BFTG - AFC Wimbledon

[RG30]

It was the first game of the season where I went into it expecting us to win and for us not to even salvage a draw is a worrying sign. I do think Hunt has been let down in this window in that we are 3 weeks into the season and we are still glaringly short in attacking options. We have wasted all of pre-season and somehow we have to get bodies in and hope they hit the ground running. But equally at some stage he has to get a tune out of this group and at the minute it's difficult to identify a style of play.

Until they scored I thought we were the better team and Garcia has to finish that 3 on 2 chance. As for the goals conceded, they were very soft and the second in particular was a bad one to concede. Everyone inside the stadium could see they had a spare man in the D and low and behold he gets a free shot on goal which deflects in. As for the chances we created, we didn't have a shot on target until Wing's goal and we can't keep relying on him to nail goals from distance.

Jacob looks like a Blue Peter badge winner, miles off the pace.

[Hound]

We have the following attacking options, we’re not short

O Mahony, Lane, Kyeweraa, Kelvin, Camara, Garcia, Osho, Okine Peters, Doyle arguably as well

All of those signed or re-signed under Hunt as manager. If they’re not good enough (arguably not) then why did we sign them?

I’d like to know what is the game plan to get them to score a goal? Are we expecting them to run onto a through ball, head in a cross, convert a cut back? Because there seems to clear plan to me. Just throwing more bodies at it won’t help

[rabidbee]

Doyle was in the top 25 League One goalscorers last season, and hit double figures, so he’s definitely an attacking threat.

[Hound]

Yes indeed

Would also note of those 9 only Osho and Okine Peters haven’t had at least one solid season of league football behind them and only Osho could be really be considered a u21 player - the others are all signed for the first team

[West F]

We have the following attacking options, we’re not short

O Mahony, Lane, Kyeweraa, Kelvin, Camara, Garcia, Osho, Okine Peters, Doyle arguably as well

All of those signed or re-signed under Hunt as manager. If they’re not good enough (arguably not) then why did we sign them?

I’d like to know what is the game plan to get them to score a goal? Are we expecting them to run onto a through ball, head in a cross, convert a cut back? Because there seems to clear plan to me. Just throwing more bodies at it won’t help

The game plan is Peplite. The god awful inverted 4 3 3 that condenses play into an overloaded centre, where the technical ability of your players is supposed to create ‘moments’. The only other option is to work the ball to the wide players who will cut in on their natural side to get a shot away. The problem is, everyone knows this and how to stop it. The managers who use it, will blame and change the players when it fails. I was asked what I thought of O’Mahony. The answer is, I have no idea what he is like as a professional footballer, let alone a striker. He has nothing to work with. He has to play with his back to goal and seems to have a first touch like pinging a ball off a bicycle frame. Could go anywhere. Not his fault. His best two opportunities have come from charging down a goalkeeper in four games.

Noel is set on Peplite, like Seles was. It is just that he doesn’t have the players for it or the bravery to change it. He keeps smashing his head off the wall until the wall gives out. It has become so ingrained now, that clubs are unable to change or adapt. Academy coaching and recruitment is based on the Peplite plan. No one produces strikers or wingers anymore. It is like they have died out. We live in a football world where our wingers are looking to work the ball to the keeper, so we can invite a press we cannot beat, because it doesn’t come. Yay!

[Royal Ginger]

Jacob looks like a Blue Peter badge winner, miles off the pace.

I actually thought he looked ok going forward, cutting into midfield with a bit of pace.

[Sutekh]

We have the following attacking options, we’re not short

O Mahony, Lane, Kyeweraa, Kelvin, Camara, Garcia, Osho, Okine Peters, Doyle arguably as well

All of those signed or re-signed under Hunt as manager. If they’re not good enough (arguably not) then why did we sign them?

I’d like to know what is the game plan to get them to score a goal? Are we expecting them to run onto a through ball, head in a cross, convert a cut back? Because there seems to clear plan to me. Just throwing more bodies at it won’t help

The game plan is Peplite. The god awful inverted 4 3 3 that condenses play into an overloaded centre, where the technical ability of your players is supposed to create ‘moments’. The only other option is to work the ball to the wide players who will cut in on their natural side to get a shot away. The problem is, everyone knows this and how to stop it. The managers who use it, will blame and change the players when it fails. I was asked what I thought of O’Mahony. The answer is, I have no idea what he is like as a professional footballer, let alone a striker. He has nothing to work with. He has to play with his back to goal and seems to have a first touch like pinging a ball off a bicycle frame. Could go anywhere. Not his fault. His best two opportunities have come from charging down a goalkeeper in four games.

Noel is set on Peplite, like Seles was. It is just that he doesn’t have the players for it or the bravery to change it. He keeps smashing his head off the wall until the wall gives out. It has become so ingrained now, that clubs are unable to change or adapt. Academy coaching and recruitment is based on the Peplite plan. No one produces strikers or wingers anymore. It is like they have died out. We live in a football world where our wingers are looking to work the ball to the keeper, so we can invite a press we cannot beat, because it doesn’t come. Yay!

