| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here 08:25 - Oct 23 with 8709 views | Steve_M |
After all the build up then, the familiar sense of frustration and resignation. The combination of a failure to take good chances when on top and a lack of real belief that we could get back into the match after going behind is becoming a little too common at the moment.
First the good stuff, I thought the first half performance was good: it had energy and movement and chances created. It was let down by the failure to force a decent save out of Gunn and the continuing weakness wide. Even in that half Norwich had too much time to cut in and shoot from the edge of the box.
Norwich were clearly told to go full on with the gamesmanship in the second half and it worked, we couldn't get any rhythm or tempo to our play although still did enough to spurn another good chance. We might have been ok but for the goal and, given how awful it was, that's a very big but. Yes, Skuse was off the pitch but someone needed to take charge in the middle in his absence.
After that, we disappointed. No lack of effort but a real lack of belief and conviction in what we did. Just like the second halves at QPR and against Bristol City or the last 30 minutes at Sheffield we attacked but never really looked like we thought we would score. The crowd felt it too - the reaction to the corner at the end showed that fans wanted to be positive but needed something to get behind.
How does this change? In the short-term it's down to McCarthy (shouting for Evans to sack him won't have any effect and will be counter-productive to the team) to get the balance right - we can do it as we showed for part of yesterday's match but we don't have the tactical flexibility to change it effectively - it comes down to individual skill rather than a system. When out best player is as poor on the ball as he was yesterday then we are obviously weaker.
The real failing of McCarthy in recent years is that we don't have a system of play. We're trying to play the ball around more, and generally succeeding, and sporadically we play with energy and tempo but everything is improvised. We are better than last season, the failings yesterday notwithstanding we have a goal threat that wasn't there last season but it isn't really enough to suggest we're going to see year-on-year improvement: that familiar sense of resignation and frustration reigns at Portman Road.
I've spoken to very few fans who don't think that last Summer was the ideal time to change manager, certainly I can't see how we progress without a change next Summer. It's not that McCarthy has done a bad job because overall he hasn't - but five years is a long time, Burley was only manager for seven and a half and we are just drifting at the moment.
The thing is though that whilst Evans still owns the club,a new manager isn't going to do more than provide a short-lived burst of optimism for fans. The cycle will continue: if Evans gets the right appointment then it might take three years rather than 18 months before fans want another change.
It's not just about the money going in but Evans lack of a plan or coherent approach to the club - if anyone believes that the five point plan hastily made up last season is more than window dressing than perhaps I can interest you in some magic beans? The whole state of the ground, paint peeling off the outside of the North stand is symptomatic of a cost-cutting approach that will cost more to rectify in the long-term. Not that Evans really seems to care about the long-term.
It's not so much frustrating as depressing and I don't see way out of it in the current football environment. A few good wins, the odd shout in the play-offs and that's about it. I don't see any point spending the rest of the season wanting the manager sacked, the good bits yesterday suggested that we can do ok this season with MM and then we are back hoping Evans can manage the transition to a new manager properly*.
*Spoiler: he probably won't. [Post edited 23 Oct 2017 8:31]
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:35 - Oct 23 with 6466 views | JakeITFC |
The performance after the goal yesterday was McCarthy at his worst.
No ideas and no cohesion, leading to the long ball dross that typified the post-Play Off season. For at least 30 minutes yesterday it was genuinely difficult to put a formation on the mess that was on display.
