Well that was pretty horrible. The manager has to look at himself tonight. Dropping flawless Burgess was a bit daft, likewise rinsing every minute out of Delap.
Just got home from the match and that has to be the worst Town performance I've seen in three seasons, misdirected, overhit, and underhit passes, scrappy error strewn football with very few crosses coming in from either side so no service to the front players equals no goal threat. Burns continues to look out of his depth at this level but nobody really impressed with only Eze looking Prem quality on the pitch. So two poor looking sides with Palace gifted their goal to win the match otherwise it had 0 0 nailed on. The subdued stadium told the story as Town supporters now realise the huge task needed to survive in this division, a complete contrast to the usual cauldron of noise we've been used to over the past two seasons, sobering worrying times.
A poor, error-strewn performance and result. We didn’t really lay a glove on them. I didn’t think we were too bad defensively, but thought Burgess can feel hard done by being dropped. Harry Clarke isn’t up to it at this level - rabbit in headlights and passed backwards too often. The issue for us was breaking down a well-drilled, fit Palace side that shifted from three centre-backs to a flat five when off the ball. We had no answers. Midfield couldn’t move ball forwards in a commanding fashion. We were so scrappy and looked like we lacked confidence when attacking. Jack Clarke and Wes Burns absolutely marginalised and ineffective out wide. Hutchinson doubled up at number 10. Delap out of puff by 60 minutes. And then same issue as previous weeks, substitutes can’t change a game at this level. Broadhead had some good touches and moments, but in harmless midfield positions. Chaplin anonymous. Al-Hamadi surprised me with some good runs - but again, they couldn’t change the game. Struggling to see us surviving now, on the back of that display. Just a flat performance with an evident lack of quality on show. Fair play Palace, well drilled tonight and pressed us everywhere. Their fans were great too. Big game on Sunday.
Failed to beat West Ham, Everton, Southampton, Leicester, Palace. McKenna can’t keep banging the stick to our principals drum. Especially not when Muric keeps kicking long and holding onto the ball when there’s a chance to break. We need to throw caution to the wind. Get battered occasionally and go for it. The thrilling football has been replaced with turgidity.
Just got home and a very frustrating night. Too many sideways / backward passes - best was when we had a throw almost on the corner flag, thrown backwards and then passed backwards and then once more to find Muric. I thought H Clarke did ok tonight - by no means the worst player. Burns has been brilliant for us for the last 2 seasons but unfortunately, this is a step too far as he is way out of his depth as (for the moment) is J Clarke. 3 behind Delap for the next game for me is: Hutchinson (right) szmodics (no 10 which is why I thought we bought in but hasn’t played there yet) and Broadhead. (left). Still think Kmc is struggling to find what his best CM duo is - whisper it quietly but could Morsy be dropped? Overrun in that area tonight
Agree with all that's been said above.A very disappointing,powder-puff performance with very little positive. Can KMc lift the boys for another important game on Sunday?
Disappointing and naive performance tonight. We've been best under McKenna when he keeps a settled lineup and only making 1 or 2 tactical changes a match. I thought both Chaplin and Burgess were unlucky to be dropped tonight. Greaves looked a little shakey and for me needs to work on his positioning, has a tendancy to over commit. I was really impressed by O'Shea though, whilst I'm a huge fan of Woolfenden, O'Shea has the things he lacks, pace, strength and aggression. And unlike Greaves positionally he doesn't over commit. I'm going to give some credit to H Clarke as whilst I do not think he's good enough for this level, I was expecting him to have a torrid time tonight and in general he didn't make any huge mistakes given the level of opposition. Burns is clearly lacking confidence, not showing the same aggression in his play that has been such a strength of his, however I did notice as has been the case many times this season he has made some superb runs in behind and never been played in. A number of occasions tonight the ball was on in behind the fullback and Omari just held onto the ball. I think Hutchinson can play in several positions across the front line but he looked more dangerous when he went wide right tonight. And we're not quite getting the balance right in those positions. Palace held quite a high line tonight and both Clarke and Hutchinson were guilty of holding onto the ball and running into trouble too many times, we needed to stretch the game and for all of Delaps strengths a bit like Greaves he needs to improve his positioning, for me he doesn't show enough movement particularly to get in behind...Hirst does not have the same level of skill but his positional play creates space for others. I felt Al Hamidi actually showed more than Delap did which started to make space and push the defence back. Think we need to really consider the balance in those forward positions. As we don't have Hirst maybe tonight would've been a good idea to have Szmodics in the 10 role to get beyond Delap or Chaplin to play Burns in behind the full back. We didn't stretch the team enough and Clarke, Hutchinson and sometimes Delap guilty of just dribbling into trouble. I'm still not 100% convinced Delaps best position is as a central striker. If we had more options I do wonder how effective he'd be in one of the 3 positions behind the main striker. Clarke showed some brilliant moments of skill and then lost the ball. I thought Broadhead came on and showed some nice touches and looked confident...maybe pushing for a start on the left with that given no one has really made it their own this season. Not their best games tonight but thought Morsy, Cajuste and Davis were consistent and solid enough. Would be disappointed to see McKenna bring Phillips back in at the moment. Interesting that Taylor came on instead of him and I thought he stepped in and did well. Still not convinced by Muric, distribution isn't great and when he has to make a decision rather than rely on instinct he's all over the place. It was a tight game with fine margins, despite not being on top form we still couldve got something out of the game, the difference was a slip and an individual piece of skill whilst Clarke had 1 cleared off the line, Delap should have done alot better from Davis cross and Greaves header onto the post. If we're going to stay up we're going to need to start taking those types of chances sooner rather than later.
