Saints vs. Dons

[RicoS321]

11 minutes ago, redordead said:

I'm not against playing out. You see it in Germany every week. We just don't seem to have the ability to do it properly despite having an abundance of holding midfielders who should be collecting the ball and turning.

It's not playing out that's the issue, it's doing it every single time when you're already under pressure. 

Lovely goal, great play by the two wingers. Good start to the half. Hornby already done more than Kamberi.

[redordead]

Games come alive and a goal from open play !!!!

I can take my head out of the oven for the 2nd half.

[RicoS321]

A half decent second half performance. A much better shape, Hayes and McGinn and even Kennedy performed much better around Hornby. 

All their opportunities in the second half came from us trying to play out unnecessarily. Took until the 89th minute for Lewis to go long from a goal kick as he'd clearly been told to go short every single time. McKenzie caught a couple of times. He looked good defensively and going forward but giving him the ball under pressure with no out ball wasn't clever. It's stupid stuff like, it's fine to play it out from the back if you're quick about it, but don't wait until the opposition is settled then pass to a centre half on a hard fast pitch. Poor coaching.

 

[KGB]

Playing it out from the back was clearly a team instruction today but the players need to have enough game intelligence to know when not to do it. It was clear today that they don't and it ended up with us being in all types of pressure, in the first half particularly.

We were much better in the second half, after Hornby replaced Kamberi, who should never be played as a lone striker. Kennedy and McGinn, who mistifyingly got subbed when he was pulling the strings, are worthy of mention for their second half performances.

Overall, a decent 3 points which we sorely needed.

 

[RicoS321]

9 hours ago, KGB said:

Playing it out from the back was clearly a team instruction today but the players need to have enough game intelligence to know when not to do it. It was clear today that they don't and it ended up with us being in all types of pressure, in the first half particularly.

I think it was more than that, and we've seen it in every game Sheerin has managed. It's clearly been forced on them and it's clear that they've been told that they have to do it every single time. In other words, their game intelligence is being overridden by management ideology, as it was very clear that they were doing it when they weren't comfortable doing so. It's our new version of game management, which was drilled into our players under McInnes, limiting their freedom to instinctively move forward with the ball. I'm really hoping that Glass ditches it immediately and allows players to think for themselves. It's a very immature form of management, especially when it leads to so many opportunities for the opponent.