That he's had another chance at rebuilding his team and we end up like this, again, means I just can't see how we can go much further with him in charge. |  | | |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:40 - Oct 23 with 6420 views | tractorboy1978 |
The standards and expectations at the moment are as low as I can remember. The whole club is stale, from the owner down to the fans there is virtually no belief we can make the top 6. Mick said as much from his point of view by conceding he would take 23 wins and 23 defeats this season. Appreciate that is said in the heat of the moment but it must be his genuine belief. It is difficult to expect the fans to continue coming in their numbers and believing we can progress when the management team and owner really don't seem to believe it. |  | | |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:41 - Oct 23 with 6405 views | Reuser_is_God |
The fact that we'll go absolutely nowhere from here is just symbolic of Evans' reign. |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:42 - Oct 23 with 6391 views | Radlett_blue |
Generally agree, but I must have been asleep when we missed the "good chances" to which you refer. Knudsen's was an excellent effort from a tight angle & yes, McGoldrick should have done better with his header. Waghorn played well, but he is another square peg when played wide in a 4-4-2. If it wasn't Norwich, this would have been dismissed as a typical, tight Championship affair decided by one piece of good play. I always thought we were flattered by our early season wins against lower half sides. A result at Burton is imperative if we aren't to slip back into a possible relegation struggle. |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:50 - Oct 23 with 6345 views | Steve_M |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:42 - Oct 23 by Radlett_blue |
Generally agree, but I must have been asleep when we missed the "good chances" to which you refer. Knudsen's was an excellent effort from a tight angle & yes, McGoldrick should have done better with his header. Waghorn played well, but he is another square peg when played wide in a 4-4-2. If it wasn't Norwich, this would have been dismissed as a typical, tight Championship affair decided by one piece of good play. I always thought we were flattered by our early season wins against lower half sides. A result at Burton is imperative if we aren't to slip back into a possible relegation struggle. |
There was a header from Garner which he put wide and Adeyemi had one he looked like he should have done better with.
MM hasn't managed to work the front players into a formation that doesn't leave us vulnerable. Spence's poor match yesterday and Iorfa's last week were both, at least in part, because of a lack of cover. And for all the calls that Celina should have started, the same applies to him in midfield. He does leave us vulnerable off the ball in a way that Sears doesn't out wide.
I also thought it was telling that the two players who were fitness doubts were substituted, both Garner and Adeyemi had faded badly after half-time. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:54 - Oct 23 with 6320 views | hype313 |
Decent read Steve, I concur with all of that, especially a change of manager right now.
It just felt so flat for a Derby, almost like we were all resigned to the fact that we would lose, just an air of resignation, and the fact that we reverted to type it up in the second half just echoes that. It wasn't until Celina came on that he actually showed a bit of guile going forward. When you look at Brighton last year the one player that stood out and made them tick was Knockeart, and I see Celina in a similar way, albeit far more raw. He just gives us something different, so surprised that he gets 10-15 minutes.
With regards to Evans, I'm really not sure what his plan is, I just get the feeling that he feels he has been lumbered with us and has no idea what to do. he clearly doesn't want to invest the necessary amount to give us a chance going up, especially compared to the initial sums he spent. I just think a change of manager won't help if Evans continues with the status quo. |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:54 - Oct 23 with 6316 views | Dubtractor |
Skuse was back on and in position. If you watch replay he is tracking back and only a few yards from Madison. |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:56 - Oct 23 with 6305 views | ITFC_Forever |
I thought the first half was pretty even.... Stuart Watson summed it up well, we were trying to smash the door down, whereas Norwich were trying to unpick the lock. Both approaches yielded the same results - we hit the post, Gunn made a smartish save from Waghorn at the near post and McG headed just over, and they had a few shots following some short passes around the edge of the area which ended up being scuffed through to Bart to make a comfortable save.
The warning signs were there though - our lack of width was accentuated by Norwich posting players very wide which gave them loads of space to a) receive the ball and b) cause our full-backs (Spence in particular) problems.
In the second-half, it looked like following the pattern to begin with - McG's flicked header looked closer at the time than it did on tv after, but then they scored.
And the spare player out wide was the factor again - they worked another opening on the edge of the area which this time they converted.
I thought at the time it was partly due to Skuse still getting back in position following having to receive treatment, but when you watch it back, the ref waves him back on quite a while before and Norwich have tried to put together a move which comes to nothing while Skuse is coming on - so I don't think that was a significant factor, they were working similar opportunities in the first half which were scuffed through to Bart.
And that was that. We ran out of ideas very soon after, Norwich saw the game out pretty comfortably. We couldn't get Sears or Celina involved when they came on and resorted it to lumping it on to the CBs' heads as we usually do when we don't know what else to do.... our midfield have to take some of the responsibility for this as they stopped coming and taking the ball from the defence.
In wider scheme of things, it yet again echoes what we've have seen all to often - we give easy goals away and have to work very hard to score one of our own. Not a good combination.
7 defeats in 9 is a very poor record.... and that record isn't likely to improve much in the next few games. That will see us slip further down the league and Mick will end up looking over his shoulder more and we will see more ultra-cautious tactics from Mick.
