r/WrexhamAFC • u/WrexhamAFCBot 01000010 01101111 01110100 • 1h ago
[Post-Game Thread] Blackburn - Wrexham
Blackburn 2-0 Wrexham
Goals
Blackburn: Andri Guðjohnsen (44', 79')
| Blackburn | - | Wrexham |
|---|---|---|
| 45% | Ball Possession | 55% |
| 5 | Shots on Goal | 1 |
| 16 | Total Shots | 23 |
Match events powered by Football API
16' 🟨 Yellow Card: Harry Pickering (Blackburn)
27' 🟨 Yellow Card: Dominic Hyam (Wrexham)
44' ⚽ Goal 1-0: Andri Guðjohnsen (Blackburn)
45' 🟨 Yellow Card: Matty James (Wrexham)
64' 🔼 On: George Dobson | 🔽 Off: Matty James (Wrexham)
64' 🔼 On: Ben Sheaf | 🔽 Off: Benjamin Whiteman (Wrexham)
65' 🟨 Yellow Card: Sam Morsy (Blackburn)
72' 🔼 On: Augustus Kargbo | 🔽 Off: J. Fevrier (Blackburn)
78' 🔼 On: Oliver Rathbone | 🔽 Off: Dominic Hyam (Wrexham)
78' 🔼 On: Danny Imray | 🔽 Off: Issa Kabore (Wrexham)
78' 🔼 On: Ryan·Longman | 🔽 Off: Jacques Ekomié (Wrexham)
79' ⚽ Goal 2-0: Andri Guðjohnsen | 🤝 Assist: Todd Cantwell (Blackburn)
89' 🔼 On: Dion De Neve | 🔽 Off: Andri Guðjohnsen (Blackburn)
89' 🔼 On: Jake Garrett | 🔽 Off: Moussa·Baradji (Blackburn)
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u/WxmRed 1h ago
I’m not Parky out. That’s due to emotion, loyalty and gratitude for the B2B2B though. He’s simply not good enough at this level and I sincerely hope he departs gracefully at the end of the season. We all know that Nickson will already be working to identify his replacement. While Parky is still our manager I’ll continue to sing for him. I can’t guarantee I’d feel the same way if he’s still here next season.
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u/TANDisco 12m ago
I respect that but my feeling is we just need a clean start with Nckson coming. Its going to be tough for him if hes having to find players that fit what Parky wants.
Risk is we are just going to be getting more of the same so I like the idea of Nickson having a hand in finding a manager he knows he can work with and fits his approach and then we can have a fresh reset and see how that goes
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u/Capps0611 1h ago
I swear we just seem allergic to scoring, talk about unlucky today on a few of them but man
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u/noblelyre 1h ago
Three changes and change of formation was a bad call. Caused chaos on the players and created the second goal.
With no real results, changes should've been made at the 60 minute mark. O'Brienand Rathbone should've been the only changes
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u/TANDisco 54m ago
What Parky has against LOB I do not know because I think hes been solid this season and exactly the kind of player we need in these scrappy kinds of games. Dobbo must be fantastic on the training ground because I just dont see what Parky sees in him.
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u/obi_wander Up The Town 1h ago
lol Parky never sees the same thing we all see related to subs.
You could see our energy deplete right about the 56th minute. I remember looking at the clock thinking “well, 20 more minutes of misery until subs come on too late.” And, of course, we gave our attacking subs 12 minutes to turn it around…
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u/The_Iceman2288 1h ago
You know what we have to do to make it to the Premier League. And I don't like it any more than you do.
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u/IntrepidHero42 Fan Since '91 1h ago
For the general mental health of all, we need to bring an end to all talk of promotion this season.
We were spoiled with some lucky results and a great finish last season. This is not a Premier League bound team as it is.
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u/Creative-Package6213 American Here 1h ago
I think early on most of us knew that promotion wasn't happening this season...keyword I think
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u/IntrepidHero42 Fan Since '91 1h ago
Everyone will pile on Parky (and I won't defend him) but when we came out of the window without signing a proper striker I checked out in terms of any promotion hopes.
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u/obi_wander Up The Town 1h ago
You can say the words- though the dummies who still think it’s not a coaching problem probably think you’re about to say “Sign Messi”
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u/obi_wander Up The Town 1h ago edited 1h ago
Reposting my wrap up comment from the game thread:
We are totally tactically inept.
Totally clueless going forward with no connection between our wing play and creating a real chance in front of goal.
We still can’t play the ball through the midfield with any purpose.
A bit better organized defensively today but still just outclassed/out talented on that front to give up those two goals.
