Just checking my thesaurus for synonyms for Bell and one answer was "Alarm" ... Alarm Bell, how bloody apt!
I've scribed previously that Bell often gives me kittens when he tries to pretend that he has the ability to deceive opposition players by his 'skillset' - stops the ball and throws a shimmy to the opponent and the opponent often strides away with the ball! Unfortunately, he tries to do these 'tricks' when he is one of the last lines of defence so losing the ball immediately means our defence goes to DEFCON 2 to recover the situation.
Sadly, with our current defensive personnel shortage, there isn't an alternative to Bell at LB. Bell simply has no competition for his first team place and yesterday's alleged performance was not only poor quality in its entirety but mind numbingly stupid when he kept committing fouls despite already having a yellow card. TBH, he was lucky to get away with a challenge about 5 minutes before he invited Jones* to hit the turf for the umpteenth time.
*Jones is the Boro version of Danny Hylton - the pantomime villain who will get under the skin of the opposition and Bell's lack of brain function didn't see that he was being targeted.
Did Bell cost us a point? Very probably but I would have loved Simon Oxley to have asked Edwards if Campbell was injured when he was subbed. With Boro dominating the second half action and winning the midfield battle, throwing Freeman on for Campbell merely offered them even more space. Freeman has neither the tackling ability, positional sense or legs to play a defensive midfield role. Even if Campbell was injured, surely Berry or Williams would have been more akin to Campbell's style/ability/ground coverage. On my way home I was, perversely, almost hoping that Campbell was injured! Otherwise that substitution was a bizarre management decision.
Under NJ Luton had a particular style and I feel we will only ever be able to play that way given the personnel in our squad. We were VERY close to giving Boro a bloody nose yesterday so we were not too far off of what was required. Going into the match with three big defensive players plus Lansbury missing was never going to be easy but we were so close to bringing back one point for the players' endeavours.
Until we get an A-team defence back (instead of a makeshift one without meaning any disrespect to the stand-ins), our midfield will have to operate too deep to really create that many chances. Most of the football will be played in our own half with us packing the ranks and relying upon hard graft to frustrate the opposition. But, Alarm Bell, we need 11 players on the pitch to achieve that! Plus we need at least 8 of the outfield players to be fully switched on and prepared to dig in and be tough. Sadly, Adebayo was far from tough ... he was truly disappointing: three times he was outmuscled by much smaller defenders when he was 60-40 favourite to receive and hold possession - but their defenders just wanted it more. If he cannot retain possession when the ball arrives at his feet/chest then the defence and midfield have no 'out ball' so they won't be able to march the team further up the pitch.
If Edwards' reported comments about the lack of activity in the January window are to be believed and we don't sign any additional defenders, I do worry that hitting a 50 point target may prove difficult. Given how tight the whole division is, 50 would be my first target ... the idea that we should be looking at PO places again is almost laughable! Injuries (in particular), squad depth and individual ability is against us vying for PO place IMO. Add to that that certain players who are OOC in the summer who may even be sold in January before they become worthless to us.
COYH.
May 13, 2024 14:39:04 GMT
May 13, 2024 14:39:04 GMT
