An analysis of today

Bang on with that Vlad... Yorkies are proverbially tight with Money...but when I lived there, the place was on its knees - 3 old grounds across the city ..Boothferry, the Boulevard ( Hull FC rugby) ..Craven Park ( (HKR- rugby)..seemingly no hope for any of them in the 90's....I've got relatives there..now the place is buzzing so they tell me...incredible visionary Council.. traditional north eastern clarity .the opposite of what we have in Cornwall...and I guess in bloody BCP !

I was born and bred a Southerner and will never stop fighting for it no matter the odds but I understand why Northerners are the way they are, often in a much worse environment, sold out by the Government even worse than working class Southerners. But they are often more passionate because alot of the North is neglected and their local club is what they cherish the most. When I went to Hull nearly 20 years ago the City was awful, rundown, all boarded up everywhere and a distinct aroma of burning chocolate lingered over it but a new ground gave them a platform and they went from L2 to PL as quickly as us I think, hopefully they've been given the finance the city needed. I've often found all Northerners I've met are more naturally friendly than Southerners apart from the ones who move to the South.
 
Enjoyable read and I agree with most of what’s been said. I feel like there are some in this thread that are kind of blindly flinging their online fists at Waz due to the bed wetter tag he’s gained. Thought this was a balanced and sensible look at how the game panned out and how getting some experience back into the side will really help the youngsters get out of these kinds of situations in games.

Just on Kilkenny, I’d say that it’s probably more a reliance on that area of the pitch being fairly important to the way we play than it is Kilkenny himself. I feel like Billing and Marcondes have been much more box to box than they were today in past games which has helped Kilkenny out. I guess the question is do we drop one of the attacking midfielders and drop Pearson back in beside GK? How will that affect the dynamic of the team; could it lead to even more “sideways passing”?

There wasn’t a lot wrong with our performance today on paper, I think it was literally just a more perhaps unconsciously passive approach leading to a dogged Blackpool catching us out a few too many times. Even after they equalised we sliced them open a fair amount, we were just very wasteful. That makes me want to stick with the same sort of lineup and just get some more experience in; even if it’s just off the bench.
 
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Not really in the mood to write a report as such today, but thought that I would like to dissect the performance and try to reason as to why it didn’t quite go our way today. So here you go:
Lack of experience/nous:
I’ll start off with an obvious one. Our younger players are clearly immensely talented and have already shown in a short space of time that they are all good enough to make an impact at this level, I don’t think that anybody can debate that. However the reality is that if you are playing with a side who has an average age of under 23 game after game then sooner or later this lack of experience is going to catch up with you. This is in no way a criticism of the younger lads, far from it. I think it’s unrealistic to expect such a young side to be able to maintain the levels we have been every single week. Blackpool were a poor side, after we went 2-0 up I believe the players downed tools to an extent (subconsciously and not intentionally) and thought it would be a walk in the park. We would have won comfortably today if there were one or two senior heads/leaders in the team who would have been able to keep the younger lads grounded and to help them to stand firm when the momentum of the game began to change. I am one hundred percent certain that we win that game if Gary Cahill is playing. Again this is not a criticism, a lot of these lads aren’t even into double figures for league games yet, there were always going to be moments where lack of nous would prove costly.

A tactical reliance on Kilkenny:
This worried me more than the first point. A lack of experience can be addressed but after closely watching our tactical set up in these opening weeks it has become clear to me that there is a glaring weakness; stop Kilkenny from getting the ball and you stop us from playing. Near enough everything we do comes through him, in the opening exchanges today we were able to get him on the ball and we reaped the rewards. At around the 20-25 minute mark Blackpool started to deploy a clear strategy to stop Kilkenny receiving the ball at all costs, very diligently closing down the passing corridors been himself and the back four. As a result he was starved of the ball and the back four had no avenue to progress the ball up the pitch, Billing and Marcondes were both playing high up the pitch and as a result we pretty much had a front five who we were unable to get the ball to. Our only chances from this point onwards came when we went more direct, but this tactic was not deployed nearly enough and as a result we saw a lot of passing around the back ie possession without substance. For me I’m not sure how viable this formation is long term given it’s over reliance on one player.

