| Our progress and January 10:16 - Nov 5 with 1957 views | JakeITFC |
On the face of it another frustrating evening but actually think we are starting to look better. Our left hand side continues to be our strength (and perhaps with a fit Leif last night may just have made the difference even if Johnson did ok) but it's nice to see a bit of balance to our play with Walle Egeli starting to make the other wing dangerous too. We are creating many more chances than we did at the start of the year and you feel that (as McKenna mentioned in his presser) at least one of Azon, Akpom or Szmodics has to start firing soon and it might be lift-off once they do.
I think with January around the corner the obvious areas for upgrade are centre midfield and centre forward but they remain from the summer and it's even harder in January to do that business. Cajuste is sadly the Championship midfielder that we thought he would be - flashes of class but not enough bite or end product. If all of football was just turning he would be a multiple Ballon D'Or winner but sometimes you need to pass or shoot too. I watch players like Hackney and even Louza last night and want somebody like that to grab a hold of the game at times. Taylor is functional and Matusiwa is a good defensive player but goes hiding in build-up. Perhaps Nunez is the answer there but he looks more impactful further forward.
Up front even tougher - think most of us would have been happy to drop big money on Ivanovic at Millwall who has scored once this season so far and other big in stature forwards that we were linked with (even if just on this board) haven't really torn it up. Hirst for my money has done alright - he's on course for a 15-20 goal season and runs his socks off. That sacrificial type running is more rewarded when your number ten and right winger are in the goals and so it is a shame that we are yet to see an open play goal for any of those players.
All in all it's been below standard so far but we should be in the mix just by virtue of it being a very competitive division this year. |  | | |  |
| Our progress and January on 13:46 - Nov 5 with 275 views | HighgateBlue |
| Our progress and January on 11:30 - Nov 5 by JakeITFC |
Yup, which is why I think he should be playing alongside Matusiwa. |
I think he should be playing alongside 10 other Town players, and I'm happy to leave it to Kieran as to where that should be. But he should be playing. |  | | |
| Our progress and January on 13:50 - Nov 5 with 257 views | Steve_M |
| Our progress and January on 12:56 - Nov 5 by Illinoisblue |
I think KM would agree with every word of that. |
I wonder what he thinks of our Summer transfer business, or more accurately why we didn't manage what we needed. |  |
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| Our progress and January on 13:59 - Nov 5 with 221 views | keighleyblue |
| Our progress and January on 13:20 - Nov 5 by Vic |
The vibes coming out from the club after what ended up being an almost total rebuild in the summer were very definitely to limit expectation this season. Of course promo is the target, but i wonder if deep down they are on a two year plan?
FWIW - if we start to get it right in the 2nd half of the season I think we'll be in a good place to go up via the P/O's. |
Deep down the club is on a two year plan? Really?
You do realise that next season there will be more teams in the champ receiving parachute payments? |  | | |
| Our progress and January on 14:41 - Nov 5 with 184 views | little_boy_blue |
This is just wishful thinking, but I think we need someone like Julio Enciso. |  | | |
| Our progress and January on 15:38 - Nov 5 with 163 views | cbower |
| Our progress and January on 11:14 - Nov 5 by Kieran_Knows |
Did Cajuste come out for the second half last night? See also most of his games this season. |
People go on about rotation due to a three game week blah, blah, blah. In the engine room of our line up, Jens Cajuste starts to fade around the 30 minute mark and 15 minutes into the second period his race is run. That just isn't right. Very talented footballer, definitely. However, that's just not enough in a midfield two. Well, not for me anyway. |  |
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| Our progress and January on 15:41 - Nov 5 with 160 views | itfcsuth |
| Our progress and January on 13:44 - Nov 5 by JakeITFC |
Astronomical is probably a bit strong, we are probably quite short of net neutral at worst I would have thought this summer? |
I would have thought we will be net neutral, with Delap, Hutch and Broadhead, but I don't think that takes away from the astronomical expenditure elsewhere, far more misses than hits I'm.
We should, should, be in a far better position than we are, both on the pitch, and off it financially - and you would strongly suspect the investment group will be scathing with our financial management in the past 12/18 months. |  | | |
| Our progress and January on 15:45 - Nov 5 with 154 views | JakeITFC |
| Our progress and January on 15:41 - Nov 5 by itfcsuth |
I would have thought we will be net neutral, with Delap, Hutch and Broadhead, but I don't think that takes away from the astronomical expenditure elsewhere, far more misses than hits I'm.
We should, should, be in a far better position than we are, both on the pitch, and off it financially - and you would strongly suspect the investment group will be scathing with our financial management in the past 12/18 months. |
I think some of our signings could have been better but I imagine I financial picture is actually quite rosey in terms of actual cash, FFP performance and assets on the books. | | | |
| Our progress and January on 15:45 - Nov 5 with 154 views | cbower |
| Our progress and January on 11:34 - Nov 5 by Steve_M |
I think I'm more ambivalent at the moment, our good bits are much better than they were at the start of the season but we are still a fair way from being a really effective team at this level.
Midfield and defence still look disjointed and that shows in the number of incredibly soft goals we've given away. We don't give up many chances but we seem to concede far too high a percentage of them. Midfield you've addressed so I won't add to it here except to say I finished last season with more questions about Cajuste than I would have liked.
A lot comes back to our Summer transfer window, despite knowing what we needed to do in central midfield and up front we failed (again) to get the right players in.
If we do start taking more chances then I think the whole team looks better but the combination of variable intensity and conceding poor goals isn't one that gets a team into the top two. Maybe we just need to stay with the pack until January but it feels a little unsatisfactory at the moment. |
Likewise on Cajuste. Everything which some questioned at Prem level about him but could perhaps overlook due to the entire team not being good enough has simply manifested itself at Championship level. | |
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