40 games in all competitions this season.
- 4 clean sheets (3 at home - 2 in August against Cambridge and Orient in JPT and one in November against Port Vale, and 1 away at Sheffield Wednesday).
- Only 12 games out of 40 where we have scored 2 or more goals in a game.
18 away games in all comps
- 1 clean sheet
- 5 games where we have scored 2 or more goals (We have won all 5 of these games).
- 5 games where we have scored once (all 1-1 draws; we have not won this season away from home when we have scored one goal).
- 8 games where we have not scored (1 draw, 7 defeats).
I could sit here all night typing up all the mistakes KR has made in the past 18 months. Watch his interview on Twitter following tonight’s game. His comments are focused entirely on the lack of goals. Our problems are all over the pitch but, to me, the principal problem that any (new or old) manager would first try to sort out is our abysmal defending and inability to keep a clean sheet. KR seems to have no interest in making this team hard to beat and grinding out results which is what you have to do when you’ve lost 5 of 6 and you’ve kept one clean sheet away from home all season.
How do you make this team harder to beat? So many ways but let’s start with the two easiest:
1. The common denominator in the 4 clean sheets is Stuart Findlay. The player who has three and a half years left on his contract. He needs to come back in, starting on Saturday. I know some people don’t rate him but I see a no-nonsense defender and a thou shalt not pass attitude which we so desperately need. I also see someone who will have a point to prove. It is criminal that he has been left on the bench since the Boxing Day pantomime at Ipswich.
2. Play 3-5-2. Playing an additional centre back and 3 in centre midfield makes us harder to beat. It’s no sacrifice to abandon 4-3-3 because our wingers (with the exception of young Tyler) have created next to nothing all season. You also KNOW that if we carry on playing 4 at the back that you are going to concede at least one goal. The stats prove it to be the case 90% of the time!!
Play Joseph and Wildschut up front. Fleming isn’t a left back so stop playing him as one. Ditto Anderson - not a right back so stop playing him as one. Fleming can be LWB and Anderson as RWB. The three in midfield pick themselves. I would play Findlay, Moore and Brown at the back but if you want to play Long ahead of one of them except Findlay, I wouldn’t object. In the absence of any other option, Easty has to stay in goal but some of the blame for the appalling defensive record this season must be laid at his door too unfortunately.
We can’t score goals except worldies and set pieces. Let’s devote training to not conceding goals for remaining 14 games and we can at least grind out some draws or turn those one goal performances away from home into an opportunity to take 3 points instead of a maximum of one.
Our April fixtures are scary on paper so no time like the present to make these changes.
