Sands & Kamara unfair criticism for last night

nateman

Well-Known Member
People keep blaming them for the midfield being poor last night - imo they were hung out to dry by the system. When you go with those two sitting in front of the back 4 and then instruct Wright & Kent to hug the touchline, and Hagi to get beyond the striker I'm not sure how you can ever expect your midfield to control the game. Aberdeen were getting bodies in there, outnumbering them and giving them no options to play to. Don't believe it was GVB's intent to have them control the game in the first place. They were there to protect the back 4 and screen our defence (which they did well considering we didn't give up many chances), while we look to go long into our forward players.


A look back at Sands highlights from last night and you can see he is a good player imo. Last night was the wrong movie for him:

 
I could’ve controlled and passed the ball better than Kamara last night (he wasn’t the only one)

Great player, dreadful day at the office last night, and justified comments on his performance as a result. Nothing more than that. He’ll be back to his best next week.
 
Roofe, Davis, arfield ,jack , helander, balogun although balogun coming back from injury. Also aribo away on international duty. All big players that would have likely featured if fit or available. 7 players unavailable. If it was the bheasts we would have been able to have the season ended early and declared champions due to having too many players unavailable.
 
They were clearly asked to play right in front of the defence & not in central midfield & that tactic cost us control of the game
That allowed Aberdeen the control of the game & played into their hands & Clancy as instead of dominating the ball as we usually do we were forced to be challenging for the ball which allowed Aberdeen players to play act & gave Clancy the ammunition he was desperate for
We played similar awat to Hibs n Hearts but we didn't simply chose to give up the entire central area of the park in those games which allowed us to break & create chances but last night for me anyway was shambolic tactics wise & simply made no sense
We need to remove this negativity that seems to grip us at times
We seen it with Gerrard also, giving average SPFL teams too much respect & allowing the opposition to dictate how the game will be played
For me this needs to stop
 
Glad to see at least some neutral if not positive comments in this and the other James Sands thread. Some of the Sands criticism on Twitter and in comments on podcasts have been completely over the top and embarrassing, frankly.

I agree we lost the midfield battle last night, but that's more a function of the options we have available which, injuries aside, comprise mainly of water-carrier type number 8s - that's something that needs to be addressed through recruitment, not the fault of individual players.
 
Nobody should write off Sands I giggled last week when FF said he should start but didn't giggle when the manager did that very thing.

To be frank in context Sands showed nothing that suggested he should have started last night and that's not a shock-weakened team around him, new pace to adapt to, hostile environment to adjust to. It was a mistake he spent the first 15 minutes trying to find his feet.

The line up was poor I agree and Kamara is at his best as a strong component not as a midfield leader.

Some obvious things many are feeling to see-last night is how Gio has tweaked the team since he came eventually we would have an off night and his tactics arguably raise more questions than answers.

The second is he stabilised the team with this -we can't have our cake and eat it surrendering possession and less football is what he has done. He needs time to put anything like his own stamp on the team. I'd urge he meets SG's style half way now.

Thirdly not everything is wrong but too many think we are just going to stroll it and when we don't we get 6000 reasons why it went wrong-the team was weakened and if you combine that with a dodgy line up then you were going to struggle. Game management and adjustment was poor since we we were ahead.

Now we are back questioning everything. We were always going to drop points. We were poor-a good manager and a good team mentality should put us back on track-we need to be focused on results but Gio's tweaks that have brought results? I think he needs to build on those and bring back more possession based football. That was always going to be a struggle last night.
 
The manager’s substitutions and decisions were very poor last night.
Have to agree.

Lundstram should be no where near our midfield, offers absolutely nothing. Aye that's me being blunt, but to the point.

Can't see Gerrard taking him off our hands.

Last night was a wake call, hope GVH has the answers.
 
Why is it unfair?
They allowed has beens like Brown and Hayes to boss the game.

They really didn't, it was Clancy allowed them to do that by ignoring their consistent fouling. Both Lego & Hayes should have been off with reds, and Kent didn't even deserve a yellow.

We had a makeshift and depleted MF. I don't think last night was the game for Hagi. He took his goal well, but he's not the guy for a MF battle, too slow in covering.

I cannot believe fans are having a go at Sands. The kid showed plenty of potential, he's strong, athletic with a good touch and pass. He's never played with the team before, and did just fine.

Take the point and move on.
 
They really didn't, it was Clancy allowed them to do that by ignoring their consistent fouling. Both Lego & Hayes should have been off with reds, and Kent didn't even deserve a yellow.

We had a makeshift and depleted MF. I don't think last night was the game for Hagi. He took his goal well, but he's not the guy for a MF battle, too slow in covering.

I cannot believe fans are having a go at Sands. The kid showed plenty of potential, he's strong, athletic with a good touch and pass. He's never played with the team before, and did just fine.

Take the point and move on.
The ref was poor , we expected that , our players needed to be prepared and up for that , they weren’t

PS Hagi created his own problems with a stupid booking early doors.
 
The ref was poor , we expected that , our players needed to be prepared and up for that , they weren’t

What was Kent to be prepared for? he was the victim of an assault by Hayes that he tried to extricate himself from, and got booked for, then a piece of simulation from Lego that got him sent off.
Hayes all but broke Borna's nose with a fore arm assault in front of the linesman, no action taken.
We can hardly prepare for that.
 
