by The Marksman » Wed Apr 20, 2016 7:52 am
As has already been said on here, that wasn't very good. They did indeed look like scoring every time they went forward. They weren't even good goals, just really crappy defending. Biggest problem was the full backs who were <insert superlative here> bad. Cambridge just kept it simple, played it wide, crossed and scored at will. Unless that was the tactic? Let them cross and then deal with it in the centre, a bit like Leicester? If so, well, it didn't work, because the centre backs ain't exactly Huth and Morgan.
It wasn't really 4-4-1-1, more a 4-2-3-1 because the wingers didn't help tracking back at all. I think for this game we needed to remove Devitt for Ellison (or someone) and push the wingers back in a 4-4-2 so they were actually helping the full backs and we could possibly hold the ball up up front to relieve some pressure.
O'Hara - flapped at everything, didn't seem to be able to hold the ball at all. No communication with the defence. Didn't look ready for this level at all.
McGowan - terrible. Brainless lunge to give away the first penalty then lost his man pretty much every time he tried to run past him. Thankfully removed at half time.
Edwards - not great, wasn't able to deal with crosses at all. Moved out to the right for the second half where he was at least better than McGowan had been, but not by much.
Doyle - positioning was awful, was regularly a metre behind the rest of defence playing everyone onside.
Conlan - mind-bogglingly bad. Left way too much space for the opposing winger to cross easily for two of the first half goals, didn't seem to know how to defend at all. Resorted to clattering his opposite man which didn't injure their player, just incurred a yellow card. Put out of his misery at half time.
Fleming - I didn't even notice he was playing until he fouled someone early in the second half. Waste of space.
Kenyon - was involved a bit more than Fleming but that's still "tallest dwarf" territory. The whole central midfield was non-existent.
Devitt - I like Devitt, I really do. I just can't help but feel we play better without him. Did some nice tricks in the second half when the pressure was off but didn't help much in the first. Won't be troubling League One too much.
Barkhuizen - completely anonymous except when running for long balls and miscontrolling them.
Molyneux - actually quite good I thought, at least in an attacking sense, the best attacking force we had in the first half until he was moved to left back for the second. Good passing and vision.
Miller - bit of a thankless task which he undertook poorly, didn't look all that interested.
Subs:
Goodall - made the defence a bit better I guess. There were less catastrophes at least, although they did hit the woodwork twice in the second half.
Ellison - didn't do anything of note.
Mullin - straight swap late on, rather pointlessly I thought. Ran around a bit. Didn't score. Usual stuff.