Hate all this modern technical trendy poncing about that seems to dominate tactics these days. Might well work if you’re Liverpool or City but is otherwise dreary frustrating cr@p when sides lower in the pyramid have a go. Inverted wingers and false 9s are just tw@t terms for rubbish stuff.

Just go back to basic simple stuff of 4-4-2 with good old fashioned scary wingers with pace that only need to beat one player rather than trying to beat 3 or 4 players several times and full backs who actually defend rather than being in the middle of the pitch as the ball sails past them.

[Snowflake Royal]

Noel touched on this on BBCRB after the match. He said that when Wing is playing further forward he is often being man marked and can’t get on the ball as much. Idea of dropping deep then free’s up a full back to go into midfield. Saw that a bit today with Matty Jacob.

This is the thing I'm amazed all these people calling for Wing to be further forward don't get.

Deeper he gets time and space. He scored today, because he was our deep midfielder, ghosting in to a danger area unnoticed. If he was playing further forward, he wouldn't have been free and in space that far out to pick up and shoot. Someone would be on him. Deeper, he's being pressed by one player, in a more open part of the pitch, he can look forward, but he's also always got safe options backwards and sideways if it isn't on and he's sharp enough to be able to choose his option.

Further forward, everything's tighter, he'll have more players near him able to get closer and close his passing lines out. Yes, he's trying the hollywood ball a bit much, and it's not coming off as well as last season. But push him forward, and that 60 yard diagonal is no longer an option for him. And no one else in the team can do it nearly as well.

The midfield, less so today admittedly, is one of the better functioning parts of the team right now. We have the pieces to have a very good midfield, to a similar standard of last year. Wing deep, Savage up and down, and then Doyle or Elliott showing for the pass, turning their man, finding some space between the lines and making something happen.

The forward line is struggling, but then that's not a surprise with the number of changes to the squad and XI we've had. Kelvin switching between two different positions and getting dropped. O'Mahoney getting dropped. Lane getting injured. Kyerewaa switching from left to right. Camara in and out.

And in defence, we dropped our best performing defender for a promising teenager who had one good cup game against Pompey reserves. Our big defensive leader is injured, and our experiences specialist LB looks like a mistake.

Hunt is showing his inexperience with the tinkering. IMO he saw we'd lost the first two games and got a cup win, and threw the plan out to try to match that, when it was the wrong thing to do. But injuries to Lane, Dorsett and O'Connor certainly aren't helping. He also needs to get them to cut loose a bit more. Take more shots rather than hoping the perfect opportunity will arise, work the keeper a bit, give the defence something else to think about.

We need to not panic, keep working hard, and our understanding will grow if we keep some consistency, a bit of a rub of he green will come up sooner or later and we'll have a good run. But constantly reacting and changing will just prolong the problem and the bad results.

Playing Wing at the back has two main outcomes. A weak and slow midfield core that fails to protect the defence and a preponderance of ineffective long balls.

I’d rather Wing had less time but be slightly more effective further up.

Worked well enough last season. I don’t think he will be as effective, that's the point.

Wing further forwards means Fraser deep. Plus Savage. That’s not enough creativity. We need to be adding Elliott or Doyle. Take out Savage and you lose endless energy and running and it's all a bit slow.

[leon]

This is the thing I'm amazed all these people calling for Wing to be further forward don't get.

Deeper he gets time and space. He scored today, because he was our deep midfielder, ghosting in to a danger area unnoticed. If he was playing further forward, he wouldn't have been free and in space that far out to pick up and shoot. Someone would be on him. Deeper, he's being pressed by one player, in a more open part of the pitch, he can look forward, but he's also always got safe options backwards and sideways if it isn't on and he's sharp enough to be able to choose his option.

Further forward, everything's tighter, he'll have more players near him able to get closer and close his passing lines out. Yes, he's trying the hollywood ball a bit much, and it's not coming off as well as last season. But push him forward, and that 60 yard diagonal is no longer an option for him. And no one else in the team can do it nearly as well.

The midfield, less so today admittedly, is one of the better functioning parts of the team right now. We have the pieces to have a very good midfield, to a similar standard of last year. Wing deep, Savage up and down, and then Doyle or Elliott showing for the pass, turning their man, finding some space between the lines and making something happen.

The forward line is struggling, but then that's not a surprise with the number of changes to the squad and XI we've had. Kelvin switching between two different positions and getting dropped. O'Mahoney getting dropped. Lane getting injured. Kyerewaa switching from left to right. Camara in and out.

And in defence, we dropped our best performing defender for a promising teenager who had one good cup game against Pompey reserves. Our big defensive leader is injured, and our experiences specialist LB looks like a mistake.

