Ballard

silverlion

Well-known member
Staff member
I am sure there were many on here who were surprised that he did not feature in last night’s game. Barrett offered an insight into his non appearance on NAD.


Barrett doesn’t say what the problem was with him but says he was at the game to watch. Clearly he didn’t have Covid or he wouldn’t have been able to be amongst others. Maybe he was injured but Barrett is coy about that but hopes he will be good to face Derby.
Is there a chance that GR rested him in order to play 4 at the back? If he really wanted to persist in playing 3 CB’s plus two wing backs he could have played Pearce at CB.

If we revert to five at the back on Saturday then does Ballard get a recall? Maybe it depends on how well Derby play tonight, what sort of system they play and whether they win or not.

On a secondary tack I was not convinced that we reverted to five at the back last night after the break. Molly was playing almost the entire half on the half way line or even further up the field to give us an extra attacking option. You could hardly describe him as a LWB. After we scored he came deeper and he was certainly one of a back five when Danny came on at the death.
 
On a secondary tack I was not convinced that we reverted to five at the back last night after the break. Molly was playing almost the entire half on the half way line or even further up the field to give us an extra attacking option. You could hardly describe him as a LWB. After we scored he came deeper and he was certainly one of a back five when Danny came on at the death.
I think we played 3-5-1-1 in the 2nd half with Malone and Jed anchored on their respective flanks. This nullified the 2 Reading wingbacks who had all the time in the World in the 1st half to stretch us and enabled their midfield to overrun the wandering Jed, Kief, Billy and Saville. Reading couldn’t handle Bennett playing between the 5 and Afobe, arguably our best 45 minutes for some time 👍.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we start with that formation and personnel on Saturday.