Post-Match Thread and Ratings Hartlepool United 0-0 Southend United

[bertbert]

All ways remember Southend United was nearly no more.Need time Come on you Blues.

 

[HML]

I understand frustrations but we’re literally only 2 games in. Bromley were 19th after 5 games last season

 

[bluethroughandthrough]

Same old Maher. Dont lose a goal. Gubbins played because of this with a standard back 5. 2 maybe 3 attacking players out of 11 on the pitch. This had 0-0 all over it.
Yes we have a club to be proud of. But football is about entertainment, hope, winning - like religion fans place their faith in this to provide elements which may be missing in their lives to create happiness and fulfillment.
I didn't see this game but did watch v York. It was dire. Banks of players defending hoping for a break up front from a long ball.

Maher as we should all know now is a a glass half empty manager. I absolutely love what he's done for the club and team and should be rewarded. However his style of football is not entertaining, constantly based on hope of a team that might nick a goal and winning is about preventing loss.

Personally I think our players are good enough and I'm not convinced that more players are going to make a difference other than having options from the bench.

I don't believe - and it's my opinion - that we will progress with the current state, mentality and tactics employed by Maher. That's not a Maher out comment. - and I'm a classic football sofa fan with little knowledge - but an observation over time of his approach and football thinking.

in addition after 30 years of watching sufc, I've also seen some wonderful attacking football and therefore benchmarks of entertainment, hope and winning under managers like webb, fry, tilson and Thomson.

I don't see it ever happening with Maher. Yes we will win some games get hopeful but I can't see us progressing with this style of football.

At this point even forget formations etc as they are fluid but continue to employ a strategy of packing a team with defensive players, not taking any risks, defensive approach to playing and hope to nick a goal at the end... I don't see the light.

 

[Gt Yarmouth Shrimper]

Same old Maher. Dont lose a goal. Gubbins played because of this with a standard back 5. 2 maybe 3 attacking players out of 11 on the pitch. This had 0-0 all over it.
Yes we have a club to be proud of. But football is about entertainment, hope, winning - like religion fans place their faith in this to provide elements which may be missing in their lives to create happiness and fulfillment.
I didn't see this game but did watch v York. It was dire. Banks of players defending hoping for a break up front from a long ball.

Maher as we should all know now is a a glass half empty manager. I absolutely love what he's done for the club and team and should be rewarded. However his style of football is not entertaining, constantly based on hope of a team that might nick a goal and winning is about preventing loss.

Personally I think our players are good enough and I'm not convinced that more players are going to make a difference other than having options from the bench.

I don't believe - and it's my opinion - that we will progress with the current state, mentality and tactics employed by Maher. That's not a Maher out comment. - and I'm a classic football sofa fan with little knowledge - but an observation over time of his approach and football thinking.

in addition after 30 years of watching sufc, I've also seen some wonderful attacking football and therefore benchmarks of entertainment, hope and winning under managers like webb, fry, tilson and Thomson.

I don't see it ever happening with Maher. Yes we will win some games get hopeful but I can't see us progressing with this style of football.

At this point even forget formations etc as they are fluid but continue to employ a strategy of packing a team with defensive players, not taking any risks, defensive approach to playing and hope to nick a goal at the end... I don't see the light.

That's a complete juxtaposition there.

 

[* ORM *]

Alternatively build a solid defensive foundation (as we had last season) and be patient while the rest of the jigsaw is put together. Crisis was potentially not having a club, not having a win in the opening two games is not a crisis. We can all dream of the flowing attacking football we’ve seen over the years. Interspersed with that is utter dross and believe me there’s been much, much worse than this. We had teams going through the motions. What we have now is a team coming together. Patience please.

 

[Jay_SUFC]

On one side several good players like Cardwell and Bridge seem off the pace for whatever reason. Waldron & Wood not getting much of a look in which suggests they may not be in the immediate plans. Unconvinced so far by Gubbins (wasn’t previous loan either) or Morton but …

Very early days. Kev is figuring out a lot of things in terms of personnel and systems so let’s give management team the benefit of the doubt. From the outside I agree, too passive and slow build up, lacking more daring forward passing and service into the front two, both from our wide and through the middle. That said when chances do fall to us they must be as frustrated about us missing chances you would expect to be scoring or at least hitting target with, that is on the players

Bit harsh criticising Bridge, considering he was dumped in CM (had horrible flashbacks of Southgate and Trent :D) and then the bench!

In regards of Maher still figuring things out, we all know that Ralph is one of our best CBs and Bridge is our best LWB, so why mess with this. It should only be changed if one of those players is unavailable.

We also know Morton and Miley don't play well together (still not sure why Wood hasn't been tried in there, as I thought he was a CM).

Therefore these shouldn't be things "Maher is still figuring out"!!! If we currently have a lack of CM, why not change the formation, rather than trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

We are only 2 games in though, so no mass panic yet, I just think some of the decision making in those games has been poor.

