We were. Then he took off a forward player and brought on a centre back. Doing this allowed their defenders more time to lump balls forward. He did the same last week against a team who were playing it out from the back. Removing a forward and putting on a centre back made it EASIER for them to play it out and get forward. We looked comfortable and he took a step back. Both games. Both games the other team were then able to get forward easier. Last time it nearly cost us. This time it did cost us.
This was coming i hope this is not the cave in starting, he should be bringing players on to put a game out of site not to defend, what the hell happened ? take the ball to the corner flag for christs sake in the future at least. this defence is still not good enough. better win the next 2 now though.
Fair comment. I think he did what most managers would do. Jose, for example, became known as one of the greatest (not comparing the two) by defending leads. We've got a talented and cohesive team, better than anything I've seen since we've come down, and we've been close before. We'll be alright,i reckon. We didn't get beat. Haway the lads.
Fair enough, I just think that's what most managers do. It would have been uber brave of him to not try and defend the lead.
Thought we were poor, even leading 2-0. We seemed to go back to slowing it down, passing sideways or back too many times.
I'm not saying you're wrong but I don't see Johnson as the kind of manager to stubbornly dig his heels in and refuse to fix a problem because he wants to do it 'his way'. If he doesn't address it someone else like Speakman will.
Bit of a sickener but not going to have a meltdown, thought we played some good stuff. Fullbacks good, CM good. need to take chances though and Gooch not doing enough.
Not only that but subbing our 3 main suppliers for attacking football, I'm not gonna start ripping into Johnson just yet as we should've still won that match had it not been fir 2 howlers from Wright. For me Alves should get the nod ahead of him for every game from now on. Can't believe I'm gonna say this but we missed flannaghan today
I'm having a moan at LJ here but to be absolutely clear - I back him. I love what he's done to the club and the team. I am in no way suggesting I want him out. I just want him to learn and improve, as this part of his management "style" is going to cost us promotion unless he gets out of the mindset that extra defender = better defending. Defending starts at the front. He knows that better than anyone. But when a team is starting all their attacks from defence (be it long balls or playing it out), why on earth make it easier for their defenders to do that by taking off the person who had been closing them down? Put somebody like Huggins on to close them down. Make it harder to for them up the pitch to start attacks, rather than attempt to make it harder for them to score once they have successfully started an attack 3 center backs is usually going to have a better chance of succeeding against an attack than 2 is, sure. But we shouldn't be inviting them to have more attacks. We should be trying to limit how many they have in the first place. If there's a man standing opposite you with a gun, would you rather take away his bullets or put on a bulletproof vest?
One more point before I disappear off to calm down... I actually think today might be a blessing in disguise. We still played well, we still got a point, which in previous years would have been a draw. We've been playing well this season but not killing off games. We've had decent luck in that regard. I feel like today's result might be the day that shows both the players and the manager that we need to keep going.
I'm very confident he will learn from it. As per my last post - today might be a blessing in disguise in that regard. We got a point in a game we'd have normally lost, frankly. Learning this lesson whilst still getting a point away from home is best case scenario.