This isn’t a response purely to your comments, but I just wanted to point out that we were not at the races well before our substitutions so think they’re being labelled as the black sheep in our overall performance in the 2nd half, whereas, it was very clear that we were poor prior to their introduction. For example, Henry was non-existent, Obita was spent and we were clearly losing the middle of the park. Defensively we kept giving the ball away when more simpler/easy balls were on meaning we could retain the ball. We struggled to do 2 passes which was down to our style/mentality of our players. As good as Long & Ruffels are as squad players they are we tend to lose possession when they are involved in the play. For example, when we broke with Long on the ball and virtually 3 against 2 he gave a very poor ball inside when 2 easier options were on. They rarely cross a ball into the box beating the first man, away from the keeper and into the danger areas as David Langan did in his day.Totally agree that Forde should have come on in the middle of the park. He has some degree of responsibility for the role. Whilst we were not great in the second half those 3 subs just created panic across the pitch. We started lumping because none of them could keep the ball. They also didn't want to defend when we didn't have the ball. I could understand Sykes coming on if we were chasing the game but we were desperately trying to hold it together and he does not have the desire to play that role.
I can understand Skyes coming on as we were lacking energy, but felt Forde should have come on instead of Agyei or Shodipo.
In addition to the above our defence are so lackadaisical e.g. waiting for the ball in ala Atkinson against Pompey and Moore yesterday and many more occasions.
Separate to using the substitutions as an excuse, I am really questioning our mentality throughout the squad and I’m not sure if Robinson as a lot to answer here. I’m not sure if he’s managing this situation well or actually exacerbating the situation as we know he’s a guy who is an advocate of mental well-being which is a good thing, but not if he’s struggling personally or allowing players to have too much of a free rein under current circumstances e.g. they become less passionate or don’t even have the desire etc. It’s a balance especially under the current circumstances, but I think it’s having an impact, especially when we know players who are generally reassuring, but are projecting the opposite attributes at present e.g. Henry, Eastwood, Taylor etc.
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