DCFC1976

                  Wildsmith 

Ward   Nelson   Cashin   Elder

               Adams   Smith

     Wilson   Hourihane   CBT

                    Waghorn

Loach, Sibley, Washington, Collins, Thompson, Radcliffe, Robinson 

Are Fornah or Bird anywhere near?

He did play well yesterday, obviously if Warne reverts to a back four then it’s Nelson and Cashin.

Glad he’s picked his form up though, at the beginning of the season both he and Nelson made bad errors (Nelson passed straight to a Wigan player who scored I believe) but I think Nelson stayed in due the right foot left foot combination with Cashin. Then with a run of games and team form improving Nelson got more settled.

Bradley has been involved more in recent weeks and has grown in confidence given the extra game time.

       Vickers or Wildsmith 🤷‍♂️

Nyambe  Nelson  Cashin  Elder

Thompson  Adams  Bird or Hourihane

       NML    Collins    CBT

                   Vickers

Wilson   Nelson    Cashin   Elder

   Bird   Thompson   Hourihane

         NML   Collins   CBT

4-3-3, would probably have Wildsmith in but Vickers hasn’t done too much wrong and Warne won’t drop him. Could put Sibley at left back with being at home but thought Elder was best of a bad bunch on Tuesday and if TJJ had been fit I would have played him instead of Collins?!

Not sure why Warne insists on playing Hourihane in a deep lying position in a two. As has been mentioned his legs have gone so if / when he loses the ball he struggles to make amends, but his ability is still there as has been shown in his finishes. I would like to see him in the 10 position if we play that way if not in a midfield three?

Did Crewe really have 6-7 regular first team players absent?

Same old problem, distinct lack of quality!

                    Wildsmith 

Nyambe  Nelson   Cashin   Forsyth

                 Smith   Fornah

           NML   Sibley   Barkuizen 

                      Waghorn

Loach, Collins, Bird, Washington, Bradley, Wilson, Elder

Lee Carsley

                 Wildsmith 

 Smith  Nelson  Cashin  Forsyth 

          Fornah  Hourihane

         NML  Sibley  Waghorn

                John-Jules

Could replace NML with Barkuizen due to his travelling?

20 minutes ago, Magicman said:

I did see him play and my view is Bradley won't be much any better. He is slow and easily beaten too.

Would like to see him play in a 2, not sure a back three suits him. Think he’s played in a 2 most of the time?

2 hours ago, Chris_Martin said:

but he doesn't move and i'm not sure i've ever seen him make more than a 5 yard pass before

I’m getting the feeling your not a fan of Collins?!! 😂

1 hour ago, Chris_Martin said:

whats collins done to stay in the team ?

and what makes you think he could play as an attacking mid?

Scored Saturday, had very little service Tuesday to be fair. Warne said he had played in the 10 position before, think Warne also said he played there when Waghorn and Washington came on against Burton? If everyone fit he wouldn’t start for me but Sibley and Bart aren’t fit.

Assuming both Bird and Ward are injured and that Wilson was just a knock I’d go with;

                    Wildsmith

Wilson   Nelson   Bradley   Forsyth

         Thompson   Hourihane

        NML    Collins   Waghorn

                   Washington

Give Cashin a rest with all the speculation and also don’t think he has played very well although the same could be levelled at Nelson and Bradley?!

3 minutes ago, Topram said:

It’s poor but Jesus Christ youd of thought we’d lost 12 in a row and sat rock bottom, it’s 180 minutes into a long season, give it at least 15 games 

It’s the back end of last season as well, think we’ve won 1 in 8 at home, 3 in 12 overall. There are new players to bed in etc etc but the lack of any cohesive football up the top end of the pitch is worrying!

1 hour ago, S8TY said:

I think Sibley will be going 

Won’t be soon as he’s injured?

Bristol City…. we could quite easily be in the same position as them this time next year. They haven’t been close to promotion for years. Could understand if it was a top 6 Championship side or bottom half of Premier side?!

On 15/04/2023 at 17:56, Dcfcsr92 said:

The formation doesn't suit our squad you cant blame nml it doesnt suit him, maybe you should blame the management i understand thats what he wants to play but it really doesnt suit our squad! The football isnt even good! We look so poor 

I wasn’t necessarily blaming NML, he’ll play where he has to to play but as you say the system doesn’t suit him, he probably doesn’t want to play it so perhaps isn’t committed in playing it as well as he could. It is down to the management which was really what I was getting at. Also NML hasn’t played well for a few weeks regardless of the position in my opinion, no slight on him over the whole season just feel Warne has over relied and over used him recently when perhaps a few sub appearances and an impact off the bench might have helped him and the team?

Can’t say it wasn’t expected, seemed to be hanging on as if we had 10 men, not sure why Warne insists on 3-5-2 currently it’s clear we don’t have the players, NML at wing back has never worked and he hasn’t played well for weeks not even sure why he’s still picked, should be on the bench.

