MK Dons - just back, my view.

[HarryBosch]

Beaten by a better team, as was expected but a few positives again for me.

 

The goal looked like Croft pulled it back so shouldn't have been disallowed and had the ref seen Tarky get elbowed in their area in inury time we would have had a penalty.

 

Just like we should have had four on Monday if it wasn't for Kirkland we should have had 2 today if it wasn't for the officials.

 

Grounds was ripped a new one by Daniel Powell but, to be fair, a lot of left backs will experience the same this season.

I'm not a noticer of opposition players but this lad was on another level - I'll be very surpised if he's there much longer, regardless of how much money they have.

 

Assuming their left side wasn't bad either Byrne had a good game, no frills but effective. Defends well, plays it simple when in possession.

 

M'Voto was good. Some great crunching tackles.

 

Croft had a good game - I think he'll be our most important signing this season. He'll make plenty of goals and score a few aswell.

 

M'Changama did ok.

Assuming Wesolowski is still out on Tuesday, M'Changama at home against lesser opposition might be the creative midfielder we've been lacking for a while.

 

Furman - I said this a few times last season, what does he actually do? What is he? Not a great tackler, not a playmaker, doesn't score many. I realise statistically we're better with him in the team but, I just don't get him.

 

Montano - I hope he was jetlagged or something.

 

Simpson - played well. Skewed one wide one on one with the keeper but had done well to create the chance in the first place. His goal looked fine to me. Was at the heart of what we did create and seemed to really care, so much so he boiled over a bit in the second half.

I didn't see the incident with Kay at the end but wouldn't be surprised if he retrospectively got a second yellow despite making himself scarce.

 

Slew - not great but I'll judge him Tuesday and Saturday. Not many lone strikers are going to get much change out of that defence.

 

Hughes - very good, again. The disallowed goal came from his cross. He was involved in a few other good bits of play aswell. He should start on Tuesday with Montano to come on from the bench.

 

Taylor - wasn't on long so didn't have chance to do much. Got involved in that brief spell though, seemed to get into some good positions. Good to see Dickov not resorting yet again to the futile practice of throwing Smith on for his usual thankless 5 minute task.

 

We've been underdogs in the two games so far and been beaten twice as expected. I'll judge us this time next week after two games Dickov will be expecting to win.

 

As for MK Dons - it was with a heavy heart I went. First away game, I wanted to see us.

The ground and whole experience was just weird.

It was like being at a reserve game when quiet but then the acoustics made the sparse crowd (us and them) sound pretty loud.

Big, roomy, comfy seats with a great view even from behind the goal.

It'll be impressive when finished, I hate to say.

 

Robinson's reaction after full time, giving us :censored: was very strange.

I'd just begrudgingly praised him for calming things down in the melee after the final whistle.

Such a shame this will probably be his only managerial position once they get rid later this season. All that money and never been able to get them up.

[philliggi]

personally i would say your assessment is a little biased. croft and montano wernt in the game and croft came looking for it inside far too often as he was having no joy. not one decent ball in the box all afternoon.

 

simpson should have walked on 70 mins for a punch. he also skewed one wide when a shot on target was easier. also at fault for the goal. i like him, but today was a bad day at the office for him, even by his own admission

 

mchangama -although he did well with the ball, he doesnt do enough without it for me and its midfield where we got over run today.

 

if we havent got wes back, id drop simpson back to the attacking midfield role and stick taylor in there.

[HarryBosch]

personally i would say your assessment is a little biased. croft and montano wernt in the game and croft came looking for it inside far too often as he was having no joy. not one decent ball in the box all afternoon.

 

simpson should have walked on 70 mins for a punch. he also skewed one wide when a shot on target was easier. also at fault for the goal. i like him, but today was a bad day at the office for him, even by his own admission

 

mchangama -although he did well with the ball, he doesnt do enough without it for me and its midfield where we got over run today.

 

if we havent got wes back, id drop simpson back to the attacking midfield role and stick taylor in there.

 

biased?

for/against who or what?

[HarryBosch]

croft and montano wernt in the game

 

Croft was our best player and I've already alluded to the fact Montano wan't in the game.

 

????

[opinions4u]

mchangama -although he did well with the ball, he doesnt do enough without it for me and its midfield where we got over run today.

 

 

That didn't happen.

[philliggi]

i dont think you could pick out a best player today, we had a job done on us and everything we tried to do was defended well by mk. im not saying croft had a bad game, infact i agree with the assessment that he is a big player for us and was deservedly man of the match against sheff. but croft never took the ball down the wing and beat a man like the sheff game, he lacked service and had to go looking for it.