ME and Mick are still equally as much to blame, we all know ME clearly can't or won't put any more investment in to the club, whether that's the playing budget or making the ground look vaguely presentable and not covered in crap and peeling paint. The game / division has well and truly left him behind.
And Mick has to take his half of the blame as well - as Steve says, no defined pattern of play and we are still conceding poor goals (a failure to strengthen the defence in the summer is a chicken coming home to roost), RB is still a problem and we are crow-barring players in to the eleven with no thought to how to get the best from them.
I believe we don't have that bad a squad on the whole... but the glaring difference to the PO season is that then we were getting a result that was greater than the sum of it's parts, at the moment we are far from doing that.
Many fans now agree that Mick is done here, only Truce on twitter yesterday was making any kind of defence of him.
Supporting Town truly is a joyless experience at the moment, won't go up, hopefully won't go down and never beat Norwich. We are a complete footballing irrelevance at the moment, in the same way Coventry were pre-Sisu. |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:59 - Oct 23 with 6264 views | christiand |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:35 - Oct 23 by JakeITFC |
The performance after the goal yesterday was McCarthy at his worst.
No ideas and no cohesion, leading to the long ball dross that typified the post-Play Off season. For at least 30 minutes yesterday it was genuinely difficult to put a formation on the mess that was on display.
That he's had another chance at rebuilding his team and we end up like this, again, means I just can't see how we can go much further with him in charge. |
Can someone kindly explain to me this need to continually play the ball in the air to our strikers? Why can't it be played into their feet? We are just constantly looking for the second ball from knock downs and giving possession away with these hopeful flicks and punts forward. Honestly, how much coaching is really needed to play in this manner?
I agree the first half performance was encouraging, but then after half time it looked like we had run out of gas and just couldn't sustain the momentum and energy needed. We did look poor second half. For me, the fact we had no real efforts on goal was unforgivable. Gunn just wasn't tested in any aspect of the goalkeeping facets. To me, the longer the game went on, we just looked a poor Championship side who had no focus or plan.
The next 8 - 10 fixtures could seal MM's fate. We have some incredibly hard matches coming up against sides that are either at the top of the league or on a good run of form. The outcome of these could force a change because 7 defeats in 9 already is a concerning statistic. I can only see this getting worse over the next few months.
I look at our squad and we have some good players in there, but our manager just doesn't get the best out of them or doesn't know how to. This myth that he can suddenly become a 'footballing' coach is utter nonsense. He never has and never will be! The man likes playing direct long ball rubbish and wants his sides to scrap for their lives. Entertainment value equates to zero! He has no idea how to play a decent brand of football and is too pigheaded to accept that he needs help in developing this aspect of the team.
Perhaps the AGM is the place where to voice our opinions and be brutally honest. Instead of tip-toeing around and avoid asking 'key' questions which we all know he doesn't want to hear as it will be awkward for him to answer.
Simply, both him and ME need to go and the sooner the better. We need to start from scratch and rebuild because at the moment we just seem to be a club going backwards at a rate of knots. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:01 - Oct 23 with 6247 views | Reuser_is_God |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:56 - Oct 23 by ITFC_Forever |
I thought the first half was pretty even.... Stuart Watson summed it up well, we were trying to smash the door down, whereas Norwich were trying to unpick the lock. Both approaches yielded the same results - we hit the post, Gunn made a smartish save from Waghorn at the near post and McG headed just over, and they had a few shots following some short passes around the edge of the area which ended up being scuffed through to Bart to make a comfortable save.
The warning signs were there though - our lack of width was accentuated by Norwich posting players very wide which gave them loads of space to a) receive the ball and b) cause our full-backs (Spence in particular) problems.
In the second-half, it looked like following the pattern to begin with - McG's flicked header looked closer at the time than it did on tv after, but then they scored.
And the spare player out wide was the factor again - they worked another opening on the edge of the area which this time they converted.
I thought at the time it was partly due to Skuse still getting back in position following having to receive treatment, but when you watch it back, the ref waves him back on quite a while before and Norwich have tried to put together a move which comes to nothing while Skuse is coming on - so I don't think that was a significant factor, they were working similar opportunities in the first half which were scuffed through to Bart.
