whitey1980

Anybody claiming distribution isn't an absolutely vital part of any goalkeepers game needs a reality check.

The decisions they make are absolutely crucial to the way a team dictates play and retains the ball. I don't personally have an opinion on Coleman's distribution but to rubbish its importance is ridiculous.

Nobody can say with any certainty how he will develop but the lack of experience and communication between either goalkeeper and the back four has crippled us all season long.

He clearly needs time to mature and settle - but he also needs to be true to the goalkeeper that I suspect he has been from an early age. He clearly wants to command his area and on the evidence of Tuesday wants to sweep as well.

That is admirable and required BUT the whole team need to be on the same page as him. He absolutely cannot hesitate as he did on 4 seperate occasions that nearly cost us. They need to be prepared to sweep in for him as they did magnificently on Tuesday and he needs to commit early and consistently.

If he makes mistakes doing that - fair enough - but he must learn from them.

The worst thing for any young goalkeeper is to play in front of a struggling defence which he has been doing this season.

 

When Coleman first came in he looked at decent prospect in what was half a decent side -

12 months later !!!!!!!

 

He will improve and i suspect that in a couple of years he will be a highly valued goalkeeper and could be playing at championship level .

More than any other position on the field , goalkeeping is all about confidence and when he gets his back you will see the potential in the lad.

 

Miles better prospect than Cornell and ultimately producing players like him will be the only way this club can move on.

You could argue the reverse is true and that the defence have been completely undermined by the lack of communication and shenanigans behind them....

What everybody needs to see from Coleman is progression.

His handling was very poor on Tuesday and I suspect it was frustration with this that led to the increasingly rash decision making. He was incredibly fortunate that he escaped with the mistakes he made.

Set against that it was a horrific night for a goalkeeper with the combination of the wind and very heavy pitch. In part his kicking can be explained by that alone given the difficulty of planting the standing foot.

He has to be true to his instincts and make decisions quicker. Naturally he wants to attack the ball, as he did with one fantastic claim in the second half. However what will destroy him and us is the second guessing and late decisions that leave him out of position and exposed.

He is streets ahead of Cornell, who must be a defenders nightmare given the lack of support he gives them..... but he needs to be a whole lot better than he was Tuesday!!

Was an absolutely horrific miss that was genuinely easier to score.

He panicked and snatched at the header as he felt the challenge coming from behind. Certainly not the finish of a natural goalscorer - Although at least he was following the shot for the rebound in all fairness....

Thought he should have done better with an early header but overall felt he did ok.

Touch looked a little shaky at times and felt his movement was reactive rather than creating space for himself to receive to feet. Set against that though he looked strong and provided us with a shape we lacked when Main came on.

Definitely things to work with...

We certainly didn't murder them and it was a typically crap game on an atrocious pitch between 2 nervy sides.

We played marginally the better football but our lack of confidence in the final third was palpable. The end product was non-existant and our best chance was created by Lafferty driving with the ball as those in front (Winchester aside) had appeared unable to do.

The Main miss was an absolute shocker but they equally missed some great chances, particularly the Patterson chance near the end.

Probably a fair result...... just not quite enough at this stage of the season. We need a run of wins to pull us into the mix and drag others back in - am still not convinced despite the upturn.

totally agree with you - cannot understand such behaviour - he did give his all when playing for us

Totally agree.

I could never get my head around him being described as 'lazy' on a regular basis. He wasted a lot of energy running the channels at times, which meant he didn't score the goals he was capable of..... but he certainly wasn't lazy!!

He just looked like a raw and talented prospect who needed to play games and settle at a club. Fair play to him for the career he has made for himself since leaving us!!

JCH is definitely not coming here.

Birmingham and a number of other top end championship clubs were looking at him in late November. I don't profess to have many sources but my info on that is rock solid.

Their interest may have cooled as he hasn't scored since and has fallen from favour - but its a massive drop from that interest to signing for us.

Modern, lighter footballs clearly play a part in the move away from looking to catch the ball.

The ball is far more likely to hold its height in flight - or move unexpectedly - leaving the punch as a seemingly safer option. You see a similar technique with goalkeepers pulling down strikes from distance and claiming the ball off the bounce rather than catching cleanly.

Not totally convinced in truth!!

It is not the information, it is the timing.

His manager knows the outrage that the statement will provoke and the reaction it will create.

I am more inclined to believe that a young man under immense personal (to suggest it is professionally beneficial is too cynical) pressure has made a questionable call to get home....than an experienced manager with no previous has hung a young player out in despicable circumstances.

