Five talking points – Crawley (H)

Last night was a poor performance from the Saddlers in a game where three points was not too difficult to get.

Crawley posed little trouble, but Walsall did not raise their game to overcome them, which is bitterly disappointing.

Here are five talking points after the 1-1 draw.

Walsall in a goal rut

Quite simply, Walsall had enough chances to win the game last night. The miss that summed up the night was when Rollin Menayese barely got enough on the ball from a couple of years out.

The last few weeks have seen Walsall create less and less, and there is a concern about were goals are coming from.

When teams struggle to score from open play, then set-pieces become even more important, but even here there is a lack of cutting edge or even threat.

Walsall have only scored six in 10 games in all competitions, which is a truly damming statistic. In the first half, there was a clear plan of trying to play balls in behind the defence for the attacking players to run on to.

However as the game went on, they stopped trying this, and resorted to long and hopeless passes forward. The chances that were created came mainly from this tactic, so why stop?

Sloppy goals

Moments after finally breaking through, Jack Earing gave the ball away too easily in the middle of the park. The team were then slow to react, resulting in a goal for Crawley.

This sort of weak goal has been happening more and more often by a side that were quite resolute.

Matt Taylor has spoken previously about how every goal is avoidable, however the ones scored in the previous few games are glaringly obvious.

Something needs to change. Walsall cannot see out halves, or games. Crawley weren’t offering a lot going forward, and if they went into the break at 1-0, then Walsall may have been able to regroup, and push on more in the second half.

Lack of tempo

Walsall notably have dropped the tempo in matches.

They seem to go through extreme phases where the tempo drops significantly, which is when they struggle to create, dominate, or stay in matches.

These phases are becoming a regular occurrence, especially after seeing what the side is capable of in some of their victories this season.

Against Crawley, tempo is what was needed, especially against an ageing and slow defence, however, it was not there.

There is a clear message being given to the team, and Taylor constantly says that they aren’t doing what is asked of them enough, so this ends like the first point. Why?

Poor passing

One thing that was poor to see last night was the amount of misplaced and under hit passes.

Walsall did not ever get a hold of the midfield, and the passing was part of this. Scuffed, mis-kicked and more, saw possession never quite staying with the Saddlers.

The fact is, the midfield should have been dominated by the Saddlers, who achieved a 71% pass success rate. Crawley only had 57%, which shows the simplicity of the task at hand.

Khan deserves to start

Otis Khan provided some spark to the team, however by the time he came on, it was too late given the fact that Crawley had begun defending in numbers, and not giving away much space.

He can move the ball well, and always wants to play the ball forward, something not always shared with his team mates.

He has proven his worth in the team, and has been more consistent than other attacking players, however Taylor now has to figure out the best way of including him into the team, as he could play a huge part in improving the attack fortunes.