Player Ratings - Macclesfield Away

“Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”

It’s a shame for Sheridan because he talks a good game, but the simple facts are his team selections, tactics, substitutions, signings and in fact his whole approach to management is starting to look woefully inept.

After McCarron’s performance last week, what was the justification for leaving on the bench today? Yates was awful last week and even worse for eighty five minutes today – but Sheridan chooses to play Yates for the whole game and only give McCarron five minutes. Poor management. What happened to all the competition for places guff he was spouting at the start of the season? What message does this give to the players?

Even after you make an enforced substitution you still bring Glendon on ahead of McCarron and virtually ask Glendon to play upfront? This isn’t Glendon’s game (we had Campbell and Birch on the bench also) and furthermore, what has he done to justify a start ahead of McCarron.

Ashley Nadesan is not a right winger, why are we playing him out of position on the right when we have a plethora of players who can fill this position? I credit Nadesan for his performance today, however he was clearly carrying a muscle from halfway through the second half but it took us over twenty minutes to substitute him.

I’m not sure how many times Adewusi has played right-back? But what do you say to him when he comes on playing out of position (like half of our other players), maybe put your arm around him and tell him to stay calm and not do anything rash perhaps?

4-5-1 against a team who haven’t won a game all season? What happened to “we concentrate on our own tactics and don’t worry about the opposition”? It seems like Sheridan’s just spouting off a load of old football clichés. However, talk is cheap and he’s full of it – actions and results speak louder than words.

When we have to change things tactically (the Parkes’ substitution is a great example) as a manager and a team we descend into something which can only be described as a farce. We’re supposed to be a professional football team yet when we’re forced to deviate even slightly from “Plan A” it looks like nobody on the pitch has ever met any of their fellow players before let alone played football with them. What on Earth do we work on in training? Do we just have a random kickabout?

Also, you have to ask serious questions about the standard of our preparation with two muscle injuries today, sometimes you make your own “luck”.

Today’s effort was as poor a managerial performance as anything Kavanagh or Abbott served up when they were incumbent and as bad as Keith Curle at his absolute worse. Sheridan needs to stand up and take the responsibility he’s paid to – not keep blaming things on his players. It’s not good enough John, look in the mirror.

Collin – 2 – Made the penalty a formality by moving an eon too early and was numbly watching the clouds pass by when the second goal rolled past him. In fairness, he made a decent save when one on one with Rod Thomas in the first half – but he needs to do an awful lot better than he did for the goals we conceded today.

Miller – 2 – Fortunate to escape a yellow card for a string of pointless fouls against his man in the first half, struggled positionally at times and was twisted out of position so many times his muscles eventually snapped. You could argue he had a torrid afternoon against some pacey, skilful wingers, but we were playing the side who were bottom of the league.

Gillesphey – 3 – Almost criminal use of the hoof, giving possession away countless times. But did reasonably well after switching from left-back to central defence after Parkes’ injury. Was sleeping for the second goal we conceded, but half our defence was under the duvet with him.

Gerrard – 5 – Fairly solid, but his lack of pace and mobility was exposed on a few occasions. Despite his flaws we look more solid when he’s in defence, but as “captain’, chief organiser and “Mr Vocal” he really need to ask himself why he was at the heart of a back four who conceded two goals against Macclesfield.

Parkes – 5 – Looked typically solid before he pulled his hamstring, he’s probably made the injury worse by trying to soldier through it. Our defence looked an awful lot poorer without Parkes in it.

Jones – 6* - I can only remember one wasted pass all afternoon, Jones is slipping up the gears back to his best. His work rate was exceptional and he was the heart-beat of our team today. Winning the ball in front of our back four with waspish brutality and keeping his use of the ball crisp and simple, it was a performance a class apart from the ineptitude surrounding him.

Sowerby – 3 – If he thinks he’s a footballer and he can just stroll around waiting for teams to melt away around him, it’s just never going to happen. You need to roll your sleeves up and fight on afternoons like today. You’ve got to roll your sleeves up sometimes leave your ar5e out on the pitch, take the game by the scruff of the neck and show some urgency, purpose and desire. Today, Sowerby looked every bit a luxury and for the few drops of sweat he did manage to generate – every bit a loan player.

Etuhu – 4 – Looked effective pressing in winning the ball high up the pitch until the tactical shambles initiated by Parkes’ withdrawal. After this he was playing vaguely at left-back, extremely vaguely in fact.

Yates – 0 – Absolute garbage. I didn’t think it was possible for Yates to play worse than he did last week, but I was wrong. Less than zero attacking influence, the number of times he lost the ball trying to dribble, crossing ineptly or shooting with his spoon shaped feet was embarrassing. There is absolutely no justification for playing this utterly hopeless loan player when we have talented young players of our own queueing up to get in the team. Nothing says more about how out of his depth Sheridan looks than the fact he picked Yates today and the performance Yates turned in for the entire game.

Nadesan – 4 – Not a right winger, he should play upfront. Did well to bundle his goal in and used his pace to good effect, but he’s a player wasted wide on the right. Extremely frustrating to see him continually trying to cross the ball when he’s one of the players the ball should be crossed to – and when it was, we scored.

Bennett – 3 – Completely isolated upfront but fought a losing battle semi-well. Easily contained by the Macclesfield defence in the first half and struggled to win anything meaningful in the air. Did well, for his part in our goal, but overall did not look as sharp as he can today.

Subs:

Glendon – 0 – Buzzed around a bit but playing with his back to goal and trying to be a number ten is not his game. Would it not have made more sense to put Glendon on the right side of midfield and move Nadesan upfront in a 4-4-2? Anyway, as a professional footballer Glendon needs to be embarrassed by this performance today, out of position or not.

Adewusi – 1 – Rash challenge for the penalty, but he needed both Sheridan and players with the experience of Gerrard to give him the benefit of their experience in this situation. I’m not sure right-back is his best position.

McCarron – Came on too late to make any difference. Thanks, John.