I watched last night thinking to myself, somewhere in the mix of Kone, Burrell, Smyth, Saito and Smyth there is a very effective and dangerous attacking set up, but we haven't worked it out yet. Kone seems to get dragged deep, receive the ball and not have enough support, and Burrell was running all night yesterday, but didn't have a hope of reaching most of what he was running after. I wonder if Kone and Burrell together, with Kone dropping back, picking up the ball with the options of playing Burrell in, or going himself...could work? Or Burrell/Kone playing off Frey...but a lone striker doesn't seem to work, and they just get overrun by the defence.
We need Saito in the middle turning and running at them not lost on the left. We need Chair on the left if anywhere. It is pointless having Smyth on the pitch if you do not allow him to stay out wide. He is more trouble to a defence than Jimmy going forwards For Smyth to stay out wide we need both Kone and Burrell to start together Dembele wide with Kone on the pitch caused far more problems Smyth could have done the same We started playing better this season when we had 2 up front and stopped playing about on goal kicks. Why start with short goal kicks again? Answer no target man Time to drop Madsen for a game and give Morgan a central start Madsen and Varane made 1 forward pass between them all night and we scored from it! Morgan zips it around when playing well This time last year he was great If players get injured playing every week we have a much stronger squad as cover so take the risk with our best positive team and let them team settle Playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order
My take home from last night. Chair cannot take corners or free kicks. Near post ..he hits the first man. Back post it is so looping anyone can get it. Free kicks he hits the wall or row z. We were doing better when he was injured and Madsen or Dembele were doing it. We should be mixing it up. Why do we make the Chair the centre of everything
Just watched the highlights. In addition to previous comments, Dembele went for glory when he had better options, having so skillfully beaten his man. Also, very good save from their keeper from the looping header at the death. We definitely deserved a point and on another night, we might have achieved it. There is a quality team somewhere in this squad. Did anyone else notice that Smyth's crossing has improved?
Much as if it were up to me every free kick would be hoofed towards the back post in the hope of something dropping, up against three centre-halves and a goalkeeper who leaves his line it made sense to try something different with the team out there. Dunne won every first header for months it seemed but teams have wised up to it and apart from Madders, who is 6’4” on paper only, there wasn’t a lot to aim at. The execution was appalling though. Proper Sunday league appalling.
“We should be mixing it up.” This for me. Then of course we would be tinkering. So never gonna please everyone. Of course players also need to be smart to do this effectively. Randomness isn’t simple. For me, settle on your back four and stick to it. The more they play together the better they get. Everything else is up for grabs depending on how we want to play or the opposition we’re playing. We have the squad. Keeper is a big concern for me. Strong last season, shot this. Shame, I thought he was going to get better this season. Onwards, let’s get back on track lads.
Manning had Dunne in his pocket all night. Don't know how but he did. Smyth is a nasty little character ( butt I love him) really niggly. Lucky not to be sent off but he gives absolutely everything . In reply SoDB...Chair did the same corner kick every single time...except the two times he hit the first man.
Manning has perfected the art of leaning into the player jumping rather than competing for a header just enough to make sure nobody wins it without giving away a free kick. He’s a good full-back for this league. Will never be a Prem player but a cut above what we have. I’m Smyth’s biggest fan but he wasn’t getting much out of him. Would’ve liked to have switched the wingers for a bit after he was so good on the left against Millwall.
Haven’t seen a second of either last nights game or the one on Saturday. Just punching the air that some mug (or more likely two separate mugs) bought my seat for both games on the club resale site. You have to cherish small positives when your team looks to be into yet another doom spiral of ****.
Someone on fb agrees with me. Going to put it out there. The major change in the past few weeks is the return of Chair. We've gone from a serious counter attacking team to a possession based side. It doesn't work for us. Why are we forcing a system based on one player? Why is he even playing when others have done so well? We know he can be quality, but if our system doesn't suit him, don't play him as much.
He’s only started the last two and I’d argue was our best player on the counter on Saturday. At Derby, appalling as we were, we were better once he was on. Feel the issue on Saturday was more with Vale. Helps to have a proper wide player if Chair is on the left. We’re probably marginally better off playing 4-4-2 and I feel he can be that guy on the left. None of the other wide players are really playing in a way you’d say they need to be starting and Poku is dead again.
Chair is at his best when cutting in from the left to shoot right footed. Their second goal was one of his type. But except for the last 5 minutes (when he had 2 blocked shots) he wasn’t in that position and he doesn’t influence the game nearly as much when he plays centrally.
Chair is no 10. Plays better wide as N22 says......though even there he basically has the 1 move that i'm amazed every team in Britain hasn't figured out yet. He's still too greedy with the ball when attacking dangerous positions and why on earth he's just been automatically slotted into taking all of our dead-ball kicks is beyond me. Madsen is a better dead-ball specialist and had proven it in the weeks prior to Chairs return. And as for the goal-kicks.....its beyond fecking preposterous how we keep putting pressure on ourselves (basically shi**ing ourselves) time after time. This bollox has to stop. Surely?
