| KM got it spot on last night . . 07:51 - Dec 28 with 2334 views | Battersea_Blue |
We simply don't have the squad to go with the formation and attacking approach we took in League 1 and the Championship.
To go gung-ho against the top teams in the Prem (especially away from home) will fail with the quality of player we currently have, a la Man City, West Ham. Same happened against in-form Newcastle at home.
What KM did last night was smart - 5 at the back and try to stifle them. We kept Arsenal to just the one goal and then with 10 or so minutes to go, just 1 down, put the attacking options on and give it a go. Sure, we may lose 2-0, but there's a chance we could snatch an equaliser or possibly a winner if we've kept a game at 0-0 until 80 mins.
I hope we see this a lot more in the tougher away games. |  | | |  |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 08:10 - Dec 28 with 2241 views | Wallingford_Boy |
I’d a rather go down with a fight personally.. |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 08:12 - Dec 28 with 2232 views | ITFCBlues |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 08:10 - Dec 28 by Wallingford_Boy |
I’d a rather go down with a fight personally.. |
What constitutes a fight? Getting hammered 4-0 at home to Newcastle? |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 08:45 - Dec 28 with 2129 views | bsw72 |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 08:10 - Dec 28 by Wallingford_Boy |
I’d a rather go down with a fight personally.. |
So was last night not a battling performance pushing one of the title favourites all the way to the final whistle?
I thought last night we showed more grit and intelligence in our play than I had hoped we could with the squad limitations.
Obviously we could do it the Sheffield Utd or Southampton was where we don’t learn and develop and just keep trying to do the same thing against better teams. |  | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:06 - Dec 28 with 2032 views | BloomBlue |
I thought it was a perfect mirror image of an MM team. Go for 0-0 and hope for a goal on the break.
Definitely the most boring Prem game so far this season, although apparently the Brighton/Brentford was just as bad. |  | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:08 - Dec 28 with 2014 views | Vic |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 08:10 - Dec 28 by Wallingford_Boy |
I’d a rather go down with a fight personally.. |
I thought we fought like tigers last night. Chased and closed down as much as we could in the first half. It wasn't pretty, but did the job. 2nd half we came out and stood toe to toe with one of the best teams in the country. OK so we were no where near their standard and as blunt as a piece of stick up front, but that's not the same as not fighting. |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:09 - Dec 28 with 2003 views | Churchman |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 08:12 - Dec 28 by ITFCBlues |
What constitutes a fight? Getting hammered 4-0 at home to Newcastle? |
There is a balance to be had between ‘giving it a go’ and getting torn to pieces and trying to stifle the opposition by not playing at all.
Where that balance is I don’t know. What I do know is we are competitive with Southampton, Leicester and one or two others. Can offer a game to a few above that and are utterly outclassed in every way the further up the food chain we go. Dish up all the tactics in the world but if the opposition have better players who are at it, organised with a stronger bench, you’ve no chance.
To hold it to 1-0 looks a good effort after being beaten out of sight last time out, but I’ve yet to see the Arsenal game so shouldn’t comment
What I will comment on is the level of criticism the players are getting. It is in my view OTT. Why don’t we set up a scapegoat league? Three points for worst performer two for next and so on. That way we can get as many players under the hammer as possible in there. Any that look in on TWTD can then report back. I’m being facetious in the sense that on a forum for views, just about anything goes. I just think it’s a little unfair/unbalanced at times. Just my opinion.
The players are giving their best and if they’re not good enough, so be it. I read words like ‘expensive’ in relation to new players. No they weren’t. Barnes on Newcastle subs bench cost £44m, more than double any of our players. Were Muric, Omari, Delap, Greaves, Szmodics, Clarke expensive for us? Yes because of our budget. But not by the standards of the PL. ‘But we spent £100m’. Yes, but we were trying to bridge a chasm in no time at all and that was always going to be a problem.
The season is passing fast. I don’t think we have enough to survive, but who knows? Not me. The team’s speed in getting to the PL was greater than the club’s progression and it showed. Play catch up all you like but you are always going to struggle and so we have. Promoted too soon? I agree with the view that you can never be promoted too soon. Just make the best of the opportunity if you can.
Mistakes? the club manager and players have made loads of them. So what? How else do you learn and progress? Keep at it, keep learning and progressing on and off the field. Patience and persistence with a little realism as to what and where we are at this moment in time. |  | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:12 - Dec 28 with 1976 views | Radlett_blue |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 08:45 - Dec 28 by bsw72 |
So was last night not a battling performance pushing one of the title favourites all the way to the final whistle?
