The summarisers were commenting on Pierre’s positioning and mistimed tackles well before 1st yellow.Not a great loss!
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FFS. He made the team of the year in this division a little more than 2 years ago.
Going back to last week, in one telling incident against Cheltenham he won a difficult header in the box under pressure and was thus off-balance. Buchs was closest to the ball as it dropped and could have easily cleared it but just stood like a statue half-soaked as Pierre had to recover and struggle to make up ground to make a last-ditch clearance. The look of contempt for Buchs on Pierre's face was undeniable. I've seen plenty of incidents like this so far this year, they are not one-offs. Pierre looks increasingly exasperated.
Buchs gave the Port Vale player plenty of space to shoot for the first goal. Much like he was kind enough to give Eardley plenty of space to pick his cross for Lincoln's goal in the first game. This is poor defensive play. Perhaps Pierre's 'miss-timed' tackles are simply him getting tight to the forward like a defender should do, much like Facey did for the 'disastrous' free-kick he gave away against Cheltenham, given for getting too-close to the winger after the winger had taken a dive.
When did not allowing attacking players time and space on the ball stop being good defending?
Neither of Pierre's bookings on Saturday look like fouls, let along bookings. Clear dives. Truly shocking decisions.
Still, no great loss and at least we've still got Buchs suspension free though, eh?