The question is who do we have who can put a decent ball into the box? Wilson and Wiggins can, but they've got their hands full defending. Building up from the back is fine, but because we're so slow by the time we get to the box it's packed with defenders. The long-ball tactic won't work either because our forwards are too lightweight. Any suggestions?
go 5-3-2, tell wiggins and wilson not to worry too much about the defending. jacko in the middle with poyet and cousins. then two out of flops, i mean four for up front
I agree. We have a competent defender in Wood and incompetent strikers. Play to your strengths. Not sure we would score any more goals but it might strengthen the midfield and thus better screen the defence. A lot of 0-0s and 1-1s with the odd 1-0 should be enough to see us safe. Of course if we borrow a conpetent RB, LM and CF it would be different. What odds on that happening this week?
I think this is the way forward. It also gives an added threat from set peices, which is the only area I can vaguely see us scoring at present.
Not that many more, but at least we were a threat from free kicks around the box (Kermorgant) and speculative 25 yard efforts (Stephens)
Stephens' volley Vs Donny still goal of the season for me. I wonder what happened to Tudgay? Another unused striker on Roland's wage bill, along with Pete? And with Reza on a 4-year contract it looks like Roland's attempts to balance the books are a bit confused. With Jose only here until the end of the season, maybe Roland will bring in a manager who will play Pete and Reza up front. TBH it doesn't seem to matter which 2 of our strikers we play, none of them are going to score anyway. So the 3-5-2 idea looks like the best suggestion, with 3 big central defenders up for the set-pieces. Are we all agreed, then, and will we send Jose an e-mail with these instructions?
Do we all get to be in the dugout if he takes our advise? If so, which one of is doing the tunnel jump if the tactics work?
At the beginning of the season I said the 3 P's would be the young guns to watch- Pigott, Pope and Poyet. We all know about Poyet, Pope is making a name for himself at York, and now that Pigott has recovered from Millwall, he is going to come back and make me look a right smartarse.
With the strikers at our disposal, we should have a better return. I've said it all season and still stand by the fact it's the minimal amount of creativity in the midfield. If we are to play with JC and DP in the middle, then we need to impact players on the wings to get the ball forward quickly. When I watch us play, I never see where our chances are going to come from.
It's so stagnant. Teams come at us with pace, but we just don't seem capable of doing it back. The difference between carving a team open, and being carved open.
Yes "Q" the magic word for "Quality, which we have very little of, especially in the area "Super" has just highlighted... Minimal amount of creativity in midfield, and along with our strikers, both DP & JC, for all their attributes, have no goals in them, and are both defensive minded. as opposed to players like Parker & Jenson, for example...
Billy, do you happen to know Pope's "goals conceded per game" average at York? Everytime I remember to look he seems to have achieved a shut-out, but they are not rising in the table so I suppose the little sneak has been letting some in behind my back.
I am sure this will divide the room, but does anyone else feel that Poyet and Cousins are too similar to play in the same midfield together, particularly in a 442? Both excellent players who have stood out this season and great prospects, but both like to break up the play and keep possesion with sideways passes. I think both have it in their locker to be more creative but we need them to be a bit braver and do it now, a big ask of players so young but that is the situation we are in. I remember on Saturday an occasion where Poyet took on three players and hit an outside of the boot pass over the centre backs head to leaving Obika (sadly offside) through on goal which I thought was excellent.
Eddie- That's his 4th successive shut-out, I think he's conceded 1 in 7. He's said recently that he hopes he doesn't get called back before the end of the season, and I would expect that next season he hopes to be our no.1, and I hope he is too. He's a terrific shouter and organiser, and I wasn't surprised to read that he didn't have a shot to deal with all last game, it was the same when he was playing for the U-21's. I didn't realise for some time that his constant bellowing at his defense was a major factor. Thurrock- They played together in the U-21's for a few games quite successfully. They had Bradley Jordan in front of them, and the front 3 out of Smith, Harriott, Pigott and Azeez, hardly had to worry about defending, and scored plenty of goals. Smith and Harriott were all over the place, Fox would attack down the left and either Smith or Jordan down the right. When Nathan Jones was the coach it was a case of watch and learn.