Something is not quite right with the whole affair and it is just a personal belief this is the most likely chain of events.

I think Brentford have very generously given him a way back.

That was my read on it as well.

I am far from convinced the club are the heartless body they are portrayed as. I think they have protected the player - and less generously, their asset - from his own decision.

I wish I wasn't so cynical!!

Why did we get rid of Rabchuka? We are crying out for an experienced goalkeeper to organise the defense. I feel sorry for Coleman. I hope we dont ruin his career.

The most underestimated factor in our current decline.

Not just for the goalkeeping crisis it left but the message it sent to the squad. Johnson told them nobody was indespensible - They stopped believing we were all in it together. Collectively we haven't recovered.

We are clearly going down.

That is on us and nobody else.

We are weak as piss and can be bullied - particularly defensively...... but that does not mean that it is acceptable to rewrite the rules of the game.

He clearly got big decisions wrong - and more worryingly had no appetite to make them. Trying to keep 22 players on the pitch and not be the central figure in the game is all well and good - but not at the expense of the rules.

It is not his job to lament how weak we are - It is his job to administer the rules as they are clearly laid out in the laws of the game. I would love to hear his justification of how he failed to do so.

Really - The referee decent?

He is there to officiate the game - not to be everybodys best mate. We are weak and entirely squashable - we were also fouled every time on the pitch we beat a Bury player in space (anywhere on the pitch!!)

He set the tone when he didn't book the lad who hauled down Poleon as he beat him a yard outside the box on the left byline. How that is not a booking is beyond the rules and any reasonable explanation.

The tackle on Kelly was red (as Eckersley's in a similar spot should have been a few weeks ago.) He missed a clear penalty when Clarke pushed with two hands on Dieng's (I think) chest when he was waiting to respond to a dropping ball with an open goal.

He got the big decisions wrong and he also allowed clearly orchestrated tactical fouling to influence the flow of the game. He is not the only reason we lost the game, and I don't blame Bury for playing the game in the way he allowed them to, but he was poor - Very poor!!

The pair - and the previous managements treatment of Coleman in particular - have nailed on our relegation.

I find it unbelievable that despite our other issues, a new goalkeeper is not our number one priority.

Neither are upto the job and both are entirely inconsistent in their decision making which leaves those in front with no chance. The lack of communication defensively is killing us and its part of the goalkeepers job to address that. They are - and look - out of their depth.

Did we not value him at more than £200k in the Korey Smith deal or is my memory amiss?

In isolation the fee looks reasonable but in the context of us recovering our money on a player who has gone from being a long term injury absentee to one of the best players in his position in the division, its not fantastic.

I would have hoped that even given his age we could get £300k+.

Mills and the Wilsons are capable of so much more concentration and ownership.

Totally agree - but they have not shown it on any consistant basis since they had Rachubka behind them.

Organisation and communication have to come from behind them as well. The warning signs for the first goal were there 5 minutes before when Williams pulled into the same channel between the same players and left everybody looking for the offside flag that never came.

They can and have defended excellently at times over the past two seasons. They need some help at present.....but it wouldn't surprise me if James Wilson doesn't play for the club again.

His frustration at Cornell has been building for weeks. I think there was some form of altercation at half time.

They must sort out the goalkeeping situation as a matter of urgency if we are to have any chance of survival.

People are being rightly critical of individual pieces of poor defending but the back 4 as a whole are being completely undermined by the clown behind them.

They are having to face their own goal within the 6 yard box so often that they are on edge every time the ball is close to being thrown in the box.

From that uncertainty comes poor communication which is one of the reasons why the defending is so poor inside both fullback channels.

Truly desperate!!

All valid points, but is Coventry away really the game to unshackell this adventurous attacking philosophy?

Are they gods gift to football - no - Did they have a really dangerous front 3 who could have ripped us to shreds on the counter - clearly!!

The conversation may have some validity if we set up the same way against Blackpool.

To use the idea of cricket, its about judging moments in the game - not a set template that creates success. There are clearly moments to attack with the ball and set the field accordingly....but equally sometimes stopping runs can create pressure and wickets.

We used the latter approach on Saturday - Blackpool away (recent form accepted) might demand the former!!

Whoever we have in the back 4 are going to be completely undermined by the current goalkeeping situation.

Both are a liability at present and are completely different in style to make matters worse!! At least Coleman has shown he is capable at this level however. Cornell out (if possible) and a new number one brought in with Coleman remaining as back up has to be a priority.

More even than a centre half, it is key to us staying up for me.

