TSB was pretty much right and I agree with DW, Zenga just doesn't have it or his defence isn't listening. Zenga's tactics are now apparent, he likes his full backs to sit, plays a defensive midfielder and likes to contain rather than press. Nothing wrong with those things as a tactic if you do them well and for 45 minutes we defended very well.
We just didn't create. Anything. At all.
And this seems to be the nub of the issue, tonight we were narrow and with full backs tucked in and not allowed forward we have no width. The one time in each half Iorfa did go forward he put in one good and one bad cross. The same with Doherty, going forward he went outside once, getting to the byline and putting a fairly poor cross in, even when pushed inside Barnsley crowded him out and he lost the ball high up the field.
The big issue was the change to 4-4-1-1 (or 4-4-2 as I know it), taking off Price and putting the midfield of Voady and Price worked at first but Mason was quickly worse than Wallace which was an effort after Wallace's first half. Contrary to what has been written on here the players knew exactly where they should've been and where they were playing. The game became very open and Prince and Coady were getting picked apart by the excellent Hourahan (MotM). Costa is a winger and should be played as such and when the ball went wide he quickly skinned his full back and started scaring Barnsley to death.
But then Barnsley scored and it was shameful defending from Doherty, Stearman and Batth who stood statuesque whilst Barnsley pinged the ball about. Ikeme looked like he should've done better too.
Then Zenga's shit or bust sub. Oh dear, this went wrong very quickly and the defensive 5 of Ikeme, Doherty, Stearman, Batth and Coady proved they are a bottom half Championship defence with Zero leadership and a rickety 'keeper. The goals and capitulation from the 75th minute on were an embarrassment to professional football, capped by Matt Doherty getting megged by a through ball and Hourahan hitting the post which Barnsley would've deserved making it 5-0.
Ikeme - 2 - Not really troubled in the first half. Poor distribution, fumbled crosses and spiller shots before his pretty poor attempts at saving anything. His footwork is just poor. Shame Lonergan is worse.
Doherty - 2 - First half his distribution, quick touches and forward movement was excellent. However, he just can't defend, gave his man oceans of space, and criminally for me, he hid. He tucked himself in and didn't get near anybody with the ball and made no attempt to and this got worse. Even basic defensive technique eluded him. This was the bad old Doherty make no mistake.
Batth - 5 - Headed it, kicked it and his distribution wasn't bad even moving forward with confidence with the ball. When the midfield went over attacking he was one of the few that didn't give up but in the end he just wasn't good enough to make a tackle on Adam fucking Hammill and that's just shite for a central defender.
Stearman - 2 - Hopefully the Stearman as the next coming of Baresi has been put to bed. Simply shit in every dept.
Iorfa - 6 - Restricted unnecessarily and looked frustrated and I don't blame him. Defended well but did little of note apart from one cross.
Prince - 6 - mobile, hard working, lax in possession and unlucky not to win a free kick with one of his driving runs from central midfield. Victim of Zenga's bizarre formation before the break where he played wide left. He is not a defensive midfielder but he is a driving box to box player but he needs to learn the defensive side quickly.
Coady - 6 at CM - 2 at RB - Worked hard and used the ball intelligently, tried to play some intelligent balls forward and won the ball well. Struggled with the quick movement of Hourahan. Simply abysmal at RB getting just about everything wrong and I really felt for him in the end as it seemed to mentally crush him.
Wallace - 4 - Nothing worked for him tonight, too slow when the Barnsley keeper inexplicably passed him the ball and then made numerous wrong decisions with the ball including a simple square ball to Bod which would have cut the keeper and last defender out.
Mason - 4 - Some intelligent touches but essentially anonymous, created little and when central was simply never in the game. Far too slow in his decision making for a deep forward and not quick enough to play out wide. He criminally gave up in the 2nd half.
Bod - 7 - A Bod performance, worked hard, created openings and seemed very, very frustrated. Unfortunately fed on scraps when the final ball should've been better.
Costa - 6 - looks fantastic going forward and scares players to death, unlucky not to win a few free kicks when clearly tugged back. Not sure defending is in his vocab as he didn't do much of it. Should've started.
Tex - 5 - His touch and vision are very good, his decision making frustrating and his defensive abilities are elusive. A real mixed bag and certainly not a central midfielder in a 4-4-2 but that's not his fault. Far, far better when playing behind Bod directly where he can run and skip past players, which he did with ease.
Cav - 6 - A real live wire and looks like he can play anywhere and the 3 Portuguese boys look a handful when they are pinging the ball around between them and Bod.
This result is on Zenga and the back 5 in the main. Shocking from all concerned and I expect all professional footballers to be just that and last seasons players cannot hold their heads up and say they were at any point after the first goal went in.
Zenga looked clueless tonight for the first time.
I'm hoping it was just a bad day at the office.