I thought last night we showed more grit and intelligence in our play than I had hoped we could with the squad limitations.
Obviously we could do it the Sheffield Utd or Southampton was where we don’t learn and develop and just keep trying to do the same thing against better teams. |
With a few minutes to go, Arsenal were trying to keep the ball by the corner flag & waste time in order to hold on to 1-0. That shows what a good performance it was in the 2nd half, with much more intent shown form the whistle. Yes, while Arsenal were understandably much the better side, with some better decision making in the final third, we could have snatched an equaliser. Cajuste had his best game yet in a Town shirt. Not sure if we will persist with 3 (or 5) at the back, especially in the home games, but some were crying out for a change in set up & it produced a good performance in what was always going to be one of our most difficult games. |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:20 - Dec 28 with 1939 views | bournemouthblue |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:06 - Dec 28 by BloomBlue |
I thought it was a perfect mirror image of an MM team. Go for 0-0 and hope for a goal on the break.
Definitely the most boring Prem game so far this season, although apparently the Brighton/Brentford was just as bad. |
Palace was pretty boring also, for similar reasons and again we came out short
We are staying in games, what we do need is an extra bit of gravy to come out the right side of these tighter games
We aren't by any means out of the relegation scrap, a good January could change our fortunes |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:23 - Dec 28 with 1928 views | Marshalls_Mullet |
Not the best football to watch, but it did show some flexibility from KM. We'll need a Plan B if we are to stay up, and we will get better at executing it.
We were getting far too predictable and easy to beat, we needed to try something. [Post edited 28 Dec 2024 9:30]
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:34 - Dec 28 with 1839 views | WubbleU |
Discipline..that is what we showed last night. You can't just play open end to end football at this standard.
It isn't what I want to watch forever but I find it really encouraging; the chaos we have seen in a lot of games will not keep us up. I think it is KMs new development this year. We have seen us trying to hold 1-0 leads rather than trying to win 4-3. Isn't quite there yet but we need to be able to do it.
There will be other days for open flowing football. | | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:47 - Dec 28 with 1787 views | Garv |
I think the important question is will we see more of this in some of our home games? The home form has to improve, and the approach we've taken so far hasn't worked.
The trouble is, I don't see us as a good counter attacking team at all really, so sitting deep and waiting for a break away on a regular basis doesn't feel like a great plan to me. So I think we'll continue to see us try to dominate the ball at home as much as we can, but that will inevitably leave us open at times. |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:51 - Dec 28 with 1757 views | Bluefields |
How do you accumulate points without scoring or even threatening? | | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:55 - Dec 28 with 1727 views | wrightsrightglove |
And it’s not just us, how many teams in the league are going to go to the Emirates this season and try and go toe to toe with Arsenal? 4 or 5 maybe? The majority of the league would get battered if they try and play against a team like arsenal, that’s the harsh reality of this league and that’s the reason they’ve had a few games recently where they’ve stuck 3 or 4 past teams | | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 10:17 - Dec 28 with 1645 views | Scuzzer |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:51 - Dec 28 by Bluefields |
How do you accumulate points without scoring or even threatening? |
By drawing 0-0. Simples.Next question. |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 10:48 - Dec 28 with 1489 views | Stewart27 |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:51 - Dec 28 by Bluefields |
How do you accumulate points without scoring or even threatening? |
You wouldn’t have taken a 0-0 last night? | | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:36 - Dec 28 with 1414 views | pointofblue |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:51 - Dec 28 by Bluefields |
How do you accumulate points without scoring or even threatening? |
The shape wasn't the issue with this last night. It was players not taking an opportunity to cross or shoot when they had a chance to. I highly doubt it was an instruction from McKenna, and assume it's down to nervousness about giving the ball away. | |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:42 - Dec 28 with 1379 views | algy |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:36 - Dec 28 by pointofblue |
The shape wasn't the issue with this last night. It was players not taking an opportunity to cross or shoot when they had a chance to. I highly doubt it was an instruction from McKenna, and assume it's down to nervousness about giving the ball away. |
Nervousness about giving the ball away and reluctance to risk anything comes from an obsession with possession ingrained by the coaching. | |
| Veni Vidi Participatur. Now we can get back to competing. |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:44 - Dec 28 with 1368 views | Bluefields |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 10:48 - Dec 28 by Stewart27 |
You wouldn’t have taken a 0-0 last night? |
You need to change once you go behind, still playing with 11players behind the ball is plain daft. No shots on target. | | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:46 - Dec 28 with 1350 views | dirtyboy |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:36 - Dec 28 by pointofblue |
The shape wasn't the issue with this last night. It was players not taking an opportunity to cross or shoot when they had a chance to. I highly doubt it was an instruction from McKenna, and assume it's down to nervousness about giving the ball away. |
Cross into a lightly loaded box, lose possession at the top of the pitch and they then hit us on the break with world class players?