Just watched the replay and I'm not going to dress it up, that was ****. Honestly, we looked like San Marino (minnow mentality) and played like the bloody away side. First half there was no tempo and no urgency, it looked like we were playing for 0-0 from kick off. I'm absolutely done with Muric in goal. Henderson showed us how a keeper should play. Came for crosses that were more than six yards out, released the ball early and passed to his team mates. Muric on the other hand was wasting time from the first minute, NEVER gets the ball out quickly, kicks long enough to reach the other keeper and has contributed to no attack I can think of, unlike the amount of attacks that were started by Vaz and Walton in previous seasons. Muric doesn't come to claim any high balls, rushes out when he should stay put and stays put when he should claim. He's added nothing to the team except some really good, reactional saves. I thought it was a mistake to drop Burgess in a must win game and disrupt a back line that has generally been doing ok. Jack Clarke was mostly useless, one moment in the first half he was driving forward, had three players split across the line in front of him to pass to and just ran into a defender and did nothing. Omari has to play on the right, Burns looks shot of confidence and is just not putting the effort in. The whole team looked short of confidence to be honest. O'Shea is a good defender though. Harry Clarke wasn't terrible and adds some attacking threat but man, he turned back toward goal and put us under pressure more times than I'd like to see. Morsy and Cajuste did ok in the middle. At least Morsy can receive and protect the ball, unlike many of the team who just lose it under pressure. Delap does some great things but he sure frustrates me with the number of cheap fouls he gives away. He should be playing to help release the attacking pressure but instead contributes to gifting possession back too often. He's also too deep at times and not running beyond the defenders, which is not helping create space for the three behind him. There were some forward passes played into the space that he should be in but he wasn't there to receive. It was a quiet stadium, the fans didn't see anything positive in that game and you could hear the moans increasing in the second half when we had the ball in the final third multiple times and then within a couple of passes, it was back with Muric. We had no idea how to break Palace down and the crowd were getting restless. We looked disjointed, passes weren't on point and quick counters were few and far between, mostly because Muric holds onto the ball long enough for the other team to get back in shape. Overall, very disappointed. Last thing......Hutch must play right!
Excellent summary SD, wen you emigrate from Maga land, the reporter's job at the EADT is yours! Ptc and you have nailed all the issues that resulted in a very disappointing home loss.
All in all a poor night for Town. Whatever the injuries, the one thing is to keep playing with a consistant line-up, with maybe 1 or 2 changes max. If MA has Vaz tel no, pse give him a call today!
