Having slept on yesterday's result I'm slightly less critical of Lambert than I was last night, we had previously conceded in the first 15 minutes in 6 of the last 7 games and he did need to shore it up. The weather and state of the pitch didn't exactly help things, I'm hopeful that some of the selections were influenced by Edwards (who clearly has a very poor grasp of the abilities/limitations of this squad) and lets not forget Preston's part in it either, they were just as insipid as we were. I'm pleased he started Enobakhare even if he didn't play well, recalling Jack Price was a wise decision and the defence did look more assured.
Having said that... Don't spend the previous 2 weeks talking about playing on the front foot and then serve up that bilge. We completely abandoned any attempt to play football yesterday. Even Rob's inverted full backs, while being a stupid idea, was a decision made in the interest of improving our ability to keep possession. For the first 70-75 minutes our only route to goal was to launch the ball forward for Bodvarsson to flick on and hope that something fell for us and that was a clear tactical game plan from our management team. PNE did not force us into that style of play and it was a clear shift from how we've been approaching games this season. So forgive me if I'm not jumping for joy over a clean sheet, 'stopping the rot' or 'the lads showing more fight', I'm far from happy about how we played yesterday. Quite frankly it reminded me of Saunders first game in charge (In no way am I suggesting Lambert is as bad as Saunders before anyone jumps on that) when we drew 1-1 with a dreadful Blackburn side playing lowest common denominator football and were expected to be thrilled with the result.
We set up in a 4-2-3-1 with Price playing very deep, Coady nowhere in particular and Bright pushed up in support of Bodvarsson. Price did good work mopping up loose balls and covering in behind the two centre backs but what's the point in having a player like that if the player he's passing it to is just going to hoof the ball anyway? He was pretty much reduced to being a long snapper in American football, handing the ball off to be punted as far down the pitch as possible. We might as well have just played Coady and his wonderful no-look, over the shoulder hooked clearances in that position, at least we'd have got the ball forward faster and given PNE less time to set up, if that's what we were really going for. The back four looked more assured, not being given the added pressure of passing the ball to another player in their team obviously suited them down to the ground. Going forward... Well, we didn't really go forward. Helder Costa's game is clearly not suited to fighting for scraps off a target man, Saville was very much a central midfielder on left wing, Bright never really had a yard of space as he struggled to deal with PNE's close marking and while Bodvarsson did actually win a lot in the air against their centre halves he once again looked isolated.
Wallace came on for Enobakhare on about 65 minutes in a straight swap and was absolutely shite, Dicko came on for Costa, Wallace moved to the right (where he was absolutely shite) and we went 4-4-2 and then Cavaleiro came on for Price and Saville moved into the middle. All 3 were poor subs IMO, Wallace on for Bright was particularly poor. He wasn't exactly setting the world alight but at least Bright was attempting to beat his man. As for leaving Saville on the pitch all game and not using Ivan until the 87th minute... There's something seriously wrong there. He is fucking quality. Play him.
Lonergan - 5.5 - BBC stats say PNE had 2 shots on target but the only one I can remember is a tame shot from distance that bounced straight into his arms. There was a big goalmouth scramble where he just seemed to be nowhere in particular and instead of picking the ball up just got in everyone's way as we tried to hoof it clear. I'm pretty sure 2 of his kicks went straight to their keeper as well which was annoying. Not the hardest days work he'll ever have...
Iorfa - 5 - Defensively I can't recall him ever really being tested although he did give two silly free kicks away in dangerous areas. Again, not the toughest game he'll ever have. Didn't really get forward until the last 15 when he had three attempts at cutting inside where he initially did well to skip past his man but then made a meal of all 3 opportunities. A Celtic fan has just text me to ask how Aiden McGeady got on yesterday and I genuinely hadn't even realised he was on the pitch so I guess that's a positive in Dom's favour..
Batth - 5 - What a shit footballer. The boy has no fucking chill, he just panics every time the ball comes near him and leathers it as hard as he can. Hardly tested by Preston but still managed to have a few dodgy moments all of his own making. Once he headed the ball about 30 foot straight up in the air and put us under right under pressure and he nearly put a PNE player clean through on goal in the first half when he fell over his own massive clown feet.
