield for the reasons given above; comparisons with Jones are a bit premature I think, although I can see similarities- maybe Tommy will start scoring more often when he takes pens too!
The reason we lost was because our strikers couldn’t take advantage of the chances created for them. 2 one on ones in the first 15 minutes, inviting crosses sent in by Ainley and Bowery where Porter didn’t take the risk of attacking them, several bouts of pinball in their box where it didn’t quite go our way. If Stanley are promotion material then we have nothing to worry about; problem with that is they aren’t promotion material on that showing.