I think some people forget how big a step up 23s to first team football is. Speak to any player and they'll tell you it's worlds apart. Bring 8 guys in with either little experience or no recent match practice and they're unlikely to hit the ground running. Are Bournemouths reserves better players than millwalls first team? Etc. It's not easy for the ones with regular first team football to be playing with guys off the pace either. It's easier for a guy to show they're up to it, if they get a run in an otherwise unchanged team, than it is getting rolled out in a bunch of misfits. Not excusing a dire first half performance, but it's no surprise to me we struggled... shows good squad spirit/discipline to turn it around.
Some good points Milkyboy, but last year Van Gaal tried it with Scumchester at Cambridge with a team worth over 75M + and only scraped a draw, this Cambridge side is rated a lot better than last seasons team and we came away with a good win in view of the changes that Monk made, first half Berry was in the mix of a lot of there attacks and build up play, we need a skipper who can spot this and put a player on him to stop the engine room of a team, Cooper has not got that trait as a player let alone as a capt. Monk sorted this at the break and Grimes and Mowatt picked him up, hence they were lost. There is an old saying "you can only piss with the cock you've got" we are a small squad and Monk is doing a magnificent job with the players he has, and Friday shall test him to his limits, he has to out think that ex tosser of an England manager, but i would play Ayling at side of Bartlet, Berardi at left back and Coyle at right back, O'Kane and Bridcutt in front of the centre backs and strangle Derby's midfield, then perm Dallas, Roofe and Sacko with Wood up front, its going to be a tough test on Friday, lets see how far we have come...........MOT
That's exactly how I feel about Mowatt. Plus he's 21 - keep him for 2 more years he'll still be a youngster ffs. And we know if we sell him he'll do a Tom Lees and excel for somebody else.
Here it comes Ristac, both barrels, blunderbusses as well...... To me the ground looked a bit spongy, or maybe the grass was longer than we're use too, didn't look like a good pitch. Hardly a brilliant game to write home about, first half was shocking and Cambridge were on top of us. Second half was a bit better, passing seemed to improve a bit, not much but it improved. Close to end of first half it was showing we had no shots on target. Good goal by Dallas, well placed header to put us in front, did Mowatt nick Janssens goal, looked like it at first, but the replay showed the defender on line may have, and I say may have got to it in time; that one is arguable. How Coopers header didn't go in is beyond me, he put enough power behind it to bust the net open. I don't think anyone played brilliantly, or were outstanding standing head and shoulders above the others; like I previously mentioned, it wasn't brilliant football or game to watch, but we did come out on top. I think this game was a get out of jail free card for Monk, the great escape. After Cambridge scored you could see the worry on Monk's face throughout the first half, then changed to a sigh of relief when Dallas popped one in, then sheer relief when Mowatt scored. I agree with most, Duke was way off his game for some unknown reason, I don't think it's a reason to call for his head though; if we got rid of every player that's had a bad game we wouldn't have a team left. Phillips, I'm not so sure he's ready for big time yet, or he's not a big time player, he's got a lot to learn and his passing needs improving. Antonsson, didn't play a bad game, was busy but didn't get no service in first half, and not much in second either. Another player some don't rate, but when Monk only brings him on for 5 minutes he ain't getting much game time, or time to make an impact. He had a couple of good shots at goal, and one that hit crossbar would've been a goal had it been a couple of inches lower, keeper was beaten. One of the things I like about Antonsson is, he goes looking for the ball and tries to create his own shots and goals. Some will disagree, but I see a lot of Antenucci in Antonsson. Silvestri didn't have a bad game from what I saw. He wasn't run off his feet throughout the game and pulled off a few good saves to stop Cambridge scoring, and Cambridge were certainly giving us a run for our money for about 2 thirds of game. A lot of talk seems to be about the parry he made, some say he parried it back into a danger area etc, to be honest it's the only talk I've read about regarding his performance during the whole game. One of the nightmare shots for a keeper to save is the shot that dips and hits the ground a couple of yards in front of keeper, more often than not the ball skids off the ground and picks up speed. Looking at the highlights, you'll see the ball dips and skids off the ground, I'd say Silvestri did very well to parry the shot away. Could Cambridge have scored from it, yes, but they didn't, could our defence have cleared it, yes, and they did. Could Silvestri have done better with Cambridges goal, possibly. He did everything right to narrow the angle, as it happened the ball went in off the post. Green also parry's, if he had been in goal I think some would be saying he did well to parry it away. All up, I think Monk may have thought it was going to be a cakewalk, didn't turn out that way, hardly ever does when you play lower league teams in cup competitions. I still stand by what I previously said, if Monk is taking cup games seriously, then we need to field stronger teams. I agree with WJ, Monk seems a bit slow in recognising problems we have during the game, both cup and league games, having said that, I'm beginning to wonder if Pep is the actual brains behind both of'em......... Was written in general Ristac, not aimed at you...............
