Morecambe 0 Cambridge 2 Morecambe Player Thread

[underbank]

On Bay Radio, Glenn said the match was a horror show and there was no passion from our players. How true!

For some incomprehensible reason, Jim substituted two of the few players who showed any passion and were having a good game - Williams and Goodall. What is Jim drinking these days? I think he's completely lost the plot. Ryan was having a cracking game and was clearly shocked to be taken off. Best I've seen him play since he first signed for us.

What's gone wrong with Paz, he's a dithering wreck now but was solid as a rock last year. Maybe it's because for the second home game running, Jim has moved his position three times during the game. Why take off Hughes who was having a relatively OK game when Paz was poor?

Completely illogical to leave Kev on for the full game. Probably the worst I've seen him. Constantly unaware of the game around him. Lost count of the number of times the ball went close by him or over him, and he made absolutely no attempt to get it.

Jim has lost it - he had virtually a full squad available and yet served up today's drivel. He had Amond changed and ready to come on and then changed his mind to bring Devitt on instead who barely touched the ball and made no impression whatsoever. Amond was shaking his head when Jim told him to go back to sit down - clearly annoyed.

And the club still wonder why the attendances are falling!! Why would anyone pay good money to watch the rubbish of the last couple of home games?

[Heysham_Shrimp]

Only 5 home games left....woooohoo

6 actually

[Jack Poulton]

For the 1st time in many years I left the game well before the end as I couldn't see us scoring if we had played all night and following previous dour performances I am seriously considering the future of my season ticket. For all the trouble we went to to sign Ryan Williams I cannot believe how the manager treats him. Never given a decent run in the side and always first to be substituted when he does get in despite decent performances. He has been given no chance to develop and clearly is a talented midfielder who, with the right coaching could be a major asset. I couldn't blame him if he wants to get away but it will be a sad loss to us when (not if) he does leave. As for the rest it seems we have no shape or structure and the starting selection baffles me. How Ellison gets away week in, week out with inept contributions like today is beyond me but it would seem that the manager would prefer to take off the goalkeeper before him. Words fail me

[Aal]

Only 5 home games left....woooohoo

6 actually

Mar 14 Hartlepool
Mar 17 Shrewsbury
Apr 3 Accrington
Apr 18 Burton
May 2 Southend

Which one have we missed?

[Morecambe Jack]

Portsmouth - Apr 11

[Aal]

Portsmouth - Apr 11

Thanks...not highlighted in match programme like other 5...that will be a banker away win

[Now_Then]

I was at the first fans forum that Jim held after being given the managers job. The one thing he said that sticks with me is "i love wingers with pace"! Now, we have no wingers and we certainly have no pace! Everything is done at walking speed and when Beeley does do one of his lung bursting runs down the right flank, he is ignored time and time again! We are so slow and ponderous its painful. Teams must love playing against us!

Another concern is the way our strikers are playing. They make no forward runs, they certainly don't play on the shoulder and they cause no problems for defenders! We have quality strikers at the club who will score goals in League 2 but they seem to be mis-guided or just have no confidence. We keep the same defenders week in week out but chop and change the strikers every game! We should be looking at bringing a former striker in as a coach to try and help the lads up front. Surely there is an ex-pro doing his badges that would snap up the chance of gaining some experience.

[George Dawes]

I was at the first fans forum that Jim held after being given the managers job. The one thing he said that sticks with me is "i love wingers with pace"! Now, we have no wingers and we certainly have no pace! Everything is done at walking speed and when Beeley does do one of his lung bursting runs down the right flank, he is ignored time and time again! We are so slow and ponderous its painful. Teams must love playing against us!

Another concern is the way our strikers are playing. They make no forward runs, they certainly don't play on the shoulder and they cause no problems for defenders! We have quality strikers at the club who will score goals in League 2 but they seem to be mis-guided or just have no confidence. We keep the same defenders week in week out but chop and change the strikers every game! We should be looking at bringing a former striker in as a coach to try and help the lads up front. Surely there is an ex-pro doing his badges that would snap up the chance of gaining some experience.

I think as far as strikers go and this is at any level, its about partnerships, and we.ve not had a good one since Jevons & Mullin, they complimented each other, but individualy i didn't rate them or when paired with Twiss or Curtis.

[Seasider9601]

God only knows what Jim was thinking with the sub in taking Ryan Williams off.

