Headless chicken defending

[jocklatic]

What a way to drop 2 points - coming away from ground tonight felt more like a defeat especially after the mad 10 minute fightback. Our defending in those last 15-20min was panic stuff with a few players at fault -BJ, CMc n Ramis. Not only that but when we went up 1-0 although we didn't sit back we also didn't push for the second & only really played with some urgency after they went up 2-1. Boyce looked out on his feet & wasn't helped by a p@ss poor pass from Macca.
One positive from the game was that at least Jordi didn't go missing after his penalty miss which was a well hit one with a good save by their keeper.
Just hope the boys are in the right frame for the visit of Watford on Saturday & put this game behind us!!!!!!

[laticRMI]

Difficult to defend against kick and rush, though. Why did we keep giving the ball away? -we just needed someone with a level head to calm things down a bit in that last 20. For me, Macca was poor throughout, Al Habsi proved to me that he is not better than Carson, Tunnicliffe kept giving the ball away. I don't think it was tiredness, it was plain naive defending/goalkeeping from several of the team. Not a great team selection, in my opinion.

[twofootedchallenge]

2 points dropped twice in that game.
I agree about Jordi he has really got stuck in since December.

tiredness and a strange team selection? only the manager knows for sure but the way we dominated at Ipswich I was expecting more of the same.

If this was Ramis' audition for semi he just blew it.

We missed The Beast Barnett sometimes you just need to hoof it clear especially 3-2 up with 2 mins to go ffs

disappointed but we've been spoilt lately

COYLE OUT!

[WhoRYa]

To be honest though, its been a slight niggle of mine for the last couple of months that the goals Latics seem to be conceding are headless chicken defending.
The goal Ipswich scored on Saturday was a classic example - ball in to the box, poor defensive header from Ramis, players (including Ramis) all seemed to hesitate about what to do next, ball gets played back in, some rushed & hashed attempts at clearing & ball falls to unmarked player (who Ramis had been marking but left as he watched the ball in the air) who lashes it home.

A lot of the goals being conceded have followed a similar pattern with really panicked, not sure what to do, jittery clearances, followed by ping pong football, several Latics players winding up on the deck & a unmakred player hitting home from close range. You can almost hear the Benny Hill music in the background!!

For their first last night I have no idea what Ramis was doing coz he wasn't watching the ball or the man till it was too late & he realised h

[Webbs21]

I agree that the goals were chaotic defending.

But, I have to jump to the defence of the players. We play open football and when the ball is lost cheaply, we're always wide open and defending desperately.

Obviously I'm not saying this is a good thing. But its easy being striking the balance between open football and tight defending. To play expansive football, you do have to have the back door slightly open.

[Sammy_Salt]

The turning point of the game was the subsitution of McEchran who had been playing an effective deep lying midfield role providing protection to the back four.

After McEchran went off we lost our shape - highlighted by the pass from MArthur to Beausejour who then looked up to find no one on the left side of the field, lost possession and Yeovil scored.

IMO the substitution of McEchran was en error by Uwe who should have taken off a tiring McManaman and replaced him with McLean who would have provide some much needed energy.

We were also not helped by the injury to Perch which resulted in a very shaky Rogne/Ramis central defence partnership which I hope we don't see today.