It appeared that we played an entirely different eleven in the second half. One that only knew the rudimentary plays of the game of football. I'm not sure Thorup will be with us next season on the showing of the past few games. He seems unable to get players to play to their potential in any consistent manner. And this summer a major effort must be made to sort out defence out.
Long is not good enough as a number 2 & Reyes isn't ready to be used at this level yet , our defence is either terrible because of the personel or the FAATB tactics
It's very difficult to build consistency in play and results without any consistency in the team selection. Far too many injuries this season to really judge whether it is down to him or not
29 points dropped is an alarming stat, and it's a continuation of a trend from last season. What can we put that down to?
In part from fannying about at the back , all the other teams know that we will pass out & there's always a mistake or 5 every game . Not nice to point fingers but Duffy has done it a lot . Poor from set pieces too
Few were willing to accept that was a problem last season. The difference was that we finished the season strong and made the playoffs whereas this time we're sliding down the table. I like JHT and what he wants to do, but I now wonder whether he has the ability to get a 90 minute performance out of good players. Perhaps he's too nice a guy or the players are drifting away from him but this season is finished now - 7 points from 7 games and 1 point from the last two home games says it all. We're in a mess. Here's what McLean said about it all: "Seven months into the season, same old story. We're still finding it hard to get answers. That's the worst this season. You can see that at the end of the game, it was a deserved reaction from the fans. We can't be satisfied playing football for 45 minutes every week. It's not enough. It's actually a shambles how many points we've dropped from winning positions. It's something we need to change and something we need to fix. It's totally down to us. We encourage and invite teams. When they get a goal, they know that we're vulnerable. They see we're vulnerable, and we do very little about it. We're a nice team. When it clicks, it's really good. When things go against us, it's shocking. That's where we're at. There's no in-between. We need to be better in tough moments." Well said, Kenny.
Perhaps the potential and consistency will come with experience as most of the intake have been young hence the need for a transition period which to me meant 2 or 3 seasons and not 6 months. I am not happy with recent events but to suggest yet another change of Head Coach is completely over the top. As far as the defence is concerned Hanley has already gone, Doyle will not be here next season and Duffy will just be a backup for his final year so a lot of change will be inevitable.
In the modern game when you have one striker up top against 3 defenders and their midfield pressing man to man on our midfield surely there is no alternative to 'fannying about at the back' between the GK and defenders who are only being pressed by one striker. It is no good going forward until one of our midfielders finds space. Whether we need to improve on 'fannying about at the back' is another matter but to be fair to Duffy it is not something he has been used to playing throughout his career.
If you look at Wednesday's strengths as listed by Who Scored, their ability to come back from a losing position is adjudged "Very strong". Since Who Scored also adjudge us to be "Very weak" when it comes to defending a lead, last night should not have come as a surprise. Thorup was spot on in his pre-match assessment of Wednesday, when he said they employ chaos as a strategy; they are the Championship equivalent of Pulis's Stoke, booting the ball to within throwing or crossing distance of the opposition penalty area, winning a corner or throw in and feeding off second, third and fourth balls -- all three goals were classic examples. The fact that they are "Very Strong" at coming back in a game, suggests we are far from being the only ones to find it difficult to cope with. We are not "in a mess"; unlike last season, just at the point when it looked as if the rash of injuries etc. was behind us and Thorup finally had a chance to consistently put out his first choice side, that hope has been dashed, with further injuries to Nunez, McLean and Gunn, not to mention Dobbin and Mahovo, who had just begun to prove their worth. McLean, Nunez, Sainz and Sargent have played together just four times; how often have those four plus Duffy and Gunn played together? Having that more experienced spine as a constant presence would have made the integration of others much easier.
We have been very weak all season at defending a lead so we should now accept it as part of our new impressive playing style which is so superior to the mess we were in last season when we were unfortunate enough to finish in the playoffs. McLean has very clearly identified what's going wrong and that the fans have every right to be told what the coaching staff are going to do about it. So what is it?
When the going gets tough, the tough get going (missing in the case of our squad) Still think we have a fundamental deficiency in the mental side of the game and complete lack of physicality. Those goals would never had been scored with a Tertey / Safri / Fleming / Mackay in the team. We've spent money on poor replacements compounding poor replacements, none of the players want to stick a boot in and take a yellow, they get scared back-off and flap around like a pigeon clipped by a car. As for a RW, we have one on the bench, named Hernandez, unless of course we're finally admitting he's pony? (4 seasons too late). Do we even have a defensive coach? If not when was the previous time one was present at Colney? Give the state of our defensive abilities over the last decade at set-pieces, against us on the counter I can only imagine Hughton last employed one.
JHT's response last night seems strange, as if what is happening has nothing to do with him and the other coaching staff: "There is also something in our game - why do we allow them into our final third? Why do we allow that we have to defend set pieces and crosses? Is that a mentality thing? Maybe. But it can also be a positional or tactical thing or something else. If we have to stay on the road where we think it's mentality, I think it's the understanding of what it takes to win and being aware that we will have moments where we cannot be on top. There will be moments where we have to put on the fight that is needed. We were on top in the first half, so why should the mentality shift from the first half to the second half? I'm tired of those goals we concede where it comes from the second, third and fourth situations in the box where we just need to get rid of it. Is that a mentality thing? Is it a big heart thing? I would say it's a football thing." Aren't 'football things' what coaching is all about?
I would suggest that he is talking about the split second decisions that footballers make in the moment, panicked attempts at clearances for example. Whilst the coaching staff can set up positionally and tactically and give instructions on how to play, the split second decisions made by players are down to mentality to stay calm under pressure or their football intelligence to make the right choice in the moment i.e. when to play out from the back or when to clear the ball. JHT may have highlighted to the team against Oxford not to give away any silly throws or corners, believing that would be a weapon for Oxford, he can't then mitigate for Cordoba taking a heavy touch under little pressure to give away a throw in in a dangerous position.
I fully agree. I read it as him saying that we give then coaching on what to do and then, on the spur of the moment, players switch off leading to errors. I come back to the points that there are many young inexperienced players in the squad who will be more prone to errors - hopefully they will learn from their mistakes - and the lack of a settled team due to injuries and suspensions. Reyes has not done much wrong but do our defenders feel as confident with an inexperienced youngster behind them as they do with Gunn? The coaching staff would have told them to carry on pressing forward in the second half but getting them to do it is a different matter.
I thought about that when we conceded their second goal. We've seen it happen too many times this season.