Hey'up Ristac, When Green first arrived I read an article that he was on a one year contract, and has the option of becoming our keeper coach at the end of season, if that happens all our keepers will have butter fingers... Based on what you've read, and what I've read, it seems some thing may have changed along the way, but either way, looks like he won't be playing next season; there is a God......
I remember when Green joined at first, and in an interview he said that he was delighted to join, and was willing to help the club in whatever way they wanted to use him - either playing, backup or coach. I did get the feeling he was being disingenuous when expressing his 'surprise' at being selected as #1. He has always had an option that will get triggered after so many games (was it 30+?), and if we don't buy another keeper, I can see him playing next season (whether he deserves it or not).
Green is 3rd in the list of clean sheets this season.. just saying He ain't done too badly for a keeper who has butter fingers and makes constant blunders. Honestly though, I have played as a CB (although mostly CM but filled in there from time to time) at a decent level of football and I can easily say the best keeper I have ever played with was a guy that played in the Villa academy for the most of his teenage life. He came into the team around half way through a season and he wasn't the best shot stopper but I have never heard better communication from a goal keeper ever, from there on in we as a team played 10 times better than before. Communication/organisation is a goalkeeper's most important attribute imo.
I may have read the same article as you WJ, but somewhere in back of my mind I seem to remember Green saying he had an option of becoming the keeper coach after his 1 year contract was up. He has a contract extension clause which is apparently activated after playing 30 games, he had the same clause at QPR, but JFH didn't think he was good enough and didn't play him during second half of season.. Personally, if his clause is activated, and he gets a contract extension, God forbid, I just can't see him being number 1 keeper, even more so if we manage to get promoted. He has big howlers in him, and hopefully it ain't in playoff finals when we don't need one. Read an article that says Green has committed more howlers since the start of last season than any other championship keeper. I just keep getting this funny feeling Green's going to come back and bite Monk on his proverbial......
I'm assuming we played 4-2-3-1 for this post, btw. I didn't get to see the game, so I can't really argue with this one (but I will - surprise, surprise! ). I don't even know who partnered him in the '2'. I'll guess it was Grimes, and if right, it may help me to make the point I think should be made. I'm trying to say that when you're used to playing in a DM partnership, there is generally a necessary close playing relationship that you need with the other guy. You need to know the other guy's game, especially when you're young. Both Viera & Philips have gone on record as saying that they like playing alongside the more experienced players - it gives them more confidence that they're not going to screw up, and they learn loads from the older heads. It's very honest for them to say that, & shows that they accept their status as developing players. Now having said that, the one thing you would think might upset the applecart is to introduce an inexperienced player to play alongside another youngster, and expect both to boss one of the most critical areas on the park. And I think you might you might be right to think that, only Viera & Philips have actually played well together - beyond normal expectations I would say. The normal difficulty is when someone else is played alongside an inexperienced player, and experienced or inexperienced, that player is not used to playing in a DM 2 in our system. As far as I can ascertain, that's what happened, and Grimes (my guess) or someone else who's not a DM, was paired with Philips. Meaning Philips was in effect the boss DM, and was unduly stressed as the normal 'processes & procedures' (to use my clumsy IT talk) were not being followed. Effectively, he was exposed. All at sea. A more experience DM might have aggressively barked out direction to his partner, but would he be listened to? Was it perhaps a glory hunter he had by his side? I didn't watch it, but I'm guessing that Philips was exposed, and i think that might have been on Monk's tongue-lashing HT list. So that's my take on Philips. He's under development atm. He will be exposed at times due to his inexperience. But hopefully he will learn. Btw, if I'm half right, then I'm very disappointed in Monk for not rectified in dealing with it earlier. I shall now shut it, and invite pelters!
Not sure if you noticed this that I posted (part of post #185) ..... I'm going to stand up for Silvestri here. Green had howlers at the beginning of the season, and took a long time to settle down. Still has a howler now & again. But, and it's a huge but, Silvestri has never had the opportunity to iron out his game this season, nor has he ever played behind our 1st choice CBs (well, apart from a few mins tonight). So how can we really compare the two? Now that Jansson's out for 2 matches, we'll be able to see how Green deals with change. Should be relatively easy for him now, as he's been given the time to build up his confidence, but I worry that if one of his big howlers come along, he might fall to pieces. I don't see Green as being better than Silvestri. I see him as having had more opportunity than Silvestri. Who knows what would have happened if it had been the other way around? As it happens, I'm not convinced that either of them is our future at this time, and the thought of either of them in the PL is very worrying. Thoughts?
You make a good point and may well be right WJ, we saw a similar situation when Hernandez first began playing, and some did notice the difference between Hernandez's experience and our players.......
I thought the article said 30 games and it trigures, if we have to keep him next season I would expect Silvestre to be sold and for us to purchase a new #1
I thought 30 too (but put in a wee plus sign to cover myself ). I think it all depends on whether we get promoted or not. We'll deffo need a new #1 if we go up, but if we don't, I have no idea what will happen. Perhaps Baily Double-Barrel will get blooded. We played Carson as a young lad, & that was in the PL. As long as we win, I don't care!