I think there’s an element of us being found out a little a bit. Nottingham Forest and Palace are coached by pragmatic managers and their defences were never consistently threatened by our attacking patterns. My fear with this side is that - as an opposition manager - if you manage to nullify our service to Delap (and let him tire himself out for the first hour) and then double up players on Hutchinson - there is no other attacking player in our squad that shows they can consistently be an attacking threat. As a team, we are asking far too much from Delap and Hutchinson - two 21-year-olds in their first Premier League season - to do things. The rest of the attacking players absolutely have to step up and do better. I take SD's point about Muric's distribution and delaying tactics. Whether that's from coaching instructions or his natural inclination, it needs to be addressed. What keeps him in the team for me is his impressive saves - we'd have conceded even more goals without him. I don't feel like he's the long-term answer for us though. We've been unlucky with injuries. Tuanzebe gives us better solidity at the back and plays good forward passes. Harry Clarke does neither at this level. Hopefully Ben Johnson is back for Bournemouth. It might be the need for rotation and keeping players fresh, but hopefully Burgess hasn't been dropped permanently and can come back into the side against Bournemouth. Royston mentioned it earlier, but against Bournemouth I'd start Broadhead on the left, Szmodics in the number 10, and Hutchinson on the right. We've given enough chances to Jack Clarke, Conor Chaplin, and Wes Burns in their favoured positions and they're not bringing enough against Premier League defences. Give Broadhead a go and play Szmodics in his favoured position, considering he has more goals than the rest of our attacking players combined (Delap aside). The Premier League was always going to be a massive step up for a team playing third division football two years ago. We've been unlucky in that every other team in the league has played several recent Premier League seasons (even if they're not consecutively) and so have had multiple transfer windows to evolve their squads. If we're still in touching distance of survival by January - and we want to fight to stay in the division - we need to be active once again to improve our chances of staying up. That's if the finances stretch that far. We probably need another right-back, someone to compete for a start in central midfield (send Phillips back to Man City), a starting right winger (unless Johnson impresses there), and a centre-forward.
Maybe found out but it is fine margins, if a couple of our chances would've gone in against Forest and last night and we'd have won those games 1-0 they would have felt their teams didn't perform well. This is a tough league and whilst we weren't great last night in comparison to the levels we've performed the last few seasons I think before McKenna came in I'd have considered that an okay performance from us. We've played like that before in League 1 and last season but it's just that added quality particularly in forward positions, there aren't many strikers in the Champ who would finish like that last night. I agree we are asking and expecting alot of Delap and Hutchinson but we are also not getting the best out of the front 4 positions, the balance doesn't look quite right. Hutchinson and Delap are great dribblers of the ball and like to run at players rather than beyond which in certain situations is great but it can also mean we are slower at releasing the ball than we used to be and also like you say Nuggets Delap drops deep and is not as good as Hirst at making space for those behind him. On the ball he's far superior to Hirst off it he's got a long way to go if we're going to play how we have been the past 2 seasons. We looked better when Al Hamidi came on simply because he made better runs. I think McKenna highlighted this when we played Brentford and both Hirst and Chaplin had superb games really showing how to play those roles in this team. I think you are also being a little harsh on Chaplin in 3 of the 4 games he's started he's been one of our better players and for me he's general play on the ball this season has been higher than any other albeit he didn't do a lot when he came on yesterday. Burns confidence looks shot atm but there have been plenty of times he's made great runs and because Chaplin isn't in the 10 he's not been found. Full backs are quicker but I still feel he's got enough to get in behind them, unfortunately his strength generally hasn't been getting past players with skill...that's where Hutchinson comes in. The balance isn't quite right in those positions and I don't think it's helped by continuous chopping and changing, all 3 positions were different from Forest. With Hirst injured we haven't really got an option of not playing Delap, so we either need to just recognise how he plays and get players like Burns and Szmodics to run beyond him or try to improve his positional play. And if we play Burns make sure we make the most of his runs. Left hand side is less obvious for me, Broadhead looked good and knows the position but has played very little football. For me at the moment based on form I'd probably say Chaplin should be 10 and Hutchinson on the right....the downside to that is whilst Burns wasn't great last night from an attacking sense he was having to cover the whole of that right hand side at times because of Clarkes tendancy to wander towards his own goal and don't think Hutchinson could do that.
Agree with you about January...we need another striker and unless Phillips form improves send him back and buy a midfielder with a possible loan RB
I don’t think there’s a good result for us to be had here but a draw is mathematically advantageous because our rivals only share 2 points instead of 3. There are some other sides playing each other so inevitably if we fail to win either of the next two we will be adrift in the relegation zone no matter what. I loved what McKenna said in his post match interview. What happens with other teams doesn’t matter to us too much at this stage of the season - we focus on our own performances. We do need to get some wins on the board to prevent the vibes and atmosphere getting more tense but nobody is going to calling for the manager’s head like they are at West Ham. Although they have a few more points, Everton and West Ham are psychologically in a much weaker position than Town to build over the season.