And that was that. We ran out of ideas very soon after, Norwich saw the game out pretty comfortably. We couldn't get Sears or Celina involved when they came on and resorted it to lumping it on to the CBs' heads as we usually do when we don't know what else to do.... our midfield have to take some of the responsibility for this as they stopped coming and taking the ball from the defence.
In wider scheme of things, it yet again echoes what we've have seen all to often - we give easy goals away and have to work very hard to score one of our own. Not a good combination.
7 defeats in 9 is a very poor record.... and that record isn't likely to improve much in the next few games. That will see us slip further down the league and Mick will end up looking over his shoulder more and we will see more ultra-cautious tactics from Mick.
ME and Mick are still equally as much to blame, we all know ME clearly can't or won't put any more investment in to the club, whether that's the playing budget or making the ground look vaguely presentable and not covered in crap and peeling paint. The game / division has well and truly left him behind.
And Mick has to take his half of the blame as well - as Steve says, no defined pattern of play and we are still conceding poor goals (a failure to strengthen the defence in the summer is a chicken coming home to roost), RB is still a problem and we are crow-barring players in to the eleven with no thought to how to get the best from them.
I believe we don't have that bad a squad on the whole... but the glaring difference to the PO season is that then we were getting a result that was greater than the sum of it's parts, at the moment we are far from doing that.
Many fans now agree that Mick is done here, only Truce on twitter yesterday was making any kind of defence of him.
Supporting Town truly is a joyless experience at the moment, won't go up, hopefully won't go down and never beat Norwich. We are a complete footballing irrelevance at the moment, in the same way Coventry were pre-Sisu. |
How we are so weak at RB is a joke, since January MM has signed 3 players to play there but he doesn't know who to pick because none of them are very good. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:02 - Oct 23 with 6238 views | chicoazul |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:56 - Oct 23 by ITFC_Forever |
I thought the first half was pretty even.... Stuart Watson summed it up well, we were trying to smash the door down, whereas Norwich were trying to unpick the lock. Both approaches yielded the same results - we hit the post, Gunn made a smartish save from Waghorn at the near post and McG headed just over, and they had a few shots following some short passes around the edge of the area which ended up being scuffed through to Bart to make a comfortable save.
The warning signs were there though - our lack of width was accentuated by Norwich posting players very wide which gave them loads of space to a) receive the ball and b) cause our full-backs (Spence in particular) problems.
In the second-half, it looked like following the pattern to begin with - McG's flicked header looked closer at the time than it did on tv after, but then they scored.
And the spare player out wide was the factor again - they worked another opening on the edge of the area which this time they converted.
I thought at the time it was partly due to Skuse still getting back in position following having to receive treatment, but when you watch it back, the ref waves him back on quite a while before and Norwich have tried to put together a move which comes to nothing while Skuse is coming on - so I don't think that was a significant factor, they were working similar opportunities in the first half which were scuffed through to Bart.
And that was that. We ran out of ideas very soon after, Norwich saw the game out pretty comfortably. We couldn't get Sears or Celina involved when they came on and resorted it to lumping it on to the CBs' heads as we usually do when we don't know what else to do.... our midfield have to take some of the responsibility for this as they stopped coming and taking the ball from the defence.
In wider scheme of things, it yet again echoes what we've have seen all to often - we give easy goals away and have to work very hard to score one of our own. Not a good combination.
7 defeats in 9 is a very poor record.... and that record isn't likely to improve much in the next few games. That will see us slip further down the league and Mick will end up looking over his shoulder more and we will see more ultra-cautious tactics from Mick.
ME and Mick are still equally as much to blame, we all know ME clearly can't or won't put any more investment in to the club, whether that's the playing budget or making the ground look vaguely presentable and not covered in crap and peeling paint. The game / division has well and truly left him behind.
And Mick has to take his half of the blame as well - as Steve says, no defined pattern of play and we are still conceding poor goals (a failure to strengthen the defence in the summer is a chicken coming home to roost), RB is still a problem and we are crow-barring players in to the eleven with no thought to how to get the best from them.
I believe we don't have that bad a squad on the whole... but the glaring difference to the PO season is that then we were getting a result that was greater than the sum of it's parts, at the moment we are far from doing that.
Many fans now agree that Mick is done here, only Truce on twitter yesterday was making any kind of defence of him.