Thought Warne was going to go for games, didn’t do that today with 5 at the back in the second half.

If 3 at the back,

                           Wildsmith

              Chester  Cashin  Forsyth 

Rooney   Knight   Bird   Hourihane   Roberts

                      Sibley 

                              McGoldrick

4 at the back,

                         Wildsmith

     Rooney   Chester   Forsyth   Roberts

              Knight   Bird   Hourihane

        Dobbin   McGoldrick  Barkuizen 

                        Wildsmith

     Rooney   Forsyth   Cashin   Roberts

             Smith    Bird    Hourihane

        Dobbin  McGoldrick  Barkuizen 

14 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

Have to begin by giving credit to Fleetwood. I thought they were excellent all game, dominated the 50/50 challenges, moved the ball around with purpose on the floor & barely gave us a sniff in their final third. Thoroughly deserved their two goal winning margin. Scott Brown doing a decent job there on scant resources, be interesting to see how his managerial career develops.

Clearly yesterday was something of an outlier in terms of our performance levels - only Barnsley away is comparable in terms of the shambolic nature. Firstly, I don't think I've seen a performance as lethargic for some time (lethargy wasn't the issue at Oakwell) - we were disinclined to push out after clearing from defence & this meant whenever Springett or Collins got near a hoofed clearance, they were hopelessly outnumbered. We also failed to commit men to the final third - whenever a cross did come in, there was often only Collins in there. Its no surprise therefore that we struggled to get any shots on target & I think criticism of Collins is harsh given the total lack of support he was given & the poor quality of ball he had to feed on.

The biggest crime for me though was the total lack of precision - passes constantly misplaced, heavy touches & a total lack of imagination when on the ball. We all know Warne likes perpetual energy but a high work rate is a basic at this level - you also need class & unpredictability when in possession & we simply did not have that - Fleetwood did.

I also did not like the timing of the early substitutes - whilst its true we were making no impact in the final 3rd, hauling off Tony Springett before half-time, a young lad making his way in the game, was totally unnecessary & smacked of a manager throwing him under the bus. That sub could have waited until half-time.

Onto Peterborough & Ipswich and whilst destiny is still in our hands, we need to demonstrate we can get results against top half teams - something we have not been good at this season. We have to avoid defeat Peterborough as a base minimum - lose that & our top 6 spot will start to look very dicey indeed. A reminder of Warne's league record to date below - I want to see a performance at Peterborough befitting of a top 6 contender, not that a flat track bully being shown up;

Tend to pretty much agree with all this, Warne definitely got his selection wrong, McGoldrick ended up playing 50 odd minutes, don’t see why he could not start them come off after an hour?

Felt for Collins and Springett a bit, both short on confidence but Collins doesn’t help himself, seems to get involved in everything other than getting the ball under control, the service wasn’t great but he has to do better.

NML hasn’t played well for weeks and I don’t understand his continued selection, seems he’s playing for what he could potentially do given past performances rather than current form. 

Davies unfortunately isn’t up to speed and will never get there like he was last season as he just hasn’t played enough, however he wasn’t helped today by Smith’s indecision and generally bad decision making. I would play Rooney and tell him that position is his barring injury until the end of the season. 

Cashin continues to have an off spell, wants to win every ball, you could trace their first goal back to Cashin putting the ball out for a throw in the left back area when he could simply have turned and gone back to Wildsmith.

Having said all that it’s nice to be moaning about football after last year and this season has in my opinion been better than could have been expected, hopefully see what the playoffs bring and if not go again next year with a Warne team. The potential teams coming down don’t fill me with worry and the league next year would be of less quality?

We’re in the third tier of English football, the further down you go the worse the refereeing is going to be especially now they have all been bumped up because of VAR in the Premier League. Because of this lack of experience some I feel do get caught up in the atmosphere at PP and feel they shouldn’t be seen as a home ref and sometimes go the other way… some just aren’t very good!!

Yesterday’s game was frustrating, played really well first half and bar the first 15 of the second I thought we were ok after that but we had already let them back in. Liked Rooney at right back, more pace than Smith and got forward well. Smith was good in midfield as well, positioning very good and seemed to pick up a lot of second balls because of it. Would liked to have seen Warne drop Knight back deeper into midfield to counter their change at half time which may have helped us keep control? On that I don’t think Knight was at his best yesterday, worked hard but quite a few things he tried didn’t come off, he’s more than allowed that given recent performances. 

Anyway, bit of a free hit on Tuesday in that for once we are the underdogs, I would start the same team and go for it, nothing to lose?!

1 minute ago, jimbo jones said:

Beat Barnsley at home.

Not sure they were top six at the time, when we have come up against genuine playoff / promotion contenders we’ve come up short!

Record against the top six sides isn’t very good really, don’t think we’ve beaten one of them apart from Bolton?!