Some quite harsh assessments of the performance IMHO.

The criticism I would lay against Dunn above all others is that I have no idea how he is setting us up to win, or even take points from games. We have appeared to go out soley hoping the opposition don't score.

I never got that impression yesterday. The defensive shape and organisation was streets better. We were very narrow across the back 4 and forced them out of our channels. When the ball did come into the box the combination of our centre halves and midfield anchors mopped up.

It did mean we were lacking options with the ball which led to a large number of unforced errors, but were they not just the signs that betrayed the players lack of confidence? As the game went on and we established ourselves the errors went away.

Surely we had to start solidly though to get a foothold in the game? To open ourselves up against a confident and talented front 3 with our recent defensive record would have been suicide.

I didn't feel they sat back, we forced them back and had been doing from the 15 minutes before half time. As we got into the game, one of Wellens or Kelly was released further forward and we pressed the play really effectively.

He didn't have his best game but Philly managed to find that space in front of the back 4 and Winchester started to get his foot on the ball. The movement improved and we had 3 or 4 opportunities with excellent deliveries (with men in the box) that should have led to better.

The subs were difficult ones to make as we were so obviously the better team at that point and the pressure in midfield to retain the ball was key to that.

Was the equaliser fortunate - clearly - but we never should have been behind in the first place. If we don't make that basic error I honestly think we had a great chance of going onto win the game - and looking at their forum a lot of their fans at half time did also!!

As said by many though you can't play like that against the weaker sides or at home as you rely on frustrating your opponent to create attacking opportunities as the game goes on. However in isolation yesterday (especially given recent form and confidence levels) that was a decent effort from the players and manager. Ironically given many of our thoughts on Dunn and events elsewhere at many larger clubs there was a collective effort that showed some unity and effort. I hope to see more from that base!!

That was particularly scruffy...... What on earth is their keeper doing?

I thought it was a massively improved performance and a thoroughly merited point.

The shape of the team was better right from the off. All their opportunities came from poor mistakes in possesion that were just basic individual errors.

We had to claw our way into the game with a tight and narrow shape that attempted to blunt their width and pace, but expanded our game as the half went on. Eckersley in particular was a massive improvement and provided attacking threat before half time. Finally we started to get some support to Cassidy and Coventry were increasingly frustrated.

Their goal was a sucker punch and another goalkeeping error from Cornell. He simply has to come and get that ball. Teams will know that they can swing balls into our 6 yard box and turn our centre backs towards our own goal. He has to help them out otherwise we are incredibly vulnerable to that delivery.

We did respond though and started to find pockets of space in front of their back 4. We pressed aggressively high up the pitch, created width in their final third, and without looking incredibly likely got the point out approach merited.

This has to be a starting point moving forward. After a horrific run of points and performances both manager and players deserve some credit.

Can't understand why some aren't getting behind Dunn, it's baffling. He is an ex Premiership star, played for his country, starting out as a manager, northern lad, well thought of by anyone who is asked to comment. We have traditionally done ok when giving the job to first timers fitting most of that criteria (Royle, Dowie' Sheridan). The football has been no better and no worse than much of the last 20 years. Some of the criticism after just a few weeks is a bit harsh, don't forget we had players missing yesterday and so had to field players we all know by now are not good enough. When he builds his own team , let's judge him. Purse and sow's ear comes to mind. His own recruits to date look to have strengthened us don't they. Just a realist not a HC.

I don't hold anything against him as such but I consider it pretty average to take a role in any employment with the aim of unseating those above you. Fairly or unfairly, I think that this is the view on his arrival at the club from many.

It makes him look untrustworthy..... which is not a great trait if you are looking to gain the trust of those playing for their careers around you.

 

To be fair, i'm not sure I'd be too enthusiastic about giving a round of applause to a few hundred people shouting ':censored: off' at me.

I don't disagree - but I actually think that it is part of a professional footballers responsibility.

They are in a sport that places them firmly in the public eye and they should recognise that. I thought they upped and left for the sanctuary of the main stand pretty quickly on Tuesday in truth.

We all have parts of our job we hate and I daresay a number of our players have a pretty low opinion of elements of our 'support', but tough. There are kids and very fair minded people who follow this shower all over the country - and they should be acknowledged as such.

If you don't then you just risk alienating more of your customers which isn't sensible in any business.

I have sympathy for James Wilson though. I wasn't there today but I was at MK when he led the team right across to the travelling fans to take pelters. I thought it was out of order then.... and sounds even more ridiculous today!!