Am I the only one who thought we played quite well and are beginning to get it together but were unlucky to lose?
Nope. I didn't really get a chance to read anything on here after the match yesterday but catching up this morning I'm quite surprised to see such a level of negativity about it. No, it's not quite working but it's only our third game in using a new system and with a lot of new players.
I still have concerns about using wing backs with the personnel we have available, but even allowing for the completely lopsided team layout that gives us I thought we were very good in spells and somewhat unfortunate not to get a result of some sort. And since I rate Fleetwood quite highly, I'd have taken a draw today as a good result, which we'd have got but for a terrible individual error. On that topic, I really felt for McWilliams. A horrible thing to happen to him, especially so soon after coming on but I was pleased to see Pierre and Crooks come over and put an arm around his shoulder before the match had kicked off again.
Mentioning Crooks, after the game I commented that I could see Kasim becoming the crowd's new boo boy, not because he's a bad player but because he sets about doing the simple stuff and does it quietly and efficiently, which is often something that crowds fail to pick up on and view as inactivity (plus he's picked up the poisoned chalice of taking set pieces in Taylor's absence without being quite as good at them). I didn't anticipate it being Crooks instead! I did raise an eyebrow when he was announced as MOM, but mainly because I thought there were better candidates, not because he had a bad game. He was neat and tidy throughout, put himself about and made one absolutely terrific last ditch challenge in the first half. I bet he covered as much if not more of the pitch than anyone else yesterday; just because he has a somewhat languid running style doesn't make him lazy. Some of the comments on here bought to mind some of the early comments about JJOT and look how that turned out.
All in all, yes it's been a disappointing start to the season, but there are signs of improvement and it's certainly not time to hit the panic button just yet.
