In the cold light of day, we were beaten by the better side on the night. They remind me a bit of TWS under Bielsa, the question is can they keep up that sort of tempo for the whole season, unless they have a deep squad, that will be difficult to do. After the first 20 minutes, I thought we had ridden the storm out and started to get a good foothold in the game, but conceding again just before half-time punctured the expectation of a comeback. However, if Connolly had managed to score just after half-time, when Delap set him up, then maybe we might have seen a revival, but sadly it wasn't to be. Few players had any positive impact on the game, Philogene & Delap looked our most likely player to fashion something, Sinik looked good when he came on, bar his near penalty incident, but the midfield is where we were overrun and gave little protection to the back 4. We certainly missed Slater, and we can see by his absence why he is an important part of the team. Also, Tufan is proving to be a big miss, and it's a pity he also seems to be injury prone. Christie looks as if his legs have gone, when running back he looks as if he is wading through treacle. Coyle looked awkward at LB, and both FB position, we looked vulnerable. A game to quickly put behind us, and it will be the measure of the squad and Liam's ability to get them firing again Saturday. We are picking up injuries again, and we will see how the whole squad is up to the task.
I was pretty impressed with Sinik when he came on. He clearly isn’t here just fill a seat on the bench, he looked decent and linked up play well. He gave us the thing we missed with Slater’s absence, albeit late in the game when Ipswich had lit the cigars.
Delap on the wing! Coyle LB! Philogene, Connolly, Delap, Traore effectively a 4 'up top' with Morton & Seri a lot of the time for some reason pressing high. Morton & Seri don't have the pace to get back quickly, coupled with next to no tracking back from the 'up top' 4. It might look adventurous on paper, but it was never going to work, especially against a side like Ipswich. Stupidity. Led to acres of space for them to play through and to break in midfield and out wide. Rosenior got it so badly wrong and got bum ****ed. I haven't listened to the interview yet, but from the excerpts on here it doesn't sound like he's taken responsibility. Rosenior's attempt to coach the sort of football so many teams are now trying to play is slow, predictable, restrictive, too negative in the way we keep looking backwards & sideways. Couple that with his inability to improve our attacking play. He really isn't anything special. Ipswich gave him and us a lesson.
This is an important post. Some people do that for sure. And then those who agree with the style and everything Rosenior does, defend all parts of it. This is where the arguments are starting. I, on the other hand (and I know lots of others too) are taking a constructive/balanced approach and saying the style does work - but there are elements we are getting very wrong; putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure at the back, pedestrian build-up (would be fine if we were winning) and a serious lack of bravery from our midfielders/forwards. You don’t have to be working in the game to see this. I know Rosenior says it’s a process. He absolutely deserves time and we should judge him at the end of the season rather than argue whether he is the right man for the job. But some of us shouldn’t be so sensitive when a suggestion/criticism is made. We will all get some things right and wrong now and again. I honestly believed we would pass Ipswich off the park. Fair play to them and I wish them well (I wouldn’t want to meet them in the playoffs so they can win every game from now on, for me). On to the next game now. UTT.
Just to add - I saw a proper promotion candidate last night, they were absolutely superb. That is I’m sure where Rosenior aspires us to be - not there yet though. Thankfully we don’t come up against teams that good with that much confidence most weeks.
Our forwards in fact all our players were outmuscled almost all the time , Philogene ankle tapped constantly, Delap was surrounded . Only Macca when he’s on has the build to resist which he does . I like the process but they knew what to do and did it . Some of our players went walkabout at times , Seri in particular
So after going to the trouble of reading the last 10 pages this morning and catching up with where I left off last night. In Summary Some surprising results in the super fan league table last night, the runaway leader so far didn't even check the score during the game but is in little danger of dropping a place as his lead is still massive. There seems to be quite a battle hotting up in the playoff places, it could go down to the wire and be determined on how far from Hull they actually live. The usual gesticulating of I will see you at the next away game if you ever get there, followed up with a I will buy you a beer on the concourse. There was a surprise appearance from a previous front runner who had earlier thrown in the towel, but he took a bit of flak and said he was going to drop out of the competition again. One supporter who lives overseas did actually go to the game and had a good time despite the result which will surely move him up the table quite a few places. There may have been more but I only skimmed through it all quickly as I have better things to do with my time.
I struggle with Seri. Technically he's great, but other than passing it sideways, I don't know what he currently brings. In the first half when LR made some changes, he found himself in and around their 18 yard box, and on a couple of occasions, in acres of space, yet he wouldn't take a shot (unlike during his first couple of games under Shota). We need that to 1) take some of the pressure off the forwards and 2) give the oppo something else to think about (they'd start closing him down more, giving others more space). His lob to Connolly is the type of thing we need to see more of. I suspect as the season goes on we'll see more of Slater and Morton as a midfield pairing, allowing Tufan, Traore or Connolly to sit in front of them.
Agree completely. Possession football and building up from the back is fine. In fact, it’s better than fine imo as I enjoy that style of football. Brighton, Man City and Arsenal are really enjoyable to watch. Ipswich are a possession team that are also high-pressing and they were enjoyable to watch. If Ofsted were grading the way we do it, they’d say ‘Requires Improvement’. We are too slow in playing the ball and too often we play the ball to feet instead of into open space. The problem there is if the ball is played into feet constantly, it means the receiver has to take a touch or several touches to set himself to make the next pass. We also have a tendency to make passes to players who have their back to the opposition. I don’t know about anyone else but when I was playing football, even our coaches taught us to open our body on an angle to receive the ball and to pass the ball in the space ahead of the player, not directly to his feet. It’s not just Rosenior though. Russell Martin had his critics at Swansea for his possession without purpose football and has his critics at Southampton now. Ipswich played a lot like Brighton last night. They pressed high, invited us to press them and nearly every pass they made had purpose to get up the field and stretch us. They play a similar style of football to us but better in every department.
Maybe partly because our strikers were a) out on the wing and the b) the other is 5 foot 4 (or whatever) and was marshalled by two 6 foot + defenders who were quicker than him .... just a thought, maybe we are a striker light...
Didn't see the game last night but a few people saying Sinik could have given a penalty up. Could be mistaken but wasn't that a feature of his game when we first got him? Not necessarily giving pens up but diving into tackles a bit too energetically? A bit like Allahyar does at times.
Doesn't look good... https://www.skysports.com/watch/vid...6215/ipswich-3-0-hull-championship-highlights
It was an absolutely perfectly executed tackle, although it was a recovery from a sloppy pass straight to their striker to have an easy 1 on 1 with the keeper. Other than that, he brought a lot of energy and some good touches, runs and passes. It was a very promising cameo from him and shows it was wrong for people to have written him off.
