Match Day Thread versus Wigan

We did the bottom club and kick started their season so now we have the second from bottom. Have we gone back to the old "if you want to start a run or break a run then play Argyle" sort of situation?

Nah! We should win this and think we will win this one. Not being cocky but we only need a couple of results to go for us and we will be safe and can relax for the rest of the season. Think we have plenty about us to achieve that.



COYG

 

Unfortunately Scott Wootton will not be playing against us tonight...he is not eligible......

 

Cooper, Watts, Opoku, Aimson, MacLeod, Edwards, Grant, Mayor, Camara, Jephcott, Ennis.

Subs
McCormick, Hardie, Reeves, Moore, Fornah, Lolos, Lewis.

MacLeod starts instead of Fornah.

 

2-0 down in 32 minutes....not a banana skin....but maybe a box of banana skins......Solomon-Otabor...13 mins.....Tilt...32 mins.

 

0-2...H/T....luckily I'm not watching this on ifollow....reading around it seems the general opinion is that we're just a mess....with a very poor defence.....our purpose in life seems to be kick-starting bottom of the league clubs to begin climbing the league.

Has Lowe got the ability to get this team performing in the second half.....we're about to find out.

 

0-2...F/T......so glad I didn't waste £10 on that.

 

Well that's being said but it's wrong. We've hit the woodwork 3 times. Early in the first half, there's a tackle in the Wigan box which gives the ref a choice. If the Wigan defender got the ball, it's a corner. If he didn't, it's a penalty. His decision? Goal kick of course.

Wigan to be fair made two good goals albeit that Conor Grant should have been tighter to block a near post header fir the second.

Niall Ennis has been nothing short of magnificent. We've played some lovely football although having gone behind, we've had to take risks at the back. We've had stacks of chances but every one seems to have been drawn magnetically to their keeper.

We were poor against Rochdale and Northampton but this was nothing like that. As an absolute minimum we deserved a point and probably three but we've upset the Football Gods somehow and nothing's going right.

 

But, and it is never a good thing to start with one of those, we may have hit the post a few times although it also has to be said we kind of never looked like scoring either. This sort of game is becoming a habit. I do not for one minute think we are in a relegation fight but this has to be sorted out. We seem to stand and watch the opposition glide past as if we aren't there, and mostly we aren't, and let them create chances they should never have. The Defence is a shambles. The space we allow is beyond belief. There are player that just let them wander forward without themselves making any kind of effort to track back or assist. Every time they let a chance be created whether scored or not somebody is pointing to somebody else and suggesting they should have done this or that. They themselves of course have done nothing either. It's ok having a **** defence if you are knocking them in at the other end for fun. We seem to have no luck whatsoever in front of goal. It gets a touch here or there, a post knocks it out rather than in, it's straight at the keeper. We get nothing from the Ref is another. Stop blaming the player Mr Lowe and now prove you are a manager of the future. You train them, you create the tactics so earn your coin.

 

At least i didn't have to get up early for this frustrating game.
Wonder who Lowe will blame this time.

 

It IS the players though Sensible. For that second goal, Conor Grant (who I think is a good player BTW) is NEARLY there but that's no good. He has to be touch tight and get in his way if he can't win the ball.

Lowe can't do much about half a second late and half a metre short.

 

Yes he can notdistant he trains these players and he can make them practice it over and over and over and over etc etc. If he can get them to pass it to death and retain the ball then he can get them to defend properly. It's like groundhog day at the moment with the way these games are going. We need two things currently. One is obviously a proper defence and the other is a bit of luck at the other end of the pitch because we aren't getting any there either. If we didn't have a 4 game cushion with the relegation zone I would start to worry a lot.

 

General opinion seems to be...

1.....That we have no plan B.

2......That we play at the same tempo whether we're winning, drawing, or losing.

3.....That by playing wing-backs who can't get up and down the pitch quickly we leave our defence unsupported.

4.....This leaves our wing areas giving the opposition acres of space to attack us.

5.....And with Aimson and Watts not being quick enough we are always vulnerable to being caught out.

6.....Also we rarely threaten with our substitute players.