Hause - 6 - I'm giving Cavaleiro MOTM because even though he was only on the pitch for 3 minutes he was genuinely our best player on the day but out of all the others Hause would probably push him closest. I've said before on here that Hause looks like one of his coaches has told him at some point that he's good on the ball but he doesn't quite believe it himself yet. He's just not that player. Yesterday, with the extra complexity of making simple passes while staying upright removed from the gameplan, he looked much more relaxed and defended really well. He's fast, strong, can time a tackle, win a header and the majority of the time he stands in the right place. If he's going to progress and become the best defender he could possibly be then that's what he needs to focus on, not this pretence of being some kind of ball playing centre half. He did manage to gift PNE the two best chances of the game when he completely lost Makienok for a free header and then fell over trying to control the ball putting their forward straight in on goal but nobody's perfect...
Doherty - 5 - Like the rest of the back four hardly troubled defensively, blocked a few crosses coming in and won a few headers. Only really had the one chance going forward when he dragged a shot wide, he didn't really have much to work with when Saville was in front of him though. Baptiste had one break away down his side which seemed to have been left wide open but I can't say for sure whether that was Doherty being caught out of position. Meh.
Price - 6 - I don't think he did anything wrong but I don't see the point of him in this team. He's a good footballer and I do like him but we need to use him properly. It's always going to be hard for him when there are so few options in front of him and the guys behind him aren't giving him the ball. Made a couple of blood and thunder challenges and swept up a lot of loose balls. Price and their little No.4 were the only two in midfield who looked halfway decent on both sides but I think their guy was slightly better than Jack on the day and they had a lot more of the ball because of that.
Coady - N/A - I don't even want to think about Conor Coady right now. You all know what he's like and how he would've played yesterday. Use your imagination.
Helder Costa - 5 - Not up for it at all yesterday. He had one run in the first half where glided past a few players but apart from that was very quiet. Being our only threatening footballer for the majority of the game he was naturally marked closely and never really looked like he had enough space. Doesn't really know how to go about feeding off of Bodvarsson's scraps, he's hardly going to win a 50/50 any time soon is he?
Enobakhare - 5 - Spent a lot of time on the floor. Doesn't like physical contact or close marking and didn't really make use of his pace or strength. That said he did have some very nice touches in tight areas and at least tried to take his man on. Hard to really judge him on this one. It was a turgid game of football and he just kind of got lost amongst all the mud and hoofing.
Saville - 4 - Not a left winger as if we didn't know that already. Didn't do a thing all game apart from track back really well which is exactly what you want to see from your left winger. Just your typical Saville nothing performance just in a different area of the pitch.
Bodvarsson - 5.5 - Poor Jon. Hoof, hoof, hoof. He actually won a lot of headers today and as usual he put his body on the line, the PNE shouty man gave their centre back MOTM which was probably fair enough as Bodvarsson did give him and his partner a tough game with his endless running and physicality. Only had the one chance which he fashioned for himself by flicking the ball up for an overhead kick.
Wallace - 1 - Fucking dreadful. Fuck me what an awful display that was. I don't think I've ever seen a 'winger' with a first touch quite as bad as Jed Wallace's. If Lambert is serious about our squad being too big and wanting to give youngsters a chance then Wallace needs to be the first out the door and one of the wingers/attacking mids from the U23's need to step up to the bench because Wallace is never making it at this level. Never a footballer in a million years.
Dicko - 4 - Added a bit of pace and urgency to the side when he came on but squandered our two best opportunities from Ivan's crosses. Which brings me onto...
Cavaleiro - 8 MOTM - His control is just immaculate, even in conditions as bad as yesterday's game defenders just can't get near him. His delivery is just wicked as well, only needs the slightest bit of room and with hardly any back lift he whips in crosses with such pace and accuracy. Within about 15 seconds of coming on he made a brilliant run outside, squared two defenders up, made them look stupid by darting past them as if they weren't there and puts a perfect cross right on Nouha's forehead. A few minutes later, same situation and he does exactly the same thing. I've paid a lot of money to watch some truly dreadful footballers wear our shirt in my time, this is the kind of player I want to spend my money on in this supposed new era, not George Saville. It's absolutely ridiculous that we've got a player as talented as Ivan Cavaleiro in our squad at the moment. We need to play him.
So all in all not the best game of football. Two dreadful teams, both happy with a point. The fans were quite good I thought considering what was being served up in front of them.
