Ghost of Clough

2 games in a row where our CF has had to deal with 3 CBs whilst our 'wingers' stay wide. Coupled with someone that isn't a midfielder playing as midfielder I'm not surprised we've struggled to create much.

I had hoped we'd see him line up with Duane in midfield at some point. Literally a fantastic partnership.

2 games in a row where our CF has had to deal with 3 CBs whilst our 'wingers' stay wide. Coupled with someone that isn't a midfielder playing as midfielder I'm not surprised we've struggled to create much.

I had hoped we'd see him line up with Duane in midfield at some point. Literally a fantastic partnership.

Good enough as backup for Knight

You are completely right and as I kinda mentioned in another post I realised today that we have a lot of players who are technically a bit iffy with only really Bird, CKR and Roberts in the starting 11 looking like they can take the ball under pressure and shift the ball quickly.
Honestly I think we need to restructure the midfield because the balance has been wrong for a while and we've overlooked it.

Well that's was a bit naff and compounds the selection issues on Saturday. Once again we got it tactically wrong and had no clear plan to progress. Knight on the left meant we had no way to progress down the left, a two man midfield with a player in Shinnie who isn't interested in getting the ball meant going through middle was difficult and both strikers pushed right up meant we had no way to progress up the pitch first half bar Roberts. And that seemed our only plan first half, hope Roberts does something. Coventry quickly sussed out that due to lack of technical quality if they pressed us into our left side we'd lose possession almost at will. 
The formation change at half time was inadequate to solve the clear problems; Knight just isn't a ten and  Waghorn on the left is inneffectual. All that still meant we had no way to progress the ball which only changed when we brought on Watson and switched to a lot sided 433. We actually started playing a bit of football at that point, create openings if not chances and the midfield started to look functional. The only problem we still couldn't effectively go down the left because of putting Gregory there and Coventry had something to defend and not long to defend it.
As much as they may have served us well we have to stop playing both Shinnie and Knight especially against teams in and around us. We need better quality in midfield or else we are going to progressively slip further back. The lesson we should be taking away from this game and Cardiff is we should be starting Watson, Bird and one of Shinnie or Knight if we want to try to vaguely have any control in a game. 
As an aside what I'm quickly realising is how technically iffy a lot of players in the squad are. There was so many times today where a player would wait for the ball to come to them, take a touch, wait a second, look up, take another touch and only then look to make a pass. It's basically only Bird, Watson, Roberts and to an extent CKR that can reliably shift possession on with any speed at all.

1-2. Boro scored in injury time

We didn't get anyone in as a backup DM. We needed someone like Bradley Johnson there to ensure we had an aerial presence in midfield without him. Bird, Knight and Shinnie don't win enough 2nd balls. Substitute any one of them for for a stronger player (Bielik, Johnson...) and we suddenly have less defending on the edge of our box to do.

We didn't get anyone in as a backup DM. We needed someone like Bradley Johnson there to ensure we had an aerial presence in midfield without him. Bird, Knight and Shinnie don't win enough 2nd balls. Substitute any one of them for for a stronger player (Bielik, Johnson...) and we suddenly have less defending on the edge of our box to do.

We didn't get anyone in as a backup DM. We needed someone like Bradley Johnson there to ensure we had an aerial presence in midfield without him. Bird, Knight and Shinnie don't win enough 2nd balls. Substitute any one of them for for a stronger player (Bielik, Johnson...) and we suddenly have less defending on the edge of our box to do.

We didn't get anyone in as a backup DM. We needed someone like Bradley Johnson there to ensure we had an aerial presence in midfield without him. Bird, Knight and Shinnie don't win enough 2nd balls. Substitute any one of them for for a stronger player (Bielik, Johnson...) and we suddenly have less defending on the edge of our box to do.

Good enough as backup for Knight

We didn't get anyone in as a backup DM. We needed someone like Bradley Johnson there to ensure we had an aerial presence in midfield without him. Bird, Knight and Shinnie don't win enough 2nd balls. Substitute any one of them for for a stronger player (Bielik, Johnson...) and we suddenly have less defending on the edge of our box to do.

We didn't get anyone in as a backup DM. We needed someone like Bradley Johnson there to ensure we had an aerial presence in midfield without him. Bird, Knight and Shinnie don't win enough 2nd balls. Substitute any one of them for for a stronger player (Bielik, Johnson...) and we suddenly have less defending on the edge of our box to do.

We didn't get anyone in as a backup DM. We needed someone like Bradley Johnson there to ensure we had an aerial presence in midfield without him. Bird, Knight and Shinnie don't win enough 2nd balls. Substitute any one of them for for a stronger player (Bielik, Johnson...) and we suddenly have less defending on the edge of our box to do.

Not sure that was a foul from the corner

I'm sure glad we rested all those players against Cardiff so they were fresh for today. You can really see the difference. 

Only Clarke, Buchanan and Knight before this one

Knight central, Waggy left. Thankfully.

Weeks?! I was thinking months 

Three or four weeks? 🤣

No creativity just tell the players that if you keep passing the ball backwards then you are leaving in the summer.
 

Only a matter of time before we score.

Only a matter of time before we score.