I don't think the re-set would be Greaves first option Charon. He likes to get forward and get the ball forward... when he played with Fleming where he was here he was called for getting out of position. This has been 'coached' into Jones and Greaves...
Disappointing result last night. Another example of how all of the fancy football in the world means sod all if you can't put the ball in the back of the net. We've now handed Norwich the initiative and last night's result could prove costly when it comes to making the play offs this season or not. If we don't then I suspect sales of Greaves and Jaden will help both cover any FFP concerns and fund a more realistic promotion push next term. ST makes a good point a few pages back about Brentford taking a few years to get to a place where they could go up and stay up. I'd rather we did that than have 1 PL season like the Blunts are having this year.
You are finally starting to understand how painfully slow our attacking play is and how it hinders us. It’s instructions from the manager, it’s pretty clear how the safe option is always taken, and to be honest players rarely bother to bomb forward and support counter attacks either, opting to stay deeper to keep themselves available for a pass rather than a run into space or behind the defence.
Rosenior is all about ball retention. Greaves has a brilliant cross field ball in him, and a lovely left foot, and a decent dribble for a centre half. He’s told to play it simple. Works for Jones but Greaves has so much more.
Having slept on it, a few reflections: Philogene is obviously an excellent player but he's been nowhere near his best for a few games now. Is the fact that he's not sure whether he's going to be on the left or right at any given point affecting his play? Should he be told 'you're our attacking left winger, go out and do what you do best?' Our shootings gone to pot. Tufan's shot against the post excepted everything else last night was high, wide, scuffed or weak. Why are our midfield players who can hit the ball as sweetly as anyone snatching at their shots? Is it because they feel the responsibility of needing to score because subconsciously they're aware there's no natural goalscorer on the pitch? For three different reasons neither Sharp nor Connolly nor Ohio currently look the answer to who should be playing up front. Obviously we can't sign anyone before the window opens, but is there a Jacob equivalent in the Under 21s who could come in and play a role?
I'm playing devil's advocate a bit here,not through mischief but through interest. Would we rather have a 2 point lead over Norwich,or a tricky away game at Boro tonight?
I believe we have a policy of signing players that are clearly skilled but have frustrated their current clubs, for whatever reason, or players that would be overlooked by other clubs in an attempt to get more for our money. Connolly is a prime example of this: clearly a very skilled player, but has a very well-documented history of attitude problems and getting into trouble. Not many teams would give him a chance, so you get him for much less than you probably would if he behaved himself. Carvalho is another example of a potentially great player, but he needs to learn to play with others. His form was considered patchy at Fulham, where he was often excellent, but wonder goals masked his tendency to disappear a lot, and even then their fans thought he needed to work on his passing. I suspect his move to Liverpool has affected his ego too. Whatever it is, Liverpool clearly don’t fancy him as he is, so he’s here. Philogene will be gone in the summer, so he’s simply a case of getting what we could from the short time he’d be here. Although he still needs to figure a few things out and pass more often. When you run through many of the players we’ve signed since LR came in – especially those in January -– and try to understand the reasons some players are here, the more it kind of explains the frustration that we have a team full of skilled players not quite hitting their potential. I don’t think it’s the fault of LR, but a consequence of the market that we’ve been shopping in.
Interesting view. As suggested last night if City had a more reliable and better focal point to aim the possession game Rosenior demands from his team we’d probably already be arguing about who’s entitled to play off tickets again.
I didn't say anything about slow, and I think a lot of that is just untrue. We get plenty of men forward. We supposedly play two holding midfielders yet Morton is constantly making runs in behind their defence. That really isn't the problem. In those wide attacking areas I mentioned, we tend to have plenty of men out there, just no clear avenue to goal. We look like we don't want to just sling crosses in, which makes sense, but then we struggle to find other ways into the box and often end up attempting a cross as a last resort, which comes to nothing.
I could swear last night we had a 4 onto 3, then Philogene tried to do too much, mis controlled it and the next second they're all back and the attack fizzles out. And how many times were we on the edge of their box, but no one thought about a shot....Ruddy must be 96 by now, he's not getting across to a shot hit at pace, but we don't seem to be able to grasp that....As someone shouted last night: 'we're trying to walk it in, have a shot FFS.'
Philogene will go in the summer but as has been said above he's way way off it and that affects his market value and he needs reminding he's not a one man show. Has his head been turned at just the wooing time by this Spurs bollocks..
Do you know what, I'm sure many of us in our work have at times gone to someone who's been at it ages and said 'is there an easier way to do this, can you see what im not quite getting right and getting the answer back. If I was LR I'd be calling Klopp (he'd have nothing to lose) and say, am I missing something.. I know its a bit far fetched but when youre against the wall anything that helps..
I don't think it's quite as simple as us not shooting enough. We had 17 shots off target, so at times we were clearly shooting too much or too early. The quality of our shooting is as much the problem as our readiness to shoot is.
Jarvis routinely looks our best striker in pre-season games yet he's stuck out in Ireland. I'd bet my mortgage he'd score more than either Ohio or Sharp.
The reasons why there is a certain type, age and pedigree of player we have signed over the last 18 months or so is quite simple. We are looking to pick up young talented players who have been either overlooked or not reaching their full potential in order to develop them with a view to selling them on. Like Sam Lucas, Andy Robertson, Harry Maguire, Jarrod Bowen and Kean Lewis Potter. That is the blueprint the club work too. Because we have has some success in this market we are now looked upon as a club who can be trusted to allow young players to go out on loan to. Its not a bad policy for a club of our size and we have picked up some talented loan signings. If we continue along this route we will always be in with a shout of the Play Off's and it keeps the season interesting. But to win automatic promotion which, to me anyhow, must be the real aim, not just hoping to be in with a shout over two 90 mins games of knock out football in May, we need to be a lot more ruthless and streetwise at this level. We need a bruiser up front who can score goals and if we can find one to play alongside Liam Delap, and hopefully get him signed up ( and fit again) then we will have a team capable of promotion. But I cannot see it being this season.