Come on, I get it, I wanted half a dozen balls thrown in the box last night, but had an unusual viewpoint being almost pitchside ....seeing Leif get the ball you look up and into the box and see....nothing. Honestly, perspective is so important, I wasn't happy, but the plan was to absolutely limit them getting chances and we did that.
Would have liked to see some speculative stuff, but could have undone us more and we're very unlikely to score more than 2....had to stay 1-0 for as long as possible. |  | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:56 - Dec 28 with 1288 views | algy |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:46 - Dec 28 by dirtyboy |
Cross into a lightly loaded box, lose possession at the top of the pitch and they then hit us on the break with world class players?
Come on, I get it, I wanted half a dozen balls thrown in the box last night, but had an unusual viewpoint being almost pitchside ....seeing Leif get the ball you look up and into the box and see....nothing. Honestly, perspective is so important, I wasn't happy, but the plan was to absolutely limit them getting chances and we did that.
Would have liked to see some speculative stuff, but could have undone us more and we're very unlikely to score more than 2....had to stay 1-0 for as long as possible. |
"very unlikely to score more than 2".!!!!!!! We're very unlikely to score at all. | |
| Veni Vidi Participatur. Now we can get back to competing. |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 12:10 - Dec 28 with 1230 views | Swansea_Blue |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:51 - Dec 28 by Bluefields |
How do you accumulate points without scoring or even threatening? |
You don’t. But despite it being men against boys in the first half we still had two of the best four chances last night, so you can gain points if you take those. |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 12:15 - Dec 28 with 1208 views | ronnyd |
I quite enjoyed last night's performance. My only real gripe was our failure to stick a few balls into their box in the dying minutes. | | | |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 12:16 - Dec 28 with 1204 views | Guthrum |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 11:44 - Dec 28 by Bluefields |
You need to change once you go behind, still playing with 11players behind the ball is plain daft. No shots on target. |
Not really. You need to stop it going to 2-0 or 3-0 as much as going after a goal ourselves. |  |
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| KM got it spot on last night . . on 12:23 - Dec 28 with 1171 views | Guthrum |
| KM got it spot on last night . . on 09:09 - Dec 28 by Churchman |
There is a balance to be had between ‘giving it a go’ and getting torn to pieces and trying to stifle the opposition by not playing at all.
Where that balance is I don’t know. What I do know is we are competitive with Southampton, Leicester and one or two others. Can offer a game to a few above that and are utterly outclassed in every way the further up the food chain we go. Dish up all the tactics in the world but if the opposition have better players who are at it, organised with a stronger bench, you’ve no chance.
To hold it to 1-0 looks a good effort after being beaten out of sight last time out, but I’ve yet to see the Arsenal game so shouldn’t comment
What I will comment on is the level of criticism the players are getting. It is in my view OTT. Why don’t we set up a scapegoat league? Three points for worst performer two for next and so on. That way we can get as many players under the hammer as possible in there. Any that look in on TWTD can then report back. I’m being facetious in the sense that on a forum for views, just about anything goes. I just think it’s a little unfair/unbalanced at times. Just my opinion.
The players are giving their best and if they’re not good enough, so be it. I read words like ‘expensive’ in relation to new players. No they weren’t. Barnes on Newcastle subs bench cost £44m, more than double any of our players. Were Muric, Omari, Delap, Greaves, Szmodics, Clarke expensive for us? Yes because of our budget. But not by the standards of the PL. ‘But we spent £100m’. Yes, but we were trying to bridge a chasm in no time at all and that was always going to be a problem.
The season is passing fast. I don’t think we have enough to survive, but who knows? Not me. The team’s speed in getting to the PL was greater than the club’s progression and it showed. Play catch up all you like but you are always going to struggle and so we have. Promoted too soon? I agree with the view that you can never be promoted too soon. Just make the best of the opportunity if you can.
Mistakes? the club manager and players have made loads of them. So what? How else do you learn and progress? Keep at it, keep learning and progressing on and off the field. Patience and persistence with a little realism as to what and where we are at this moment in time. |
I think the balance is so delicate that it is very difficult to find. Takes very little to throw it off one way or the other.
Also, it will move from game to game (as matchups vary, players get injured and come back, form dips and rises), so it isn't a setup which can be discovered and saved for future use. Neither is it a simple and mathematical - therefore replicable and predictable - process. McKenna is working off "best guess" every time. | |
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