Match Day Thread Versus Preston

I am unable to comment on this game.

 

If we stay up this season with Foster still in charge.....I definitely think that next season could be horrific.

The value of Whittaker is depleting after each Foster game....and he will move on in the summer for a fraction of what he was worth before Foster arrived.

Hardie under Foster's style is lucky to get the ball let alone score.

How can 10 weeks change a team so dramatically.

 

i wont comment on this game..

 

Booing and chanting is poor form for me albeit I do not think serving up what we are being served right now is acceptable either. Poor from Argyle, poor from the officials and no great shakes from Preston either. I'm saying nothing more as well.

 

Morning folk as for thhe game thought we deserved it should have had more goals no idea what yurgaffer iis goig on about the penalty Hughes got the ball looking a the highlights but some will disagree.
Finally your away support have journeys like that every other week, every credit for the numbers you take right match blog sometime today

 

I said I couldn’t comment yesterday. Like many I suspect, I was genuinely upset by the performance and didn't want to speak in that state. On the other hand. I do want to get it out of my brain.

I’m not sure I know what to say anyway. How can we have gone for 90 minutes without creating a single worthwhile chance against a Preston team that don’t really impress?

I can’t blame the players for lack of effort and given that they were clapped off by many if not all, I’m not the only one who feels that way. I thought Joe Edwards was an absolute hero yesterday, leading by example.

Nevertheless, if there were options on the bench, I suspect neither Whittaker or Hardie would have lasted the 90 minutes. The pair of them of have played pretty much every minute for which they’ve been available and this is a tough league. Tougher physically I think than the Premier League, which I watch a lot of. There, the game is more cerebral . The defences form up tactically and the opposition probe and retreat, probe and retreat until they find a gap when there’s a short but intense burst of high- speed activity. The Championship is a pitched battle with tackles flying for 90 minutes. To be honest, it’s exhausting to watch, never mind play in. Where is Callum Wright? He may not be the most polished player but he doesn’t half get around the pitch and would be an unwelcome problem to give tired defenders for the last 15 minutes.

We had a small squad in the first place and lost quality where it counts in the January window. Financial fair play is forcing clubs to cash in where they can and that makes the loan market inherently more risky than it was only a year ago. Where that leaves our recruitment model, I don’t know.

What’s also clear is that whatever the background of Neil Dewsnip and Ian Foster, you can’t succeed with just kids, to paraphrase Alan Hansen. Perhaps if the kids include Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and David Beckham you can, but not ordinarily. We need a backbone of experienced players and competent replacements.

Maybe the biggest recruitment mistake of all was ending up with a Director of Football and a Head Coach from the same unusual background. A meeting of minds can be useful but so can a bit of creative tension. It’ll be intriguing to see where Dewsnip was yesterday. The summariser on the Blackburn game said that the appointment of a first team coach two days previously would allow Dewsnip “to return to his place in the grandstand”. Has he? Because he was in fact in the dugout against Blackburn, at least for part of the game: I saw him on Argyle TV.

Saying “how can Foster have reduced us to this” is not entirely fair. He doesn’t have the squad Schumacher did. Nevertheless, make no mistake, unless he finds a way to play that works, we will go down playing like this. There are no signs of it yet.

The summariser on the Blackburn game mentioned playing Hardie and Bundu as a pair, with Whittaker as a single number 10 behind them. Perhaps that would make Whittaker harder to mark and Hardie could run off Bundu’s strength.

Maybe now’s the time to give Issaka a chance even if it’s a bit too soon for him personally. Having said that, he’s consistently in the Welsh youth teams and is only 11 months younger than Ashley Phillips, who’s playing at CB where mistakes are often fatal. He’s in the same Under 19’s international cohort as Lino Sousa. One thing’s for sure, the crowd would back Freddie to the hilt however he plays so he’s nothing to fear, not that he looks as if he knows what fear is anyway. As they sing to Michael Cooper and Adam Randell, he’s own of our own.

Other than that, we’re buggered as far as I can see, but then, it’s not my job or yours, it’s Ian Foster’s.

 

You deserved it against the Argyle team you played yesterday but if you'd played us before Christmas, we'd have walloped you for several.

 

If you had played us before Christmas I can wholeheartedly agree with that, anyway good luck in the run in and here's my take on it

https://www.not606.com/threads/plymouth-argyle-home-park-16-3-2024.411757/

 

Thinking about it, if I ruled the world, I’d pick:

Cooper (obvs)

Gibson Scarr Galloway

Miller Randell Houghton Mumba

Whittaker

Hardie Bundu

Notice anything?

 

No newbies ?

 

Foster needs to be dropped lol!

 

Watched highlights (now there is a joke) on the EFL goals programme today. Watched the Hardie incident about half a dozen times. Nailed on penalty if ever there was one. I didn't think Preston particularly deserved anything from the game but again I didn't think Argyle did either. Preston very good at going down easy and feigning injury to stop the play. Not impressed as a spectacle and cannot quite see how they are as high up the league as they are playing that. Have seen a lot better from lower teams this season. Don't think they will make the play offs and if they did by some weird chance then would not be at Wembley in the final game.

 

Preston were strictly average weren't they? We started much better than they did but the two (genuine) delays for injuries that led to two substitutions in the first 20 minutes seemed to disturb us more than they did them.

I watched Foster's post match interview and press conference. He handled it fairly well I think: stated the responsibility was his and no one else's, that he felt the players had given their all and were as disappointed as he was and that although fans have a right to vent their feelings, it didn't actually help anyone. He made the point that Ryan Lowe had won Argyle's first promotion but had been booed onto the pitch and that's the nature of the manager's job.

He wasn't sure the international break was much help. The players all wanted to get back on the pitch as soon as possible and put it right. Seven players are on international duty and some will be back only on the Wednesday before the Norwich game. It had been an intensive run of games and most of those not called up needed a recovery period while the others, who hadn't had much game time, needed full squad training. Still, from the fans point of view, he needs to make the most of what he's got doesn't he?

That call-up list:

Bundu
Galloway
Halls
Hazard
Issaka
Phillips
Waine

 

The only match video I have found is the Sky one.....which shows the majority of attacking was done by Preston.....and their is no sign of the Hardie penalty incident or the possible Miller red card.

It did show the Bundu heading miss.....he should have scored.....there have been comments that Cooper should have done better with the goal....but I think that would be a little harsh.