Would have been Kevin Ellison for me. He had a woeful afternoon and, once again, I question where exactly his head and mind was because it didn't appear to be on the job in hand.

[Wild Bill]

following previous dour performances I am seriously considering the future of my season ticket.

I usually like to stay positive but I am thinking the same after consistently crap home performances since the autumn. Even when we were winning against Mansfield we were running the ball into the corner flags like an away team and trying to kill the life out of the game. Its simply not entertaining.

I have only missed two home games all season (Luton and Dagenham) but since 'Super Sunday' in October I have only seen four home goals and also us fail to score in five matches. I have stopped trying to drag friends and family along as I know watching us at the moment would probably put them off for a while!

Jim needs to decide what his best 11 is a stick with it to build understanding and confidence instead of chopping and changing all the time. No wonder the forwards are struggling. Cambridge were a big physical team, so I also don't understand why we then threw Jack and Ryan into the team.

You watch us go and win 0-1 now though at Oxford. Winning in front of 50 Morecambe fans though isn't going to build up the home crowds. Can't have been more than 1300 + away fans today.

[Seasider9601]

Think I've read 1563 with 203 away fans posted on Facebook.

There or thereabouts anyway.

Worrying.

[marky No.1]

Beeley was beyond himself doing M.O.M. having waited for 40 minutes while locked in dressing room...
....
"Some players need to look at themselves"

"Dreadful"

He missed the word "shite" but was naturally polite

[Heysham_Shrimp]

God only knows what Jim was thinking with the sub in taking Ryan Williams off.

Would have been Kevin Ellison for me. He had a woeful afternoon and, once again, I question where exactly his head and mind was because it didn't appear to be on the job in hand.

I have to agree. Ryan Williams was the only Morecambe player to bring a save out of the Cambridge keeper. He was passing to feet as well and IMHO he has not been given a fair deal. He played when we won at Hartlepool and was promptly dropped. He played at Newport and although he started yesterday he was taken off after 50 odd minutes when he was playing certainly better than some others !

[underbank]

God only knows what Jim was thinking with the sub in taking Ryan Williams off.

Would have been Kevin Ellison for me. He had a woeful afternoon and, once again, I question where exactly his head and mind was because it didn't appear to be on the job in hand.

I have to agree. Ryan Williams was the only Morecambe player to bring a save out of the Cambridge keeper. He was passing to feet as well and IMHO he has not been given a fair deal. He played when we won at Hartlepool and was promptly dropped. He played at Newport and although he started yesterday he was taken off after 50 odd minutes when he was playing certainly better than some others !

Exactly, as I posted above. Jim seems to go into games with a fixed idea of who he'll be substituting and does it regardless of the play. Ryan was probably the most enthusiastic and passionate player yesterday and was having the game of his life and it was grossly unfair to take him off. There were lots of gasps and murmourings around us from the crowd when the number 10 was in the red on the sub board and Ryan was clearly surprised as he was ready for the kick off again. Ryan did a few exceptional crosses and passes that were bang on target to other Morecambe players where most of the other players couldn't pass to save their lives! Kev didn't deserve to last 90 minutes - he was the worst I've seen him yesterday. Goodall was also showing great passion and determination, yet he was hauled off too! Doesn't Jim actually watch the game? Can't he change his sub plans as he sees how the game is flowing? It seems not!

[Heysham_Shrimp]

God only knows what Jim was thinking with the sub in taking Ryan Williams off.

Would have been Kevin Ellison for me. He had a woeful afternoon and, once again, I question where exactly his head and mind was because it didn't appear to be on the job in hand.

I have to agree. Ryan Williams was the only Morecambe player to bring a save out of the Cambridge keeper. He was passing to feet as well and IMHO he has not been given a fair deal. He played when we won at Hartlepool and was promptly dropped. He played at Newport and although he started yesterday he was taken off after 50 odd minutes when he was playing certainly better than some others !

Exactly, as I posted above. Jim seems to go into games with a fixed idea of who he'll be substituting and does it regardless of the play. Ryan was probably the most enthusiastic and passionate player yesterday and was having the game of his life and it was grossly unfair to take him off. There were lots of gasps and murmourings around us from the crowd when the number 10 was in the red on the sub board and Ryan was clearly surprised as he was ready for the kick off again. Ryan did a few exceptional crosses and passes that were bang on target to other Morecambe players where most of the other players couldn't pass to save their lives! Kev didn't deserve to last 90 minutes - he was the worst I've seen him yesterday. Goodall was also showing great passion and determination, yet he was hauled off too! Doesn't Jim actually watch the game? Can't he change his sub plans as he sees how the game is flowing? It seems not!

