ok... 3-1 up and they take off Cole for Scholes, and within minutes its' 3-3. Considering that SAF had made this obvious move in order to get back in the game why didn't YBR do the same and bring Distin in at the same time. If I'm the manager and I see Scholes warming up, you can bet your a** I'm getting a fresh defender in there.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Answers

Adjusting Players?

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Sparxx, Bobby`s choice was limited, Having Distin on the bench after he had just joined the club was a strange one,obviously injury scares with the other center halves, Barton was always going to show first, make no mistake we were stretched , not a game forLua either. To combat Scholes the only alternative was 3 at the back , not sure if the 3 availible could handle it?

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Sorry, but I think YBR got his tactics spot on yesterday. We don't yet have the players to counter a team like Man Utd defensively so he stuck with all out attack, on the basis that we are attacking relatively well. Honestly, I was so relieved when we switched sides so the Leazes End could have the terror of them bearing down on the goal in the second half like the Gallowgate had had in the first half: every time they came forward, they looked like scoring. They are exceptional. We just don't have the defensive players to deal with that.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Not quite as it seems here. In an interview after the match yesterday, Robson spoke how he and the players had talked about sorting out the spare man in midfield should the situation arise. This conversation, Robson said, happened on the morning of the match. So they must have had a plan to sort this out. Two or three things here then. 1) The plan was put into effect but was largely ineffective.
2) The plan was there but no-one on the field was able to take control and sort the team out whilst Scholes was coming on the pitch
3) Someone eventually sorted it out after a roasting by Robson and the team regained some sort of control and went onto win the match!

Which one do you think happened? You could criticise Robson for not getting the message on to the pitch quick enough but I blame the players for not being able to think for themselves.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

DB, does it really matter in any case: Man United aren't really the team to worry about because they'd have scored if we'd played with ten at the back. Where we need to worry is when we are playing Leicester City et al who we REALLY NEED to beat.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Douggie...IMHO Paul Scholes has to hang his head in shame. He's on borrowed time if you ask me. He had the chance of a substitutes hat- trick and he fucked it up.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

LR, to the outsider, it does look like Scholes's star is waning (just from TV highlights and so on) but I still almost had a litter of kittens when he came on.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Scholes on borrowed time? , Scholes star is waning?, please people reflect, he did not wait for things to happen, he made em happen.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Buff, I wasn't on about yesterday or about what I know - just about how TV highlights have made it look.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

i'd like to see his star wane into our team. great player, LR, the lad deserves more respect mate.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

LR...do you think that the way you lot were playing at 3-1 down you would have come back if Scholes hadn't been brought on? Obviously this move turned the tide and we struggled to adjust and almost lost it. My main issue here is that we needed to compensate, and whether or not we had the players available or not, Distin was available and all Bobby had to do was stick him in a man marking role, surely he could have handled thirty minutes of that.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

You may be right, Sparxx, but we only have two players who have proven themselves to be half decent manmarkers, Griffin and Hughes (the latter being unavailable with various injuries). You could have moved Griffin to marking Scholes but who could fill in for Griff? Barton was already in midfield and Distin is not necessarily going to fit into that slot. We could have put in an extra defender but I don't think that would have prevented them coming back into the game and, since it would have cost us an attacking player, might have cost us the match. Great being a back seat manager, isn't it?

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Very interesting insight DeB - good to hear from you again also. If BR said that then I assume the players didn't have the sense to adjust, possibly influenced by fatigue. As I said somewhere, Dabz did appear to move into m/f several times so I suspect that may have been the plan.

It's all academic really - except to say this will happen again, several times this season. We really do need to be better prepared to make such tactical adjustments than we were last season, and yet again yesterday.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Scholes is a class player. By the same reckoning, we should get rid of Solano. Sometimes things just don't happen for players. Class is permanent.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

So right Bobby - imho Scholes is world-class, and he although he missed a couple of chances on Saturday, he certainly made things happen. He can come here anytime he wants.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

I think BR got the subs wrong. You need a midfielder on the bench, was Bassedas not fit?

If not then in such a big match it was wise to re-shuffle a defender into midfield when Rob Lee went off, I would have prefered to have had Dabizas playing in midfield with elliot moving to centre back and Bernard coming on at left back. Only problem there is that Bernard wasn't on the bench, and he should have been !(ahead of Barton and Distin)

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001