| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... 19:34 - Feb 8 with 1973 views | PhantomsBelievers |
...I think I did actually register at one point before now, but maybe not...
Anyway, I've registered again this evening, as like many, I'm just disappointed and dejected. Yes, there's lot of football still to be played, but the way we are playing of late means it will make little difference.
I don't profess to be any great footballing tactician; I just try to observe... and end up swearing now and again... well, quite a lot lately. As a football club, we do seem to get some of the basics wrong (repeatedly).
Goalkeepers... any team needs a consistent keeper at the back they can rely on, who's MO they know. The current swapping of Holy and Norris reminds me of a similar situation with Marshall & Sereni nearly 20 years ago. Holy has done little wrong as I recall, whilst Norris pretty much dropped us 2 points at Wycombe... and then there's just no excuse for what happened for the 2nd goal against Peterborough. There's a reason he's on loan from Wolves (a Premier League team) with us (a League One team) at 26 years of age!
Our possession stats for most games are usually good, but that's hardly surprising given the amount of sideways and backward passes. When I watch the highlights from ours and other divisions, I'm always struck by some of the great goals scored from players just taking a shot, often from distance. We rarely seem to have done this over the last few years, seemingly obsessed with trying to pass our way to the edge of the 6-yard box, where the move invariably breaks down, if not before. Why don't we take more of a chance, especially when the weather is wet or windy? Take a shot and mistakes can happen - the ball may take a deflection, the keeper can spill it, we could gain a penalty from a handball. We just rarely take a chance to ever see any benefit or stroke of luck and it feels like we just over-complicate things.
Strikers... Norwood and Keane are both average in my book, nothing more. Sears is still coming back from a long injury. I have no time for Jackson. The guy is just not a natural striker. Yes, he has pace and runs around a lot, but not always in the right direction! His reading of the game and where he needs to be is poor, his body language is shocking at times; his shoulders drop like Harry Enfield's 'Kevin' character way too often for my liking. The guy always wants an extra touch and with that extra touch the moment/chance is usually gone.
Lambert - talks a lot of bland footballing clichés - "all the gear, no idea" as a tennis coach friend of mine used to say - but he's had over a year now and his win ratio during that time is poor. I cannot fathom why Evans gave him a 5-year contract? Based on his recent managerial record, was he really going to be poached from under our noses? I think not. He may yet still get us up, but if he doesn't get found out before then, he certainly will in The Championship.
With an average home crowd circa 20,000 per game, Portman Road should almost be 'fortress-like' in this division, but for whatever reason, it clearly isn't.
Anyway, enough rambling for my first post; I'm just depressing myself even more...
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| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... on 19:41 - Feb 8 with 1896 views | lambo77 |
good maiden speech, stick with us! | | | |
| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... on 20:25 - Feb 8 with 1772 views | monty_radio |
Agree with a lot of that. Think it's a tad hard on Jackson whose runs might be more productive if the ball was actually aimed into a spot for him to run onto rather than in the general direction of some place in front of him. Also, he's a bit like Ian Marshall: a trudger - after an unsuccessful burst of energy, until the next time. | |
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| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... on 20:33 - Feb 8 with 1725 views | goat_man |
Good post |  | | |
| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... on 21:53 - Feb 8 with 1549 views | ernie |
| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... on 20:25 - Feb 8 by monty_radio |
Agree with a lot of that. Think it's a tad hard on Jackson whose runs might be more productive if the ball was actually aimed into a spot for him to run onto rather than in the general direction of some place in front of him. Also, he's a bit like Ian Marshall: a trudger - after an unsuccessful burst of energy, until the next time. |
Been thinking about this for a few minutes and I'm still struggling to imagine any parallel universe where Kayden Jackson can be compared to Ian Marshall | | | |
| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... on 22:10 - Feb 8 with 1487 views | allezlesbleus |
I was fortunate to be old enough to watch Warky banging in bags of goals from midfield every season. But after him, we still had players like Mark Brennan and Ian Gleghorn(?) who would score a few 20 yard screamers every season.
Apart from a few Garbutt free-kicks (not knocking him, I'm happy with what he has done) in the last decade or so, who from midfield would score several goals a season, plus chip in with the odd blinding piledriver from 20 yards out, from time to time? |  | | |
| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... on 09:36 - Feb 9 with 1273 views | PhantomsBelievers |
| I've been a reader of this forum on and off over the years... on 22:10 - Feb 8 by allezlesbleus |
I was fortunate to be old enough to watch Warky banging in bags of goals from midfield every season. But after him, we still had players like Mark Brennan and Ian Gleghorn(?) who would score a few 20 yard screamers every season.
Apart from a few Garbutt free-kicks (not knocking him, I'm happy with what he has done) in the last decade or so, who from midfield would score several goals a season, plus chip in with the odd blinding piledriver from 20 yards out, from time to time? |
Thank you all for the responses.
Talking of parallel universes and Ian Marshall, I attended an Identity Access Management summit (full of IT geeks ) last year and one of the keynote speakers asked whether anyone had ever heard of “the footballer Ian Marshall”. Clearly, very few people in that room were going to have heard of Marshall and even I had a bit of a “really?” moment.
Anyway, the story told by the keynote speaker was essentially the one about Marshall fitting his heart rate monitor to his dog, as Sam Allardyce described later in an autobiography: https://www.dreamteamfc.com/c/archives/uncategorized/176211/big-sam-ian-marshall
I just never expected to be asked whether I’d heard of Ian Marshall at that particular event! | | | |
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