Just Back

[JannerinCardiff]

I was at the game & truthfully, whilst it was frustrating, I don’t think our performance was as bad as people are perhaps making out. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a particularly good performance, but I’ve seen us play much worse in recent years & with the way some people are reacting, you’d think we were terrible & that we were steamrolled.

I completely disagree with the OP’s Port Vale supporting mate when he says they outplayed us, they didn’t. Bar the goal & a short spell after the goal, the game was fairly even, I’d probably even say we were the better side. We had a 20 minute spell before their goal when we were turning the screw & were very much on top, we needed to capitalise then.

We were let down by 2 things really. Firstly a lack of bravery in the final third, we had numerous shooting opportunities but we rarely actually got our shots away. There was also a moment when Mayor put a perfect ball across the face of goal that someone should be attacking but nobody did, Lowe referred to this post match. Secondly our usual bit of poor defending from a cross, it was far too easy for their player to nod the ball in.

There’s nothing wrong with the formation in itself. We have a number of players who have never played within a similar system, particularly defensively. We still have Aimson to come in also. It takes time. Lowe isn’t going to change his philosophy, and nor should he, because people are getting inpatient after 8 games of football (and we have played well in a number of them) & crying out for some dinosaur 442 formation.

The last thing I’ll say is, whilst challenging for promotion this season is important, so is building and maintaining an attractive brand of football. I wouldn’t want us to abandon that and go back to robust functional L2 football just in search of a quick promotion. This is a project.

I’ll be at Crawley on Tuesday as well, and I’m honestly already looking forward to it, hopefully we can get a good result & bounce back.

I agree Cobi.

Personally I’ve really enjoyed the football on show by Ryan Lowe’s team. But I’m under no illusions this is a work in progress and recent results haven’t been great, but to me the problems are fixable in the main.

For me there are 3 problems;

1). Teams working out that our left hand side poses more threat than our right. This is not all bad. Most teams are already trying man mark Mayor or double up on Mayor/MacFadzean - bad that are most effective attack/creative minded players have less space but very good that in doing so there is space on the right if we can get the ball over there quick enough. For me this is a positive but we’ve not played the right player in the RWB position yet. For me the best player to play RWB is Byron Moore, he’s quick so can utilise the extra space and can take on and beat a man in 1 on 1’s, and also has experience of playing RWB in Lowes system having done so with Bury last season. Riley has had plenty of space and ball in this wide right position but unfortunately he’s a RB and hasn’t been able to capitalise on this space to go into.

2). Lowes system to me at least seems to require mobile forwards. Unfortunately much as I like him I think Taylor doesn’t fit Lowes footballing philosophy. To play his style more effectively we need strikers who are constantly on the move to draw defenders out of position and get into the channels and be able to take on defender in wide areas. For me Telford and Joel Grant can do this role and to a lesser extent Rudden, but unfortunately not Taylor (I’ve not included Byron Moore as I hope he’ll play RWB). Teams have tried to press us to stop us playing out from the back, but in doing this they have to leave space between the goalkeeper and defence which we can exploit with our quicker mobile forwards- an example of this was the thru ball to Telford when he picked up his tweaked hamstring against Walsall where he used his pace to be through on goal until he pulled up injured.

3). As has been mentioned by others we need to defend crosses better. From what I’ve heard/read Aimson is decent in the air, this should help against crosses and hopefully give us more attacking threat with our own set pieces.

To me these 3 problems can be sorted and I’m sure RL is aware of them and will put plans in place to solve these weaknesses. As I’ve said tho I like what I see and I’m optimistic about the future - Last season Bury started badly but RL adapted and they finished 2nd scoring the most goals in L2.. there is a long way to go..

:thumbup:

 

[moles40]

Yeah we are not far away from being a decent side,still expect us to be fighting for automatic promotion,eventually.

Let's start on that road with victory at Crawley Town, tomorrow. :scarf:

 

[TheBoldman]

Would it be also fair to say that the Argyle team looks more assured when Edwards plays the holding midfielder role? I think he is so valuable in the middle of the park with his leadership and ability to read the game. We have Riley/T Moore/B Moore/Cooper to choose from for the RWB role, possibly Josh Grant as well? It's about picking the members of the squad for each game who are most effective in their positions, surely?

I honestly don't mind the RWB being a bit more defensively minded than McFadzean as I think that it gives more of a balance to the team generally - attack, attack, attack is fine, but many of the best teams I have ever seen internationally, and up and down the leagues, have often had one attacking back and one more defensively minded back.

Wish I could make it to Crawley but work commitments yadda yadda... I'll be at the Cheltenham game on Saturday though. Hoping for a good win... I have seen it written and said elsewhere that some fans are expecting a team to get an absolute hiding from Argyle once the pieces click in the new Lowe formation and I couldn't agree more - hoped it would be Oldham (could have been!)... maybe it'll be Cheltenham as they're normally a lot stronger at home than away.