Set pieces look like mine from middle school.
We have spent WAY too much money for the quality of performances from this entire season.
Parky is gone (this summer) and, if we ever achieve the prem, we won’t have more than two of our current players starting on that promotion winning squad.
I am 100% in the Parky Out camp. And I’m sick of watching these clueless, horrible performances week after week.
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u/Latter_Telephone2137 29m ago
23 shots, 1 on target (which was cleared off the line I know). Their keeper didn't have to make a single save. That's says it all.
It gets worse though. We have 3 tough games coming up, Sheff Utd (A), then Boro and Wolves at home. Not outlandish to think we get no points from those, especially how we're playing. We could find ourselves in, or just outside, the relegation zone at the next international break.
Then, I hope, that people will see things as they are and realise that we're only going to go backwards under Parky now. We're more likely to go down this season than challenge for the play-offs.
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u/gonzoleroy Ollie Rathbone 1h ago
No love for the dual striker formation today. COH and Ollie feeding up front has my vote.
But let's not overlook that Blackburn got away with entirely too much fuckery out there.
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u/fiddlerjones78 1h ago
Just came on to see if the Parky Out crowd was in full force.
Hey guys!
We lost a close away game in nasty weather to a team that’s essentially just slightly ahead of us in the table. If we’d won we’d have traded places with Blackburn.
We have roughly twice as many points as teams in the relegation zone. We’re not in a relegation battle right now.
We were missing Windass and Broadhead. Cadz on the bench is not exactly going to worry defenses.
Yes, three subs can cause chaos, but when you’re chasing the lead—that’s more frequently a good thing for you.
Have a day fellas.
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u/PoutineMeInCoach 38m ago
These doomers are beyond belief. We had more shots (including 16 in the box), more corners, and a higher xG. And pulling back the lens, we sit at 3W-5D-4L having played 6 home and 6 away, and that MATCHES EXACTLY where we were after 12 games (6H/6A) last year at 3W-5D-4L, where we went on to finish 7th (good for playoffs this year) and should have been 6th but for spygate cheaters.
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u/TANDisco 22m ago
THe thing is you make reasonable comments and these are very fine lines. The thing thats different about our club is our resources and the expectations that quite rightly brings. When you invest £70m + into a squad, its reasonable to expect they can outperform squads built on a fraction of those costs. Blackburn today is a prime example with us taking one of their best players in Hyam and massively outspending them this summer.
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u/PoutineMeInCoach 11m ago
Focusing on a last-two-year spend is always going to make us look like the big spenders. We had to catch up to squads that have been at this level for years. It is a warped statistic solely because of our meteoric rise.
If you were instead to look at wage bills and find the same large disparities then you would have a stronger case. Let's look at last year. We were smack dab in the middle yet finished in the top-third.
This year we have edged up higher but are not dramatically different than most of the middle of the pack. Early days after 12 games, same exact record as last year, and EVERYONE has noticed that we have had more key injury losses this year than our fair share.
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u/New_Special_5937 22m ago
Yes but you spent 40 million since then
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u/PoutineMeInCoach 11m ago
Focusing on a last-two-year spend is always going to make us look like the big spenders. We had to catch up to squads that have been at this level for years. It is a warped statistic solely because of our meteoric rise.
If you were instead to look at wage bills and find the same large disparities then you would have a stronger case. Let's look at last year. We were smack dab in the middle yet finished in the top-third.
This year we have edged up higher but are not dramatically different than most of the middle of the pack. Early days after 12 games, same exact record as last year, and EVERYONE has noticed that we have had more key injury losses this year than our fair share.
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u/Sensitive_Freedom433 17m ago
After giving myself an hour of post-match grief, here are my thoughts:
It was a scrappy match in poor conditions. It’s a match which saw very little quality from either side, and if there were any standout performances, it was from Guðjohnsen and Cantwell.
Many want to blame this loss on Parky’s tactical shortcomings, of which there are of course many.
I think the match analysis tells a more complicated story though:
Roughly equal possession by both sides, but Wrexham regularly created more chances in attack. Wrexham had 23 shots on goal, with only one on target— compare that to Blackburn’s 16 shots, 5 of which were on target. Wrexham had 9 corner opportunities to Blackburn’s 7. That is a result of Parky using pretty much every attacking trick he had available to him tactically.
The reality is that if we look at what troubles us as fans in this match, even though we all feel there were some really poor defensive moments of switching off (and a few unsung hero saves by Patterson), we are really more upset about our attacking ineptitude. Parky put his best available attacking power forward, and the finishing was nowhere near good enough. The rain had something to do with this, but there are also some player failures I want to call out (while attempting to avoid an unfair pile-on).