 

[wiggy]

Same old Maher. Dont lose a goal. Gubbins played because of this with a standard back 5. 2 maybe 3 attacking players out of 11 on the pitch. This had 0-0 all over it.
Yes we have a club to be proud of. But football is about entertainment, hope, winning - like religion fans place their faith in this to provide elements which may be missing in their lives to create happiness and fulfillment.
I didn't see this game but did watch v York. It was dire. Banks of players defending hoping for a break up front from a long ball.

Maher as we should all know now is a a glass half empty manager. I absolutely love what he's done for the club and team and should be rewarded. However his style of football is not entertaining, constantly based on hope of a team that might nick a goal and winning is about preventing loss.

Personally I think our players are good enough and I'm not convinced that more players are going to make a difference other than having options from the bench.

I don't believe - and it's my opinion - that we will progress with the current state, mentality and tactics employed by Maher. That's not a Maher out comment. - and I'm a classic football sofa fan with little knowledge - but an observation over time of his approach and football thinking.

in addition after 30 years of watching sufc, I've also seen some wonderful attacking football and therefore benchmarks of entertainment, hope and winning under managers like webb, fry, tilson and Thomson.

I don't see it ever happening with Maher. Yes we will win some games get hopeful but I can't see us progressing with this style of football.

At this point even forget formations etc as they are fluid but continue to employ a strategy of packing a team with defensive players, not taking any risks, defensive approach to playing and hope to nick a goal at the end... I don't see the light.

A great honest post , prepare to be put on ignore by the same old few that worship Maher.
This set of players may not be world beaters but he has really moulded them into his normal dowdy style of play and I should think most managers could get a better tune out of them.
Jack Bridge on the bench yesterday summed it all up, all because he didn’t perform when played in a bizarre midfield position the week before.

 

[bluesfansince1952]

I watched the game via the National League stream and was again more than satisfied with the quality of the product.

I thought we were much better than last week if no other reason that, unlike seven days ago, this time we finished the game much stronger than our opponents.

Did anyone think we were guaranteed three points on our visit to Hartlepool? Obviously we could have won yesterday's game but I would predict some of our rivals will leave there pointless. I was expecting Hartlepool to be well organised, physical and to take no prisoners and the first half showed they were all of that.

The commitment and physicality displayed by both sides made the first half a less than compelling spectacle but the game was sufficently competitive to hold my interest despite the many moments of huff and puff. In the first forty five minuted I thought we put in a good defensive shift, and, that if we were going to concede, it would be through one of the too many misplaced passes we were guilty of.

We were under pressure and just about coping at the end of the first half and were probably glad to see it it end but the second half was a different matter altogether. Even before the sending off we seemed to have more space and time on the ball but after the dismissal we dominated the game and often looked good.

The introduction of Husin and Bridge made an immediate impact with the former looking to me by far the best player on the pitch. Bridge was also lively but I suspect both substitutes benefited from being fresh legs facing a team who were not only a man down but were also unable to maintain the very high tempo that characterised their first half performance. Although spending much less time on the pitch than he did seven days ago Bridge was way more influential. Would he have been as involved had he started? We can never know but it seems to me that the way the first half unfolded he would not have seen the ball anything near as much as he did once he came on.

Was the way we were able to play in the second half a result of what we did in the first? Is Bridge likely to be a more effective player for us if he is on the field in the final thirty minutes (especially away from home)?
Using Bridge mostly as a sub for the final thirty minutes is unlikely to advance KM in the popularity stakes but it is a course of action that would tempt me.

While he was on Husin reminded us of what we were missing. Hopefully he will be soon starting games for us again as in this team he is a difference maker. Last night (Perth time) I took a slight time out while watching the second half to allow myself to dream and saw a future starting midfield of Miley, Husin and Moncur. Pretty good they looked too!

Good and bad news for those who saw yesterday's result as some kind of disaster. The bad news is that during the course of this season we will surely play worse than yesterday and we will lose. The good news is that to qualify for the play offs or even win this league it will not be necessary to go through the season unbeaten. Some days we will play badly and I am sure we will lose more than at least five games during the season but that need not disqualify us from contending, or, even achieving promotion.

Final word on yesterday's match: not an easy game to officiate as both sides were 'at it' but in the circumstances I thought the ref did a decent job. Firm without being fussy I can say without fear of contradiction we have all seen worse at a higher level than this.

 

[* ORM *]

A great honest post , prepare to be put on ignore by the same old few that worship Maher.
This set of players may not be world beaters but he has really moulded them into his normal dowdy style of play and I should think most managers could get a better tune out of them.
Jack Bridge on the bench yesterday summed it all up, all because he didn’t perform when played in a bizarre midfield position the week before.

Did you actually ever see Maher play?

