Had forgotten we even had a game. So more questions than answers it seems. Our ‘reserve’ team has several borderline first team players in it ba a Arsenal teens, went 2-0 up with 20 mins to…and then contrived to snatch another draw from the jaws of victory before caving on the pens. if cook makes his system work; it’s fun. But he literally has no other plan for taking on teams and adjusting to achieve a result.
I listened to 1st half and we played well it seems against a bunch of premier league hopefuls. Especially Edwards, KVY, Woolfy. And the Pig gets a good trot too. Then I hear and read that as so often we failed to press home, foot off the pedal, silly sloppy goals and we had no plan B. No strong sub comes on and we lose on pens. The EFL is not the most important comp but its another defeat. Cook was heard to yell out, "jeer the players!" Great man management! On we go.
Make no mistake, that team out was close to a good 1st 11, except the goalie. Experienced, and the amount of league appearances compared to the Arsenal youth unbelievable. Dropping a 2 goal lead is becoming a familiar pattern. And we can drop the 3 wins in a week ridiculous narrative! A good FA Cup run needs to restore our confidence, belief and morale.
Time to put Kayden Jackson back in the fold after Bonne and Chaplin. Can’t do any worse than the hapless Pig.
Bad result last night. Another two goal lead thrown away, albeit from the second-string side. In more positive news, John McGreal is back with the club in a coaching capacity. Unfortunately, it's with the U23s and youth team players. Surely someone of his experience and ability has no business being in that capacity? Get him in the senior team and teaching this lot how to defend!
Excellent idea Nuggets! One obvious very weak area in our coaching staff, and someone who knows the club inside out. I have always said that us lot on here know how to manage the team, some aspects are blindingly obvious!
Watched the replay last night, a game that we should have won easily. On paper that team should have been too much for Arsenal U21s but Cook is not helping the players on the fringe of the first team to perform properly by making so many changes. He says that the cup games are a chance for others to shine and give him a selection problem but doesn't take into consideration that with so many changes it will lead to a disjointed performance from all. We were good in the first half. Piggott was looking like a decent front man, won almost all of his aerial battles from long balls forward and his flick ons actually found a team mate. KVY and Penney were good going forward and Idris played with passion and was one of the only players to put the Arsenal lads under pressure. The first half was played at an U23s pace that suited Arsenal and we really needed to put them under huge pressure but failed to do it enough. Second half you could see that a lot of the players were running out of steam, not enough of them have had 90 minutes matches lately and it showed as we sat off a bit more and let Arsenal get their passing game together. Woolfenden and Burgess were ok at the back, Harper was poor and Carroll was equally good and bad with some decent passes and some crap ones. Jackson did well with his goals, Edwards did nothing of real note. I'm going to point the finger of blame directly at Cook for the loss. After the first Arsenal goal he didn't make an immediate change which I feel he should've done to get fresh legs on the pitch. After the second goal he should've made several changes and brought some first team players on but he waited on that too. He put a team out made up mostly of players that don't have many 90 minute games in the bank and we tired late on. These are all things that the manager is in control of but he made poor decisions at bad times. I feel sorry for the lads last night as it is difficult to perform in a team that you barely play with and now Cook has a reason not to play them as he thinks they should've done better. That's poor management in my opinion. If you want somebody to shine you bring them into an established team that can help out, not put them all together and hope for the best.
At the Oldham cup game I was in the family stand behind the dugout and I heard him yell: ‘we’ll come on, do something!’ whilst it’s heartening to know he expected more, it’s slso what my 8 year old daughter was saying and that was her first ever match. I dunno. Ive no knowledge of what managers actually can say in a game to affect performance but I’m sure there’s something more useful than that.
Did he say jeer or cheer? I'd like to think he said cheer because that would make more sense. Maybe somebody just wants something else to moan about and heard it wrong.
Really the difference in the match yesterday was one team play 90 minutes together every week and the other was a collection of decent players who don't. Age and experience was beaten by familiarity and fitness.
Who cares? It’s a tin pot trophy. They shouldn’t field seniors against a youth side at any level. There shouldn’t be the expectation that it’s in any way competitive and I’m sure that’s why our players got complacent.
I've never really ever heard a team who makes so many changes for a cup competition to play well even if there is a high quality of player in the team. I always generally think its unfair to judge players on those performances
I agree,the competition is a joke,it’s why I’ve shown little/no interest and certainly never attend the games.
