Thoughts v Blackpool

kirsikka

kirsikka

UTC Legend
A lot to say about today. After the midweek change in performance levels hopes were high as we arrived in the north west for a traditional Blackpool summers day.

The ball was bobbling around all over the place on a throwback 1980s style pitch, which first half was matched by Blackpool pumping long balls to try and catch the breeze and put our defenders under old-skool pressure.

A rubbish first quarter was nearly rescued by a penalty. Only for Solanke to take a terrible spot kick. Utterly terrible. Solanke was having one of his off days where instead of the £20 million striker we've seen most of this season he looked a £20 million stinker. His close control brought back memories of Trevor Aylott's football on the deck skills.

The goal may have been a worldie but you can't say they didn't deserve it. Plus several more.

Anthony on the right looks half the player. If that's our back up option for Christie then we've made some bad calls with our prioritisations with the signings we made. There's no way a squad of our size should be scrabbling around for a backup player in one position.

I imagine the coach on the journey home will have to drive fast to keep ahead of the police after that robbery. Blackpool should have been out of sight three times over.


Positive performances:

Travers - If we do somehow go up he can take a lot of the credit. He was the man that won the points today.

Dembele (in the final 10 minutes) - Looked a different player. All over the pitch, direct running, creative and nabbed the goal.

Improvements needed:
Dembele (in the first 80 minutes) - Desperate to impress and looks like he could be exciting and handy but was also frustrating in trying to do too much. So is the way with some players. However, it wouldn't hurt him to watch the match back and look at the direct threat posed by Bowler at the other end who was massively more effective even aside from the goal. Or rewatch his last 10 minutes for something similar.

Stacey - We need Laird or Smith back to put him under some pressure as he's wildly inconsistent at the moment. I won't mince words, it was one of the worst full back performances I've seen in an AFCB shirt since Marcos Painter. When a left winger looks better as a RB than you in your specialist position you know it's been a horror show performance.


Final comments:
Our last visit there was the infamous day of the 'goal robots'. There was a major malfunction out there today. Netflix are no doubt on the phone to the club at the moment wanting to turn that performance into a heist movie.

There were a lot of poor individual performances out there. However, Parker also has to own up that he got it wrong as well. It wasn't pretty. Throwing a CB up front is a sign of desperation. It worked, but you can't say it was according to plan.

Still, it's three points though.
 
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Dembele and Lowe take a bow.

Magnificent.

I notice your negative slant on the game preceeded your presumed outcome.
 
How the ******************************** did we win that? Maybe we deserved a bit of luck, but ten minutes ago, I was Parker out. Not sure I have changed my mind, however Travs and Dembele won us that game.
 
On 85mins I was going to write at the end that what we really lack is character and the edge despite quality players, we don't take a gamble, don't show enough bravery on the ball and don't rise to the challenge in intimidating atmospheres etc.

Then we turned it around and despite not deserving it, we showed bottle, character and the fight till the end attitude. That could be a HUGE moment in our season.

Dembele was excellent but Travers MoM yet again. That save in the 2nd half, my god.

I don't actually think anyone had a dreadful game it just didn't click and Blackpool were very good in patches.

Zemura very poor crossing but linked well with Dembele. Cook was decent first half. Phillips poor and seems to have caught the lazy passing bug that goes around our back 4. Dom needs to never take a penalty like that again.

Fair play to the Blackpool fans. If only we could generate that kind of atmosphere at DC, would make a world of difference!

Huge, huge win. I feel we will look back on those 8 minutes at the end as a pivotal moment in our season.
 
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Would’ve been 4-0 down if it wasn’t for Travers. Those 3 points are down to him.

Cook much better. Dembele promising. Cantwell has class. Phillips very poor. Pathetic penalty from Dom.
 
One of the rare times that I disagree with kirsikka. It was "blah" for quite a while, but I don't think it was as abject as described.

The individual talent has definitely been added through the transfer window. Many passes went astray, but once these guys get accustomed to each other, there will be many good chances at goal.

Travers ..... AGAIN!!
 
So many thoughts racing around my head after that game:

Firstly, Dembele was an absolute joy to watch. How refreshing is it to see an attacking player who actually takes risks!! He may lose the ball on occasion but you know what, that is fine! He is constantly looking to attack his opponent and look to make something happen. It’s very easy to defend when it’s just pass, pass, pass. When you’ve got a player like this who will run with the ball it opens up completely new passing angles and opportunities. He could quite honestly be are most important player for the rest of the season.

Secondly, Mark Travers is an absolute monster. He is easily the best keeper in the league and without him we don’t even get a point today. He is going right to the very very top.

Thirdly, we actually looked like a better team today when our supposed star players were replaced/moved. We instantly looked a better side without Billing on the pitch, and Davis looked a lot more of an effective outlet than Zemura, even in his limited time on the pitch. I’d start both vs Forest. We looked a lot more threatening when Lowe was leading the line and Solanke moved to play deeper. We also looked better without Stacy on the pitch, even with Anthony playing out of position. Perhaps goes to show that our play had become pretty stale. You may argue that their impact can be attributed to the period of the game, but how often have we looked threatening this season chasing a game? This is honestly the first time that I can remember us actually having sustained pressure at the end of the game, clearly something worked today when the changes were made.
 
I'll take it but somehow doesn't feel fair for Blackpool. That was an awful, awful performance and on another day we could have lost by 3 goals.

Kudos to Travers for an excellent display, and the team in stoppage time for trying to win. But please, SP, i don't want to see that again.
 
To add for any Blackpool types that peek in since they're ranting about the ref and the penalty... Gabriel (the guy that gave away the pen) went down under an even softer challenge in the area a few minutes earlier in the game and the ref gave it. If you're going to tumble when the breeze blows near you and expect a free kick then you've got to avoid making contact with attackers in the area as you'll give a penalty away.

Gabriel then spent the rest of the game tumbling over at every opportunity. If he'd spent it on his feet you'd probably have created even more chances and (deservedly) won.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.
 
Another point is that we looked A LOT better when we changed the formation. I’m sorry, but this 4-3-3 with 2 advanced midfielders just doesn’t work!! With the way we want to play we are a lot better suited to playing with wing backs and 2 upfront. All the advanced midfielders and wing play gives us is a lot of meaningless possession. What good is creating an overload on the wing if our only forward is incredibly isolated in the box?!
 
afcb.czech said:
I'll take it but somehow doesn't feel fair for Blackpool. That was an awful, awful performance and on another day we could have lost by 3 goals.

Kudos to Travers for an excellent display, and the team in stoppage time for trying to win. But please, SP, i don't want to see that again.
Click to expand...

No offense to Blackpool, but I couldn;t give a f**k! They should have wrapped it up before if they feel hard done by. Particularly with some of their time wasting before.
 
Bit like Barnsley, but with a bit more quality, Blackpool is a tough place to go given the pitch and wind.

So relieved at the equaliser and pleased with (premature) full time texts as it could be a useful point only to be surprised and delighted by the win. Combined with qpr defeat, this was the he sort of win that gives confidence for a promotion push.
 
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