Few weeks ago went to Barton for a friendly and thought oh dear we don’t have much of a clue how to play 3 at the back. I didn’t think we had the right centre backs to play the system (i.e. ones that cam play a bit of football) and I didn’t see any wing backs in the squad (just 3 out and out full backs and 2 out and out wingers).
Just watched us play us play Chesterfield who I accept are much higher quality than anyone else we will play this season but sadly have seen nothing tonight or in any of the other friendlies to change my mind since the Barton game. 3 CB’s on the field with 2 full backs (sorry, wing backs) who probably see themselves primarily as centre backs and we still let the likes of Colclough win headers in the 6 yard box.
One of the reasons I dislike 3 centre backs at this level is invariably none of them can play any constructive football. If you compound this by playing out and out defenders as wing backs then 5 of your team offer no creativity.
When your 2 centre midfielders are Scales and Clunan who made about 3 assists and scored about 3 goals between them in a freescoring team last season then that puts an awful lot of pressure on your 10. Not surprisingly Rowley was not up to single handedly creating lots of chances. Not helped by the fact that whenever the midfield got the ball into the centre forward his poor touch set up a Chesterfield counter attack. This happened 4 or 5 times in the first half alone.
Only positive for the Iron was Chesterfield couldn’t be arsed to go on to get 6 or 7.
Will travel to Brackley in hope but very little expectation.
