SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Firstly,my apologies for what is going to be a rather strange “match review”. Not only did I not take up the offer of a ticket,I didn’t even watch the game elsewhere. The rest of my family did,but I had other plans which could only take place last night. No apologies for that,as the company was excellent,and included some people who I will most certainly not wait so long to meet the next time. Over thirty years in one case,much to my shame. 

Plan B,of course,was for match highlights via the BBC,aye really. Nope,the BBC had plans of their own. As,sadly,did the SPFL channel. I doubt this will be a regular occurrence though,so I’ll do my best from the few avenues left open to me. 

Firstly,we controlled the game throughout-up until a break from Livi,deep in injury time,gave us a dose of the vapours. We had barely gone two up via Kyogo and were probably preening ourselves for a welcome chorus of cheers heading for the interval when we lost a cheap goal. Rather than fire us up for the second half,we resorted to running about like headless chickens,spraying passes everywhere bar their intended target and generally making life easy for the opposition. 

That the opposition were restricted to three shots on goal is testament to our dominance in possession. That two of them were on target-one for the goal and the other needing a decent save from Joe Hart-strongly suggests that Ange and his players need to do some hard yards in training and elsewhere. 

Teams should not be so dominant,yet so weak in the finish as we are at the moment.

We were expecting the side to come out firing on all cylinders after the winter break,but we are largely firing blanks. Yet we had plenty of low crosses hitting the danger area,a route which has served us well in the past,with no takers in the zone. Either the players aren’t “in the zone” to begin with,or they’ve forgotten the game plan! Yes,it was terrific to have Kyogo back on the score sheet,but for once the service was available and the finisher was largely absent! 

We haven’t yet got back up to our early season pace and confidence,and the amount of time taken by some players to receive and control,think and pass is a genuine worry. Are they losing the instincts that initially brought them to our attention? Are they over-thinking,or simply unable to mentally be that step ahead of the game that the top players possess? If so,why-because all of them had that in their locker not so long ago.

Is it too easy to suggest that they need to get back to doing the simple things well,or is that asking something of them that they either don’t have-or have they forgotten? I dunno,but hopefully Ange does,and will remedy matters with all haste. 

We should not be having around 80% possession over two matches,and having only two single-goal victories to show for it. We have the quality in midfield and up front to have so much more of a return than that-yet the table does not lie. Six points from six,difficult to complain. Churlish,even. But a single goal advantage is never a comfortable one-just ask the huns’ last two opponents. Even two goals is no guarantee-the World Cup final proved that. The day before,Swansea came from three down to merit a draw!

Nothing is safe when the side is worried about losing a goal,concerned about the likelihood of one. We are playing on the edge at the moment,completely lacking in the free-flowing football that a confident side has. We need to knock that out of our system darn quick,and we need to have the mojo back and firing over the next two matches. 

Because hanging on against the odds-by which,I mean that we should never be in that situation in the first place!- is a surefire way to the runners-up spot. Get it sorted please,Ange.
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Above article by BMCUWP