 

as for being over run, we rarely played the ball forward and lacked any penetration. we didnt feed the wide men and too many balls went backwards or sidewards. on more than one occasion we had a long period of possession without actually getting anywhere, only to have a pass intercepted and mk counter attack. possibly over run is the wrong terminology, but we lacked the ability to feed balls to our attacking areas from midfield

[TheBigDog]

personally i would say your assessment is a little biased. croft and montano wernt in the game and croft came looking for it inside far too often as he was having no joy. not one decent ball in the box all afternoon.

 

simpson should have walked on 70 mins for a punch. he also skewed one wide when a shot on target was easier. also at fault for the goal. i like him, but today was a bad day at the office for him, even by his own admission

 

mchangama -although he did well with the ball, he doesnt do enough without it for me and its midfield where we got over run today.

 

if we havent got wes back, id drop simpson back to the attacking midfield role and stick taylor in there.

 

This is a far more realistic assessment of our performance today.

 

Croft was ineffective all game - cannot believe he stayed on for the full 90 minutes

Montano and Slew both had poor games - where was the blistering pace that these guys supposedly have?

Grounds spent the majority of his defensive day backing off any attacker that came at him.

We simply had no confidence or guile in the middle of the park - and spent the majority of the game passing the ball sideways and backwards.

I cannot remember a single decent shot that troubled Martin in the Dons goal.

 

All in all a poor team effort with only MVoto and Cisak (and Hughes for the short time he was on the pitch) to come out of the game with any credit.

 

Time to put it right on Tuesday.

[steveoafc]

Just watched the goals on the football league show...........shocking defending for both goals!.....It really is becoming our achilles heel, if we don't sort this out rapidly then another long season beckons.

An opportunity on tuesday to get back to winning ways and move forward.

Edited August 18, 2012 by steveoafc

[RobOAFC]

Just watched the goals on the football league show...........shocking defending for both goals!.....It really is becoming our achilles heel, if we don't sort this out rapidly then another long season beckons.

An opportunity on tuesday to get back to winning ways and move forward.

 

Aye, Tarky outmuscled easily enough but was left with two men by himself

[oafc joe]

Agree with this post, but take Furman out of the team and we would see the result straightaway, our defence would be seriously as he gives them so much protection. He sprinted 50 yards against Sheff Weds to make a challenge on our by line, he does so much unnoticed work, people who truly understand know that Furman is pivotal to us

[oafc joe]

Agree with this post, but take Furman out of the team and we would see the result straightaway, our defence would be seriously as he gives them so much protection. He sprinted 50 yards against Sheff Weds to make a challenge on our by line, he does so much unnoticed work, people who truly understand know that Furman is pivotal to us

*seriously weakened

[oafc_lover]

All I'll say is I drove all that way, sat in traffic, got conned into paying £7 to park on a pile of :censored:ing rubble and had to actually look at the building site which I was promised was a nice ground just for the team to not even look remotely bothered! My gran would have chased down better than them.

[oafcprozac]

Absolutely nothing in it for the first half an hour, in fact just before the Mongs took the lead we'd had a decent little period where we'd had a couple of free-kicks around the edge of their box and a couple of corners, albeit they came to nothing. Then we go to sleep on a corner with Tarky marking space and to let their lad (a winger I believe) score with a header 6 yards out is criminal. After that Powell smashes the bar, and Lowe clips narrowly wide and we simply cannot gain any meaningful possession. Early days in the second half and Simpson is put through on the angle and drags his shot well wide, it really was a poor effort. Then on the hour, we have a corner it comes to nothing Tarky wants top have a row with Kay I think, suddenly he realises there's a gap wider than Jordan's wotsit and Powell dances through to smash home the second with Tarky still tracking back. With 20 minutes to go Simpson taps home on the line but is ruled offside, harsh imo. From then on only bright spot was young Connor, as i've said previously he looks to beat his man and get a cross in. We got what we deserved but were architects of our own downfall.

 

Cisak - Two decent saves, again looked a split-second hesitant to come for loose balls.

Byrne - Decent enough at the back, but his distribution is poor and offers little going forward

M'Voto - Thought he was a rare positive, started the season well

Tarky - Two more lapses in concentration and two more goals. He needs to shape up and decide whether he wants to be a centre-half, all the attributes are there, but mentally he is not up to it at the moment. Needs to grow up and fast. A loan spell at somewhere like Barrow could be the making of him.

