the manager of Hartlepool United, claims that the midweek lineup change was an effort to match form. Gateshead fc
After Alex Lacey, who was filling in at right-back, hobbled off an hour into Saturday’s stalemate with Eastleigh, Phillips was rather forced to make a decision.
Therefore, the move to a back five gave youthful full-back Kwaku Oduroh the opportunity to line up in a slightly more forward-thinking role that should have, at the very least, reduced his defensive exposure.
To strengthen Pools’ defence, Manny Onariase was brought in to partner with Luke Waterfall and Tom Parkes in the centre of the defence. Meanwhile, Terrell Agyemang was moved into a central midfield role to give the visitors more engine room to challenge the Heed’s rhythmic trio.
Joe Grey took on a slightly more advanced role, essentially functioning as a second striker, as he moved from the right to taunt and harass the home team’s possession-based defence, trying to take advantage of their high line.
And for the first ten or so minutes, the plan appeared to be working as Pools took the lead when Grey scored his tenth goal of the season from a tight angle.
Sadly, that was the beginning of the end for Phillips and the more than 1,300 fans who travelled.
Pools sat deeper and deeper, allowing the Heed defenders to step out with the ball while midfielders Ed Francis, Callum Whelan and Kieron Evans could dictate play at will.
The defense looked like a side unused to the shape as the normally reliable and secure Parkes and Waterfall were dragged from pillar to post while wing-backs Oduroh and David Ferguson appeared to be neither coming nor going, offering nothing in attack but being too high up the pitch to keep track of Gateshead’s marauding runners.
The gaps in-between the three central-defenders and the wing-backs meant Heed’s midfielders could count on being able to pick out their own flying full-backs in acres of space at almost any given time and a lot of Pools’ problems came from the flanks.
When the visitors weren’t being exploited from out wide, they were sitting so deep that Francis was able to loft the ball into the box without their being much danger that any of his intended targets would be caught offside, while Pools were simply unable to come to terms with outstanding teenager Dajaune Brown.
Although Phillips is unlikely to stick with the lineup he had established for his team on Tuesday, the Pools manager clarified that he made the change in an effort to contain the hosts.
“Our goal was to pair them off,” he stated.
After that, it’s up to the players to see whether they can outperform you.
For the first five or ten minutes, we appeared that way, but we were unable to keep up with their fluid movement and style of play.
“A lot of our deficiencies were exposed.”
