It doesn’t make good reading granted but we all know there’s a half decent team amongst our squad.
For me it has to start at the back. For some reason we suddenly forgot how to defend. Every ball that came in we were at 6s and 7s and not sure what to do.
I’m not convinced with any of our centre halfs and that includes Hughes then when you throw in 2 very average left and right backs we end up with a “jelly on a plate” back 4.
For me Maloney’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. His wobbly defence has him on pins pushing players forward so in the 2nd half he gambled leaving Hughes in the middle and bringing on Pearce who inturn pushed Humphrys abit more forward and it paid off but I think a better side would have ripped that 2nd half formation apart.
One big thing I noticed 2nd half and we looked 20 times better, we stopped the 40 yard cross field up and unders and played football along the floor using width and the difference was chalk and cheese. Jordan Jones was outstanding so we know we can play that way we just need to convince the one dimensional manager.
For me we lack experience at the back. You need at least one older head in there to help the young lads along.
Losing all at that experience in one go in Keane Whatmough Naylor McClean all in one foul swoop has killed us.
The manager needs to sit someone in front of the defence as Naylor would have done and help out but if your left and right backs are poor ?.
So for me the whole problem is, we’ve forgot how to defend and defend in numbers. If we can get that right we’ll be fine and personally it’s time for Stones to be on the bench every week. He’s shown enough to me he’s worthy of 10-15 every other week but he can’t do that from the stands.
So the final question is one I doubted at the beginning of the season
Is Maloney the right man for the job?
The right man to put together a broken side and a mish mash of players ? I said no. He lacks that managerial experience you’d need and in bucket loads to fix a side who’s just clawed themselves back from the brink of death.
Should we keep him ?
Yes because as he’s already shown when it clicks there’s a side there and he needs to go back to simple basics, defend and counter.
Why he suddenly started playing super slow build up football and 40 yard cross field balls I do not know. If wouldn’t be a bad idea bringing in an old manager to have a word in Maloney’s ear on an advisory role.
Neil Lennon and Gary Roberts were there last night……..
