| We got what was expected with that team 08:19 - Aug 14 with 1939 views | Steve_M |
It wasn't very good, we were exposed at times but there are a few clear positives from last night as well as plenty of question marks.
A fragile spine, several players coming back from injury, and two youngsters making their debut down the left side against a side who are used to winning was always likely to go one way. Yes, Luton made eleven changes too but considering they had players brought in - Izzy Brown, Bree - plus Lua Lua and a number of last season's regulars they were at a different level to our side in terms of cohesion and fitness.
We spent the entire first half being exposed at full back. Emamnuel was largely at fault for both goals - Edwards had the ball when he gave the penalty away FFS - but didn't have a good half, not helped by the lack of cover from Edwards in front of him. It was worse on the left, Clements struggled positionally all half and Dobra didn't cover well enough, the gaps were enormous. The goals were awful but it could have been more even if Luton failed to hit the target with most of their shots.
Clements has got some character though, even in the first half he made some good tackles and recovered well on occasions. He kept going and he'll learn from the experience. Indeed, both full backs looked far more comfortable in the second half perhaps helped by the midfielders having more discipline.
First the big positive of the evening, Dobra after looking a bit overawed for the first five minutes went on one run and the confidence visibly grew in him, he was a threat running at Luton and he deserved his goal. I don't think he left Clements as exposed in the second half either. I think he's forced his way into the first-team squad, especially with Garbutt out for a month.
The other positive was time on the pitch for Huws, Judge and Edwards. However the lack of fitness was a big reason we were so exposed in the first half, that and some pretty disjointed passing. There was good stuff from all three though, Edwards in the second half looked better, more involved and covered back but he's obviously missed pre-season. There were flashes from Huws and Judge was better than on Saturday even if not quite where he was last season.
We did create chances throughout but particularly in the second half, a little bit more composure and we might have been making the last few minutes uncomfortable for Luton (or it might have been 5-3 to them which wouldn't have been unfair either). Roberts isn't a striker though, he works hard but the limitations are clear.
There's a little bit too much angst about that side and the result, it just fits out glorious recent history in the League Cup all the way back to Notts County under Royle. |  |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 08:21 - Aug 14 with 1912 views | Naylorsboots |
Did we? Luton changed their entire team to. They still looked miles better than us. |  | | |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:27 - Aug 14 with 1874 views | Guthrum |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:21 - Aug 14 by Naylorsboots |
Did we? Luton changed their entire team to. They still looked miles better than us. |
Compare them bringing in Lua Lua with us handing debuts to 18-year-olds. |  |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 08:30 - Aug 14 with 1859 views | Naylorsboots |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:27 - Aug 14 by Guthrum |
Compare them bringing in Lua Lua with us handing debuts to 18-year-olds. |
We had Huws, Judge and Edwards all out there. Who should all compare with him. But are all pretty poor to be honest | | | |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:36 - Aug 14 with 1817 views | Guthrum |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:30 - Aug 14 by Naylorsboots |
We had Huws, Judge and Edwards all out there. Who should all compare with him. But are all pretty poor to be honest |
With his record, I'd put LuaLua above those three, two of whom are in the early stages of a return from significant injury (and the third missed much of pre-season with a broken wrist). | |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 08:36 - Aug 14 with 1819 views | Steve_M |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:30 - Aug 14 by Naylorsboots |
We had Huws, Judge and Edwards all out there. Who should all compare with him. But are all pretty poor to be honest |
You could acknowledge that those are players coming back form injury and one missed an entire pre-season or you could snipe and sulk that a five year old. | |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 08:38 - Aug 14 with 1795 views | Mullet |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:27 - Aug 14 by Guthrum |
Compare them bringing in Lua Lua with us handing debuts to 18-year-olds. |
I wonder if Emmanuel was thrown by facing him at all? He was after all the bloke he gave him a real introduction to senior football etc. |  |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 08:39 - Aug 14 with 1784 views | Guthrum |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:38 - Aug 14 by Mullet |
I wonder if Emmanuel was thrown by facing him at all? He was after all the bloke he gave him a real introduction to senior football etc. |
Will admit to having felt a twinge of concern when I heard that match-up as the game started. | |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 08:48 - Aug 14 with 1739 views | itfcjoe |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:36 - Aug 14 by Steve_M |
You could acknowledge that those are players coming back form injury and one missed an entire pre-season or you could snipe and sulk that a five year old. |
But we don't know the make up of their XI in that regard |  |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 08:49 - Aug 14 with 1730 views | Ftnfwest |
I think it brought home that any of us could list our squad out and say to Lambert 'That's not so bad when you see all the options we have' but realise just how many are not up to fitness, cover players aren't really good enough (at least not against the quality of opposition we faced last night) etc etc.