Supporting Town truly is a joyless experience at the moment, won't go up, hopefully won't go down and never beat Norwich. We are a complete footballing irrelevance at the moment, in the same way Coventry were pre-Sisu. |
What's Truce's @ handle? DM me if you prefer. |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:02 - Oct 23 with 6238 views | JakeITFC |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:59 - Oct 23 by christiand |
Can someone kindly explain to me this need to continually play the ball in the air to our strikers? Why can't it be played into their feet? We are just constantly looking for the second ball from knock downs and giving possession away with these hopeful flicks and punts forward. Honestly, how much coaching is really needed to play in this manner?
I agree the first half performance was encouraging, but then after half time it looked like we had run out of gas and just couldn't sustain the momentum and energy needed. We did look poor second half. For me, the fact we had no real efforts on goal was unforgivable. Gunn just wasn't tested in any aspect of the goalkeeping facets. To me, the longer the game went on, we just looked a poor Championship side who had no focus or plan.
The next 8 - 10 fixtures could seal MM's fate. We have some incredibly hard matches coming up against sides that are either at the top of the league or on a good run of form. The outcome of these could force a change because 7 defeats in 9 already is a concerning statistic. I can only see this getting worse over the next few months.
I look at our squad and we have some good players in there, but our manager just doesn't get the best out of them or doesn't know how to. This myth that he can suddenly become a 'footballing' coach is utter nonsense. He never has and never will be! The man likes playing direct long ball rubbish and wants his sides to scrap for their lives. Entertainment value equates to zero! He has no idea how to play a decent brand of football and is too pigheaded to accept that he needs help in developing this aspect of the team.
Perhaps the AGM is the place where to voice our opinions and be brutally honest. Instead of tip-toeing around and avoid asking 'key' questions which we all know he doesn't want to hear as it will be awkward for him to answer.
Simply, both him and ME need to go and the sooner the better. We need to start from scratch and rebuild because at the moment we just seem to be a club going backwards at a rate of knots. |
Mate, I could even tolerate long ball football if we were good at it.
Getting Sears and Celina on and then relying on Chambers to pump it forward was an absolute joke. | | | |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:02 - Oct 23 with 6237 views | Reuser_is_God |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:59 - Oct 23 by christiand |
Can someone kindly explain to me this need to continually play the ball in the air to our strikers? Why can't it be played into their feet? We are just constantly looking for the second ball from knock downs and giving possession away with these hopeful flicks and punts forward. Honestly, how much coaching is really needed to play in this manner?
I agree the first half performance was encouraging, but then after half time it looked like we had run out of gas and just couldn't sustain the momentum and energy needed. We did look poor second half. For me, the fact we had no real efforts on goal was unforgivable. Gunn just wasn't tested in any aspect of the goalkeeping facets. To me, the longer the game went on, we just looked a poor Championship side who had no focus or plan.
The next 8 - 10 fixtures could seal MM's fate. We have some incredibly hard matches coming up against sides that are either at the top of the league or on a good run of form. The outcome of these could force a change because 7 defeats in 9 already is a concerning statistic. I can only see this getting worse over the next few months.
I look at our squad and we have some good players in there, but our manager just doesn't get the best out of them or doesn't know how to. This myth that he can suddenly become a 'footballing' coach is utter nonsense. He never has and never will be! The man likes playing direct long ball rubbish and wants his sides to scrap for their lives. Entertainment value equates to zero! He has no idea how to play a decent brand of football and is too pigheaded to accept that he needs help in developing this aspect of the team.
Perhaps the AGM is the place where to voice our opinions and be brutally honest. Instead of tip-toeing around and avoid asking 'key' questions which we all know he doesn't want to hear as it will be awkward for him to answer.
Simply, both him and ME need to go and the sooner the better. We need to start from scratch and rebuild because at the moment we just seem to be a club going backwards at a rate of knots. |
'Can someone kindly explain to me this need to continually play the ball in the air to our strikers? Why can't it be played into their feet?'
Yes I can, it's because our defenders & midfield are not good enough on the ball to do this. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:03 - Oct 23 with 6217 views | Johnny_Boy |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:56 - Oct 23 by ITFC_Forever |
I thought the first half was pretty even.... Stuart Watson summed it up well, we were trying to smash the door down, whereas Norwich were trying to unpick the lock. Both approaches yielded the same results - we hit the post, Gunn made a smartish save from Waghorn at the near post and McG headed just over, and they had a few shots following some short passes around the edge of the area which ended up being scuffed through to Bart to make a comfortable save.
