Like someone else said earlier, I don't think Pilks was that bad yesterday

he was more involved than he's been in recent games, he beat his man from time to time and did his usual job digging in etc. It was just that his delivery was way off. None of them did very well in that area yesterday, and that may've been due t a lack of understanding of Jacko's movement, differing as it inevitably will from Holt or Moro's.

It's difficult to come up with a plan that we could've used for yesterday given the lack of fitness of our two bigger strikers, and this illustrated the reasons for the uneasiness a few of us felt last autumn when Vaughn was allowed to go out and nobody came in until the last minute. And on balance we got more tahn halfway into the season before it became a problem, so Hoots could argue he did the right thing, especially given that Vaughn's fitness couldn't be relied upon.

I'd have hoped, though, that we all knew that Jacko would struggle up front by himself and that Hoots would've had a plan B to implement immediately that it was confirmed, i.e. change to a different shape after half an hour, especially as Newcastle weren't offering much of a threat. That said, I've no idea what shape that would have been.

We're a little hamstrung by the failings of our better attackers: without Wes, we're too easy to read going forward, too easy to snuff out. But when the oppo can close him down he tends to run into trouble. Snodds cannot be dropped as he presents a threat at any time - but this means that we cannot get balls into the box early enough to worry a back four. I would love to see him play on the left for twenty minutes: there must be a reason why he never even drifts over to that side...... what is it?

There's more, but I've already done a too many words.

Posted By: Sugbad The Bad, Jan 13, 11:06:04