As you say the annoying thing about the penalty was that the ball was gone and Edwards was about to head up the pitch on a break. There was no goal scoring opportunity being denied whatsoever, but still misconduct. |  | | |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:58 - Aug 14 with 1703 views | Steve_M |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:38 - Aug 14 by Mullet |
I wonder if Emmanuel was thrown by facing him at all? He was after all the bloke he gave him a real introduction to senior football etc. |
It wasn't really that, it was his lack of concentration and composure under pressure (reminded me of the Forest match where he gave away one, if not, two penalties). That and the lack of cover. | |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 09:00 - Aug 14 with 1685 views | Radlett_blue |
Pretty much spot on Steve. We shouldn't be surprised that our reserves - especially with so many injuries - are inferior to Luton's, however sad that might be.
Dobra was the stand-out, looking confident and unafraid to get stuck in. On that evidence, I would out him ahead of Mizouni. Yes, having him & Clements on the left meant we were badly exposed there. I can't see how Clements has been on the bench ahead of Emmanuel. The latter did give away a dumb but clear penalty, whatever the one-eyed fans behind the goal might have thought.
Huws was quiet, but hopefully he got through 60 minutes with no reaction. He'll need some U23 games or something before he's ready to dominate a real game. Edwards will hopefully be ready to be on the bench on Saturday.
Judge was anonymous, but hopefully he will recover some form. We looked far betteronce Jackson came on. Is Dozzell a better option as a midfield playmaker than Judge?
Roberts did what he does - works hard, puts himself about, but looks League 2 level. Given our lack of strikers (WHY sell Harrison) he will be a squad player. The same for Wilson - hopefully he won't feature too often. |  |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 09:03 - Aug 14 with 1663 views | itfcjoe |
| We got what was expected with that team on 08:58 - Aug 14 by Steve_M |
It wasn't really that, it was his lack of concentration and composure under pressure (reminded me of the Forest match where he gave away one, if not, two penalties). That and the lack of cover. |
And the Rotherham game before that, he is too clumsy a defender and is poor positionally
He looks fine when we attack as he did in the last 20 minutes or so, but is way off and has played enough football to be judged now. | |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 09:05 - Aug 14 with 1644 views | Kieran_Knows |
| We got what was expected with that team on 09:03 - Aug 14 by itfcjoe |
And the Rotherham game before that, he is too clumsy a defender and is poor positionally
He looks fine when we attack as he did in the last 20 minutes or so, but is way off and has played enough football to be judged now. |
I wonder if we will see a Jordan Spence style disappearing act with Josh Emmanuel after last night ..... |  |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 11:50 - Aug 14 with 1501 views | madmouse1959 |
| We got what was expected with that team on 09:05 - Aug 14 by Kieran_Knows |
I wonder if we will see a Jordan Spence style disappearing act with Josh Emmanuel after last night ..... |
Something is fundamentally wrong at this club. It is just one poor excuse after another. It becomes more believable to some because we are now a financially broke club in League One. To many others the decline is down to poor leadership and a lack of building a settled, competitive squad. |  |
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| We got what was expected with that team on 12:05 - Aug 14 with 1455 views | urbanblue |
Thanks mate your usual objective summing up of the game for those of us that couldn't get to watch (Damn you ifollow!).
Couple of questions ... What role was Judge playing? Was he meant to be in the 10 position (or was that Dobra) or just all over the place as per usual?
I also notice in a post elsewhere you mentioned a thought I had after this game. Something not many people have picked up on. Did Lambert execute a cunning plan here? Throw a lot of the back up players in who it appears were just not good enough, thereby justifying his case of needing 3 or 4 new players to Evans.
It would even appear obvious to all after this game that we need a couple more full backs and a striker at least let alone more cover at Center Back. |  | | |
| We got what was expected with that team on 13:27 - Aug 14 with 1347 views | Steve_M |
| We got what was expected with that team on 12:05 - Aug 14 by urbanblue |
Thanks mate your usual objective summing up of the game for those of us that couldn't get to watch (Damn you ifollow!).
Couple of questions ... What role was Judge playing? Was he meant to be in the 10 position (or was that Dobra) or just all over the place as per usual?
I also notice in a post elsewhere you mentioned a thought I had after this game. Something not many people have picked up on. Did Lambert execute a cunning plan here? Throw a lot of the back up players in who it appears were just not good enough, thereby justifying his case of needing 3 or 4 new players to Evans.
It would even appear obvious to all after this game that we need a couple more full backs and a striker at least let alone more cover at Center Back. |
Judge as a number 10, nominally behind Roberts but was all over the place. At times that meant he put some good crosses in from wide - his best crosses were those where he didn't have time to overthink - but also that Roberts was too isolated. Dobra was on the left.
Notably Rowe played more centrally when he came on but it was all a bit disjointed by that point.
I'm not sure PL was deliberately highlighting how poor the squad is, more rotating where he could and trying to get fitness levels up a bit. I don't think he set out to lose, no more than MM did in similar situations, but that was his main objective. | |
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