Mepham at right back:
I’m not going to criticise Mepham’s individual performance because he is absolutely not a right back in any way shape or form, but it was blatantly obvious that the team suffered today for not having a natural right back/any attacking threat from the right back position. Parker’s philosophy is centred around creating overloads/forming passing triangles down the flanks when in the final third. That lack of attacking underlapping threat from that side severely stunted our ability to create down the right flank. There was more than one occasion when Brooks had to come infield into a congested area due to the fact he had no underlapping runner from deep, this more often than not resulted in us turning over possession and limited our ability to build a sustained period of pressure. Our threat down the right was non existent in the second half.

Kelly’s relaxed nature on the ball:
Another key contributing factor to the inability to hold out. Lost count of the number of times he took too long on the ball/gifted possession to Blackpool. He constantly put us under pressure through his inability to recognise when he was under pressure. If he had made smarter decisions in the ball today, then I believe that we win. We needed our captain to be smart and to make the correct decisions on the pitch today, unfortunately he was unable to deliver this. The last thing you want to do when 2-0 up at home against an underdog is give them a sniff that there might be something in this for them, every time he dallied on the ball/lost possession you could see that this just spurred Blackpool on more and more and have them belief that there was something in the game for them.
I don't think you should blame our young players for the result, the truth of the matter IMO is that SP was outwitted in the 2nd half by our visiting manager easy!
 
What a load of carp, we played players out of position because we had no others, hadn't you noticed we have injuries? State the painfully obvious without actually recognising that for example all our right backs are injured, who would you have played there?
Give me strength


I'm not a big fan but Mepham was our best player today at RB. Leif Davis clearly didn't have a clue what to do there when he came on but I think the 2 big tactical decisions that went against Scotty P were Junior being made of glass and the mistake of bringing on Pearson too late when damage was done and we weren't able to string a pass 2ndhalf, and Pearson should've come on for Billing. We also need another striker ffs we have one senior striker and this new signing Rogers is more of a winger I hear.

Damage was done in 3-4 minutes I think. Might gave been a plan to take Kilkenny or Billing off at half time, though as the tide had started to shift in the first half.
 
I was born and bred a Southerner and will never stop fighting for it no matter the odds but I understand why Northerners are the way they are, often in a much worse environment, sold out by the Government even worse than working class Southerners. But they are often more passionate because alot of the North is neglected and their local club is what they cherish the most. When I went to Hull nearly 20 years ago the City was awful, rundown, all boarded up everywhere and a distinct aroma of burning chocolate lingered over it but a new ground gave them a platform and they went from L2 to PL as quickly as us I think, hopefully they've been given the finance the city needed. I've often found all Northerners I've met are more naturally friendly than Southerners apart from the ones who move to the South.

As a southerner, I think you're right about the friendly part.
 
Mate, for your own sake please stop it. You’re making yourself look very silly.

Don't think Waz was criticising the players.. more the tactics of relying on Kilkenny when the opposition crowd him out. Also, that Meps isn't a natural one to overlap with the winger so this restricted our team going forward without it being Meps fault. As both you and Waz are saying, our player choices are limited because of injuries and lack of squad depth. Essentially, you agree. This is a misunderstanding because maybe you've read his messages too quickly and therefore misunderstood them. Waz shouldn't say things like "you're not very bright" in my opinion because even someone with an IQ of 140+ can misunderstand messages. People do it on here all the time.
 
Enjoyable read and I agree with most of what’s been said. I feel like there are some in this thread that are kind of blindly flinging their online fists at Waz due to the bed wetter tag he’s gained. Thought this was a balanced and sensible look at how the game panned out and how getting some experience back into the side will really help the youngsters get out of these kinds of situations in games.

Just on Kilkenny, I’d say that it’s probably more a reliance on that area of the pitch being fairly important to the way we play than it is Kilkenny himself. I feel like Billing and Marcondes have been much more box to box than they were today in past games which has helped Kilkenny out. I guess the question is do we drop one of the attacking midfielders and drop Pearson back in beside GK? How will that effect the dynamic of the team; could it lead to even more “sideways passing”?

There wasn’t a lot wrong with our performance today on paper, I think it was literally just a more perhaps unconsciously passive approach leading to a dogged Blackpool catching us out a few too many times. Even after they equalised we sliced them open a fair amount, we were just very wasteful. That makes me want to stick with the same sort of lineup and just get some more experience in; even if it’s just off the bench.

Yes agree. Although enjoying the feeling that we were on our way to another win, particularly against a team that will surely be closer to relegation than promotion, I was a bit nervous even when 2 up.

