Just re-read the thread of when we lost to Shrewsbury .. this post still seems relevant today ..
Comfortably the worst home performance of the season in an attacking sense. We had absolutely no ideas whatsoever, and the service to the forwards was appalling, utterly appalling. The only good ball in the entire 90 minutes came from Gabriel to Yates who should've done better.
This has been our problem all season long and we haven't ever done anything about it. We've played 10 games at home against bottom half teams, and scored 11 goals. That's absolutely dreadful for a playoff chasing side.
I'm not sure there's anyone that stood out for us, but we've sunk back into that hole we were in during the first seven games and i'd argue the last two performances have been far worse than they were back then.
Our lack of creativity and forward passing ability in the middle of the park is something that desperately needs addressing this summer. Dougall and Ward offer decent protection for the defence, but there's no goals and no chances coming from them. If Embleton and Kaikai don't get involved in the game, like today, then we have absolutely no chance of scoring. None.
We have four games to scrape together enough points for a top six place. Missing Madine, Anderson, Hamilton and Stewart for so long is going to cost us I feel, sadly. But the players we had out there today should be doing much better - if I was a professional player i'd honestly be embarrassed with some of the passing we displayed today.
Harsh criticism maybe, but i'm just saying as I see it. What was that from Ward at the end? Also near the end Robson I think was meant to play a ball back in to the box and it went nowhere near - how can you miss the box completely? It isn't a small area. Critchley is far from blameless of course but he can't do much about such poor quality on the ball from players we know do possess quality.
Just a bad, frustrating and desperate day all round. On to Tuesday where we will need to demonstrate far more urgency, and the ability to find a forward with the final ball.
It's worrying when we say we needed a flick on from a corner to a centre half to win a game and expect to be a playoff side. Where the F is the quality. Goals come in all shapes and sizes. The real issue is that once we went 1 down we had almost no answer to Shrewsbury’s defensive shape. We...
avftt.co.uk