Exeter City versus Wigan Athletic Matchday Thread

[denzel]

By the way I thought I heard at the end that Sweenz had been given MOM.

Hospitality must have been really good today

 

[Banksy]

So , after waiting weeks for his return and writing a song for him , honest opinion from anyone at the game on Muskwe after today’s performance?

 

[Grecian Max]

So , after waiting weeks for his return and writing a song for him , honest opinion from anyone at the game on Muskwe after today’s performance?

The boo boys realised Yanic is actually offering more

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

The possession figure of over 70% tells its own story when set against the result. We seem to be spending vast amounts of time in games passing across the pitch from one side to the other and then varying it a bit by passing back to Vil with, for the most part, no end product. It looks and feels like the players across the back don't know what to do with the ball when they have it. Wigan were quite content to simply let us do that and sit back. There just seems to be no cohesion.

Early season I was feeling very positive about things, now our lack of a plan B, even a plan A, is concerning me. We have become tediously predictable and opponents are sussing us out

 

[Super Ronnie Jepson]

The possession figure of over 70% tells its own story when set against the result. We seem to be spending vast amounts of time in games passing across the pitch from one side to the other and then varying it a bit by passing back to Vil with, for the most part, no end product. It looks and feels like the players across the back don't know what to do with the ball when they have it. Wigan were quite content to simply let us do that and sit back. There just seems to be no cohesion.

Early season I was feeling very positive about things, now our lack of a plan B, even a plan A, is concerning me. We have become tediously predictable and opponents are sussing us out

We seem to be reluctant to give the ball to the wing backs until we've progressed beyond halfway and they are in a position to create something.

 

[denzel]

So , after waiting weeks for his return and writing a song for him , honest opinion from anyone at the game on Muskwe after today’s performance?

I'm prepared to give him a chance. First start and he looked rusty but time to work on things

 

[C j phill]

We seem to be reluctant to give the ball to the wing backs until we've progressed beyond halfway and they are in a position to create something.

The defenders arent releasing the ball quickly enough. Players are making forward runs but the defenders either haven't got the confidence to release it, or when they do, they're not careful enough with their passes, a la Hartridge. I suspect that under normal circumstances, Hartridge and Sweeney probably wouldn't get too many more chances in the first team but with our squad size and injuries, Caldwell has fewer choices than he would probably like.

 

[onemansview]

Frustrating as! Did think we were going to get a point towards the end when we hit post/possible penalty… teams have sussed out that they just have to come to SJP and play rope a dope, sit back let us huff and puff in front of them, then hit us on the counter for an easy goal… we need to adapt to this mix it up a bit, quicken it up in the attacking third sometimes try something different… That said Derby at Pride Park won’t sit back against Exeter City maybe it’s our turn to shithouse a result

Will be a hostile atmosphere on Tuesday, Might just be a good time to go there as the Derby fans are in revolt at the football Warne is playing and they are baying for blood. They really let their players have it today after the game, could play into our hands if by some miracle we can get an early goal. I live in hope!

 

[Grecianpasty]

The way the Wigan players celebrated their second goal showed that they stole one today. They got their smash and grab 3 points. We played well, but have absolutely no conviction in front of goal. Hardly surprising given the quality we lost in Brown, Nombe and Stansfield.

We need to be realistic about Muskwe. He started his first game in 9 months, and given the lack of minutes he has had this season, he shouldn't have started. Give him 30/40 minutes and no one would have been surprised.

The fact that Wildschut was our best attacking threat, and he only played for 10 minutes says it all.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Unsurprisingly the knives are out but the concern for me isn't the man on the bench but those on the pitch and more particularly the three across the back as for me they are the source of our issue, not with their defending but they're on the ball. At the start of the season they'd get the ball, maybe one or two passes between them to create the angle and then zip the ball into midfield to break the lines and then we're away on the attack. At the moment, despite the options being there (and I saw countless times today where either Carroll, Trevitt or Aitchison were open, available and demanding the ball) they're not taking responsibilty and playing the passes that were early on in the season when we looked the part. Now they end up playing half a dozen passes between themselves before looking for a longer option or if they do actually play it into midfield it's taken so long that either Carroll or Trevitt are forced into playing it back to them as they have an opponent up their arse.
More particular to todays game was our delivery from wide areas be in open play or from a dead ball. We got a shed load of corners not because of particularly good defending but because nearly every time we got into a decent crossing position we hit the first man. As for our corners I get there is a want to whip the ball in quick which if the taker does it wrong can be over hit but it was nearly every time and then we didn't have the nouce to get somebody either to attack the back from deep or have somebody spin out of the middle cluster and get around to the back post even if was only for some kind of 'just in case' insurance policy.
The principles of how we play are the same but the confidence and speed aren't there and it starts at the back..........