The warning signs were there though - our lack of width was accentuated by Norwich posting players very wide which gave them loads of space to a) receive the ball and b) cause our full-backs (Spence in particular) problems.
In the second-half, it looked like following the pattern to begin with - McG's flicked header looked closer at the time than it did on tv after, but then they scored.
And the spare player out wide was the factor again - they worked another opening on the edge of the area which this time they converted.
I thought at the time it was partly due to Skuse still getting back in position following having to receive treatment, but when you watch it back, the ref waves him back on quite a while before and Norwich have tried to put together a move which comes to nothing while Skuse is coming on - so I don't think that was a significant factor, they were working similar opportunities in the first half which were scuffed through to Bart.
And that was that. We ran out of ideas very soon after, Norwich saw the game out pretty comfortably. We couldn't get Sears or Celina involved when they came on and resorted it to lumping it on to the CBs' heads as we usually do when we don't know what else to do.... our midfield have to take some of the responsibility for this as they stopped coming and taking the ball from the defence.
In wider scheme of things, it yet again echoes what we've have seen all to often - we give easy goals away and have to work very hard to score one of our own. Not a good combination.
7 defeats in 9 is a very poor record.... and that record isn't likely to improve much in the next few games. That will see us slip further down the league and Mick will end up looking over his shoulder more and we will see more ultra-cautious tactics from Mick.
ME and Mick are still equally as much to blame, we all know ME clearly can't or won't put any more investment in to the club, whether that's the playing budget or making the ground look vaguely presentable and not covered in crap and peeling paint. The game / division has well and truly left him behind.
And Mick has to take his half of the blame as well - as Steve says, no defined pattern of play and we are still conceding poor goals (a failure to strengthen the defence in the summer is a chicken coming home to roost), RB is still a problem and we are crow-barring players in to the eleven with no thought to how to get the best from them.
I believe we don't have that bad a squad on the whole... but the glaring difference to the PO season is that then we were getting a result that was greater than the sum of it's parts, at the moment we are far from doing that.
Many fans now agree that Mick is done here, only Truce on twitter yesterday was making any kind of defence of him.
Supporting Town truly is a joyless experience at the moment, won't go up, hopefully won't go down and never beat Norwich. We are a complete footballing irrelevance at the moment, in the same way Coventry were pre-Sisu. |
We were just continually hoofing the ball to the strikers.
Bypassing the midfield.
Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.
I even joked, "Do our players even realise that Murphy was sold 2yrs ago?" |  | | |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:04 - Oct 23 with 6207 views | WeWereZombies |
Broadly agree with that but I don't think it was just gamesmanship that gave Norwich the second half, he's a troublesome Farke and he gave the half time talk with more nous. Tactically they were tighter and more effective than us in that final period, I'm afraid we can only regard McCarthy as a yesterday's man now (I should know one when I see one at my age - every time I look in the mirror, something Mick needs to do more often). As had been pointed out on other threads, a change of manager now gives the new boss time to assess his squad and bring in, ship out as necessary (under what we can only expect to be tight budgetary constraints) in the January window. |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:04 - Oct 23 with 6196 views | Reuser_is_God |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:50 - Oct 23 by Steve_M |
There was a header from Garner which he put wide and Adeyemi had one he looked like he should have done better with.
MM hasn't managed to work the front players into a formation that doesn't leave us vulnerable. Spence's poor match yesterday and Iorfa's last week were both, at least in part, because of a lack of cover. And for all the calls that Celina should have started, the same applies to him in midfield. He does leave us vulnerable off the ball in a way that Sears doesn't out wide.
I also thought it was telling that the two players who were fitness doubts were substituted, both Garner and Adeyemi had faded badly after half-time. |
'I also thought it was telling that the two players who were fitness doubts were substituted, both Garner and Adeyemi had faded badly after half-time.'
Both clearly were not ready. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:07 - Oct 23 with 6169 views | Guthrum |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:01 - Oct 23 by Reuser_is_God |
How we are so weak at RB is a joke, since January MM has signed 3 players to play there but he doesn't know who to pick because none of them are very good. |
Thing is, both Iorfa and Spence started well, then went off the boil.