Grounds - Had a torrid afternoon against their winger

Croft - Inside too much, threatened to do something but invaraiably crowded out. Had a hand in the 'goal'

Furman - Tough afternoon, needs to learn to hang on to the ball more, the pass is not always the best option sometimes simply putting your foot on the ball is.

M'Changama - Thought he was ok, set-pieces mostly poor

Montano - Failed to take his man on all afternoon, which was disappointing. I couldn't decide whether his passing and vision was one step ahead of us or simply off the pace. More to come from him.

Simpson - Had a bee in his bonnet all afternoon, lucky to not be sent-off for a stamp and was petulant all afternoon. Wouldn't be surprised to see further action taken on the final whistle melee.

Slew - Ran about a lot, but if this lad was our number one target then God help us. Jury's out

 

Subs:

Hughes - The one bright spot for me, got it down got down the wing and crossed the ball

Taylor - Had little impact

 

The Manager - Losing Wes didn't help, but for the second game in succession we go behind and he sits down and folds his arms, what sort of message does that send out to a team of young lads? We need a leader on and off the pitch, have we got them?

 

We desperately need a midfielder who can put his foot on the ball, and whatever Clarke wants pay it him! We simply do not hold the ball up, meaning the ball comes back at us time and time again. This creates its' own pressure.

 

I predicted two defeats from these opening two games, but we have issues that will cause problems for us even against the division's lesser lights. Set-pieces again is a massive problem. Dickov needs to bite the bullet, move Byrne inside and give Brown a go before Tarky is completely destroyed.

Edited August 19, 2012 by oafcprozac

[Lukers1]

Absolutely nothing in it for the first half an hour, in fact just before the Mongs took the lead we'd had a decent little period wherewe'd had a couple of free-kicks around the edge of their box and a couple of corners, albeit they came to nothing. Then we go to sleep on a corner with Tarky marking space and to let their lad (a winger I believe) score with a header 6 yards out is criminal. After that Powell smashes the bar and we simply cannot gain any meaningful possession. Early days in the second half and Simpson is piyt through on the angle and drags his shot well wide, it really was a poor effort. Then on the hour, we have a corner it comes to nothing Tarky wants top have a row with Kay I think, suddenly he realises there's a gap wider than Jordan's wotsit and Powell dances through to smash home the second with Tarky still tracking back. With 20 minutes to go Simpson taps home on the loan but is ruled offside, harsh imo. From then on only bright spot was young Connor, as i've said previously he looks to beat his man and get a cross in. We got what we deserved but where so architects of our downfall.

 

Cisak - Two decent saves, again looked a split-second hesitant to come for loose balls.

Byrne - Decent enough at the back, but his distribution is poor and offers little going forward

M'Voto - Thought he was a rare positive, started the season well

Tarky - Two more lapses in concentration and two more goals. He needs to shape up and decide whether he wants to be a centre-half, all the attributes are there, but mentally he is not up to it at the moment. Needs to grow up and fast. A loan spell at somewhere like Barrow could be the making of him.

Grounds - Had a torrid afternoon against their winger

Croft - Inside too much, threatened to do something but invaraiably crowded out. Had a hand in the 'goal'

Furman - Tough afternoon, needs to learn to hang on to the ball more, the pass is not always the best option sometimes simply putting your foot on the ball is.

M'Changama - Thought he was ok, set-pieces mostly poor

Montano - Failed to take his man on all afternoon, which was disappointing. I couldn't decide whether his passing and vision was one step ahead of us or simply off the pace. More to come from him.

Simpson - Had a bee in his bonnet all afternoon, lucky to not be sent-off for a stamp and was petulant all afternoon. Wouldn't be surprised to see further action taken on the final whistle melee.

Slew - Ran about a lot, but if this lad was our number one target then God help us. Jury's out

 

Subs:

Hughes - The one bright spot for me, got it down got down the wing and crossed the ball

Taylor - Had little impact

 

The Manager - Losing Wes didn't help, but for the second game in succession we go behind and he sits down and folds his arms, what sort of message does that send out to a team of young lads? We need a leader on and off the pitch, have we got them?

 

We desperately need a midfielder who can put his foot on the ball, and whatever Clarke wants pay it him! We simply do not hold the ball up, meaning the ball comes back at us time and time again. This creates its' own pressure.

