Is it down to concentration, poor tactics, lack of fitness???
Even our midfield being decimated by injury, and the back up not be strong enough, lack of pace going forward, inviting pressure at the back, on a make shift defence.
Theres only so many players that will fit under the bus, but it keeps happening time and time again.
Is it something that can be worked on and improved,
I don’t want Lee to get binned, he deserves respect, most people would have walked long ago, but we do need to improve.
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He did the job at one stage of a covering Midfielder when he tracked back a runner when Matthews (?) didnt
MIA, there was no need for the Alamo approach yesterday or against Shrewsbury.
As most games are over 97 minutes long now, concentration is paramount.
Yesterday was the prime example of retreating and retreating as soon as we don’t have the ball. We didn’t go forward and invited pressure. This keeps happening and I am starting to think that Bowyer is losing a little bit of confidence within himself and the players.
There were so many times that Swindon had the ball in their half, carried it forward, and all we done was retreat to the edge of our box.
The substitutions of taking off two midfielders and bringing on two full-backs says to the opposition, “come on then, attack us, because we’re not going to attack now”. So what does that also say to our players on the pitch?
The best form of defence is attack, the majority of the time.
If you continue to play the way that got you into the lead, if you continue to create chances, if you continue to have and keep the ball higher up the pitch, it’s very, very difficult for the opponents to get the ball into your net...
Ultimately, this has happened a lot over the last few years, but is extremely obvious when playing away from home, that Bowyer seems to have lost a bit of confidence and belief. I hope they sit down and work through it this week because we are better than what we have shown in the last 2 away games.
Spurs did it at Palace last week. Sat back, invited pressure and what happened, eventually Palace scored. Lo and behold when they then had to force the game and go looking for a winner, Spurs dominated possession and Palace didn't get another chance. Why not play like that in the first place?
We have a much better team and players than Swindon (and Shrewsbury), so we should be dictating the game. Not sitting back and just inviting a team to attack. It's happened so many times now though, i literally can't fathom out why Bowyer still adopts this tactic.
This 'tactic' of sitting back probably cost us survival last season as we dropped so many points late on. The Birmingham one still annoys me as they were shit and on a terrible run and we just sat back almost inviting them to score.
I'm not saying we should be going all out attack late on, but don't change a 433 or 442 to a 541, just keep your existing shape and formation that got you the lead in the first place. Same as i never understand why a team with a 1 goal lead often bring all 11 men back to defend a set piece/corner. Therefore meaning the opposition side can pile more men forward. If you leave 2 or 3 men up, they need to leave 3 or 4 men back.
Though I've not seen anyone say that we should be going "all out attack".
It's surely fairly easy to understand that if you're comfortable in a game playing (for example) 442, then switching that to 541 is probably going to affect the teams rhythm and invite pressure. Naturally the ball doesn't stick up top (unless the 1 you have up front is someone like Drogba or Zlatan), and just comes back at you.
Bringing on more defenders
Not utilising all possible substitutions
Lessons clearly not learned
Fear?
Stupidity?
Arrogance?
combination of all 3
This is 3rd division Sweeping breakaways with slick goals are beyond rare So keep the ball as far from our goal as possible
Can’t expect 3rd division makeshift defenders to be error free even without pressure
So play the game as far into the opposition half as possible
The manager set the tone
Even during the bulk of the game you can see them switch off.
The problem is when we take the lead and don't get another - Bowyer will with some time to go - be it 25 minutes or 20 minutes decide to close out the game. We simply can't do this. It really doesn't need a reason why, that is Bowyer's problem. What we have to do is just see it for what it is. Statistics show us that 14 points were lost last season, 4 recently this season. In goals conceded in 90 minutes plus extra time.
I believe that when you take defenders off for midfielders, it sends a message to opponents and a message to our players. Opponents have to look for a goal anyway, but this is an invitation to do it earlier and with more risk. Our players feel they have to sit deep so the ball keeps going back to us.
It is one thing doing it with a couple of minutes to go and riding your luck. But it is a lot harder to ride your luck for 20, 25 minutes even. Opponents don't even have to play well as because we are so deep the cleared ball keeps returning. It becomes increasingly more intense and without the ability to reset, our players become more panicky and by consequence more likely to concede. This culminates in desperation in the closing minutes.
However we have conceded 6 between 31-HT - why not ask that question
All the stats are in the Statbank, if your question refers to this season then I suggest you check the facts first.
Really cannot understand why we are doing this with a one goal lead - we should be pushing forward more where the gaps open up on the opposition as they get desperate to score an equaliser. Need that killer instinct.
Those 4 points dropped late in our last two away games would have put us in second place on goal difference with two games in hand on the top team and one game in hand on third place.
Opportunity spurned.
Sometimes I do wonder about Bowyer. If I was a stranger to football I wouldn't have guessed that he played at the top level for a number of years. Just knowing that a team who have lost their last 4 will be short on confidence so when they let 1 in you all know their heads will drop and their thinking is then "oh no....here we go again". So you attack them & create chances.....shoot when you can. Get on top & don't let them get out of their half. But in the 2nd half Bowyer does the opposite. We finally get ahead in the game & instead of going for the 3rd we try and protect the 2-1lead.