| If we are going to raise legitimate concerns 13:29 - Feb 6 with 896 views | Asa |
Surely one has to be how slow we seem to be adapting to teams seemingly having worked us out.
It feels like November time was when teams just decided to really sit back, give us absolutely no space to work in, force us wide and defend everything coming into the box.
Every metric (other than points) still suggests we are the best team in the league in that we are creating more, giving away less, but it won't be long before that changes. We've gone from creating 30-35 attempts in games, to having no chance of note in the first half at lowly Cambridge. This same system and largely same squad were constantly testing the keeper in the first three months of the season. Morecambe aside it feels like we've barely threatened in the following three.
McKenna can't be blamed for the lack of quality on the ball Saturday. The side is more than good enough, but it is down to him to find ways of hurting the opposition when Plan A doesn't work. That for me is the most concerning thing of late. Every match is starting to look very similar.
We seem to have lost the quickness to our play that saw us cut through teams and we are now playing the same patterns of play at half the pace, allowing teams to remain even more disciplined. So much seems to have coincided with Evans coming back (Wycombe onwards). Evans was my player of the season prior to getting injured, but feels like we are so much slower with him in the side than Humphreys was, who looked to turn and move it quickly.
We've an excellent manager, style of play and squad but we desperately need to find ways to combat very similar approaches most teams are using.
Likewise the players need to learn to. Hirst came on Saturday and within a minute or two we'd played a totally different ball in behind, he scuffs a shot and Broadhead almost scores. 25 minutes passed and not one player tried that pass again. Having added some different attributes into the squad, it feels like we aren't looking to change things ever so slightly to accommodate those. Morecambe aside, Broadhead has looked completely lost in that position on the left and the interplay between him and Davis has been near non-existent.
We don't want to stray too far from our identity, which has worked for large chunks of the season, but we clearly need to pose multiple threats, if nothing else to allow teams to worry about them so that we can have more success with Plan A. This isn't about two up top. It's about dragging players around so Morsy and Evans can have a shot from the edge of the box. It's allowing Chaplin that half a yard to turn. It's allowing Broadhead to get the ball into feet and to drive at players. Things that seem to have not happened or disappeared.
Just seems as if we have run out of ideas and this is a big test for McKenna over the next few weeks before the momentum lost becomes any chance of automatic promotion lost. [Post edited 6 Feb 2023 13:38]
|  | | |  |
| If we are going to raise legitimate concerns on 13:52 - Feb 6 with 784 views | Guthrum |
"Working us out" seems to consist entirely of packing the defence and hoping to snatch a goal on the counter. Which is what pretty much any team adopts when faced with a superior opponent (which we are, for League One).
At all levels, it's very hard to break through and get the ball into the net. Town are actually pretty good at it, as shown by how rarely we fail to score and the number of victories obtained. But we don't enjoy the same quality differential as between the Prem top end and those down the bottom.
There are also other teams about as good at it as us (Plymouth at home, Sheff Wed, Derby) amd we have slipped a bit in relation to them. There isn't some series of magic keys, where ours have been revealed and theirs' haven't.
All that's happened is our goalscoring has dropped half a notch, failing to convert quite so many of the chances (c.f. the number of times we seem to have hit the woodwork lately). Which has shown up a slight looseness in defence on occasion (tho some of that has come down to deflections and slips).
Town primarily needs to tighten things back up, not start radically reconstructing tactics, team and approach. |  |
| |
| If we are going to raise legitimate concerns on 14:06 - Feb 6 with 739 views | homer_123 |
| If we are going to raise legitimate concerns on 13:52 - Feb 6 by Guthrum |
"Working us out" seems to consist entirely of packing the defence and hoping to snatch a goal on the counter. Which is what pretty much any team adopts when faced with a superior opponent (which we are, for League One).
At all levels, it's very hard to break through and get the ball into the net. Town are actually pretty good at it, as shown by how rarely we fail to score and the number of victories obtained. But we don't enjoy the same quality differential as between the Prem top end and those down the bottom.
There are also other teams about as good at it as us (Plymouth at home, Sheff Wed, Derby) amd we have slipped a bit in relation to them. There isn't some series of magic keys, where ours have been revealed and theirs' haven't.
All that's happened is our goalscoring has dropped half a notch, failing to convert quite so many of the chances (c.f. the number of times we seem to have hit the woodwork lately). Which has shown up a slight looseness in defence on occasion (tho some of that has come down to deflections and slips).