 

I predicted two defeats from these opening two games, but we have issues that will cause problems for us even against the division's lesser lights. Set-pieces again is a massive problem. Dickov needs to bite the bullet, move Byrne inside and give Brown a go before Tarky is completely destroyed.

 

Yep, Byrne is not a full back, M'voto and Byrne need to start to and get a good understanding together.

[deyres42]

Yep, Byrne is not a full back, M'voto and Byrne need to start to and get a good understanding together.

 

Think we've got to stop saying Byrne isn't a full back, he's played there most of his career. Tarkowski does need taking out of the team though IMO so if we're not looking to bring someone else in then I'd move him to centre back and bring Brown in.

[rammylatic]

My view from watching the game is that the Dongs didn't have to move out of 2nd gear. We looked leggy throughout & unfit, not tracking back or marking and it cost us. Massive improvement needed for Tuesday.

 

-

[oafcprozac]

I think the heat affected us more than it did them, which was surprising given we spent a week in Portugal during pre-season….

[Harry Dowds Green Shirt]

Absolutely nothing in it for the first half an hour, in fact just before the Mongs took the lead we'd had a decent little period where we'd had a couple of free-kicks around the edge of their box and a couple of corners, albeit they came to nothing. Then we go to sleep on a corner with Tarky marking space and to let their lad (a winger I believe) score with a header 6 yards out is criminal. After that Powell smashes the bar, and Lowe clips narrowly wide and we simply cannot gain any meaningful possession. Early days in the second half and Simpson is put through on the angle and drags his shot well wide, it really was a poor effort. Then on the hour, we have a corner it comes to nothing Tarky wants top have a row with Kay I think, suddenly he realises there's a gap wider than Jordan's wotsit and Powell dances through to smash home the second with Tarky still tracking back. With 20 minutes to go Simpson taps home on the line but is ruled offside, harsh imo. From then on only bright spot was young Connor, as i've said previously he looks to beat his man and get a cross in. We got what we deserved but were architects of our own downfall.

 

Cisak - Two decent saves, again looked a split-second hesitant to come for loose balls.

Byrne - Decent enough at the back, but his distribution is poor and offers little going forward

M'Voto - Thought he was a rare positive, started the season well

Tarky - Two more lapses in concentration and two more goals. He needs to shape up and decide whether he wants to be a centre-half, all the attributes are there, but mentally he is not up to it at the moment. Needs to grow up and fast. A loan spell at somewhere like Barrow could be the making of him.

Grounds - Had a torrid afternoon against their winger

Croft - Inside too much, threatened to do something but invaraiably crowded out. Had a hand in the 'goal'

Furman - Tough afternoon, needs to learn to hang on to the ball more, the pass is not always the best option sometimes simply putting your foot on the ball is.

M'Changama - Thought he was ok, set-pieces mostly poor

Montano - Failed to take his man on all afternoon, which was disappointing. I couldn't decide whether his passing and vision was one step ahead of us or simply off the pace. More to come from him.

Simpson - Had a bee in his bonnet all afternoon, lucky to not be sent-off for a stamp and was petulant all afternoon. Wouldn't be surprised to see further action taken on the final whistle melee.

Slew - Ran about a lot, but if this lad was our number one target then God help us. Jury's out

 

Subs:

Hughes - The one bright spot for me, got it down got down the wing and crossed the ball

Taylor - Had little impact

 

The Manager - Losing Wes didn't help, but for the second game in succession we go behind and he sits down and folds his arms, what sort of message does that send out to a team of young lads? We need a leader on and off the pitch, have we got them?

 

We desperately need a midfielder who can put his foot on the ball, and whatever Clarke wants pay it him! We simply do not hold the ball up, meaning the ball comes back at us time and time again. This creates its' own pressure.

 

I predicted two defeats from these opening two games, but we have issues that will cause problems for us even against the division's lesser lights. Set-pieces again is a massive problem. Dickov needs to bite the bullet, move Byrne inside and give Brown a go before Tarky is completely destroyed.

 

I agree with the majority of that Paul, but can't agree with the highlighted bits about Tarky. As I've said on the other post. Neither goal are his fault and have nothing to do with any lapses of concentration. Watch the highlights again on IPlayer and Latics player later today. If you referred to O'Grady's 1st goal the other night where Tarky allowed him to control turn and shoot you would have a point, but not either of the 2 goals yesterday IMHO

[oafcprozac]

I agree with the majority of that Paul, but can't agree with the highlighted bits about Tarky. As I've said on the other post. Neither goal are his fault and have nothing to do with any lapses of concentration. Watch the highlights again on IPlayer and Latics player later today. If you referred to O'Grady's 1st goal the other night where Tarky allowed him to control turn and shoot you would have a point, but not either of the 2 goals yesterday IMHO

 

I'll agree to disagree Harry. I do think Tarky has a lot going for him and we do forget he's still a teenager BUT for the first he's marking the invisible man and whilst the second was directly not his fault the fact he was arguing with Kay whilst not tracking back was unprofessional. Of course he may have got nowhere near Powell but it was poor to watch.