Are they being pushed too hard in fitness training, leading to burn-out (might also explain the injuries)? |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:08 - Oct 23 with 6155 views | bluewein |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:04 - Oct 23 by Reuser_is_God |
'I also thought it was telling that the two players who were fitness doubts were substituted, both Garner and Adeyemi had faded badly after half-time.'
Both clearly were not ready. |
Agree re. Adeyemi. Thought Garner did what was expected of him, but didn't really get a sniff in the second half.
Found it odd that we thought it was ok to start Nydam, but there was no space for Downes. Although he's been injured too, he's had a few more games under his belt than Adeyemi this season and thought he could have added a bit more energy to the midfield. I'd certainly start him against Burton next week. |  |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:10 - Oct 23 with 6139 views | WeWereZombies |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:04 - Oct 23 by Reuser_is_God |
'I also thought it was telling that the two players who were fitness doubts were substituted, both Garner and Adeyemi had faded badly after half-time.'
Both clearly were not ready. |
I'm not sure it was just pre-match fitness that did for Garner and Adeyemi, they both got plenty of 'attention' from the Nodge defence. If Garner had taken his chance would you still be questioning his pre-match fitness? [Post edited 23 Oct 2017 9:21]
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:10 - Oct 23 with 6133 views | ITFC_Forever |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:03 - Oct 23 by Johnny_Boy |
We were just continually hoofing the ball to the strikers.
Bypassing the midfield.
Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.
I even joked, "Do our players even realise that Murphy was sold 2yrs ago?" |
I say this about Murphy nearly every match - it's like MMc has still got the same A1 flip-chart board in the dressing room with a football pitch drawn out and a big arrow drawn from front to back towards a blue 'x' labelled 'Murph'. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:12 - Oct 23 with 6117 views | Steve_M |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 08:56 - Oct 23 by ITFC_Forever |
I thought the first half was pretty even.... Stuart Watson summed it up well, we were trying to smash the door down, whereas Norwich were trying to unpick the lock. Both approaches yielded the same results - we hit the post, Gunn made a smartish save from Waghorn at the near post and McG headed just over, and they had a few shots following some short passes around the edge of the area which ended up being scuffed through to Bart to make a comfortable save.
The warning signs were there though - our lack of width was accentuated by Norwich posting players very wide which gave them loads of space to a) receive the ball and b) cause our full-backs (Spence in particular) problems.
In the second-half, it looked like following the pattern to begin with - McG's flicked header looked closer at the time than it did on tv after, but then they scored.
And the spare player out wide was the factor again - they worked another opening on the edge of the area which this time they converted.
I thought at the time it was partly due to Skuse still getting back in position following having to receive treatment, but when you watch it back, the ref waves him back on quite a while before and Norwich have tried to put together a move which comes to nothing while Skuse is coming on - so I don't think that was a significant factor, they were working similar opportunities in the first half which were scuffed through to Bart.
And that was that. We ran out of ideas very soon after, Norwich saw the game out pretty comfortably. We couldn't get Sears or Celina involved when they came on and resorted it to lumping it on to the CBs' heads as we usually do when we don't know what else to do.... our midfield have to take some of the responsibility for this as they stopped coming and taking the ball from the defence.
In wider scheme of things, it yet again echoes what we've have seen all to often - we give easy goals away and have to work very hard to score one of our own. Not a good combination.
7 defeats in 9 is a very poor record.... and that record isn't likely to improve much in the next few games. That will see us slip further down the league and Mick will end up looking over his shoulder more and we will see more ultra-cautious tactics from Mick.
ME and Mick are still equally as much to blame, we all know ME clearly can't or won't put any more investment in to the club, whether that's the playing budget or making the ground look vaguely presentable and not covered in crap and peeling paint. The game / division has well and truly left him behind.
And Mick has to take his half of the blame as well - as Steve says, no defined pattern of play and we are still conceding poor goals (a failure to strengthen the defence in the summer is a chicken coming home to roost), RB is still a problem and we are crow-barring players in to the eleven with no thought to how to get the best from them.
