Thread by @ploehmann

#swfc I can see from @DomHowson's player ratings that him and eye did not see the game the same way at all, so I should probably have a longer think and calm down a bit, but writing relieves stress, so here goes:

Created our own downfall once again. 1/37

What on earth have we been doing on the training pitch for three weeks for these players to look MORE like strangers to each other than they did before the international break? 2/37

We're so, so easy to defend against if you shut down the wings as there are no central runs from midfield.

Notice how the penalty came about from Shodipo staying inside making a darting run in behind. 3/37

Shrewsbury were like the opponent in Mortal Kombat dangling with a big yellow "FINISH HIM!" splashed on top of them in those first 20 minutes. How on earth the game finished with them chasing a winner is hard to comprehend. 4/37

Credit to Shrewsbury and Cotterill, though, they actually managed to do what we couldn't: Adapt to what was happening. 5/37

They kept two men up top, which, along with playing a much more active pressing game 2nd half, especially in wide areas, kept control of the game away from us.

The game was played the way Shrewsbury wanted to and they had the better chances. 6/37

We managed 0 shots on target and only two shots from inside the box in the entirety of that second half. Much hay was made pre-match about our team starting slowly. 7/37

That's not actually been the issue IMHO: We flew out of the traps at home against Fleetwood too and did the same here. But we're so, so fragile and at the first hint of adversity - a missed penalty when we were still well on top - was enough to knock us off our stride. 8/37

This starting line-up had 2,800 career appearances between them, 1,800 of which at Championship level or higher. To not be able to adapt to the run of a game with that level of experience is hard to fathom. 9/37

We're relying on opponents not having enough quality to put us away and that won't work going forwards: The only team we've played, who are now in the top half of the table, is Plymouth. 10/37

So we can't expect to keep getting away with it once opposition gets better and sharper than an admirably scrapping Shrewsbury were today.

It's NOT that the space isn't there, we just don't create it, because the tempo of our play is so slow. 11/37

By that I don't mind "get it in t'mixer!". No, we started with the long, aimless punts more than once as frustration set in second half.

I mean instead that there's no more than one player running at the same time in attack. 12/37

For all the explanations of "it will take time to come together" shouldn't there be an at least somewhat linear progression in how coherent we look going forward game on game? 13/37

There was no suggestion these players had had another week's work on the training pitch together. Numerous points and checked runs instead gave the impression they really didn't know what they were supposed to do. 14/37

It's hard to out do your opponent with your quality on the ball if you don't use it.

I would've taken Bannan, not Adeniran, off. Bannan killed the tempo of the game almost every time he got on the ball; you could see runs being stopped. 15/37

It was like watching a black hole sucking creativity out of the game at times and so, so frustrating, when you know he can be so much better than that. 16/37

We saw that first half, where he played on the first touch a lot more instead of touching it a lot of times and doing twirls that got him nowhere. 17/37

Shrewsbury adapted and shut us down by stretching their defence horizontally, so when our wingers got the ball (at last) they started from a standstill, close to one often two opponents and with little to no space in behind those opponents. 18/37

Shodipo had torn them a new one in the first 30 constantly getting isolated with his direct opponent and beating him. 19/37

There was no attempt to move the ball in between the lines, nor runs on the outside in behind from the wingers trying to create that space in front of their defence that they sucked out like a vacuum by collapsing their midfield on top of their defence. 20/37

And there were rarely attempts to switch play quickly from one side to the other, trying to move that settled block of Shrewsbury's that had defenders which, individually, had looked all at sea earlier on in the game. 21/37

I don't expect miracles. Bedding in this squad of players will take time; months probably. But I do expect to see quiet, incremental progression if not from game to game then over a couple of games. 22/37

But are we looking better drilled defensively now than at Rotherham (Iorfa looking particularly iffy in duels and with his positioning)? 23/37

And are our attacking play more coherent, better paced and more dangerous than in previous games (remember, 0 shots on target, 2 shots from inside the box, in that second half)? I don't see it.

That's the worry for me, that the progression isn't really there. 24/37

Charitably you could say we created what we needed to win the game early on. We did and we should. 25/37

But it looked all the while like another petulant teenagers strop from that penalty miss forwards, players investing so much energy and effort in complaining to the referee, barring their frustrations and letting Shrewsbury inside our heads rent free, when our superior… 26/37

…experience, quality - and with 22 odd thousand there desperate to cheer on a keen attacking team - should've settled the matter.

Perhaps that was the issue: The players expected it would be easier, after that frantic openeing period, and took the foot of the gas? 27/37

We're yet to prove we have the mental steel to manage life in League One and to take control of games against opponents at 110% scrapping for results.

We've had three games now, where opponents have, for parts of the game, stood high on us and pressed in numbers. 28/37

Why do we look like it comes as a surprise to us when teams do that and why do we not look like we have a response to it? 29/37

Again, the combined football nous in that line-up is probably the highest of any starting line-up in history of League One, yet we got constricted and constrained without putting up much of a fight 30/37

Ipswich, up next away at Portman Road, arguably have the best collection of players in the division, and got their first win today. We can hope turmoil still reigns there in a week's time, but it looks a much, much harder fixture than our last three. 31/37

Sorry for going on and on. 32/37

It's just so damn frustrating to see obviously good footballers play so within themselves, and so frustrating when we look like going backwards rather than forwards in creating a team out of that excellent level of quality recruited in the summer. 33/37

I really hope it's (another) lone swallow, like Plymouth was, and that we show a convincing performance at Ipswich (which, IMHO and I know most will probably disagree, is more important at this point than the win). 34/37

There's every chance that we CAN and I can stop with my hot-headed hand-wringing in way too many tweets just after the full time whistle. 35/37

35 tweets later, a positive at l(e)ast :-D Shodipo looked like he had a great nose for when to make runs centrally (as well as his obvious qualities cutting inside) and Bannan showed he was on the same wavelength more than once. 36/37

Those two combining won us the penalty and it should've given us the goal to go 2-1 up that was (from what I can see) was wrongly ruled out for offside.

Apologies again for the anger, frustration and lack of brevity! "hun is okay", honestly :-D 37/37

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#swfc Addendum:

Number of shots from minute 51 to minute 91:

Wednesday 0
Shrewsbury 4

As many touches inside the box for us (4) in those 40 minutes as in the first 10 minutes of the game.