The Poolie Bunker

...what were you thinking?
As for Barker his display was positively Daly-esque. I got sick of the times our crowd shouted for a free kick everytime Barker lost out in challenges. Yes, he got battered about, yes he got fouled, but he won almost nothing all game. He's supposed to be a strong experienced striker and to me he was woeful, lost almost every challenge, hardly won his headers, was slow and was in their pockets. He should have given them it back. Why on earth Porter was brought off instead of him I cant understand.
Why?

As for Barker his display was positively Daly-esque.

i think if we are serious about the play offs wilson has to find a way of getting the best out of porter brown and monkhouse, because we are going to need goals as the defence hasnt looked like keeping clean sheets all season.

what im saying katcha is that barker is suited to a 442 formation with good wide men supplying crosses. he is an old fashioned centre forward. yesterday he spent most of the game getting the ball 35 yards out with his back to goal and having to play the ball back into pools half, on two occassions he actually passed the ball to brighton strikers, thats how deep he was coming to get it. he posed absolutely no threat to the brighton goal at any point yesterday until he was given the chance from the penlty spot.

im not suggesting thats his fault, im saying without wide men he isnt going to get the ball in areas that he can do damage in.

imho if you are going to play 433 you want 3 mobile forwards, capable af taking centre halves into the areas they dont want to go and then beating them. you need to get opposition players out of their comfort zone. sadly on too many occassions this season opposition centre halves have had an easy time of it. stick a big lad whats good in the air on barker and you take him out of the game. put the same centre half on someone like brownie and you cause problems.

porter likes to play with a mobile frontman like boyd or brown that he can interchange quick passes with. he is no more suited to playing with barker than ian moore was, and therein lies the problem we have had most of the season. we dont have strikers that complement each other or who are on the same wavelength.

indeed possibly the most suitable strike partner for barker would be david foley.

today, for whatever reason, wilson started with a 433 formation with porter, a left footer on the right up front, and brown who is right footed on the left up front.

the manager seems to think we are chelsea and that players can adapt to different positions and a different format week in and week out.

clearly they cant.

personally i would like to see us starting games playing 442, with players playing in their best positions, in roles they are comfortable with. theres a reason that throughout history right footed players have played on the right and left footers on the left, and 442 has become the norm. it because it is the easiest way to play the game.

mcunnie for example is in and out of the side and it needs to be decided is he a full back or a midfield player ?

liddle seems baffled and his game is suffering.

brown, porter, foley and moore. are they wingers or are they strikers ? playing porter wide on the right is a waste of time, wheras moore looks much happier playing wide than he does as a striker.

if they are strikers, stick them in the side and leave them in the side as strikers.

you get the sense that the players are becoming increasingly mystified and hacked off at all the chopping and changing, as are the fans.

dont forget we were getting beat before the sending off, and putting in yet another disjointed home performance.