By Knowl
“Set pieces are part of the game - World Cup finals have been settled on set pieces” quote from Martin O’Neil, after Vile beat Chelsea yesterday.
So why am I quoting Martin O’Neil, I’m pretending you ask or care,? Because we have three ways of getting the ball into the box from set pieces, throw ins, corners and free kicks.
We are crap at all three of them, yes ok we have scored direct from free kicks this season but from crosses?
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Saturday 17th October – 15.00 pm Hillsborough. |
Yesterday I doubt we got the first touch to 20% of all the set pieces we delivered in, even the goal/non goal hit the Sheff Wed player to go goal wards!!, the worst was a long throw that 4 Sheff Wed defenders challenged for and no Cov player was in 5 yards of where the ball was cleared from. Set pieces are vital in these modern days, they are easy chances to score, you have a great attacking position, so why oh why are we not more of a threat from them? Coleman has to prioritise this as a key part of the game because we are a third class citizen when it comes to this part of the game.
Three Parish Notices.
Firstly, ok the preamble of this part is too long, but still, we conceded a soft goal from a simple set piece.
Secondly, what has Craine done so wrong? Started his Cov career so well alongside Turner, since he has been moved out to right back, and subsequently dropped, we have conceded 12 goals in six games. Yesterday Wright was a major weak spot and was targeted from the kick off, Ward alongside him was just as ropey, his needless lunge in the first half resulted in the pen which put us 2 down. Our best centre back partnership this season has been Craine and Turner, ok they conceded 5 in 5 but that included our only two clean sheets of the season. We have been chronic at the back recently and everyone seems to be asking why Craine has been dropped, put simply, Coleman the best managers do not have favourites, they drop players when they are a liability at the back, even if they have cost millions, Wright and Ward are affecting the whole team and neither are being picked on merit so why are they being picked?
Lastly, the goal that was not but was and the pen that was but then was not. The goal was a goal, the keeper Camp gave that away by just staying where he was, he did not argue or protest he just stayed quiet and waited to see what happened. When the goal was not given he still stayed down for a while and when he finally got rid of the ball he had a smile and chat with the centre half that seemed to indicate he knew he had got away with one. The pen, seemed like a pen at the time, Best was taken out and the ref who was in the best position gave it, however, the lines man overcalled, which in a way is good refing, but without being able to see it again I will never know if it was the right decision or not.
However, lets not be overly critical of the officials, we lost because we were poor and the ref did not make the never ended poor passes, he did not stop us from moving off the ball, he did not cause us to show such lack of composure in the box and he did not cause us to defend like we had never met each other before, yes the ref and his assistance were poor but we were worse.
Coventry: Westwood, Wright (c), Van Aanholt, Ward, Turner, Cork, Osbourne, Gunnarsson, (Eastwood 58), Best, McIndoe, (Cain 71), Morrison.
Subs Not Used: Konstantopoulos, Craine, Grandison, Clarke, Walker.
Booked: Ward.
Sent Off: None.
Goals: None.
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Player Ratings
Westie – 6 Could do nothing with the free header from the corner or the pen. Did not have to make a save after that, caught all the crosses near him but he will play in more demanding matches and end up on the winning side.
Wright – 4 Targeted from the first minute and was skinned numerous times even before we went one down. The guy is not leading his troops and the amount of times where we needed someone to take charge and calm the players down that went begging were obvious to all, Wright might well be mouthy but that does not mean he is a leader. Sheff Wed realised that the he could be double teamed when we play 4123 and the centre back on his side had to offer more protection but Ward was just as poor.
Van Aanholt – 7 If he showed the same composure in front of goal as he did while taking players on in the centre of midfield he would have walked away with his first goal for us. One pass to get McIndoe behind his full back was the sort of pass we saw Wise make, it was a “you run where I want you to because I know best” type of pass and maybe he could play in a more central position in this division.
Ward - 4 Ward prefers to play on the left of the two centre backs but that does not quite explain why he offered no assistance to Wright, or why he continues to shank the ball when ever it is on his left foot. One of my major problems with Ward has always been his decision making especially when he goes to ground, now he got booked for a badly mistimed sliding tackle when Sheff Wed got behind Wright once again and he was lucky not to get booked for his needless sliding tackle for the penalty. Now everyone knows that if you go to the floor in the box you need to win the ball otherwise you will be penalised and Ward did not and we were. Ward has not impressed since he got back in and like Wright his continued presence in the side is a needless worry for us all.