What was Kent to be prepared for? he was the victim of an assault by Hayes that he tried to extricate himself from, and got booked for, then a piece of simulation from Lego that got him sent off.
Hayes all but broke Borna's nose with a fore arm assault in front of the linesman, no action taken.
We can hardly prepare for that.
We can by being more street wise.
 
Kamara didn't play well, Sands did.

Big problem was that Wright lost the ball so often in the first half and then did nothing in the second.

The other problem was how slow the ball getting played out from the back allowing the midfield to get challenged or just play the ball back for it to get lumped to Morelos who did he haw apart from a sclaf and a half-decent effort from the corner which the keeper saved quite easily.
 
Kamara is rightfully praised on here for his displays, it's also fair for people to criticise when he is poor.
And poor he was.
 
I think it was more our shape and approach to the game that was poor, rather than picking out individuals.

Poor performances away to Hibs and Aberdeen and both times we played with two deep midfielders. When Arfield and Aribo were involved we had much more energy and movement from middle of the park.
 
In games like last night, we need to get a lot more from Kamara, there needs to be more end product and he needs to add some B@stard to his game
 
Kamara was shite last night, no other way to explain it. As for the new lad, difficult game for him to come into, but I did expect more. Was surprised when he wasn't substituted in the 2nd half.

Over all though, our midfield worried me last night, we never got to grips, with what was a Bob Standard Scum of the North football team.
I'm certainly not making any case for Kamara whatsoever as by his standards he was atrocious. I can't complain about Sands because even without seeing him, I'd have picked him, anyone, before Lundstram.

But when Hagi and Wright are passengers from the get go, and yes I realise they were two-thirds of our goal, then Xavi and Iniesta would have struggled in that overall shambles last night.
 
Agree with OP.

The gap was too big from the two holding midfielders to Hagi.

Aberdeen dropped Ferguson much deeper than normal and for me, I hate to say it but this allowed Ferguson and Brown to dictate the game, through the amount of space and time we afforded them.

I thought it was obvious to push both Kamara and Sands higher to negate this
or
Even go, more attacking by taking off one of the holding midfielders for Bacuna and using the system we played against Livi (one holding and 5 attackers Kent, Morelos, Hagi, Arfield and Aribo) and pressing Aberdeen much higher, by giving them less time, less space and making it more difficult to play through us.

The second tactic is more of a gamble as Aberdeen are better than Livi but I am not a fan of Gio allowing Scottish teams to dictate the games without really any changes.

Yes, we did change to 4-3-3 with Lundstram coming on but the three midfielders, just played on the same level, with no depth to combat Ferguson / Brown.
 
I saw very little from the midfield, all looked off the pace, the blustery conditions and bias referee didn’t help.
 
He did nothing the whole second half and allowed his frustration to take over.
That Kent was by and large cr@p I agree with, but neither instances when he was carded were actual offences. Same with Tav's yellow.

Sheer corruption and consider the c;;t whose only thought was to have a boot at Sakala when he made a break in the second half and laughs it off at the subsequent free kick.
 
Team far too easily bullied last night. Didn’t look up for the physical fight. We are still SO soft.

Just stood back and allowed Brown to influence the referee as well. Players should have been going mental.
 
Kamara didn't play well, Sands did.

Big problem was that Wright lost the ball so often in the first half and then did nothing in the second.

The other problem was how slow the ball getting played out from the back allowing the midfield to get challenged or just play the ball back for it to get lumped to Morelos who did he haw apart from a sclaf and a half-decent effort from the corner which the keeper saved quite easily.

I agree. Kamara was hiding, Sands wasn’t exactly wonderful, but he had some fight in him and his use of the ball was actually ok.

Huge problem was our lack of ability to play out under pressure. McGregor is painfully slow and never hit a Rangers player, Bassey played a hospital ball out almost every time he had it and Barisic (similar to Kamara) shit himself.

We’ve got to improve our bravery and composure when playing out, or the accuracy of our long passes. If we don’t plodders like Aberdeen can make us look average.
 
I agree. Kamara was hiding, Sands wasn’t exactly wonderful, but he had some fight in him and his use of the ball was actually ok.

Huge problem was our lack of ability to play out under pressure. McGregor is painfully slow and never hit a Rangers player, Bassey played a hospital ball out almost every time he had it and Barisic (similar to Kamara) shit himself.

We’ve got to improve our bravery and composure when playing out, or the accuracy of our long passes. If we don’t plodders like Aberdeen can make us look average.
In the first half Bassey gave the ball back/away 11 times, Morelos 10 Wright 6 and Kent 6. The front 3 did very little linking play and in the main gave it away very easily. The majority of the time the ball by passed the midfield.
 
Team far too easily bullied last night. Didn’t look up for the physical fight. We are still SO soft.

Just stood back and allowed Brown to influence the referee as well. Players should have been going mental.
How were they bullied? 21 fouls doesn't indicate being bullied. Not all were fouls but we were making more challenges.
Agree about Brown - Tav or Goldson should have been telling Clancy about the cheating twunt.
 
Back
Top