7.....Also mentioned tonight that MacLeod just isn't match ready to start and definately rusty because of it.

8.....It is now obvious that Jephcott's early season form covered over our poor goal scoring from the rest of the team....it is now eight games without a goal from him.

 

I wish I could but unfortunately I can't argue with most of that.

 

I think our season is over....no chance of the play-offs if we can't beat the bottom teams....BUT we mustn't think we're safe from the drop just yet....bottom teams are starting to win games.....you might of noticed........

AND.....not all Argyle players will be playing for a contract here next season.....Watts, Opoku, Fornah, Lewis and Woods interests will be with their parent clubs.....do we expect them to keep bursting a gut for us ?.....three of these are regulars for us each week.

 

Now the fun begins!....bloody lot of them should have been given six of the best by headmaster Mr. Hallett

 

Just watched the match video and Lowe's post-match comments.

How many goals have we conceded down our left flank....it seems so inevitable that the killer ball into our penalty area comes from that side.....it cannot just be Watts fault....where is the left wing-back tracking back to help....to be honest I've not noticed if any one is there.....you have to go down to the bottom clubs to find worse goals against defences.

Lowe's post match comments are wearing thin now...I think he has no idea how to drill a defence....you look at lesser teams in this league....and there are quite a few....and they with less skilled players can organize a defence to blunt attacks......we just seem to have a gung-ho approach of attacking and we'll score more goals than you...tally-ho everyone......BUT WE DON'T SCORE MORE GOALS THEN THEM.....our goals against now are becoming a liability....meaning we need to score more goal to counteract that situation.....why do we let attacking players run past us while we trot back...besides them not being quick enough are they not fit enough as well......I feel for Camara at times....he covers an enormous area of the pitch and at times beats his defenders back after being in the oppositions penalty area moments before....do we expect him to do that every game and play two games a week.....and people say he 'didn't play so well tonight'....even Duracell bunnies eventually go flat.....we don't need him burning himself out with still 12 games to go to make sure we stay in mid-table.

Personally this summer is important....we need to to bring in sound defenders to build a team around....and I think that isn't ever in Lowe's mind....he was a forward and thinks attack first and last.....that only works if you score the goals and we're not.....Jephcott is now nine games away from his last goal.....and we might need to down-load a video for him to show him what a goal looks like.

My final thought is....maybe Ryan Lowe is the wrong type of manager for us to have if we're ever going to get to the Championship....and also to not get relegated from this Division as well......remember we haven't got mountains of cash to buy success....and maybe that is the only way Lowe would get to the Championship.

 

But they are playing for their careers wherever that may take them so I really don't think lack of effort is an issue. In fact, you could say they have more to lose than those with contracts.

It's delivery that's the problem.

At least both goals last night came from open play. The way we play is always going to leave us open to that. What there is no excuse for is conceding so many from dead balls.

Equally, we are making chances but not taking them. That's better than not making them at all. We've got three good strikers and they must surely start scoring again soon. Mustn't they?

 

It's absolutely ridiculous to be calling for Ryan Lowe's head.

He got us promoted in his first year having got Bury up the year before. Everyone agreed at the start of the year that consolidation in League 1 would be an acceptable outcome especially with budgets constrained by Covid.

Now here we are in mid table, playing good football with some good signings made and it's suddenly a disaster.

Yes, we're all frustrated by another run of bad results and worried too but give the man a break.

 

The problem with a high percentage of our chances is that theyr'e not on target anyway.....you don't need a keeper or defender to stop them.

I can't remember if I said it on here or elsewhere....but a few years back....3 or 4 years maybe....I was at the Wimbledon match...sitting behind the practice goal early before the match...watching Argyle warm up....when it came to the shooting at goal moment it became a bit like sitting in a shooting range....so many shots missed the goal.....after the players had finished some of us had to relocate to other seats....there must of been 4 or 5 plastic seats destroyed by balls smashing into them with splinters of plastic like shrapnel flying around....why....it doesn't help the keeper to get in the zone missing the goal completely.

 

In Jephcott, Hardie and Ennis we've got the 3 best strikers for a long time. Who is in the same league? Ebanks-Blake, Mariner, Tynan, Ruben Reid?