lack of quality crossing

[Slackythestag]

It really frustrates me with the corners how they are floated in

What happened to the good old days of in/outswingers with pace

[JDW]

Totally correct. Everyone who says we need a striker are missing what’s right in front of their face. How many shots did Akins have today? Zero! Because we don’t create clear chances for our strikers. We just boss games and pin teams in. If Macca and Hewitt were fit I don’t think we’d have these issues.

I’m think Lewis and Reed are absolutely outstanding. Lewis best player on the pitch tonight by a mile. Best pair of centre mids we have had for as long as I can remember. Cargill and Flint are superb. And that’s without Alfie K!

But we really struggle in wide areas and it shows. We always will under Clough tactics as no wingers at the club. You rely on full backs to put most of the crosses in. But any other night would’ve been 3 or 4 tonight in first half.

Tactics spot on. Execution not. But on we go!

[grufti]

McDonald put some great crosses in first half, but there wasn't much else of quality. You could say the same about passes and decision making around the box 2nd half too.

[HitchcocksShins]

Badly miss McLaughlin and Hewitt’s crossing don’t we.

And Kellan Gordon

[stagmanrob]

Badly miss McLaughlin and Hewitt’s crossing don’t we.

And Kellan Gordon

I'd sooner have terrible crosses though than have to watch through my fingers whenever Kellan had to defend.

Worst defensive player I've witnessed since Lever and Moore.

[Marky Mark]

Totally correct. Everyone who says we need a striker are missing what’s right in front of their face. How many shots did Akins have today? Zero! Because we don’t create clear chances for our strikers. We just boss games and pin teams in. If Macca and Hewitt were fit I don’t think we’d have these issues.

I’m think Lewis and Reed are absolutely outstanding. Lewis best player on the pitch tonight by a mile. Best pair of centre mids we have had for as long as I can remember. Cargill and Flint are superb. And that’s without Alfie K!

But we really struggle in wide areas and it shows. We always will under Clough tactics as no wingers at the club. You rely on full backs to put most of the crosses in. But any other night would’ve been 3 or 4 tonight in first half.

Tactics spot on. Execution not. But on we go!

I think this is where we're missing both Quinn and Hewitt, both were joint top in assists for us last season (8 each) and almost 25% of our goals last season came from assists by those two (another 25% came from a direct involvement by Akins - goal or assist). Opposition managers were talking about stopping our crosses coming in.

[victor A block]

The crossing has been poor for a while, as have free kicks. The only thing in mitigation is that it isn't just the player crossing the ball with the responsibility. Our players in the box haven't been great at making runs and creating space. I think we would have benefitted from having Swan in there for the last 20 minutes.

[yorkshire stag]

The crossing has been poor for a while, as have free kicks. The only thing in mitigation is that it isn't just the player crossing the ball with the responsibility. Our players in the box haven't been great at making runs and creating space. I think we would have benefitted from having Swan in there for the last 20 minutes.

we truly miss Macca & Quinn for putting a decent ball into the box

[SCStag]

We need a 20 goal a season centre forward. It's as simple as that. We have everything else. We have quality all over and are playing, in general, some very good football. Our midfield are scoring 90% of our goals and its fantastic that we have that quality. However, if we had the missing piece up front, we would have 3 or 4 more wins instead of draws.

[yorkshire stag]

someone said last night Lyle Taylor hadn’t got a club yet !

[Richard Cranium]

We’ve failed to score in 2 games all season and folk want us to bring someone else in

Just give Will Swan a proper run in the side for a few games, he only needs 1 and he’ll go on a run

[Ralphy]

Oates always looked like he needed five games to get up to speed after injury and I think might be the same for Swan. I would start him alongside Akins and give it some time to develop. Shame Oates got injured as it looked like he was just getting into his stride

[bobbystagsfan]

someone said last night Lyle Taylor hadn’t got a club yet !

Bet his wages will be championship level


And it'll take 3 months for him to get match fit

[PEAR CIDER]

Bowery back for corners is absolutely the right decision, as proved on 3 occasions when he nullified the break with his pace

Makes us 1 dimensional at corners because we then only have Flint as a proper aerial threat, unless it's a free header/shot. Then people wonder why we have so many "set piece specialists but rarely do much with them.

So, to be clear Pear, you are saying that Bowery is the only player on the entire team capable of defending a hoofed clearance? Cargill, MacDonald or even Flint are incapable of doing it, nor any of the midfielders like Lewis.

No i have not said that, not even remotely close!!!!! He didnt even clear a hoof, he actively tackled and defended when the attacker had the ball.

Bowery has never been an Ariel threat in the opposing box, in his entire career.

Cargill and Flint are more of a threat, as was Kilgour hence why Bowery remains back. This isnt difficult to understand.

[Rob]

Bowery back for corners is absolutely the right decision, as proved on 3 occasions when he nullified the break with his pace

Makes us 1 dimensional at corners because we then only have Flint as a proper aerial threat, unless it's a free header/shot. Then people wonder why we have so many "set piece specialists but rarely do much with them.