Just felt a little too easy and only needed some scrappy goal from them and the momentum would totally change. Particularly due to the amount of injuries, youngsters being played - how would they deal with the situation? Not sure what Billing was up to, may be too complacent, underestimating the opposition?

Sides like Blackpool know they won't tend to outplay us, but mentally will be up for it and look to expose us in other ways, through experience, determination, street nous, physicality, manager homing in our weaknesses. Just needed that 1 goal and they were right back in it.

Agree youngsters are looking promising, but ideally need to be bedded in more gradually, not making up half the side each week - assuming we're serious about a promotion push. Understand its happening through necessity at present, rather than what Parker would run with if everyone was available and any incoming transfers completed
 
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Decent learning curve for our younger players. 2-0 and cruising then bang!! 2 goals in a couple of minutes and it's all change. Disappointed that we couldn't either hold on or score more but credit Blackpool ,totally outplayed for 45 mins but came back at us in the second half. What was strange was although there were four goals and some good chances I found some moments of the match dull.
 
One of the major problems today...was that a football club of latterly lesser levels and achievements rocked up at DC...with as much intent on putting the pigs bladder in the onion bag as did our brave young combateers.....OK said lesser beings capitulated in the early confrontation...but they tightened their braces...and Bobby Balled us good and proper int 2nd arf !
They fookin Rocked our Tommie's..

Its a common weakness and over the last two seasons...for our ' PL honeyed ' and 'ageing and maturing' JCL's to become less sugared and more acid in their respect of any opposition.
Any slide down, now, in this Div, will see the biggest Fire Drill since Pudding Lane !

Nobody is disrespecting Blackpool from what I've read. We were 2-0 up at home against a team which had 1 point from their first 3 games. Any set of fans in the world (including ours from Divison 2) would be questioning how that happened. If we just say 'oh well they also wanted to win so fair enough' then there isn't much point of a forum...

I don't get this obsession that any kind of criticism of our team is disrespecting the opposition.
 
Would love to have seen the odds on 2-2 at half time. Felt like a defeat but nothing more than we deserved in the end. 2nd half was so lacklustre.

no idea on the 11 we will put out at Norwich but as a result of that I’m sure there will be some changes for the Hull game next in the league
 
Balls over the top to run in on. Seemed to work when we tried it and got Anthony and Dom through a couple of times. Blackpool’s line was high, not sure why we didn’t use it more often.
 
Never get excited by one or two results either way. Our resources are limited but that is where we are that is life. Tighten the belt the money pit runs out next season.

One observation on today Kilkenny needed support in the middle Billing and Marcondes went AWOL a lot of the time.

It is early days in the Parker era. Is he the new Messiah time will tell? We all bought into Eddie's God like era , and journey, and we wait to be converted. Zonal marking and faffing about at the back that doesn't give us possession cloud my judgement to buy into the new journey at the moment.


It is as always a long season.
 
Nobody is disrespecting Blackpool from what I've read. We were 2-0 up at home against a team which had 1 point from their first 3 games. Any set of fans in the world (including ours from Divison 2) would be questioning how that happened. If we just say 'oh well they also wanted to win so fair enough' then there isn't much point of a forum...

I don't get this obsession that any kind of criticism of our team is disrespecting the opposition.

Its early days..let's how the Forum plays out across what could be another transitional season for the club.
 
He signaled to the bench that he needed to come off.
He reached down to his a hamstring a couple of times after a couple of great interceptions and tackles in the run up to his departure. No fuss made but probably didn't want to indicate a weakness to a perky opponent.
 
Don't think Waz was criticising the players.. more the tactics of relying on Kilkenny when the opposition crowd him out. Also, that Meps isn't a natural one to overlap with the winger so this restricted our team going forward without it being Meps fault. As both you and Waz are saying, our player choices are limited because of injuries and lack of squad depth. Essentially, you agree. This is a misunderstanding because maybe you've read his messages too quickly and therefore misunderstood them. Waz shouldn't say things like "you're not very bright" in my opinion because even someone with an IQ of 140+ can misunderstand messages. People do it on here all the time.
He is the type who constantly jumps on everything I say and looks for a confrontation, regardless of whether it makes sense in the context of what I’ve written. It is quite tiresome having to argue against a point that you haven’t actually made because somebody chooses not to read what you’ve written properly.
 

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