Because once that bank of 3 in the 4231 was breached, which let's face it, with Shodipo and Barker in that 3, was always going to be easy, we were only left with Gorrin and Brannagan to try to stop them advancing on us!
Its not even a formation that suits having out and out wingers, let alone wingers who don't track back and defend, and if we play that formation, with Shodipo and Barker in the 3, against better opposition, we will be punished severely for it.
Agree with a lot of what you say, knowing that MK play out from the back and knowing that our midfield have been under
pressure in recent weeks, playing both Shodipo and Barker was asking for trouble as defensively they bring next to nothing.
You also said that they make us weaker as a team and i would agree with that as well, since Barkers arrival we have lost a lot
of cohesion, prior to his arrival we could have been described as a team of two halves, not capable of dominating a game
for 90 minutes, but a good 45 that was enough to get us the points, since then we have managed spells of 10/15 minutes
max as we struggle to find a system that works.
Rather than mess about trying to accommodate Barker i want us to revert back to the way we were playing in December and January,
when Lee came in he said he could play anywhere in the front 3 and also behind the striker, so i would try him on the left,
play Henry centrally and have Sykes on the right with Gorrin and Brannagan behind them. There seems to be some debate about
Taylor, Winnall and Agyei, i would stick with Taylor if Lee was on the left, what we lose in speed and individual skill we make up for
in team shape and guile, i think Taylor would benefit from that rather than having to guess what Shodipo or Barker are
going to do next. Agyei moved ahead of Winnall for me yesterday and deserves a place on the bench which is were i would put
Shodipo and Barker.
I`m not going to throw our two speedy wingers under a bus, but Barker maybe needs to feel the wheels of a supermarket trolly, his
defensive attributes amount to about a 1 out of 10, he is effective for about 10 minutes, about the time it takes for the opposition
defence to suss out that even though he has the speed, he has no interest in winning the ball because when he does have the
opportunity to force a mistake he goes into a curve that gives the defender time to clear, thats too easy, he needs to challenge
for the ball, force the error and plant a seed of doubt into the the opposition players mind and get them panic hoofing.
I like KR, more than happy with him at the helm, but yesterday he was way off it and got lucky. It seems as if opposition scouts have
been identifying Ruffels as a weak link in our back four, MK dons have Laird and they like to play out from the back, knowing this as
he should and taking into account our midfield has been stuttering, playing the defensively clueless Barker on the left was really poor.
Thought Mk were pretty decent tbf, they have a unique style and will take points off of other teams at the top so coming away with a draw
is not so bad.