So, to be clear Pear, you are saying that Bowery is the only player on the entire team capable of defending a hoofed clearance? Cargill, MacDonald or even Flint are incapable of doing it, nor any of the midfielders like Lewis.

No i have not said that, not even remotely close!!!!! He didnt even clear a hoof, he actively tackled and defended when the attacker had the ball.

Bowery has never been an Ariel threat in the opposing box, in his entire career.

Cargill and Flint are more of a threat, as was Kilgour hence why Bowery remains back. This isnt difficult to understand.

I agree Pear, indeed there was one occasion where Bowery's pace really saved us, I doubt neither Cargill or Flint would have got back in position from the counter attack from one of our usual poor corners. Bowery is doing a fantastic job and I know some on here are just dying for him to make a mistake so they can pile in on him (as some have done with Akins), which is very sad indeed.

[PEAR CIDER]

Gazza in particular, I cannot believe the Bee you have in your bonnet about him.

[gazza1988]

Clough once said he was selected at the back because of the aerial presence he provides.

Not got a bee in the bonnet. People thinking me trying to give a text commentary and mentioned when he made mistakes got lambasted for it. People conveniently ignored when I mentioned other players mistakes though.

I've not said much negative about bowery at the back for a while. Even suggesting moving him to CB in a 3 if you read the match thread.

I merely suggested that before we go into the free transfer market for a 7th striker we give Bowery a shot up top especially since up front has been a "problem" (as others put) we've had 2 right backs on the bench but I got shot down because in my text based commentary I mention the out of position player made an error that a player in that position wouldn't usually make. Just saying what I saw. I got called out and pointed out that I was more complimentary to Bowery than negative. But that gets ignored.

I wish our fan base supported youth players in position half as much as they have Bowery out of position. We might actually develop more youth.

[Captain Cunno]

Gazza I'd hang my keyboard up if i were you mate , nobody is coming back from being in a debate with Pear Cider and being wrong...

Cheers for the match threads and that but Ta-Ra

[Stagdale]

We need a 20 goal a season centre forward. It's as simple as that. We have everything else. We have quality all over and are playing, in general, some very good football. Our midfield are scoring 90% of our goals and its fantastic that we have that quality. However, if we had the missing piece up front, we would have 3 or 4 more wins instead of draws.

Totally agree with this comment...but they are like rocking horse manure and Clough has never been one for a "main" striker as he prefers the goals to be shared. I get this as you are not relying on just one player. However, I do feel if we had a natural goal scorer some of the many chances we have created would have turned into goals and importantly more wins instead of draws.

[Warsop Stag]

Not so much poor crossing for me, but poor movement from the forwards, especially Akins…crying out for him to run near post but he’s got no instinct in front of goal. Overall we played well, just those frustrating moments.

Agree with this. There was some quality delivery into the box but none of the forwards made a diagonal run to the near post.

[Conker]

The only thing Wrexham did better than us last night was set-pieces, the corners were delivered very well every time.

[TheMyTStags]

I know they're disliked by a lot but does anyone else think we should be playing our corners (or certainly some of them) short?
We've had 75 corners this year, we've scored 1, which was the short one we played against Stockport. We've also only scored 3 from set pieces overall, with the other 2 being the quick one against Gillingham and the flicked on Quinn cross Vs Morecambe- all our set pieces goals have come from doing something different, we've not scored once from swinging it in.
Yes with our aerial threats it would be nice if we had a good corner taker, but with Quinn and Macca both out for the foreseeable, maybe we should stop persisting with something we clearly can't do?
If we'd had 75 open play attacks where we had the ball in the corner and played it around, you'd back us to score more than 1

[victor A block]

I'd definately try Flint near post for flick ons, rather than out wide of the far post. Or at least vary it a bit.

[adamstag]

I’m sure there was a separate thread about set pieces but as they go hand in hand i thought it would be good to bring this back to the fore.

Fair enough first home defeat of the season, 2nd in 25, we’re doing just fine in general - but is about time the discussion was raised again about the shambolic state of crosses and set peices.

Got to a stage in the 2nd half of where basically may as well as picked the ball up and given it back, apart from nearly every one which reached the first defender.

Just felt today was one of those games of where if we actually had any from of class from set pieces the result might have been different.

Again, we’re doing brilliantly well - just given the home form this type of stuff is going to be the difference.

[MTFCMusings]

I’m sure there was a separate thread about set pieces but as they go hand in hand i thought it would be good to bring this back to the fore.

Fair enough first home defeat of the season, 2nd in 25, we’re doing just fine in general - but is about time the discussion was raised again about the shambolic state of crosses and set peices.

Got to a stage in the 2nd half of where basically may as well as picked the ball up and given it back, apart from nearly every one which reached the first defender.

Just felt today was one of those games of where if we actually had any from of class from set pieces the result might have been different.

Again, we’re doing brilliantly well - just given the home form this type of stuff is going to be the difference.

We’ve scored so many goals from crosses in our last few games, which is probably why it’s not been raised.

Set pieces we create the second highest quality chances in the league. We should have converted a few more given what we create, and the quality was hit and miss today, but I don’t see it as a huge issue.