I think Jim prefers artisans to artistry.

What really worries me is the atmosphere in the ground. It should be tingling with anticipation of seeing us playing with panache and risking losing in order to win. Instead it feels dead with most of the spectators knowing we are going to see a turgid attempt to grind out a 1-0 win or a nil nil draw. What happened to the spirit that saw us come from 3-1 down with 10 men and 3 minutes to go only to beat Crewe 4-3 or the Chesterfield match when we were dead and buried at 3-0 down only to score 4 in the second half.

[Posh]

Ryan Williams is a really interesting one and I watched him very closely yesterday. His biggest weakness is that he gets pushed off the ball very easily and isn't very strong when fending off players or in the tackle. He also skips about like a Welsh lamb, which doesn't instill confidence. The bigger problem is the very high proportion of back passes, which doesn't help build play. In the first half with a man five yards in front of him he checked and then pretended to back pass, then went to go forward and then checked and did back pass, there was no real pressure.

However having said that. You then watch what he does do that's positive and why he does do something negative. Firstly he works well round the edge of the box and in an attacking role. His balls forward pretty much always find their man and he put through four great passes that were all lost quickly by the general ineptness of the player receiving. You then look at the movement around him and quickly understand why he back passes. Alan Goodall was known at Fleetwood for his surging runs, not here and he was just static. Alex Kenyon had a dog of a game and provided no support for Ryan. On the flanks Beeley was always looking to get forward so offered something. However Loz always had an eye on the back door so rarely pushed forward and give Ryan a real meaningful option. Ahead of him Jack moved around but was well marshalled so dropped deep to collect, again offering Ryan nothing, and Kev was just very poor, quiet and ineffectual. I can't blame Ryan for back passing, there were so few options for him.

Ryan was trying to create. Kev should have come off for Paul Mullin. Mullin worked hard and made runs and would have given Ryan options. Kenyon should have come off for Devitt to give us some creativity out wide. I'd have taken a central defender off and pushed Goodall to left back and pushed Loz up as a winger.

It is deeply frustrating. I left before the final whistle - first time for 41 years. I had two very bored kids who were mithering to leave well before the end. My 7 year old is a natural optimist but even he said it was "absolute rubbish". He's the future and I worry he'll choose something else. As others said I've stopped taking people I know to games, except for the excellent hospitality. Every game I've done it it the on-pitch activity has been very poor fare.

No one expects us to win every game or even to be entertained every game but just a bit of entertainment and effort would be nice. That's why Ryan needed to stay on, he tried and he offered some creativity, around him, bar Beeley, a shoe-in for player of the season, there was largely dross.

[james456]

Worst performance for a while. We seem to play like the away team in every game - home and away.

I don't mind us being a bit defensive and grinding out results away from home - there's a bit of a siege mentality when you go away that means you can make the trip home feeling quite content at having stifled the opposition and seen out a 0-0. But walking away from the Globe having watched the team sit deep and create few chances is just boring - there's no other word for it.

Cambridge were not a great side but they were competent as far as league 2 teams go and they were disciplined enough to have a bank of four sat back at all times which meant our 'stay defensive then try to counter' tactics didn't work because they didn't leave swathes of space open.

On player performances, I will disagree about Ryan. He did have the one chance that on another day would have went in and he improved as the game went on but for most of the game, he was very poor. Also, I felt sorry for Wilson who on numerous occasions was stood in acres of space but nobody wanted to switch it to him to initiate an attack from the left. We seem totally reliant on Beeley as our only attacking outlet.

I'm starting to think that tactics wise, we should just look at signing the biggest target man we can find at the next opportunity. I'd rather we signed a whole new midfield who can pass well but sadly I think that's beyond us financially.

[George Dawes]

I'm starting to think that tactics wise, we should just look at signing the biggest target man we can find at the next opportunity. I'd rather we signed a whole new midfield who can pass well but sadly I think that's beyond us financially.

What ive said before, why not do a Stoke, like Pullis did, just sign players who are 6.2ft+, then Roche, Hughes, and others can hit it long to their hearts content, and just work set peices constantly in training.