Bath have the league's joint top scorer Scott Wilson (level on goals with a couple of unknowns called Alfie Pavey and George Alexander) and their player Jordan Thomas is just 2 goals behind, so they have some successful attacking players. As I pointed out earlier, the fixtures have led to us playing 10 of the top 12 teams in our first 14 games, and from November we will start having easier fixtures, and will then start climbing the table. Bath look a likely play off team, so getting anything from this game would be good news.
After today we'd have played 4 of the top 6 which I would imagine is unique within the league at this stage of the season. I was at the Chelmsford and Worthing games and we were the equal of those two teams for the majority of the game and from what I understand at Taunton, we were far superior......so I have no fears about us being competitive today. We all know the issue - we've scored seven goals in eight games and have no options up front. Bath have actually conceded 12 goals - only 1 less than us, and if you take out the terrible first half at Truro, we've only conceded 8 in seven and a half games.....despite playing those top sides.
As we said on the Worthing thread, the horrible inevitability is that we will probably have long spells of possession, look reasonably sound and organised at the back but will sped 90 minutes watching Kamara and/or MacAllister getting bullied and ragdolled by experienced centre halves. I just can't see any other pattern to the game, but will be there today in hope rather than expectation. An own goal, penalty, other set play or a worldie from a midfielder is the only way I see us scoring. Hope I'm wrong on that !
One goal in the last 4 games. A header from a corner. Says it all. Pretty possession football. Weve outplayed most teams over the last few weeks but if we played until Tuesday we still wouldnt have scored.
Stick around for a beer after the game and watch the England game says twitter so they close the downstairs bar! Always our own worst enemy! Nags head it is then
We certainly played some good football to watch, but we had, and have, nobody who knows how to score. It was if there was an invisible shield along their penally area and we just didnt know what to do next!
well not win matches without a scorer, where we find one, thats fit, available and affordable I dont know, I just hope Danny does
Maybe the heat made me a bit irritable, but I watched the match and said we need a plan B, as we keep playing exactly the same formation with the same players, it hasn't worked for us so far, so we need to try something new.
I am a charitable guy, who believes in giving people a chance, but my patience with Alex in attack has been totally exhausted, once again he contributed no real end product, and looks as dangerous as Bambi to me each time he plays. I say just stick with DAVID Kamara from now on.
I asked my son if he thought we should play Antony in attack, as it is obvious Plan A of rotating Alex and David doesn't work, and my son very bluntly told me "no, he never scores". Harsh, as Antony has lots of different qualities, and I am a big fan of his, but I can see where my son is coming from. But unlike my son I know Antony is fast, strong and has a record of scoring when he has a run of games in attacking roles. The other regular central midfielder Dominic is equally unlikely to score. So our rotating isolated strikers dont score, the central midfielders behind them don't score, yet we keep on playing these players in exactly the same formation and position. I was watching how much damage Lewis and Jephte did on the wing, and it felt a bit criminal to have them in marginal roles, rather than central and much more involved
We needed a goal, yet still stuck with Plan A of one guy up front, taking off a striker to put on another striker. We needed a change of formation to two up front, sometimes one has to gamble, we were a goal behind, so conceding another wouldn't have changed much, but scoring a goal would have.
We already have the new striking solutions in our squad, already mentioned Antony, Lewis and Jephte can dribble their way through defences, which certainly could never be said of Alex. I do rate David, he just needs support in attacks. Try different guys in attack, they can't do worse than Alex. Maybe the players dont have confidence in him either, he has never got much supply from them, but he is so lightweight in attack I get why they choose other options.
I heard someone say they won though daylight robbery, but how many shots on target did we have? Look at our squad and the positions they play at the moment and where are the goals going to come from? Plan B, C, D are long overdue.
Jimmie. Your first paragraph was probably word for word what I planned on posting.
That in itself is rather worrying.
I have witnessed all of our games so far,and have yet to see a substitution prove to have any positive impact on a game.
We seem to be steadfast on playing one up front.
That one tends to stay not up front alone for long.
Chasing a game, perhaps go with two, tell them you dont want them wandering back and thereby bringing three of the opponents defenders out from attack.
Bloody frustrating.
Danny Bloor knows. Gary Fiore knows. I know. You know. We all know whats needed to put things right. But finding one maybe two extra half decent strikers is not easy. Worryingly we dont have goals coming from anywhere else either.