Agree with most of what you’re saying there ptc. While the last two results have been disappointing, it’s not like we’ve been outplayed and thrashed. If we’re able to beat Bournemouth and build on that away at Wolves, we’ll build momentum. I just feel like teams are recently catching on that if their forward players press us in our half, but keep three centre-backs behind the ball (as Palace did last night), they can keep this current team at arms length. Personally, I don’t like to compare this season to how we’ve played the last two seasons. Mainly due to quality, depth, and belief. Last season, we had players who were predominantly proven in the Championship. We could maintain an intensity over 90 minutes by bringing on three attacking players who looked comfortable at Championship level. That created this sustained belief we’d outscore the opposition. Player confidence was high. In the Premier League, we haven’t been able to do that. Early defeats and poor performances left us playing catch up. An influx of players - which was needed - meant a bit of transition was required. But the main factor is that McKenna doesn’t have Premier League quality options on the bench able to make an impact and sustain momentum. The players that come on are currently a level or two below the starting eleven. The belief that we’ll outscore the opposition has gone. Agree I’m being a bit harsh on Chaplin - he played well when starting against Brentford and Leicester. My issue with him is that while he’s a tireless runner, he’s struggling against physical defenders in the Prem. He’s not been the same in front of goal. He probably should’ve had two or three goals this season from good chances in the box, but he hasn’t had the same space in the lower divisions and hits his strikes too close to the keeper. He’s not been bad, but I’d rather see Szmodics played in his actual position. There has been a lot of chopping and changing. Some of it has not been necessary, such as Greaves - who didn’t play badly last night, but was at fault for the goal - in for the in-form Burgess. But most of the recent changes have been forced through injury. Our best game and performance was against Spurs - particularly the first half. We morphed into a strong back three of Tuanzebe, O’Shea, and Burgess with Johnson as a right wing back who’d track back. Davis getting up and down the channel. Morsy and Cajuste in middle. Essentially two attacking number 10s in Hutchinson and Szmodics, playing off each other well, behind a fitter Delap. That’s our best team. But with both first choice right-sided players out, there’s a notable downgrade with Harry Clarke and Wes Burns playing there. That throws the balance of the team off straight away.
You have highlighted what most believe to be our best team, minus Tuanzebe. The one that beat Spurs of course. Obvious aint it!
Well I'm going to keep comparing to last season and maybe dispute some of your claims . Agree in regards to the press however there was room in behind the defence yesterday and we didn't make the most of it. Burns made several runs/give and goes but no one put him in. It struck me yesterday was probably a game for Hirst if fit because of that reason and it was noticeable the more space started opening up with Al Hamidi on the pitch because he liked to get in behind also. Then also our distribution, Burgesses distribution hasn't been perfect this season but he has a great connection with Davis...that pass against Man United, we saw less of that directness yesterday. Ontop of Muric's relatively poor and slow distribution (the plus is it never looked dangerous in our own play) but Hladkys ability on the ball and even Waltons quick releases we've gone backwards in that aspect of our play. And then albeit a minor thing but Woolfenden was superb at inviting the press which could've been to our advantage yesterday given how CP pressed us, O'Shea is stronger than him in many aspects but that isn't one (although he's not particularly bad either). Agree Greaves didn't have a bad game but he looked understandably shakey and showed some of the characteristics which have worried me since day 1 about him in that he tends to overcommit. I believe him and O'Shea will probably go on to be our first choice CBs (like many of the new players coming in) but I also think McKenna has chopped and changed things too much and chucked too many new players in at once and for example yesterday given the enforced change of playing Clarke at RB I don't think you needed to take Burgess out of the side given the form he's been in. Going back to last season again, particularly at the start we didn't have the luxury at all of bringing on players to maintain intensity. Remember we only signed Moore, Al Hamidi and Sarmiento in January. The first few months we had Ladapo who clearly isn't Championship standard, Dane Scarlett who we sent back and Hutchinson who didn't really show his acumen until further into the season. We also had a really challenging month or so in december/January with lots of injuries. We also had very few players who'd proven themselves at Championship level, most had spent majoriry of their career in League 1 or lower......what a remarkable season. Under McKennas reign we have been brilliant but one thing which we always seem to he short of is a striker!! I honestly think Chaplin has upped his game this season but agree with you he definitely should have a couple of goals to his name, some his fault some not but actually he was lethal in our League 1 campaign but last season and this I don't feel he's quite as on it finishing wise but other aspects of his game have improved including finding pockets of space. He's an intelligent player and probably one of those which I'm not concerned about his physicality.
