georgebcfc

Interesting one. From Nige's perspective with 20 mins ish left we still had to not concede on the break, which trading Williams for James/Naismith increases the risk of, particularly where both were having great games and bossing the midfield. In a way the "plan" did work, as Naismith produced the killer pass.. Unfortunately Bell was marginally off (allegedly). Maybe I'm too conservative but I thought it wasn't the right scenario for Williams.

It was quite bizarre / painful watching the 2/3 v 1 on Tanner throughout the first half, with little support from the tracking midfielders or Kalas, as the closest centre back. As others have noted, all of this was happening in the absence of any protection on the right wing whatsoever, as Weimann seemed to take up a position effectively on the left wing. The only conclusion I can draw is that Pearson was happy to gamble on these crosses not coming to anything, and reinforcing elsewhere to clear and then aim to hit on the counter? Anyway, long way of saying I thought he did OK in the circumstances, although next time we play to allow the overload (if we did), I would like a Pring-esque crunching tackle from him early doors so it isn't all so nice and friendly on their left wing.

Magnusson, Flint and Matthews did well of the starting xi, the rest were pretty awful. A special shout out to Tomlin who I kept forgetting was playing until he'd pop up and do something awful to remind me.. There must be something fundamentally wrong with the the pre match preparation as they just don't seem focused; controlling and passing a ball is pretty standard stuff yet our boys are making it look like rocket science at the moment, let alone the rest of it!

To be fair Pack did well to nick it in the first place, think you have to credit their pressing there rather than criticise Pack