That freeckick vs wolves

[POWP]

I'm not going to get into the debate of the referee's decision, but instead break down the situations during the build up to the freekick, here's a recap:

• Doumbia receives the ball in the Wolves half and travels forward 10 yards into Wednesday's half being chased down by Antonio and Pecnik.
  
• Barkley leaves marking Doyle to lunge in with a tackle on the floor which Doumbia.
  
• Mattock is close to Doyle but can see their winger being out wide and that O'Grady isn't close by to help cover, he's basically in the wolves half.
  
• Doubmbia mis-controls the ball resulting from the attempted tackle and tries to knock it passed Semedo who manages to block it.
  
• The ball falls into the path of Antonio and Pecnik. Antonio is turning to face away from our goal, Pecnik looking towards it. Both players seem to struggle with who is in control of the situation.
  
• Pecnik hits the ball, but it hits Antonio.
  
• Antonio fails to clear it after stumbling into bumping into Pecnik.
  
• Doyle, who no one managed to pick up runs towards Antonio and steals the ball from his feet as he was about to clear it. He's on the edge of a pack of three of our players (Semedo, Antonio and Pecnik).
  
• Barkley is standing around the same position where he attempted his tackle (centre circle).
  
• Semedo chases Barkley as he picks up speed and progresses towards our box whilst making a diagonal run from the right side to the left. Semedo never gets close to Doyle and never attempts a tackle and never really puts any pressure on him.
  
• Doyle, now 10 yards off of our box plays a through ball to Ebanks Blake who blatantly points to where he wants the ball to be played.
  
• JJ try's to pick him up but stays on his outside, giving him the wolves man an extra yard.
  
• Taylor moves into space where Ebanks Blake run would take him, reading his move well and looks like he would push him out wide with his movement. He has a couple of yards on him and begins to square to him.
  
• JJ collides wtih Ebanks Blake, pushing him in his back even if he goes down easily.
  
• Freekick awarded by the referee.
  
• Kirkland slow in arranging the wall, results in Sako taking a quick freekick. Referee issues retake and books Sako.
  
• Wolves place two players at the end of the wall, No one gets between them and covers.
  
• Wolves players push the wall and break creating an opening.
  
• Semedo seems to ignore the break off of wolves players, doesn't look to chase them or close down the gap.
  
• Gardner runs into the space behind the wall, presumably to cover the runners
  
• Antonio Jumps and turns his back to the ball whilst closing the gap slightly.
  
• Semedo, stood exactly where the ball is heading, steps out of the way, jumps and turns.
  
• Kirkland takes a step the wrong way and looses his footing. misses the ball by a matter of inches.
  
• GOAL.
  

In my opinion Barkley didn't need to attempt to make a tackle in a situation where two other Wednesday players were covering one wolves player who was running directly towards another wednesday player.

O'Grady should have been tracking back further, but this isn't a role he's used to (playing on the wing), this left Mattock with no option but to leave the free man.

Semedo, Pecnik and Antonio all should have done better with their opportunity to clear the ball.

Semedo's block was weak, he reacted slowly and could have called that the loose ball was his and he could have hit it out to O'Grady on the wing.

Failing that, Pecnik should have called it and Antonio should have moved out of his way (Antonio was more or less stationary and Pecnik was moving with momentum towards the ball). Pecnik could have put it out to touch or played it back to Gardner.

Failing that, Antonio should have cleared with ease, Barkley was a good option for him to play the ball to but it fell to his left foot and he seems to scuff it.

Semedo should have flattened Doyle. He watched the ball too much and gave too much respect to Doyle. He had loads of time to push him out wide or to get a decent tackle. But he didn't.

JJ shouldn't have tried to pick up Ebanks Blake, it pulled him in too much when cover was already there.

He shouldn't have touched him but ran past him in case Taylor couldn't get a block in.

We shouldn't have been playing a winger in defence.

And Kirkland should have settled the wall better and should have done better with the shot.

This isn't an isolated incident for the midfield in the game either and I'll concentrate on the midfield as this is where I feel the issue lies at the moment.

Semedo played an extremely poor ball and was weak under pressure. It should have gone to Pecnik but it was played 2 yards behind him (as he advanced forward into space). Doyle picked up the loose ball and had a shot. Pecnik should have had him covered but reacted slowly and didn't seem to have any fight before Doyles shot was taken.

After a long ball from Kirkland up field, Bothroyd jumps but doesn't win the header he wins the loose ball but goes down and fails to get back up. It doesn't look much like a foul.

Antonio is out of position on the wing along with O'Grady who are the most forward players on the pitch leaving Wolves players in masses of space. From here wolves put together 3 unchallenged passes and move the ball out to their left wing and to Sako who's wide open. He runs directly towards JJ who appears to be moving centrally to cover Ebanks Blake. Pecnik tracks Sako back and actually shows good pace, Semedo just watches whilst covering two players, Barkley is on the halfway line showing no effort to get back. Pecnik just about gets to Sako who is unfortunately able to get a shot off and force a good save from Kirkland just before a half hearted tackle is attempted.

I think the midfield is definitely weak in both creating opportunaties as well as defending at the moment. Personally I'm more concerned about the defending as once they get that resolved I'm sure we'd get more attacking opportunities.

In short, Pecnik needs some defensive lessons or shouldn't play in such a role. Barkley is too attacking minded and his tackles look like they'll lead to more yellow cards than won balls. Antonio's positioning was suspect, potentially through tactical instructions? But Semedo doesn't appear to be holding his own at the moment, his passing is too wayword (I'd love to see the stats on percentage successful passes, it wasn't great on my count), he seems shy on the tackle and is giving too much time to players which is more of a problem in this league than it may have been in league 1.

Personally I'm not sure how it would be resolved. Maybe the calls for Llera or Reda being pushed up to midfield in a holding roll have some merit? Especially with Lines and McCabe being out and Corry not being anywhere near ready.

has anyone noticed similar patterns with other goals (don't have footage to hand to analyse).

[Zeus]

Why would semedo chase Barkley?

[POWP]

sorry... he chased Doyle! not Barkley

[Guest Milan Mandaric - God]

Can't be bothered to read all that.

I didn't know you were even allowed to take the free kick again if you took it early and missed.

[Beholder]

Bloody hell who writes a dissertation about a free kick?

[33]

You if you wanted to prove you are right...!

:)

[Jackie Sewell]

I think that's an accurate portrayal in a rather large nutshell of one incident highlighting just one problem area for us. I wish we'd been able to say " Ebanks- Blake brings down Semedo in a very dangerous area with a clumsy challenge, Bothroyd taps the ball to Barclay who rifles it low into the corner as Wolves wall collapses" - two minutes before they scored ( instead of balooning it high and wide).

[POWP]

I think that's an accurate portrayal in a rather large nutshell of one incident

I don't think it's one incident tho. I actually think it's an issue we've faced in other matches. Such as Bolton. their first goal should have been cancelled out with better marking by Pecnik, the second should have been cut out in the midfield by Semedo if I remember correctly.

If I had any footage to hand I'd look back over the other goals in other games but I fear a pattern is emerging.