Lots to digest and unfortunately not much of it positive.
Before the Fulham game, I thought it was almost a certainty that we would make the Top 6. I think we need 74 points as a minimum, which means winning of 4 of the last 6 games (including Huddersfield). We are capable but it needs a big improvement.
I thought Tav started really brightly and he is able to play wing back BUT how we missed his energy in midfield. The midfield 3 were pedestrian - Crooks in particular slowed everything down, either with a poor touch or slowness of decision making. McGree seemed to be too safe in his play and as such we lacked drive. However they were not helped at all by the two forwards. They were static throughout and because of the slowness of our build up, we ended up with no depth to our attack - they just played up against their physically stronger defenders.
One thing I did notice tactically was their use of the wide forwards from a defensive perspective. They tried to stay high which meant that Dijksteel and McNair were engaged early (forcing them to pass back to Dael Fry). This totally snuffed out any momentum. Two things with this - McNair and Dijksteel have to be much braver and positive to play beyond the Hull player AND Dael Fry has to be much more decisive. His passing yesterday was so slow and he failed to drive forward into the space he was given. Instead he stood still and waited for others to move - this hesitancy began to seep through the team.
Lumley was disastrous but we knew that anyway.
One minor positive was a little cameo from Coburn, where I saw something from him for the first time - pace. In one passage of play, he held the ball up, turned his man and set off sprinting down the wing. He looked a powerful runner, which gives me confidence that with physical development of the next 12-18 months we could have a bit of a handful on our hands.
Let's get Jones back and get 6 points over Easter!
Before the Fulham game, I thought it was almost a certainty that we would make the Top 6. I think we need 74 points as a minimum, which means winning of 4 of the last 6 games (including Huddersfield). We are capable but it needs a big improvement.
I thought Tav started really brightly and he is able to play wing back BUT how we missed his energy in midfield. The midfield 3 were pedestrian - Crooks in particular slowed everything down, either with a poor touch or slowness of decision making. McGree seemed to be too safe in his play and as such we lacked drive. However they were not helped at all by the two forwards. They were static throughout and because of the slowness of our build up, we ended up with no depth to our attack - they just played up against their physically stronger defenders.
One thing I did notice tactically was their use of the wide forwards from a defensive perspective. They tried to stay high which meant that Dijksteel and McNair were engaged early (forcing them to pass back to Dael Fry). This totally snuffed out any momentum. Two things with this - McNair and Dijksteel have to be much braver and positive to play beyond the Hull player AND Dael Fry has to be much more decisive. His passing yesterday was so slow and he failed to drive forward into the space he was given. Instead he stood still and waited for others to move - this hesitancy began to seep through the team.
Lumley was disastrous but we knew that anyway.
One minor positive was a little cameo from Coburn, where I saw something from him for the first time - pace. In one passage of play, he held the ball up, turned his man and set off sprinting down the wing. He looked a powerful runner, which gives me confidence that with physical development of the next 12-18 months we could have a bit of a handful on our hands.
Let's get Jones back and get 6 points over Easter!