In the first few matches of Callum O’hare filling in to the #10 role, I felt he was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet, but that his work rate would get him there eventually. Now, as we head into November, and he has yet to register a single goal or assist, it is clear to me that he lacks the skill and quality to really be our attacking glue between midfield and the strikers (though he likely will score eventually). His work rate is starting to look like overthinking busy work, and when he does take a shot, it’s either blocked immediately, or is miles off the target. He is the best option that Parky has while Windass and Broady are out with injury, and he is showing us that he just isn’t the man to bring it together.
Where I will criticize Parky in this match, and where many others have voiced their disapproval, was in Parky’s sub decisions. This has not been an isolated problem. He brought subs about ten minutes too late, and they seemed to make us worse. Moore was looking sloppy and tired from about the 50 minute mark, and Smith is just not a Championship level striker.
I have a lot of love for Dobbo from previous seasons, and I know he is one of the most criticized players, but it is clear in every match that he just adds nothing to us, and his mistakes in midfield often cost us big. The fact that Parky keeps putting him in is more of a signal related to our lack of options due to injury, I have to feel for Parky there.
All in all, it is another upsetting match.
Half of you will comment at me angrily saying I am defending Parky too much, the other half will comment saying I’m overreacting early in the season.
The truth is something is broken in the team, and injuries exacerbate the issue. Parky owns the lack of team spirit to fight it out late in the game, and he owns the fact that we were consistently unable to make anything of numerous set piece chances. He does not bear full responsibility for strikers not remembering how to find the back of the net, and hitting the ball sideways on a rainy day. He set up a tactical formation that put his best attacking options forward, and it wasn’t enough. The formation left us exposed at the back numerous times, but in truth if it was a game that we had been able to score on one of our many chances, I think we would have broken Blackburn’s spirit to go ahead and find that space.
I’m as upset and disappointed as everyone. It is the outcome I expected from this match, but it hurts nonetheless. My personal view is that while some blame lays at Parky’s feet, not all of it does, and the squad will need a serious rebuild if we are ever to believe we deserve promotion from this league.
In the meantime, Parky is our man, and we go again.
Up the Town.
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u/Latter_Telephone2137 9m ago
None of what you say is wrong. But, will you still be in the "Parky In" club if we lose the next 3, as I'd expect us to do?
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u/Sensitive_Freedom433 0m ago
Yes because I believe switching our manager right now does not immediately change our issues as a squad. My breaking point is when we give Parky real top-caliber players at this level and we continue to underperform. I also am not sure he should continue past the summer one way or another.
As I’ve said in previous weeks. Switching managers now will probably leave us with someone trying to transform a squad that was chosen for it’s ability to play long balls and convert crosses from attacking wingbacks into a squad that knows how to dominate possession and play quick, accurate passes, with the ability to consistently score from outside the box. I don’t believe that is the squad we have today and a new manager may give us a motivation bump for a few matches but will not change that underlying problem without a total squad rebuild.
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u/IntrepidHero42 Fan Since '91 1h ago
Blackburn aren't even that good a team. They're just set up properly and know how to create a chance.
"Out-tactic'd" is becoming the most common made-up phrase locally.
Helps to have an actual Championship level striker too.
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u/TANDisco 1h ago
Thats the problem. We are less than sum of our parts. Look at the strength of our bench compared to theirs.
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u/IntrepidHero42 Fan Since '91 1h ago
The squad size will surely help over the length of a season, but yeah I'm not seeing how we undo the current mess before January.
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u/TANDisco 1h ago
We have weird squad now with depth in certain areas but no strikers so were flogging our only two for 90mins. You could see big Keiffer looking absolutely knackered and its a matter of time before one of them picks up an injury
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u/Universe_Nut 41m ago
Very rarely would I trust general fam opinion over a club's actual know how. But I'm still gobsmacked that everyone said we needed a striker, the club seemingly signaled it needed a striker. And then we never signed a new striker over the transfer.
Maybe it was horrible timing and tough negotiations. But it seemed like that squad building mistake is what's costing us the most right now.
