What a shower of ****e that was, got off to a good start, but then inexplicably didn’t turn up in the second half at all. Seri, Pelkas & Tufan were all a waste of a shirt today, not the only ones though, Jones, Greaves, Longman & Christie were just not at it today. Without reading this thread or any reviews of the game, was Elder injured? After all the **** that Shota & McCann did with playing Coyle at LB, I can’t believe Dawson thought that was a good idea. Greaves is a player who likes to run with the ball, actually has a decent pass on him, I’d have put him to replace Elder. After the Wigan & Luton games, I thought we were starting to look like a team again, even in the first half, we looked the better side, but that second half we looked abysmal again. Come January, whoever the manager is, needs to have a word with Acun & tell him that they need to have a say in players who come in & go out. Send Pelkas back to where he came from, offer Seri to the Middle East team that was interested in him in the summer. Sort the defence out by bringing in a recognised centre back who can be Captain material, get a defensive midfielder in who’s Captain material & can stop the opposition, whether that’s a Championship player or not, they need to be able to do the job, not some random player from Turkey, or a big name that Acun’s seen on football manager. Acun & Kesler need to get the patience they say they didn’t have, because if they don’t learn anything from this, we are going down with a VERY expensive squad & then he’ll get bored & try flogging the club, which no one will touch with the money needed.
Longman isn't a bad player, he is just back from a longish layoff and lacks confidence at present, as most of the team seems to be,
A lot saying most of the players are not fit. So do they spend too much time in Cross Keys, or summat? They looked fit enough on Wednesday. One of the problems is that we have no leaders, or bottle. Too many who don't have championship experience or know the league and go missing when times get tough. How you solve those problems will require a lot of surgery or alternatively someone who is able to see the problems and have quick solutions. Who that is I've no clue.
Vale got injured but Shota was hesitant to throw him in and as he proved when he did, he's maybe not quite ready. Simons has been training with us for nearly 6 weeks now yet 2 managers haven't put him in the squad. Surely 5 weeks of training is plenty of chances to impress
Wood's turnover of clubs in a short period was a sort of a clue, but City turned a blind eye and got a dud.
Xavier Simons only 1st team experience has been in the EFL trophy games for Chelsea, he hasn't been loaned out before. I don't see him being thrown info the 1st team anytime soon if even Docherty can't get a start.
After some time to digest… The biggest problem for me was that Oscar was the only one they had to worry about. If you are going to play wingers, they need to have pace and be attack-minded. Christie and Longman weren’t right for this. Second half, we kept Longman on for far too long. Whether you’re a fan or not (not, in my case), you simply can’t keep a player on for that long when they are having a mare. We also brought Woods, Docherty and Seri on together. Erm…do they not play in pretty much the same position? We needed goals at that moment and more of a threat going forward. Bad substitutions/tactics IMO. On the plus side,
Posted earlier that we were pretty much beyond redemption. On second thoughts if Longman had put his chance away we'd have seen a different 2nd half imo. Going behind to an unfortunate own goal after starting quite brightly then the Longman miss must have really damaged their confidence and self-belief, which was pretty fragile to start with. Not an easy thing to restore for an inexperienced manager in the half-time interval.
I agree. I had no problem with Daws starting him today, as he did ok when came on Wednesday and Sinik looked shattered to me after 60 mins. He did lack confidence on the one on one however. Credit to Daws for backing him in his post match interview - much better psychology than the abuse on here.
Some on here don’t think we have a system but it’s the same every week. Ball out to Greaves/Jones, then a square ball to the full backs on the touch line. Two options now- full back turns and passes it back to centre half or a hopeful boot up the touch line. The midfield, who all seem to be of slight build in comparison to the opposition, don’t have much pace and tend to do a few passes between them with a 50% chance ball will go backwards. Our wide players don’t have much pace either and the reluctance to cross the ball into the area is understandable as usually there’s only Oscar in there, the midfield are reluctant to bust a gut to get forwards into position. Free kicks in opposition half tend to be played square and back. We then try little passes, normally out wide with the intention of god knows what. We like to help the opposition when our keeper has it by allowing them all to get back and set up before proceeding to follow instructions as per line 2 above. Also, when 2-0 down get everybody back in the area to defend and when doing so, grab hold of every opposition player in the box and then clear it to one of theirs as we amble out of defence. The balance of the team is all wrong, the way we play doesn’t suit in this league and it’s all thoroughly depressing.
What worries me is that the back four, which was an upper mid table defence last season, is more or less the same personnel as it was last season, with the same goalkeepers and Regan Slater in front of them. Last season was pretty solid, this season the exact same players are conceding left right and centre. Not a single one of them look confident, perhaps being harsh on Elder but he doesn't look like setting the world alight. Figs and McLoughlin (if not injured) to start the next one for me, something has to give and taking Jones and Greaves out of the firing line is the right thing to do right now.