It seems now to have become a routine, solid at the back, competent in midfield playing some nice approach football, however, that is where it ends. The final product appears non-existent and, without appearing to sound like a broken record, nothing upfront and everything seemingly to stop in the final third. The delivery from the flanks was awful and put no pressure on Bath at all. Bath showed nothing except from cashing in on one mistake which led to the goal. All that is negative, on the positive side, we are an extremely fit side who works for each other but one meaningful strike on goal, after all of our possession, speaks volumes about the last third of the pitch. Money must be very tight, it will be interesting what Danny says in his after match interview.
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In three words I can sum up everything i've learnt in life; it goes on.
We played some really good football yesterday which was pleasing to see. As many have alluded to we lack that cutting edge up front. I think the team are getting better and fitter and hope they can turn some ofthese performances into wins. Getting a player who can score 10+ goals is a premium at this level. Enjoyed going to the games again this season so up the Wings and get behind the team.
My comments echo everyone else's. De ja vu. We are playing some very good and entertaining football to watch. Our defence is solid and already look like a good unit. The passing football is easy on the eye but in the last third we are terrible, never look like scoring. Once we concede I immediately think we are going to lose. It puts a lot of pressure on the defence to keep a clean sheet if we hardly ever score. The defenders must think FFS do your job forwards we are doing ours. We desperately need 1 maybe 2 strikers before it's too late. But where to find them and afford them? I trust Danny Bloor has the solution. A couple of things I did notice was how slow we played out allowing Bath defenders to get back in position and re-set while when they attacked they moved quicker catching us out of position. Their goal came from a Welling throw on. I also felt we didn't use the width of the pitch and often ran into traffic. Especially the left flank in the second half. I believe David Kamara is more dangerous and better than Alex McAllister and should be first choice at the moment but it is a lot of pressure on a 17 year old. Even Alex is only 19. You don't see many Norman Whitesides or Wayne Rooneys. Perhaps until we can bring in a new striker we should play 2 upfront a combination from David, Alex, Antony and Jepte I don't know.
Verdict: I really liked the Bath City away kit and I still love Welling United Football Club
The match mapped out exactly as we all predicted - by far the better side on the ball, dominated possession, looked neat and tidy and well organised and players giving 100% effort throughout. There is one massive problem and sadly its the most important one which ultimately wins football matches - goals.
I watched MacAllister very closely yesterday - maybe its because I used to be a forward myself and also not the biggest, quickest and strongest. So the best coaches I worked with always worked on your movement - the clever runs, pulling centre halves into the channels to create space for others, a subtle push and shove here and there to steal a yard. MacAllister offers none of this - his movement is virtually non existent. I watched Tanga and others making decent runs and then looking up for him. Rather than working the channels he just stands between two centre halves and it would take a prime David Beckham to pick him out in positions like that. When Adom came on, he started causing havoc just with his movement. Available for quick one twos, prepared to work the channels - we looked more threatening in the first five minutes after MacAllister went off than the whole time he was on the field. I have no personal axe to grind with the boy but he is nowhere near this level and you can see from his body language that he knows that as well - he's effectively hiding in games.
Having said that Lewis White is a massive disappointment for me, given that he is supposed to be one of our key players. He didn't beat his man once yesterday and looks to be going through the motions
Barring those two it would be very hard to criticise anyone. The problem is that those midfield lads and defenders know what the problem is and they will start to get very pissed off without options up front.
Listening to Danny's interview, you can't help but love the bloke's honesty and down to earth style. He knows the problem and I believe him when he says he'll be working all hours to solve the problem. In next to no time he's built a team from nothing - playing excellent football and giving their all. He's built a connection with the fans and deserves to be successful, and I truly hope he is. He knows the issue, the squad knows the issue, and all of us know the issue. If we find the right striker(s), we'll be just fine. Still confident - just frustrated!
I was also watching MacAllister very carefully, to work out why we have a problem in attack when he plays. I thought he runs around like a headless chicken, chasing the ball everywhere, chasing the ball to corners (so being in no position to score) dropping deep into midfield chasing the ball (so being in no position to score). I remember being impressed pre-season with his endless running and movement, but actually, the more one sees him the more one realises he has no sense of holding position to be a target man, or near enough to goal to shoot. So invariably when he is on we have no cutting edge, as he has moved out of an attacking position. He looks demoralised, going through the motions. Treacle is spot on in everything he says about him.
