Performances early season were far better when we were using more of last seasons players. We don't look like a good team now, just a collection of players. Reminds me of England.
I’ll push back slightly on this. Today we started six players who played for us last season. In the draws against Brighton and Fulham, we played five from last season and in the draw against Villa - only four players from last season started. So if anything, that suggests we play better with more of the new signings. I agree with the comment about looking less like a team this season. A large overhaul of starting played will do that in any league. The Premier League is unique in that it’s a very unforgiving league. The financial divide has gone too far in my opinion. Promoted teams - especially ones that don’t yo-yo - have a massive gap to make up. We’re playing a much higher class of opposition this year, it was always going to a challenge. If I was Kieran, I’d contemplate playing three at the back. Tighten us up and add an extra layer of protection to mitigate against mistakes being punished. It does mean we miss out on attacking player, but I think a stronger defence would benefit us.
Player for player, you were promoted with a team of players that were nowhere near the best in the Championship, however, as a team they were the best, you exceeded expectations as a team. It’s fine at any level below the PL, and I think your coach was stuck between a rock and a hard place, he had to bring in better players and rather than concentrate on improving defence, midfield or attack he decided to spread the funds on 11 players The PL has become a cesspit, and with the new CL format and the money it attracts the divide will get worse. I wanted you to win today, once Everton go down they’re down for a long time.
I know it s not the same, but looking back at posts February 2023, it all looks quite similar! Keep the faith chaps
There was some lovely football today. Harry Clarke made a huge difference in the absence of Axel. Not sure Johnson will ever pull on the blue shirt again. I think we finished with nine from last season. If we drop powderpuff Jack Clarke, hopeless O’Shea and cut out all the schoolboy errors at the back we’ll be fine.
Just got home from what was a very disappointing game. Burns looks out of his depth although when I saw the team sheet, though we were playing 3 centre backs with burns and Davis as wing backs which might be more solid? Team looked much more balanced when Clarke came on and omari moved to the right. For me, it will only be out of pure stubbornness from Kmc if we don’t start omari on the right, Clarke on the left with either szmodics or Chaplin as the 10 (former for me). Keep the faith and we go again
My Town XI for next week: Walton H Clarke Woolfy Burgess Davis Morsy Taylor Burns Hutchinson Szmodics Delap
I doubt we'd be good enough for survival but we've lost so much of what we were good at the past couple of seasons, we just looked disjointed and not played to our players strengths, really lack cohesion all over the park, no real partnerships forming. I'm with SD think we've looked better in matches this season generally with the players from last season. Generally our best work has come from last seasons combinations except for Delap who has a lot of raw talent but Hirsts positional play is so much better and we look for more effective with combinations with our players from last season on the pitch. Positionally players from last season are miles ahead of those we've brought in, the newer ones are faster and stronger and probably look better when you look at stats. But I certainly would've liked to have seen more faith given to our old players gradually introducing the new ones over a period of time. To be fair it's a real challenge and we all said it, part of me would just prefer to see is fail with last seasons players sticking to the principles we had last season rather than failing looking disjointed with new ones. Muric has made some outstanding saves this season, some real worldies but he's also made some awful ones with his feet and you can just see the uncertainty in defence when the defender have the ball. The partnerships just aren't there like they have been over the past 2 and a half years. Think we chucked too many new ones in too soon.
Still trying to process my disappointment about the last two performances.The main concern is that we seem to be going backwards rather than forwards.An unsettled side with enforced changes hasn't helped but I can't help feeling we've tried to integrate too many new faces too quickly and as a result the fighting team spirit that served us so well over the last two Seasons has been lost. KMc is certainly going to earn his corn in turning this around.
How much of the emphasis on the new signings is due to McKenna possibly trying to appease the owners? I mean, if they invested £100+ million on our summer signings, they would expect those signings to start/get prominent playing time to justify the money spent. Not saying I agree with it (as the results are showing that it isn't working out), but perhaps McK (or even Ashton) is feeling some pressure to give those new players every opportunity to show they are worth what we paid for them.
One aspect of concern is that , due to injuries, we have fielded a different defense in every game. There is now a strong case for putting out Hampy's team as at least they have played with each other for 2 years, know the patterns and partnerships, with the added experience and proven goal scoring ability of Delap & Szmodics.
An equally good, familiar team for Brentford would be: Walton H. Clarke Woolfenden Burgess Davis Morsy Taylor/Cajuste Hutchinson Szmodics Broadhead Delap We need to conjure a win from somewhere.
I'm all for giving Chaplin a chance he's come on the last few games and picked up some really good positions. You can just see he understands where others are and I think his relationship with Davis has just highlighted to me what we're missing with so many new players coming in
I think the difference between winning and losing so far has been first touch. Opposition players invariably have a great first touch, it sets them away rapidly, it’s deadly in the box and it’s the difference between a defensive howler and a counter attack. Even Hutchinson, one of our better footballers, takes the ball down a little bit sloppily and then has to do more work to be able to pass it. It gives the opposition every opportunity to win back possession. Other than that and our problems at right back over the last two games, I don’t think we’ve got too much else wrong.