Turner - 6 Not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination but he was a lot better than the two more senior players to his right. In the second half he produced two goal saving tackles and his side of the defence was more secure than the right hand side. My problem with Turner is his distribution, the lad needs to stop looking so far way, some times the most effective pass is the one ten yards to the central midfielder, we have two good ball playing midfielders on the pitch so why spend some much time bypassing them?
Cork - 6 When we played at our best, when we put our best moves together and pulled Sheff Wed apart, Cork was the catalyst. A simple pass round the corner here, a quick change of feet there or when a bit of vision and confidence was needed it was often supplied by the Chelsea loanee. Not his best game and he missed Sammy Clingan as much as anyone, and fuck did we miss the Irishman, but he stuck to it and Cork will become a massive figure in the next week or so. Interestingly, when we started the match in a 4123 formation he was the one and to be honest it did not work in the short time we tried it. He is our best box to box midfielder so why pigeon hole him so deep?
Gunnar – 6 Lets hope his injury is not too bad. The positives, he was the best midfielder on the pitch for a spell in the second half. He really took the game by the scruff of the next and was trying to get us going. Negatives, lack of movement for long periods, no cohesion with Cork in the middle of the park for long periods and he was not involved for long periods. Gunnar typified our attitude yesterday, had a decent spell but too much of the time he was aimless and lacking any threat.
Osborne - 5 Really really hard to rate, Ozzie started on the right of the middle three and did not really get involved. He then moved wide right and was involved even less. Moved back to the middle and was hardly involved, in fact the only memorable thing he did was dissect the two players on the right hand side of the pitch when he had half an hour to pick his pass and half the pitch to aim at. Then we played 4213, and he was playing very close to Wright, it would have been comical to watch if it had not been so pitiful for us in the away end. Ozzie was so peripheral to the action it is hard to give him any rating to be honest, a four would have been too harsh but a five does not tell the story of how little impact he had on the game.
McIndoe - 6 Busy as always, when we attack with the ball on the deck he will always be a decent outlet and he is intelligent with the ball without being a typical winger. It would be easy to tarnish him with the same brush as some of the others but within his own little game he played well. The team lacked an aim and ideas but McIndoe when used played well and was always available, another above par performance by a player who will never be the player some want on the wing but is a valuable asset in the way we play.
Clinton – 6 Erm, whined a lot. Had very little service of note, linked up well with the midfield when he was given the opportunity and as we all know, Clinton comes alive in the box and on the limited number of times he was given the ball in the box he looked ok. Not going to bash a striker when the rest of the team were as aimless as we were yesterday.
Best – 7 Is he getting better? He is looking more confident that he ever has and is now looking like a tricky striker when the balls at his feet. Could have got a shot away quicker in the second half but his hold up play and link up play deserved better than he received from his colleagues.
Subs
Eastwood - On half an hour and played wide right and behind the strikers but never really got involved.
Cain - Came on and played wide right, looked ok in the mess that was our late tactical rearrangements.
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Coleman 5
Drop Wright and Ward you prat. We are shipping goals like no ones business. The lack of leadership on the pitch needs sorting quickly, because we are not a team with leaders throughout the side, so we need the senior players to take charge during difficult periods of the game and this is not happening. There are times when players have time to bring the ball down but we are just panicking and smacking the ball away as quickly as possible, because no one is giving them a shout and putting them at ease to play their own game.
The set pieces are a shambles as mentioned above and as we come up to two years of Colemans management I would expect us to see a pattern at least of what we are trying to achieve but it looks as disorganised as the day he took over and that is not good enough.
If we are too play 4123 we have to pressure the opposition high up the field as often they cannot cope with limited space, so why do we play so fucking deep? Our defence is on the 18 yard, our midfield is ten years further forward and then there is massive gap to Best on the half way line, this gives the opposition so much space its untrue, and an easy let out ball as there is always one centre back in acres of space. We need to push up, we need to minimise the space and restrict the time and freedom we are currently giving teams at times.
Finally, we were aimless at times yesterday, I mean seriously aimless, no pattern or structure about our play. That will happen when you have a midfield as young and inexperienced as ours but that is not an acceptable excuse. The change of formation so early was a great thing to see but if the original formation was played correctly we would not have needed to alter the way we were playing.
In short.
Too many players played badly, too many players hid and failed to show the maturity needed after conceding an early goal. I have seen some disjointed and aimless performances in my time following the mighty Sky Blues but yesterday was as a frustrating 90 mins even I have had in my life. My personal mantra this season has been to not get carried away with every victory and to not get to down beat with every defeat. So in that spirit, lets put this behind us and watch how we cope with the injuries at Cardiff.
Play up Sky Blues
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SOMETHING TO CONTRIBUTE OR GOING TO THE GAME? |
