It sure doesn't make pleasant reading Boz, it was even more unpleasant watching! It really was a poor show.. I've not seen that lack of interest/effort for quite a while. It was a walk in the park for Leeds. They honestly could have walked away with another five or six if it hadn't been for Daniels pulling of some fantastic saves. The only player who came away from that game with any credit.
As soon as the whistle went, Leeds went on the attack and we couldnt get out of our half for log periods. The defence was atrocious today. Completely inept and the amount of times Leeds got in behind us was embarrassing.
Even the usually cool Goodison was having a nightmare, and you know your in for a bad time when the player you need to rely on is having a poor game. Needless to say, the rest of the defence were a shambles.
We had a few headers go over the bar from the odd corner and a 40 yard shot from Mahon and erm.. that was about it from us, it stark contrast to Leeds who scored 3 and had another 12 efforts on target.
The stats read 26 shots for Leeds with 15 on target. Tranmere managed 8 shots with 5 on target. Complete mauling..
But.. the one thing I'm annoyed most about is the lack of effort. I always say, as long as they try hard, you cant ask more than that. But there was nothing today. No fight, no desire, lack of communication within the team, it was a disgrace really. At least show some spirit!!!
Whilst I'm sure most of us can appreciate that Barnes is trying to play football on the floor, it may be time to sit down and look at this realistically.
IMO, we dont have the players who can play the way Barnes wants. They dont have the skills to spray the ball around the park. These are div 1 footballers. You could see in todays game, and against Dons, you dont get time in this division to do that, and our players panic when they have the ball.
We were 2-0 down today, and at times, we kept passing it around the back, then to the keeper, then round the back again. It didnt go any further than the half way line at which point Leeds would close us down, we would panic and then play an aimless ball up field. It really wasn't good to watch at all.
And no-one apart from Daniels turned up.
The back four were abysmal, McLaren and Welsh unnoticed, Mahan and Shuker, just rubbish... and the front two, well, they didnt get any service and spent most of the time chasing long balls.
The second half wasn't
as bad.. Ash Taylor did better than Gunning (who was awful) and the defence looked a little tighter when he went off.
And even though Ricketts who looked knackered running a few paces, did at times hold the ball quite well and tried to look for a pass. He needs a hell of a lot more games before he's ready for 1st team football. But I guess Barnes was desperate. Like Boz says, doesnt say much for Gornell!
£26 to get in, I feel completely cheated. Waste of time and money, and where were the SWA today? Half the away end was empty.
I'm glad Barnes said after the game:
"I've said to the players that we've either got to believe that is the way we can play, which we have done at times this season, or we're going to have to change the way we play."
He may have to bite the bullet and change from this passing style which I dont think it going to work in this environment with these players.