 

Hopefully he'll play as well on Tuesday as he did in February vs Walsall when he had a cracker in our 2-1 win. With every negative I see in Tarky's game I do try and highlight a positive as he is only a young lad and to be fair he has looked good in pre-season and for spells in the two games so far. However, he needs to learn to concentrate at all times or he'll be 32/33 making the sort of mistakes that Hazell does. I've said it before and i'll say it again, he needs to follow the man and not the ball - like he did on Ryan Lowe's narrow miss. I thought that was a cracking example of putting someone off who was nailed on to score.

[palmer1]

I'll agree to disagree Harry. I do think Tarky has a lot going for him and we do forget he's still a teenager BUT for the first he's marking the invisible man and whilst the second was directly not his fault the fact he was arguing with Kay whilst not tracking back was unprofessional. Of course he may have got nowhere near Powell but it was poor to watch.

 

Hopefully he'll play as well on Tuesday as he did in February vs Walsall when he had a cracker in our 2-1 win. With every negative I see in Tarky's game I do try and highlight a positive as he is only a young lad and to be fair he has looked good in pre-season and for spells in the two games so far. However, he needs to learn to concentrate at all times or he'll be 32/33 making the sort of mistakes that Hazell does. I've said it before and i'll say it again, he needs to follow the man and not the ball - like he did on Ryan Lowe's narrow miss. I thought that was a cracking example of putting someone off who was nailed on to score.

 

watch the goals again prozac, he is marking 2 men, his own and Simpsons who scores the header, there is no space whats so ever between him and the dons player, so I don't get your invisible man comment. He then bollocks Simpson for loosing his man, 3 oldham players go with 1 to the near post

[oafcprozac]

Tried watching them, the LP vid freezes after 2 mins 7 seconds on both our site and The Mongs'. More quality work from Premium TV or whoever….

[Harry Dowds Green Shirt]

MIne's working ok.

 

Simpson is definately offside. The ball goes forward from Croft and there is only 1 defender there.

 

Interesting about certain people thinking Tarky Hoofs the ball too much (myself included to a point) as our best chance yesterday comes from Tarky "hoofing" it up to Simpson who turns his man gets in and the drags wide of goal when he should of at least hit the target.

[24hoursfromtulsehill]

Simpson defo offside? Defo onside as far as I'm concerned. Level with Lewington.

 

The big chance for us to get something out of that game had already come and gone - when Simpson was through when it was still only 1-0.

 

Montano was a passenger. Could not run with the ball, could not track back, leaving Grounds massively exposed against Powell, who was made to look far better than he probably is. Hughes did really well when he came on, getting in a couple of decent crosses. The problem was that after he'd established himself as a threat, we didn't use him. Croft had to come inside to get the ball too. If we're going to have wide men, we need to use them. Everyone else had a decent enough game. Probably M'changangama was our best player, but that double save by Cisak in the second half was top drawer.

 

Hughes must play against Walsall, and if I were Dickov I'd be tempted to play Tarky at full-back, where he's less likely to make a costly mistake.

[HarryBosch]

if I were Dickov I'd be tempted to play Tarky at full-back, where he's less likely to make a costly mistake.

 

is that how you'd sell it to Tarky if you were Dickov?

 

"i'm putting you at fullback tonight son. you're less likely to cock anything up there. now show me what you can do"

[24hoursfromtulsehill]

is that how you'd sell it to Tarky if you were Dickov?

 

"i'm putting you at fullback tonight son. you're less likely to cock anything up there. now show me what you can do"

 

Yes. And if there's any frowning or blubbing I might add something like: you've had a few problems lately so I'm doing you a favour. Put your face straight and thank :censored: you're still in the team. Watch how the experienced Cliff does it. You'll have the best view in the house.

 

Also, if I see you trying one of those floated passes down the line again, you'll be out injured for the rest of the season.

 

Does Dickov need to sell it to Tarky? Does Tarky need to buy it? I hope Dickov doesn't see his relationship with the players in that way.