Town primarily needs to tighten things back up, not start radically reconstructing tactics, team and approach. |
I really hope KM doesn't change how we play or approach games. by homer_123 2 Jan 2023 18:05We get so much right.
On and off the ball we are very good. We use the ball intelligently. There's loads of movement off the ball, players are encouraged to play and express themselves.
We have an identity and style of play that we have not seen at PR for years.
We create plenty of good goal scoring opportunities and defensively we are solid and I love that we play out and build from the back.
We have an issue of conversion at the moment and although over the season so far we have scored plenty...we are wasteful in front of goal at times.
The worry for me is if KM tries to shore us up defensively or alter how we play, we may well create less and right now that will definitely mean fewer goals. As our conversion is a little poor.
So, we change nothing. How we play works...we should not touch that at all.
If we can be more effective taking our chances, we'll be fine. I certainly don't want to see any players come in that don't improve on what we have.
Keep the faith...its working even if the festive period has been poor points wise.
and
Championship team comes to PR and sits with 11 behind the ball by homer_123 7 Jan 2023 15:54Very tough to play against that, and a testament to where we are and how others view us.
We've been far the better team....created a couple of good chances and seen Humphreys calmly slot his finish away.
Rotherham, as we see just wanted to play on the break but the second half will see them having to be far more attacking which should play into our hands.
So far, an excellent workout for the fringe players.
|  |
| |
| If we are going to raise legitimate concerns on 14:06 - Feb 6 with 743 views | LankHenners |
Think your 5th para is the key - if there's one word to sum up the problem with our play it's 'tempo'. (I'd add 'belief' as well but that's another matter.)
At that point I'd sort of disagree with needing to do things much differently, just need to get back to doing Plan A much better like we were earlier in the season.
I was concerned teams would work us out but in honestly I think it's less that and more that we've made ourselves a bit too easy to defend against, especially away from home, by being too slow on the ball and lacking the quick incisive pass and move stuff that we used so effectively before.
I'd thought that Evans was being a bit overhyped anyway but certainly agree since he's been back that midfield hasn't functioned particularly well and I'd have him and Morsy as the main culprits for slowing us down by constantly wanting the ball then taking several touches before releasing it. We have Luongo here who was a main part of the Wednesday midfield that finished (well) above us last season who could offer a bit more thrust and Humphreys we know is very positive and wants to get things going quickly.
Had hoped Broadhead and Hirst would give us a bit more dynamism and in flashes I think that has happened (although arguably Hirst's biggest involvement is making Ladapo up his game) but needs to be more consistent and converted into goals pretty quickly.
It's frustrating as, like you say, we're so close to being what we want and have should we can be that version of ourselves but it's not quite happening, and obviously other teams hitting great runs of form in the mean time naturally gets people having an itchy trigger finger over the panic button.
Right now I'm more hoping it will turn round for us again rather than genuinely believing it will, which I fear is also the players' mindset at present. |  |
| |
| If we are going to raise legitimate concerns on 14:19 - Feb 6 with 697 views | FrimleyBlue |
I'd say it's players being quite lazy in some matches or maybe just didn't have the legs to do more? On a regular basis..
Sat for example.. burns stayed wide and didn't offer clarke any opportunities to get forward and overlap, he just stayed wide.
Keogh was pretty much walking with the ball.
Morsy floated around but refused to join in with davis on numerous occasions and stood off and waited for the ball to come back. When opportunies presented themselves for a quick 3 man passing phase which we'd seen v morcambe but with morsy burns and Clark.
Evans was only interested in trying diags.
Chaplin and broadhead. I can't remember seeing them trying any of the quick 1 2 passes they put on against morcambe.
It was a really strange half Saturday |  |
| |
| If we are going to raise legitimate concerns on 14:37 - Feb 6 with 644 views | jayessess |
Don't know where you've got the idea that we were having 30-35 attempts at goal on a regular basis this season. We've hit 30 twice, both in home games where we dropped points in (Lincoln and Cheltenham).
Our season average is 16.83 (6 on target), which is still the best in the league. Since Wycombe, we've beaten our overall average on that front 5 times in 8 matches.
Of those 8 games, we've had more shots in all of them, better xG in all except Cambridge. No team "works out a plan" to give the opposition more efforts to score than they have.
Our problem is that we're bad in both boxes and nothing in football kills you more than that. |  |
| |
| If we are going to raise legitimate concerns on 14:37 - Feb 6 with 641 views | Help |
Since Oxford beat us they have lost 4 on the trot to Barnsley, Shrewsbury, Burton and Wycombe. Not trying to read anything into this, but what is wrong with us. |  | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
