Gower

[ASHRIMPER]

Gower is being very unfairly critised here, Ok he was bad but we did not lose the game because of him(WE LOST THE GAME WHEN HE WAS OFF THE PITCH). When he went off we lost our shape and our width. The problem is that hes short on confidence because of the muppets who continue to shout abuse at him.

Ok hes not been his best this season but still scored more goals from midfeild than the others and on his day hes a match winner. All hes needs is a bit more confidence and he will be back to his best!

 

[sufcintheprem]

Good players don't get bad overnight. It's so true that we expect so much from him and when Eastwood wasn't getting the ball on Sunday, it meant Gower became our only creative outlet. I think a lot of people missed a lot of the good work that Gower did and he certainly offered much more going forwards than Pettefer.

Sure, a few misplaced passes in bad areas, but that's low confidence. I'm sure any wingers will know what it's like when the confidence is low. Rarely take players on and the ball rarely runs for you, crosses fall short of their target and extra work seems to yield little result. He'll come back playing well and you'll all be pleasantly surprsied but FFS, he needs support from the crowd.

As for his fitness, in an ideal world, he'd go away over the summer and put int he extra hours to improve his fitness but some players have better pace/stamina than others.

 

[Guest]

Quote[/b] (ASHRIMPER @ April 11 2005,18:23)]Gower is being very unfairly critised here, Ok he was bad but we did not lose the game because of him(WE LOST THE GAME WHEN HE WAS OFF THE PITCH). When he went off we lost our shape and our width. The problem is that hes short on confidence because of the muppets who continue to shout abuse at him.

Ok hes not been his best this season but still scored more goals from midfeild than the others and on his day hes a match winner. All hes needs is a bit more confidence and he will be back to his best!

Hard to argue with any of that.

 

[C'mon you Blues]

my personal view not backed up by any evidence, but hey when did that stop anyone posting on Shrimperzone is that Gower is feeling his back injury.Having had a bad back on and off for years I know it completely buggers up everything else. The muscles go into spasm and it makes walking difficult, running virtually impossible and you avoid anything that might cause the excrucuating pain. In short exactly the sort of niggling injury that professional footballers must hate. He's half the player he was and seems half paced. That's my theory. On his day he is our most creative player and is the difference along with Barrett and Eastwood. Hopefully if I'm right he'll get the right treatment and be fit again and firing on all cylinders.
PS those boots have GOT to go though

 

[daveysufc]

Gower! does anybody else agree with me in saying Gower needs to be dropped for a short while, just to get back into form. He's obviously unfit and could do with a catch up. In all fairness he should have been subbed earlier on Sunday.


p.s. this is my first post..........Im a newbie.

 

[sufcintheprem]

Quote[/b] (daveysufc @ April 11 2005,22:22)]Gower! does anybody else agree with me in saying Gower needs to be dropped for a short while, just to get back into form. He's obviously unfit and could do with a catch up. In all fairness he should have been subbed earlier on Sunday.


p.s. this is my first post..........Im a newbie.

Welcome to SZ! Turbulent time to join!

I reckon that dropping him for a game may work but we can't afford to risk a change in a team that has done so well. Question is, would the replacement be more effective? Also, will Tilly have the bottle to change it?

 

[Norwich Shrimper]

In my opinion Gower was poor but i dont think Jupp played very well either.

Looking at positives though,
a) we held our own with a team a league above us, so when we go up we might not come back down.
b)Che played much much better this year.

Just hope it doesn't have a negative effect and we beat Orient on Friday

 

[daveysufc]

Yes very true...also, the change in team would effect the way we play,yes we would lose alot of creavity which Gower (sigh) is able to do.

p.s. FBM is my old man

 

[sufcintheprem]

Quote[/b] (daveysufc @ April 11 2005,22:50)]p.s. FBM is my old man

Shotgun you do 'views and ratings' after games as well!

 

[Alex]

Quote[/b] (Norwich Shrimper @ April 11 2005,22:44)]In my opinion Gower was poor but i dont think Jupp played very well either.

Looking at positives though,
a) we held our own with a team a league above us, so when we go up we might not come back down.
b)Che played much much better this year.

Just hope it doesn't have a negative effect and we beat Orient on Friday

before the match i thought che would pop up and score the winner to make up for last year

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

I think this all shows how important Nicky is, and how much we need him, we need more than one player on the field who can create something, and as everyone has said and agreed, when Gower does not nobody will, so get Nicolau in, ive been desperate to see them both play in the same 11, but we have not had that pleasure yet.

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

Did Gower blank the fans at the end of the game when the rest of the players walked around the pitch to acknowledge us? Sorry if he didn't and I'm unjustly criticising him but I couldn't spot him.

 

[Beefy]

Watched the game again earlier. I've got to admit that his performance was actually even worse second time around. I'm a huge Gower fan but its hard to defend a performance like that.

