Match Thread vs. Hartlepool United 10.04.21 [NL]

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Credit for trying to change things, or criticism for getting it wrong in the first place?

It depends how people view it. For me starting the game with the 3-5-2 made sense as we had won two games previously playing with this formation and the players had two games under their belt playing to the style and should have had confidence built up. I also felt the starting 11 was predictable and settled and should be after winning two games in a row. Our top goal scorer returned to the starting eleven so that for me was a positive. We were also going toe to toe with Hartlepool with the same formation as them.

What the problem was for me is that we were too passive to start with and slow lacking energy and intensity and that allowed Hartlepool to get a foothold in the game dominate possession and then they pushed us and pressed us into an inadvertent 5-3-2 at times. We should have been confident coming on the back of two wins but were not showing that mentality. Some may say that might have been the manager telling them to play like that and absorb the pressure but this new manager seems to be more attack focused. We could not get a foothold on the game in midfield and Griffiths was being passed by. Likewise Enzio and Barnett were deep but were not stopping the crosses so the manager must have saw where this was going and decided to change tactics.

So rightly or wrongly I put it more down to lack of consistency in player performances, lack of energy and intensity in the first half an hour playing 3-5-2 rather than managerial error from the start.