Hunt is showing his inexperience with the tinkering. IMO he saw we'd lost the first two games and got a cup win, and threw the plan out to try to match that, when it was the wrong thing to do. But injuries to Lane, Dorsett and O'Connor certainly aren't helping. He also needs to get them to cut loose a bit more. Take more shots rather than hoping the perfect opportunity will arise, work the keeper a bit, give the defence something else to think about.

We need to not panic, keep working hard, and our understanding will grow if we keep some consistency, a bit of a rub of he green will come up sooner or later and we'll have a good run. But constantly reacting and changing will just prolong the problem and the bad results.

Playing Wing at the back has two main outcomes. A weak and slow midfield core that fails to protect the defence and a preponderance of ineffective long balls.

I’d rather Wing had less time but be slightly more effective further up.

Worked well enough last season. I don’t think he will be as effective, that's the point.

Wing further forwards means Fraser deep. Plus Savage. That’s not enough creativity. We need to be adding Elliott or Doyle. Take out Savage and you lose endless energy and running and it's all a bit slow.

We had a similar problems last season. Wing was walked through on a number of occasions. You could argue that our weakness through the middle was partially responsible for us not making the playoffs.

And the aimless long balls wasted so much possession to teams with large centre backs who ate it up every time.

We need to play the best players in their best positions but we also need to play the team and formation that suits. And that trumps everything.

I guess Hunt needs to work out what that is pretty quick. And he needs to learn from his mistakes

[jd82]

Our best player sat on the bench for 90 mins again. It's gonna be a "second ball game" if none of your midfielders have an ounce of ball carrying composure.

Just before their second goal Noel was about to make some changes. The groan from the West stand when everyone realised he was calling Camara over, not Elliot was probably the highlight of the day.

[traff]

Love this
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdCCQuKR/

[Sutekh]

Love this
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdCCQuKR/

Absolutely detest that sort of play acting. Players doing that should be immediately sent off and face a lengthy suspension from the FA.

[West F]

Our best player sat on the bench for 90 mins again. It's gonna be a "second ball game" if none of your midfielders have an ounce of ball carrying composure.

Just before their second goal Noel was about to make some changes. The groan from the West stand when everyone realised he was calling Camara over, not Elliot was probably the highlight of the day.

Yep. I actually worried about what was going through Elliot’s head. The manager benches him in favour of Crawley guy, then turns to Camara to dig him out of the hole he has dug for himself. Elliot was quite small when I saw him first play for us. Technically very good, but physically small. At the start of last season, when they came out to warm up before the Hull game. I didn’t immediately recognise him and Wareham. Looked like they had hit the gym over the summer. Elliot then went on to demonstrate that he could physically hold off players, and even bully them in tackles. If I was playing for AFC Wimbledon, the last thing I would want is Elliot and Doyle carrying the ball forward and committing defenders. Twenty minutes of that and a couple of bookings, you control the game. No second balls to worry about. Just controlled possession in the final third. Chuck the inverted 4 3 3 in the bin and put your best players on the pitch. Then let the opposition worry about you, not the other way round.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Our best player sat on the bench for 90 mins again. It's gonna be a "second ball game" if none of your midfielders have an ounce of ball carrying composure.

Just before their second goal Noel was about to make some changes. The groan from the West stand when everyone realised he was calling Camara over, not Elliot was probably the highlight of the day.

Yep. I actually worried about what was going through Elliot’s head. The manager benches him in favour of Crawley guy, then turns to Camara to dig him out of the hole he has dug for himself. Elliot was quite small when I saw him first play for us. Technically very good, but physically small. At the start of last season, when they came out to warm up before the Hull game. I didn’t immediately recognise him and Wareham. Looked like they had hit the gym over the summer. Elliot then went on to demonstrate that he could physically hold off players, and even bully them in tackles. If I was playing for AFC Wimbledon, the last thing I would want is Elliot and Doyle carrying the ball forward and committing defenders. Twenty minutes of that and a couple of bookings, you control the game. No second balls to worry about. Just controlled possession in the final third. Chuck the inverted 4 3 3 in the bin and put your best players on the pitch. Then let the opposition worry about you, not the other way round.

I mentioned it on another thread. Elliott only has a year left on his contract. If we waste him, he'll probably be sold for peanuts in January and then light up the division for a team who use him better (bonus points if he tears us a new one on his return too).

We should be making him first name on the teamsheet and get a new deal but we're going to waste him.

[Snowflake Royal]

I think it's safe to say that Hunt rates Elliott somewhat lower than his main fans on here.

[6ft Kerplunk]

They might just be managing Elliott's game time considering he's coming back from a long lay off and doesn't exactly have the greatest of injury records.

[RoyalBlue]

They might just be managing Elliott's game time considering he's coming back from a long lay off and doesn't exactly have the greatest of injury records.

As Ady Williams repeatedly says - if a player's not fit enough to play any minutes, don't put them on the bench in the first place! It wasn't like all was completely lost at the time when he could (should?) have been brought on.