I also hoped Nunez got another start at 10, Gaffer. Akpom has put himself about well and has been clever drawing fouls, but Nunez’s quality of attacking passes is superior to any other player in our squad, in my opinion. As for the other two midfielders - Matusiwa is having himself a good game getting around everywhere. Cajuste, on the other hand, looking a bit rusty and has been caught out a couple of times.
Damn! Arguably should’ve been 2-1 Town with a Kipre header from a deep free kick that flicks off the post. Should do better from there in my opinion.
1-1 at half time. Only one shot on target for each team, but has been a bit of a lively first half with some encouraging moments. We gave away a sloppy goal with a litany of poor errors, but aside from that we have looked fairly solid and kept Watford at bay. Issues are mostly around our decision making and execution in the final third. After giving Cajuste some criticism, he came alive for the last ten minutes of the half and was the driving force of the team. Philogene and Egeli had some good moments out wide - including Philogene’s well taken goal. But we are missing Davis with regards to stretching the field and making space for our attacking players. Aside from that, not much threat from us as I was hoping. Second half to come where hopefully we can put this game to bed and get all three points.
66 minutes in and this second half has been flat. An early Akpom shot that was well saved led to a weird state of detente between the sides - other than a weird tiff between Matusiwa and Philogene. Azon, Jack Clarke, and Jack Taylor on for Hirst, Philogene, and Cajuste around the 60 minute mark. And in the following six minutes, we looked a lot more incisive and dangerous.
Azon missed an absolute sitter. Brilliant cross from Egeli, but Azon misses a free header about six yards out in middle of the pitch. The two Jacks - Taylor and Clarke - have been linking up well. But we are yet again afflicted with modern day’s football frustrating knack of trying to craft an easy tap in from a team move rather than just taking a flippin’ shot! Nunez on for Akpom, Greaves for Johnson. Limping towards an underwhelming home draw at this rate.
Ugh! Clarke and Greaves down the left with great bit of one-two pass and move. Greaves tees up Jack Taylor for a chance in the area but he blazes over.
Just not our night. Clarke great ball in, Azon strong header, but great save from their keeper. From the corner, ball pings out to Nunez running in the box but miscues a volley way wide from close range.
1-1 full time. A game we deserved to win. A game we were the better side. A game where we didn’t really play that badly. But a game that will be characterised by some absolutely woeful finishing, tepid and slow build up play, and a side that felt like it was going through the motions. McKenna’s energetic, unpredictable, never-know-when-they’re-beaten promotion-winning system - carried by a buoyant Portman Road - went through a gruelling transition season in the Premier League. It feels that the lesson McKenna took from it is that we need to be more solid defensively and more confident on the ball. What we’ve actually got is a team that now wants to control the ball, control the game, control the space, and control the emotions. At its best - we can play teams off the park. At its worst - it can lead to complacent, slow, bloodless football. We are that kind of team that tries to work the perfect team move to score a simple tap in. The Guardiola style of “if there isn’t a clear forward pass, just play it backwards and recycle the ball”. A style that is admirable to watch when done correctly, but frustrating to witness when you don’t win games.
Plenty of good chances to win the game and we looked less disjointed than I've seen recently but pretty poor performance overall. We've got too many players who unless they do something spectacular dont impact on the game. Too many players who hold on to the ball for too long and dribble into trouble. Not enough movement off the ball and not getting the ball to do the work. What's happened to our once touch passing and movement? Cajuste looks a passenger, has some real magic moments but doesnt dictate play enough and for all his silky play it rarely results in anything. Philogene is similar but he's had those moments of quality which result in an end product. Clarke I thought came on and continued that frustrating type of play, he ran into trouble and was sloppy on the ball. The positives, apart from the goal we looked fairly solid. I thought Matusiwa was outstanding tonight and we really need to find a solid partner alongside him, I'm not sure that player is in this squad. I thought Egeli is really growing into the team and looks strong down that right hand side. Still need to find the right balance of the team. Hirst works so hard and does a job for the team but we're also not playing to his strengths, hes best running off the ball making space for others but we lack the players who pick up those pockets of space and are too slow to pass the ball, we only try to find him as a last option or with him now coming deeper trying to pick the ball up with his back to goal, he can hold the ball up but sometimes his touch let's him down. I thought Johnson did a solid job but we miss the runs of Davis and made defending against Philogene and Clarke easy because they would just run inside and lose the ball. I like the look of Azon and he missed 1 real sitter but his movement is superb and he's been so unlucky today this season, not sure what more he has to do to score.
In terms of performance, I've yet to see a real fluid attacking performance since last time we were in the Champ. We've seen moments of high quality but not consistently good passing and control of a game. At the back we have less quality on the ball than last time we were in the Champ. And in midfield we lack a player who wants to control the tempo of the game. I get what you mean about passing at the back but disagree in the final third, where we really haven't got our passing game going. Our approach appears to be to either dribble with the ball cut inside and get a shot off or just chuck a cross in because we're out of options. We put a lot of crosses in the box but usually against a defence who are well set up.
I think that’s being a little harsh against our wins over Norwich City and Sheffield United. Granted, they’ve been poor this season. I think we’ve controlled most of the games we’ve played this season, to be honest - in terms of possession and creating more chances. I don’t think a lack of control is our failing. It’s the errors at the back, but as you say it’s a lack of incisiveness and unpredictability in the attacking third. I don’t think there’s much difference defensive-wise between the two Championship seasons so far. We’ve conceded 15 goals in 13 games this season. At this stage in our promotion season, we’d conceded 12 in 13. We opened up more as the season went on, but we had the confidence to outscore opponents and ride the wave. When we went a goal down in 2023/24, we cheered on the team almost knowing we’d score anyway. This season, the crowd and the team seem more subdued. I think the expectations are naturally higher and that’s having an impact, but I’m unsure if the players are all able to rise to the challenge properly. We’re fortunate that the other parachute Championship teams are struggling - most notably Southampton and Sheffield United. This could be quite a wide open Championship where there isn’t necessarily two or three runaway leading teams like recent years. Nunez at 10 feels like it’d solve some of the attacking third issues. We’ve just got to hope things click and we become a bit more consistent. Beat Swansea away at the weekend, and go into the international break with three wins out of the last four and hopefully a bit of confidence can get injected in this side.
I think a lot of teams have allowed us to "control" the game. I say control the game as in mainly the CBs pass it amongst themselves, I've not really seen the midfield or attack control the game. We lack players who do that, Watford has that player today in Louza they just didn't have anyone around him. We didn't control games last time we were in the championship but we would stay in games and take control at the right moments. This team is more like McKenna's league 1 team before Hirst, Luongo and Broadhead came in.