That said, having seen the match twice now I definately couldn't have a pop at his commitment. He worked hard and he looked genuinely annoyed at the result and his performance. He's the sort of player who is always going to blow hot-and-cold, and who is never going to offer the most defensively to the team, and thats not something that we didn't already know about him.

 

[Beefy]

Oh and also, surely I can't be the only one here who really couldn't care less what colour boot Mark Gower, or any of our other players for that matter, wants to wear?

 

[fbm]

Quote[/b] (Beefy @ April 12 2005,02:05)]Oh and also, surely I can't be the only one here who really couldn't care less what colour boot Mark Gower, or any of our other players for that matter, wants to wear?

The trouble is that you have to be a very, very good player to wear flash white boots and get away with it.  Otherwise whenever you don't perform you will be derided as a flash so-and-so that wears white boots.  It shouldn't make a difference but sadly it does.  No-one likes to see people look flash, and when they do flash things like wear white boots, and then perform like Gower did (and Drewe did last year) the boots (and player) become objects of ridicule.  You could almost hear the Wrexham fans laughing at Gowers performance and saying "Look at that to**er in the white boots."

I don't think anyone seriously believes that boots make a difference to how you perform; however they do alter the perception and opinion of the fans.  For instance, if Edwards had performed badly for them and had a mare, we would all have been on here laughing and ridiculing him for dying his hair red.

Personally I'd just rather players wore normal stuff that doesn't attract attention to themselves and got on with the job in hand.
And as for Gowers reasoning last week in the Echo as to why he has the white boots, i.e. they were the only pair he had left... sorry, that's a bit weak.  I dare say he's provided with them free as a deal of some sort, but what's to stop him actually buying a pair himself?

 

[Guest]

Quote[/b] (fbm @ April 12 2005,08:26)]And as for Gowers reasoning last week in the Echo as to why he has the white boots, i.e. they were the only pair he had left... sorry, that's a bit weak.  I dare say he's provided with them free as a deal of some sort, but what's to stop him actually buying a pair himself?

Mark Gowers greyhound chewed up his last pair of black boots.

 

[Firestorm]

Gower has performed poorly at the millenium twice. On both occasions he has been up against a very skilful opponent. (At one time he switched with Petts and I felt he looked a bit better on the other side)
It seems to me he is let down by preparation/ scouting or whatever. He is not a defensive player in any form, if he has to track back for large sections of the game he is not going to get into things and this may well have affected him going forward.
Personally I felt that we failed to adapt to their 352 well enough.
Freddy and Wayne were not able to lose a marker as there was one spare all the time.
Maher and Benno had little time in the middle due to the extra man
Gower was being pushed back by Carlos Edwards all the time whilst Petts did not manage to Exploit the space behind the other wing back

The Back four kept them quiet when they went forward so we were not troubled much, until we tired.

In all honesty most of our strikes fell just below the high level they have been his season and had some of the efforts on goal in the 20 minutes either side of half time been up to a number of this seasons efforts (and the keeper had had just an average game) the poorer prformances of a couple of the players would have been forgotton.
I know is no consolation, but we have played a lot better than that for a lot of this season, I doubt whether Wrexham have played much better on that many occasions. We just chose a big game to have an off day (I blame Sky, the last 'mare was Luton !!)

 

[SUFC Employee]

Gower needs to do some more jogging round Priory Park!

 

[Beefy]

Quote[/b] (Firestorm @ April 12 2005,09:13)]Personally I felt that we failed to adapt to their 352 well enough.
Freddy and Wayne were not able to lose a marker as there was one spare all the time.
Maher and Benno had little time in the middle due to the extra man
Gower was being pushed back by Carlos Edwards all the time whilst Petts did not manage to Exploit the space behind the other wing back

Agreed. Wrexham's five in midfield was the difference between the sides.

 

[Hong Kong Blue]

Quote[/b] (Firestorm @ April 12 2005,09:13)]Freddy and Wayne were not able to lose a marker as there was one spare all the time.
Maher and Benno had little time in the middle due to the extra man
Gower was being pushed back by Carlos Edwards all the time whilst Petts did not manage to Exploit the space behind the other wing back

The Back four kept them quiet when they went forward so we were not troubled much, until we tired.

I'd agree with most of that tactical analysis but, but I still maintain that our problems stemmed from:

(1) the inability of our left-back to cope with the right wing back, who was almost playing as a winger anyway. If Wilson had been able to deal with Edwards this would have freed up Pettefer to even up the battle in central midfield. As I've said numerous times a lot of our success this season has been down to Pettefer adding the extra body in the middle of the park - for once it was the opposition who outnumbered us there; and

(2) Gower having a mare - if Gower had been playing well Carlos Edwards wouldn't have been able to be so attacking and Petts wouldn't have had to be switched to do a job on him. Its the old adage of attack is the best form of defence. For most of the season we've been playing on our terms, on Sunday Wrexham were dictating our shape which disrupted us.