 

[wiggy]

Did you actually ever see Maher play?

Yeah I did, good on the ball, unexciting to watch

 

[Barry.C]

Boring boring Arsenal won the league
If we were that defensive and or boring, and I said if, I would take that every time to get out of this league

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Actually we technically had -4

From memory we didn't get the -10 deducted at the start of the season

 

[thenobster]

I get what you say about Cardwell yet in the close season we thought he was being looked at and might leave us for a FL club

But then, he didn’t leave and that might tell us something. I hope it clicks soon, strikers do go through barren spells. I’ve not been at the games, but from commentary, his name isn’t being mentioned for creating chances for others and certainly not for near misses. If he’s on the pitch for being a threat, let’s make him one.
Yea yea, service, blah blah.. even when Noor came on, there was no mention. Injury, then use Walden.

 

[thenobster]

Same old Maher. Dont lose a goal. Gubbins played because of this with a standard back 5. 2 maybe 3 attacking players out of 11 on the pitch. This had 0-0 all over it.
Yes we have a club to be proud of. But football is about entertainment, hope, winning - like religion fans place their faith in this to provide elements which may be missing in their lives to create happiness and fulfillment.
I didn't see this game but did watch v York. It was dire. Banks of players defending hoping for a break up front from a long ball.

Maher as we should all know now is a a glass half empty manager. I absolutely love what he's done for the club and team and should be rewarded. However his style of football is not entertaining, constantly based on hope of a team that might nick a goal and winning is about preventing loss.

Personally I think our players are good enough and I'm not convinced that more players are going to make a difference other than having options from the bench.

I don't believe - and it's my opinion - that we will progress with the current state, mentality and tactics employed by Maher. That's not a Maher out comment. - and I'm a classic football sofa fan with little knowledge - but an observation over time of his approach and football thinking.

in addition after 30 years of watching sufc, I've also seen some wonderful attacking football and therefore benchmarks of entertainment, hope and winning under managers like webb, fry, tilson and Thomson.

I don't see it ever happening with Maher. Yes we will win some games get hopeful but I can't see us progressing with this style of football.

At this point even forget formations etc as they are fluid but continue to employ a strategy of packing a team with defensive players, not taking any risks, defensive approach to playing and hope to nick a goal at the end... I don't see the light.

Don’t forget Sturrock :)

 

[RHB]

A great honest post , prepare to be put on ignore by the same old few that worship Maher.
This set of players may not be world beaters but he has really moulded them into his normal dowdy style of play and I should think most managers could get a better tune out of them.
Jack Bridge on the bench yesterday summed it all up, all because he didn’t perform when played in a bizarre midfield position the week before.

I don't think I've ever seen a post from you where you don't rubbish Maher, to the point where I could be forgiven for thinking you hope he fails in everything he does with our club. You're entitled to your opinion but sadly, for me, your message completely loses it's impact because of your dislike of the man.

 

[cerbera45]

So let’s say nothing about the negative tactics and all carry on kissing Kevs a!rse.

Manager of the Season last year (quickly forgotten by some), also linked with FL clubs. A lot of "neutrals" must have also been kissing it.

 

[wiggy]

I don't think I've ever seen a post from you where you don't rubbish Maher, to the point where I could be forgiven for thinking you hope he fails in everything he does with our club. You're entitled to your opinion but sadly, for me, your message completely loses it's impact because of your dislike of the man.

Don’t dislike him as a man, just his style of football as a manager.
Southend United in Non League is not right and to get out like Borient, Col U etc. requires a team to score and score again, not his style I’m afraid.

 

[Shrimper4lifeCBS]

It does not matter what type of players we bring in, they will still be restricted on their attacking attributes, by a manager who plays defensive football no different to how Maher played football!! We could sign Messi & Ronaldo in their prime but still they would not score from open play!! LOL.

 

[RHB]

It does not matter what type of players we bring in, they will still be restricted by their attacking attributes, by a manager who plays defensive football no different to how he played football!! We could sign Messi & Ronaldo in their prime but still they would not score from open play!! LOL.

Seems to me that we scored quite a few goals from open play last season, and that was with Maher as manager. Best not to let facts get in the way of an opinion though, eh? I don't know whether you saw him play, but I did, and he led the side to the Championship and, if I remember correctly, we attacked a fair bit in those days, even with Kev in the team.

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

When you build a successful team, don't you start at the back ? Become difficult to beat, then tweak the forward positions where you can. With all the things he's had to put up with, I don't think you can really judge Kev's managerial ability, yet. He did a remarkable job last season (play-offs if it wasn't for the points deduction) and this season has also been hindered with the takeover only just completing and the embargo only just being lifted. You don't know how attack minded he'll be yet this season, because he hasn't had the chance to bring in the players he needs. I think any criticism of Kev after only 2 games (neither of which we have lost) is very fickle and disrespectful