Daniel holds a much better central striking position, staying higher up, closer to the opposition goal, so much more of a cutting edge. He really lifted the team when he came on.
Playing up front alone is a specialist skill that few strikers have. West Ham signed Sebastian Haller, so I looked at his highlights before he joined, and saw his skill was one twos to get through defences and score. But at West Ham he was played as a lone target man, and flopped, as he only worked well playing along side another striker. He then left, and did really well as his next team who didn't waste his abilities by trying to play him alone up front.
Danny is really fixed on his formation of one striker, and it may have worked for him before with a striker that was fine alone up front, but our strikers dont have the things needed to be effective as a lone striker. So he really needs to realise that formation does not match the strikers in this squad, and shift to two up front, or a floating player just behind the striker. This issue isn't related just to this game, it has been the story in all of Danny's games.
Just seen the highlights, the highlights on the Bath channel very clearly show right at the end Jephte being grabbed by the sleeve when running for goal, so we should have had a penalty, which would have been a well deserved draw if converted.
This has been a nuts season, where often the results haven't reflected how well we have played, and where penalties have been badly affected us, two missed penalties cost us draws in each game, the opposition have had dodgy penalties awarded against us, and we have had several clear penalties not awarded for us, the one against Bath being just the latest example. We'd be mid table on around 12 points if the penalty decisions had been correctly made, and if we'd scored the two we have graciously been awarded.
On current form we are very evenly matched against Dartford for the cup game on Saturday, so it may well come down to penalties. I would need to refer to Alan's incredibly reliable records, but seem to remember we got knocked out of two cup competitions last season on penalties, and at least once on penalties the season before, so I hope we have practiced our penalties ahead of the Dartford game on Saturday.
-- Edited by Jimmie on Monday 11th of September 2023 06:57:36 PM
-- Edited by Jimmie on Monday 11th of September 2023 08:30:38 PM
Bath are a good side. They did what they needed to do. They took the only clear cut chance they had then put two banks of four behind the ball which we couldnt break down. Lets be honest we had loads of the ball by created nothing of note. We play nice on the floor football from box to box but when it comes to the business end we are lightweight. The players need to park that game and get up for the FA Cup Derby on Saturday.
-- Edited by Riverstown on Monday 11th of September 2023 08:05:50 PM
I was also watching MacAllister very carefully, to work out why we have a problem in attack when he plays. I thought he runs around like a headless chicken, chasing the ball everywhere, chasing the ball to corners (so being in no position to score) dropping deep into midfield chasing the ball (so being in no position to score). I remember being impressed pre-season with his endless running and movement, but actually, the more one sees him the more one realises he has no sense of holding position to be a target man, or near enough to goal to shoot. So invariably when he is on we have no cutting edge, as he has moved out of an attacking position. He looks demoralised, going through the motions. Treacle is spot on in everything he says about him.
Daniel holds a much better central striking position, staying higher up, closer to the opposition goal, so much more of a cutting edge. He really lifted the team when he came on.
Playing up front alone is a specialist skill that few strikers have. West Ham signed Sebastian Haller, so I looked at his highlights before he joined, and saw his skill was one twos to get through defences and score. But at West Ham he was played as a lone target man, and flopped, as he only worked well playing along side another striker. He then left, and did really well as his next team who didn't waste his abilities by trying to play him alone up front.
Danny is really fixed on his formation of one striker, and it may have worked for him before with a striker that was fine alone up front, but our strikers dont have the things needed to be effective as a lone striker. So he really needs to realise that formation does not match the strikers in this squad, and shift to two up front, or a floating player just behind the striker. This issue isn't related just to this game, it has been the story in all of Danny's games.
I'm thinking West Side Johnny loves The ****ney Rejects and also Elton John!
If you stick to 'Kamara', like you said 'MacAllister', you will avoid 'Daniel'.
MacAllister is definitely a Step 3 player and we should play him in The London Cup up in North London to see how he performs.
The forum doesn't allow the typing of the band in full & puts 4 asterisks in place of the c,o,c & k!! - that's censorship gone mad. What about if I say... "he was born in the East End and is a true ****ney"