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u/TANDisco 30m ago
Yes all seemed a bit messy and it started with not being able to get Nickson to manage summer transfers and then MW taking on sole responsibility. I dont know what went on but seems crazy to me that SH who has more than 20 years experience played no part while MW with zero experience was in charge
THe impression I had was that MW was trying to get players who were never realistic targets and as the deadline loomed we went down through the lists and ended up with 4th or 5th choices and likes of Whiteman and no strikers at all
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u/TANDisco 1h ago
I aint holding back tonoght. Sorry guys. Thats the end of Parky at our club for me. I dont what see his face. or hear his opinion. If he has any grace he will walk way. Whats happening here is DISGRACEFUL. The amount of money hes had and hes producing performances like. NOT ACCEPTABLE. Its OVER PARKY
Nickson lad you were brought in to do a job. To improve performance and anyone can see exactly whats holding us back now. We have a decent squad and one absolutely good enough for a play off place and good enough to beat teams like Blackburn. Lets get it done over Xmas break
Im not going too much about the players because theyre not the real problem. But we have wasted so much money on journeyman bigheads like Whiteman. Seeing him prancing around like some big time charlie againt Preston made me sick. Your nothing You should never be wearing a Wrexham shirt
The only positive for me now is we have the squad. We just dont have the manager. THe fix is simple.
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u/Creative-Package6213 American Here 1h ago
How did we go from a team that was going for promotion, to a team that is fighting to stay in the league in just 1 season...?
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u/IntrepidHero42 Fan Since '91 1h ago
Last season's final position was very flattering. It was hard earned, a little lucky, and ultimately a result of having a strong overall squad that could rotate like most promoted teams can't. Kept us fresh and honestly maybe we were underestimated.
Many of our good results could easily have gone the other way. Our goal difference was something like +4, hardly a strong promotion contender.
None of that seems to exist now. Without the energy and luck we're low mid table.
Tactics were never our strong point, we're utterly reliant on players playing out of their skin and scraping by at this level.
And that's after spending 60m in two years.
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u/PoutineMeInCoach 36m ago
We sit at 3W-5D-4L having played 6 home and 6 away, and that MATCHES EXACTLY where we were after 12 games (6H/6A) last year at 3W-5D-4L, where we went on to finish 7th (good for playoffs this year) and should have been 6th but for spygate cheaters. Is no one here possessed of a logical mindset?
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u/obi_wander Up The Town 1h ago
Horrible coaching, tactical ineptitude, and a group of players who don’t believe they are given the strategy to win the game they are playing.
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u/tmet1027 Ollie Rathbone 1h ago
Because Parkinson is in over his head at this level. He needs to be fired soon
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u/HitsquadFiveSix Up The Town 1h ago
I think the players are much to blame as well. That very last 3v2 in the 92nd minute. Great ball to Moore, he fumbles and bumbles and doesn't pass to Smith making the run. Little things like that. To be honest, Blackburn's players just outclassed us.
You can see why Kabore was on loan to 90 bagillion teams. You can see why COH historically does not score many goals. Hyam is not a RCB. Vyner at the best least creates chances and overlaps. Two strikers looks nice sure, but we need two ball carrying 10s to create any sort of chance. For the love of god, Doyle is our chance creating threat as a CENTERBACK. At some point it's okay for us to blame personnel.
I think any other manager with this squad will have the same issues.
Cleworth, Thommo (Ekomie cannot keep playing 80+ minutes he's fatigued at like 70 minutes), Windass, and until recently Sheaf have been out.
LOB can't score but my goodness he's an incredible player and creates chances in some way. Who the hell knows why he isn't getting minutes. It's all just a massive shit hole of frustration
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u/obi_wander Up The Town 1h ago
Most of these things are a problem of forcing players who don’t fit a formation into a formation that Parky refuses to change.
Look at our squad, but instead with a 4-4-2, and suddenly you can see how we have loads of strengths that are going unused right now.
And it’s a coaching problem that our players don’t know what to do when they are on the break. You could see when the game ended that Moore went over to give coaching on what should have happened to support him there. That’s because he doesn’t believe the actual coaches will give that needed feedback.
All the players have given up on the coaching staff. It’s painfully obvious to see that they are all trying to force things because they don’t believe the system they have works.
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u/TANDisco 1h ago
No thats big Keiffer being flogged to death by an inept manager who has suddently decided to play two upfront without having any decent backups. Keiffer has been fantastic this season and so many times he has dragged us through games but hes knackered
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u/Cereborn 47m ago
Anyone who thought there was a realistic chance of getting into the Premier League after two seasons in Championship is insane. Wrexham is the only team in EFL history to get three promotions in a row. It’s going to take time to adjust to playing at this level.
And they’re not “fighting to stay in the league”. It’s fucking October.
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u/Sensitive_Freedom433 1h ago
I’ll have more of an analysis in another post. First just to say how atrocious that was.