Ended 4 - 1 to Preston. I thought most of our players were half asleep in the first half and by the end they were a complete nightmare! Some really poor performances today.
Seems pretty unanimous feedback that it was by far our worst performance of the season. Losing 4-1 at home is very poor.
As I said yesterday Preston are far better than their league position but we made it very easy for them.
Today was a good test of whether the rest of the season turns in to a play off push or mid table mundaneness. It proved it will be the latter.
I thought our home defeat to Bristol City was bad but this was worse. In the first half we looked really lacklustre and kept giving the ball away. Scowen getting booked early seemed to unsettle him and then he got caught out for the first Preston goal. We started the 2nd half well and went close but once Preston got a 2nd the game was effectively over. The issue in the 2nd half was that we became too predictable looking for Smith and as a result Eze just drifted out of the game.
Whilst we missed Luongo we also miss Cameron and his defensive cover.
Agreed re Scowen's yellow and first two goals were really soft, but third was good goal. Felt embarassed by how poor many of the team were, and taking off Cousins for Smith was very riskey! Needed Hall and Manning on in prefernce to all other changes. Third change should have been Oteh for Eze, who rarely got involved. Game lost in midfield! Not a good day for the team or manager...
Very poor apart from the start of the 2nd half. I can see McClaren’s idea. Bringing on Smith helped if only by unsettling Preston. And having BOS and Smyth to stretch the Preston defence and provide crosses. But as Kingfisher says, the game was lost in midfield where we missed Luongo and Cameron. Preston did a good job on us again.
Agreed re Scowen's yellow and first two goals were really soft, but third was good goal. Felt embarassed by how poor many of the team were, and taking off Cousins for Smith was very riskey! Needed Hall and Manning on in prefernce to all other changes. Third change should have been Oteh for Eze, who rarely got involved. Game lost in midfield! Not a good day for the team or manager...
The midfield were definitely the main issue but I also thought that there were poor performances from Lynch, Leistner and Lumley. For me it was only Bidwell and possibly Wells who warranted performance points of greater than 5.
I hope today was just a blip because our performance was very similar to those first 4 games.
A absolute shambles for the home fans to watch McClaren saying it was just a bad day at the office We were torn apart from start to finish by a good side but not a great side Ruined my holiday so far and may need some more hash brownies for breakfast (lol)
Agreed re Scowen's yellow and first two goals were really soft, but third was good goal. Felt embarassed by how poor many of the team were, and taking off Cousins for Smith was very riskey! Needed Hall and Manning on in prefernce to all other changes. Third change should have been Oteh for Eze, who rarely got involved. Game lost in midfield! Not a good day for the team or manager...
The midfield were definitely the main issue but I also thought that there were poor performances from Lynch, Leistner and Lumley. For me it was only Bidwell and possibly Wells who warranted performance points of greater than 5.
I hope today was just a blip because our performance was very similar to those first 4 games.
I would only add Freeman to the list of 'worthies' rated above a '5' stoatey as his intercepts at least proved he was watching the ball and trying to make a difference. Trying to be be more objective after a night's kip, I still feel we lost the game in midfield. There was so much dominance shown there by Preston that most balls into there saw a Preston player take control of it. It is also obvious that Preston targeted our RH side, especially Furlong; whereas Bidwell & Freeman were able to secure the left and also move upfield. Sadly they often found Wells had been forced back to help out the midfield, so there was nobody there. I do feel that Eze is a luxury when we are playing sides such as Preston that are set upon physically dominating play. His rare, very rare, moments of magic yesterday did not compensate for not helping out more. I would have played either Oteh in his role or strengthened the midfield with Manning or Hall. McClaren did none of this, so he must share some of the blame too.
Post by northwesthoop on Jan 20, 2019 16:03:31 GMT
As you say kingfisher the game was lost in midfield and Cousins has come in for a lack of criticism online despite only playing 45 minutes (we did worse without him).
It begs the question could we see Manning starting in the cup next week? Normally I'd say yes but he hasn't seen any action since being recalled.
The midfield were definitely the main issue but I also thought that there were poor performances from Lynch, Leistner and Lumley. For me it was only Bidwell and possibly Wells who warranted performance points of greater than 5.
I hope today was just a blip because our performance was very similar to those first 4 games.
I would only add Freeman to the list of 'worthies' rated above a '5' stoatey as his intercepts at least proved he was watching the ball and trying to make a difference. Trying to be be more objective after a night's kip, I still feel we lost the game in midfield. There was so much dominance shown there by Preston that most balls into there saw a Preston player take control of it. It is also obvious that Preston targeted our RH side, especially Furlong; whereas Bidwell & Freeman were able to secure the left and also move upfield. Sadly they often found Wells had been forced back to help out the midfield, so there was nobody there. I do feel that Eze is a luxury when we are playing sides such as Preston that are set upon physically dominating play. His rare, very rare, moments of magic yesterday did not compensate for not helping out more. I would have played either Oteh in his role or strengthened the midfield with Manning or Hall. McClaren did none of this, so he must share some of the blame too.
I totally agree about McClaren. We are so predictable and our recent opponents have now sussed us out. Our Plan B of lumping the ball up to Smith is only going to be effective if the ball is arriving from wide positions rather than straight up the middle and even then I only see doing that for the last 10 to 15 minutes.
In respect of Eze, he should have been rested weeks ago, I think most of the fans can see that he is not at his best but not McClaren. Eze is still maturing and is still abit of a luxury which is fine when the rest of the team are playing well or at least performing at a 7/10 level. Unfortunately for us too many of our team are performing below average. For me Cousins has more bad games than good games and really doesn't warrant a starting place, I forgive Scowen his performance yesterday because he looked a little unlucky to be booked early on and then got the ball stuck under his feet when given a poor pass from Lumley for their opener.
I hope that Manning and Oteh get a chance in the cup against Pompey to stake a claim for a place In the next Championship game.
