What's gone wrong?
- Thread starter Gone For A Walk
- Start date
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Your response suggested asking a question about Acun was ironic due to
previous comments about panty wetters - which it obviously isnt?
Anyway.
I would guess the season has tailed off due to;
a) injuries
b) January signings altering the team spirit
c) Teams working us out
A big issue was Giles getting injured - eventually it caught us up.
I would guess the season has tailed off due to;
a) injuries
b) January signings altering the team spirit
c) Teams working us out
A big issue was Giles getting injured - eventually it caught us up.
Those first four points are meaningless given how we started the season. None of them contribute to the drop off (point of this thread) as they didn't contribute to a change of factors suddenly from January to February.
What went wrong was complacency in the squad, a bunch of new faces that disrupted the rhythm of the squad, and Jakirovic beginning to over-think/over-complicate things. We went from having a real flexibility to our line up depending on who we were playing (think Boro away) and an ability to win in a number of different ways, to seemingly being bereft of ideas or a settled line up.
Acun is on record as saying top 10 was the aim. Sergej has delivered on that. Whether the internal target was different, who knows. Acun didn’t help by entering the Season under an embargo.
He was on record saying the same for Rosenior. He said survival was Selles' aim.
Someone might be able to answer this but, I wonder how many minutes our team over the last month has played over the season compared to the other teams in the playoffs.
The just seemed to lack the zip of the team earlier in the season.
I wonder if our core group have just ran out of legs and for me a factor of squad depth
Destan shouldn’t have been shipped out, that was a major mistake for me. We now only have an out of form McBurnie up front with no other options. Also the way we are playing now hoofing big balls into the box his height would have been such an asset. He seemed to be just getting to grips with things too. Pretty sure he would have offered more than Dowell has.
He’s hardly been fit in Belgium. He wouldn’t have played. Joseph would have offered if played than Dowell and Destan put together.
Didn’t realise he’s injured. No update from either club since January but looks like he’s still injured
There must be more to Dowell? He's actually quite experienced and has played for some good clubs, why has he looked so lightweight?
We don't have a foothold in midfield in games where we don't have Crooks and Slater together (barring Coventry where Collyer ran the show). It often ends up scrappy in there otherwise and we don't seem to do well with that. It seems to stop us being able to do a great deal.
With Crooks out first and then once he returned, Slater went out - we've lacked that consistent pairing in there.
When both were on the pitch yesterday, we had 20+ mins of possession/attacks/build up play - we just ultimately wasted all of it with rubbish crosses and poor corners.
With Crooks out first and then once he returned, Slater went out - we've lacked that consistent pairing in there.
When both were on the pitch yesterday, we had 20+ mins of possession/attacks/build up play - we just ultimately wasted all of it with rubbish crosses and poor corners.
Crooks, Slater and Amir were the three that we were most successful with. We've often missed having all three available for one reason or another.
I just worry that Crooks is going to look even slower next season, he seems to tire more and more the season goes on. I think he's been a fantastic player for us and has undoubted quality, but he needs mobile players around him to compensate for his lack of pace and stamina. Bringing him on as an impact sub would be great but if he's starting next season I'd worry.
Possibly, although some saying we rotated too much some saying not enough. Everyone looking for an answer.
I agree. Crooks should be getting 15-20 minutes off the bench next season as his height and late runs into the box is still an asset but he should not be starting games regularly.
Look at Coventry’s midfield today. Grimes is 30-years-old but has played every single minute of every game in the league. He’s fit as a fiddle. Onyeka and Torp are incredibly athletic and physical as well. Slater is the only midfielder I’d want to be starting most games next season.
Exactly, we just don't look dynamic enough. I say this every season but look at the teams that have gone up this season and look at the type of players they have and what they do. All of them have pace out wide, midfields that both win the ball back and keep possession, full backs who can put a ball on the head of pin with their crossing accuracy and strikers that are confident enough to be in positions and anticipate where the balls are going to be.
Go down our starting XI yesterday and you'll see why we've struggled these past few months. We have pace in Belloumi and to a lesser extent Giles and Millar, but our midfield is so ponderous - Lundstram and Crooks just get passed around while Coyle just isn't brave enough to take on his man and get forward, so we're really slow in the build up. McBurnie is having to drop into the #6 role just to touch the ball and get things going which isn't right at all and often leaves us without an outlet - the Charlton commentators made several observations about us that they deemed bizarre - McBurnie dropping so deep was one of them, another was why Giles isn't taking corners when he's one of the best crossers in the division.
Slater is great at carrying the ball, a bit like Stephen Quinn used to be, but we also need an AM that links it all up and somebody who can play between the lines of defence and midfield to make sure the opposition can't just glide through when they want. Coyle, in an ideal world anyway, I think needs to be second fiddle to Drameh next season; Drameh has more confidence but again, he's just injured too often.
Outside of Belloumi, Millar, Giles and McBurnie, if I was an opposition fan, there isn't anybody in our squad who would genuinely trouble me if they lined up against us. We need better quality across the squad really, particularly in our cover/depth, which hopefully the embargo being removed will rectify.
Although performances have dipped a bit, it's probably not been as big a dip as it seems.
We had a habit in the first half of the season of riding a ridiculous wave of luck in first halves, then stealing a winner in the second half. We won a few games when we could have been dead and buried, 3 goals down at HT without complaint.
Our midfield has been problematic all season, and we are trying to play too many attacking players without having someone in the middle that can stamp their authority on the match. Slater has stepped up massively, but he can't do it all. Crooks, Lunny and Amir have all had games where they've made 0 impact.
Service to McBurnie has dried up, and both him and Gelhardt have been a shadows of their pre-injured selves. It's strange that we can see that Gelhardt impacts matches much more on the right than he does in the 10, but Sergej has persisted, and plays him in a role where he has less impact than Joseph who while not as technically creative or clinical, has much more industry and creates errors with his press.
Defensively we've been much shoddier all season, despite 3 of the back 4 being the first choices at the end of last season. Hughes and Pandur seem to have regressed, and Coyle just doesnt have the confidence to thread a pass forward.
We had a habit in the first half of the season of riding a ridiculous wave of luck in first halves, then stealing a winner in the second half. We won a few games when we could have been dead and buried, 3 goals down at HT without complaint.
Our midfield has been problematic all season, and we are trying to play too many attacking players without having someone in the middle that can stamp their authority on the match. Slater has stepped up massively, but he can't do it all. Crooks, Lunny and Amir have all had games where they've made 0 impact.
Service to McBurnie has dried up, and both him and Gelhardt have been a shadows of their pre-injured selves. It's strange that we can see that Gelhardt impacts matches much more on the right than he does in the 10, but Sergej has persisted, and plays him in a role where he has less impact than Joseph who while not as technically creative or clinical, has much more industry and creates errors with his press.
Defensively we've been much shoddier all season, despite 3 of the back 4 being the first choices at the end of last season. Hughes and Pandur seem to have regressed, and Coyle just doesnt have the confidence to thread a pass forward.