But why did we suddenly go to 4-5-1 which I can't remember us using before? Suarez was too isolated up front.
I wasn't sure what shape we were playing at times, but fully agree about Suarez being too isolated up front. Most of his flick headers were directed forwards, and as he was the furthest player forward himself, this merely conceded possession. Weir-Daley seemed very withdrawn and was closer to our full-backs at times than he was to Suarez; he offered no threat at all today.
Burge did enough for me to suggest he is a better player to have in the squad than Gareth Davies, but at times our midfield seemed a bit too condensed, with Sleath, Church and Burge all attracted into the middle. They were so close together that the Droylesden midfielders had plenty of space to go round them. With Semple offering width on one side, shouldn't it have been Burge's responsibility to balance things up on the opposite side? Weir-Daley could have then pushed forward alongside Suarez instead of playing in front of the full back.
Overall, it must be said that we were beaten by a better side today. Based on 90-minutes of play, Droylesden looked every bit as good as Alfreton, and their first goal would have graced the Premieship. It was unstoppable, and was one of those goals that even away fans were applauding. Droylesden are playing well and are full of confidence after their FA Cup run. If they hold things together they will be in the mix at the end of the season.
I have every faith in our firxt XI to bounce back to winning ways, but I think today uncovered some doubts around the options we have available beyond those first eleven players. Our subs bench of Hunter, Davidson, Yates, Newsham and Ward offered plenty of attacking options, but yet again no goalkeeping cover and no experienced defensive cover. There was little we could do to change things round in defence or midfield. With McKeown and Pearson both needing lengthy treatment in the first half, things could have panned out a whole lot worse this afternoon. I've always thought that we ought to have a goalkeeper on the bench for every game as it is a specialist position; if Butch is expected to travel and yet not be involved then he'd be better off going out on loan somewhere for experience. And our abundance of strikers and lack of defensive and midfield options on the bench suggests to me that the squad probably isn't as balanced as it should be.