I believe we don't have that bad a squad on the whole... but the glaring difference to the PO season is that then we were getting a result that was greater than the sum of it's parts, at the moment we are far from doing that.
Many fans now agree that Mick is done here, only Truce on twitter yesterday was making any kind of defence of him.
Supporting Town truly is a joyless experience at the moment, won't go up, hopefully won't go down and never beat Norwich. We are a complete footballing irrelevance at the moment, in the same way Coventry were pre-Sisu. |
On the defence, I think we have good enough defenders but, as I may have mentioned a few times this season, we need to play the same defence consistently, probably with Skuse and Adeyemi ahead of them. Some of the change has been enforced but not all of it.
Even though Webster was poor yesterday, I would stick with yesterday's back four for the next few games as it's probably our best back four. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:14 - Oct 23 with 6099 views | ITFC_Forever |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:12 - Oct 23 by Steve_M |
On the defence, I think we have good enough defenders but, as I may have mentioned a few times this season, we need to play the same defence consistently, probably with Skuse and Adeyemi ahead of them. Some of the change has been enforced but not all of it.
Even though Webster was poor yesterday, I would stick with yesterday's back four for the next few games as it's probably our best back four. |
A settled back four would certainly help....people moaning about Spence yesterday obviously didn't see Iorfa at Sheff U.
Yesterday was probably Spence's worst game for us, he's actually been ok on the whole. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:17 - Oct 23 with 6078 views | Johnny_Boy |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:10 - Oct 23 by ITFC_Forever |
I say this about Murphy nearly every match - it's like MMc has still got the same A1 flip-chart board in the dressing room with a football pitch drawn out and a big arrow drawn from front to back towards a blue 'x' labelled 'Murph'. |
Every so often, one of our players dwelt with the ball - something could have been laid off on the floor - but it was dealt with like a hot jacket potato.
HOOF.
I saw the opening few wins this season (Brum/Millwall) & we weren't playing that way. We were playing some lovely stuff. We had injuries then too. We just played our FWDS as midfielders. | | | |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:22 - Oct 23 with 6046 views | christiand |
| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:14 - Oct 23 by ITFC_Forever |
A settled back four would certainly help....people moaning about Spence yesterday obviously didn't see Iorfa at Sheff U.
Yesterday was probably Spence's worst game for us, he's actually been ok on the whole. |
The right side was a problem all day long yesterday, but MM won't play an out an out winger there as he can't shoe-horn Waghorn into the side otherwise. This is what I can't understand he has a player in Rowe that is desperate to prove himself at this level, playing well for the U23 side which even MM has acknowledged recently, but he just doesn't get a sniff of any first team action. He showed enough last season that he looks decent going forwards and he is prepared to do the horrible stuff to help the right back defensively. | |
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| A few thoughts on yesterday and where we go from here on 09:25 - Oct 23 with 6026 views | SWGF |
I liked Nodge's formation and balance. They had players playing in their positions. The three behind Jerome were well suited to their roles; two wingers/wide players and a number 10 (all of who worked hard and dropped back when needed). The two in front of the back four formed a decent shield. Jerome didn't do much other than occasionally occupy our centre halves but that's his job, I suppose.
As it goes, I reckon we could have the players to mimic their formation and could do well with it, however MM seems to want to constantly change formation without necessarily changing the personnel to suit it.
As seemingly ever, we were getting our best players on the pitch and trying to get them into a formation which may or may not have matched their capabilities/strengths; again forcing McG into a left wing role which may or may not have had an effect on his performance which was poor. Waghorn blew hot and cold. Not convinced Garner was fit. Similarly Adeyemi who visibly flagged in the second half.
Pretty much everyone I spoke to at halftime and who I glanced on Twitter was citing the space in wide areas (in front of Spence particularly) as being a problem. It just continued in the second half. If the wide players aren't going to offer their fullbacks any cover, you may as well play Celina and let him just attack. We were relying on the central midfield three to have to run out wide to cover, which may have resulted in Adeyemi blowing out of his backside early.
One thing we picked up on, as you have, is what looked like a distinct lack of belief to actually make something happen. That's last season all over and results in the lumping of the ball up front which we saw more of in the second half, esp after they'd scored.
We need a result against Burton. This season could quickly turn as sterile and flat as the last if MM gets the whiff of relegation in his nostrils. |  |
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