We should be attacking when we get the ball instead we pass around at the back until our opponents get in their defensive shape and then we dont know what to do
Same old problems and same old reactions. Other teams need way less chances to score than we do, that's the crux of everything. Losing 2-0 should be a comfortable beating. It shouldn't be happening in a game where we have that much of the ball and have more shots than they do. It's been the problem for a while, far too long for it to be luck. It's something this team needs to seriously improve on, because we are a very good side and can achieve great things if we sort this out. I still think we will, but it may take a bit of time. It reminds me of Brentford when they used to finish around 7th in the Championship every year and everyone said how good their football was but they always seemed to lack something to compete. Obviously they kept improving and got there eventually. Hopefully we do too. Just like the goal at WBA where we gave it away playing out, all we focus on is the fact that we gave it away playing out, but really it's still only a half chance. It's not a gift-wrapped goal. Allsop gives it away near the corner, they put a good ball in and find a man in space who scores. Obviously you don't want your keeper giving it away, but what happens after that is just as relevant. How many times a game do we have the ball out wide in a similar position? Why do they find a man and score and why do we so rarely do so from similar positions? That's the difference and that's what we need to solve. There are always going to be the odd errors when you play this way. So we could give up on it, revert to a more negative style and start our process all over again, which obviously isn't going to happen and shouldn't, or we can accept that every style has its weaknesses, that ours is that we'll occasionally give it away near our own goal, and find ways to not concede every time we do that and to score more often when the opposition gives us chances. Dropping Allsop isn't going to happen. It'd be negative and it'd mean reverting the progress we've made. He's been a big part of our improvement this season and people should be able to see that. I loved Ingram, but with Allsop we're a better side, have more of the ball and score more goals. People will scoff at that but he's very much involved. It's 2023 and goalkeepers are crucial to the buildup now, sorry. The old square pegs in round holes thing rears it's head every time we lose. Coyle has played left back for weeks, got some great results but we have a bad result and now it's a disgrace that he's playing there. When we win, the possession game is good, but whenever we lose it's "they let us have the ball", and of course, the timeless "we didn't get it forward quick enough" even though we factually got it forward enough to have more shots at goal then they did. Once again, the difference is simply that they scored theirs.
I'm struggling to post something constructive, I can't. We were just crap all across the pitch. Everything we tried to do was painfully slow to watch. We weren't going to score if we'd been there all week. I had bad feelings as soon as I saw Traore on the right, not sure Twine got a touch in the first half. Second half was a bit better but they'd worked us out by then, we had no chance. The playing out from the back stuff became embarrassing after a while, we were just not good at doing it.
Traore and McLoughlin were both poor, I thought Delap was quiet but grew into it in the first half and as he grew into it we seemed to improve and become more direct and had a few chances. Their goal was a bit of a sucker punch in that sense (although they'd looked dominant in the early stages), and then we never really felt like getting back into it, despite a number of shots on goal. Begovic had a great game for them to be fair.
I agree with this, though Macca did make a couple of really good blocks, but generally was unsettled as a right sided CB.
As usual I am never as negative as some on here, having said that we certainly were not at our best. However, from the start seeing Traore in for Lokilo on the right, and then Macca as a right sided CB and again Coyle at LB, too many square pegs in round holes and we looked imbalanced. This was further exacerbated by losing Philogene early in the 2nd half. First half we started poorly, but as the half wore on, even though we were not our fluent best, I thought we were slowly getting control of the game, but conceding on the stroke of HT undid that gradual improvement in control. In the 2nd half once Philogene got crocked I feared the worst, and we never looked likely to score after that, even though we had one or two good chances saved by their keeper, particularly Macca's effort which was well saved. Was Connolly's penalty incident a penalty, not for me, but it was one of those that could have been given by a different ref. Certainly not having 2 wingers on the pitch made us try to go more through the middle, but fair play to QPR they comfortably saw the game out, particularly after we had conceded the 2nd. It's not looking great if we are losing Jaden and Jason for a period of time, maybe trying 352, with 2 wing backs is a way just to start getting players into their best positions. Most teams have a dip in form, if this is ours, better to have it now than later in the campaign IMO.
Where's Sinik? If he's not getting a look in with this dearth of fit wingers, then he just simply has to go in Jan.
"Tweaking a medial can be a good few weeks" on Philogene Just one thing LR. "I like this team, I wouldn't change anyone, but we need to be more clinical". thats your job, or your coaches job because its been the thing you've mentioned most in the time youve been here. So either the players aren't right or the coaching isn't right and thats mental and not just physical.
At the moment we're relying on a 20 year old striker in his first proper experience in the Championship, a 23 year old injury prone forward who has had attitude issues and been in and out of sides wherever's he's gone, a Turkish international who seems to struggle with his attitude/focus, and Jaden Philogene. Philogene has been flying and shown that if we have the talented players in the right positions, we get the goals. To me it suggests it's more an issue with the personnel than anything particularly wrong with LR. We'd scored in 8 games in a row or something like that before our blank against QPR.
We didnt get it forward quickly enough. We let QPR set up their defence how they wanted to. This meant that until we attacked late in the second half when behind most of our shots were high into the crowd. When QPR attacked they attacked quickly and our defenders were out of position. I have just watched the highlights and they were deceptive because they showed more of our attacking play and little of our aimless passing around at the back which certainly frustratiing the fans.
Surely it’s Roseniors fault we’re so inexperienced/bare up front? It was his decision to sell oscar without a replacement in the building.
Is it his fault? Genuinely asking as I don't know how much say he has over recruitment, but if you want to blame him for selling Oscar you can also praise him for signing Philogene. I think the gamble on Connolly has been a mixed one, and early season was looking like an astute one. I would definitely expect we'll bring in an experienced striker in January + another forward (Kent?) so would go a long way to addressing our issues. As PLT said, it's a lot like Brentford with the gradual improvement rather than instant success.
Delap must win the prize for hitting the goalie with nearly every shot he has, and I’m surprised he hasn’t hurt one given how hard he blasts it, a little bit of coaching and he will be ok, as for Rosenior, he needs a new coaching manual for Christmas, cos the one he’s using has the bit where we get over the halfway line missing.
Not sure what you mean by this Chazz? The point about Brentford is they gradually built their squad and took a few seasons to click and go up, despite playing a good style along the way. They regularly missed the play offs despite being a promising side.
