by South Coast Royal »
24 Feb 2021 11:51
The most disappointing thing for me is that Pauno seems to have fallen into the trap of many managers in now worrying too much about the opposition..
We got to our lofty league position by generally playing fluid attacking football based on a midfield all working together and swapping positions when necessary plus an in-form striker who rarely missed..
When I saw the line-up last night I thought he had made selections for the wrong game-Rotherham has a team of giants and they play long ball, Wycombe don't have a team of giants.
Playing 4 centre-backs IMHO smacked of negativity, i.e. we have to deal with them when surely, taking into account the massive difference in league positions and past results we should not have been worrying about them, they should have been left to worry about us.
So for the first 15 minutes it was long ball vaguely in the direction of a tightly marked Joao, long ball by us not them.
After that we settled into the game better but without much penetration and again with not enough support for Joao.
What is he supposed to do when the ball is lofted up to him in the air with nobody for him to even flick the ball onto?
Everything has already been said about our great chance, the penalty so no further comment from me.
Exasperation came when they were down to 10 men-we still passed square and back with no intent and just expecting something to happen rather than trying to make it happen..
I remember a couple of games under FSB against Stoke and possibly Sunderland where, when they went down to 10 men, we used the full width of the pitch, passed them to death and won easily.
There is not enough imagination apart from Ejaria and Olise-others need to step up and not just pass the responsibility onto others hoping that they might do something.
Oh for a winger to get in behind when the other team are defending in numbers.
I believe Rotherham are in poor form-I saw a bit of their game at Bournemouth and they were limited, big and the right-back was hopeless.
So hopefully now that wins are imperative (draws may not be much use) we will stamp our authority on the game right from the off and let them worry about us with Yiadom and Richards in the side playing at a high tempo.
Yes we might get troubled at set pieces with their height but we should be able to outscore them.
Lastly, Pauno does seem to want to squeeze players into the side and find places for some players to the detriment of the shape.
IMHO he should have played either Tom Mc OR Moore rather than accommodate both and surely Richards , one of our best players all season, has to play.