| Lack of control 10:02 - Dec 21 with 791 views | portmanking |
I think a lot of the tension on the pitch and in the stands stems from our lack of control. As a team we just don't keep possession well enough at all IMO. We never seem to enjoy sustained moments of pressure in the opposition half anymore either. Too many players shirk playing through the lines.
I feel like we've evolved into a counter-attacking/transitional side rather than one that's territorially dominant. Is that with half an eye on the Premier League playing style if we bounce back? Or have we just not recruited enough players that can handle the ball in tight areas/on the half turn? |  | | |  |
| Lack of control on 10:14 - Dec 21 with 709 views | JakeITFC |
Just don’t have a midfield to do it, I think a Hackney type would have (and still would) solved so many of our woes. |  | | |
| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 10:19 - Dec 21 with 671 views | unstableblue |
That first half Cajuste, and Egeli were so far off their best for example, we know how good those players are… and indeed we saw glimpses of it second half… but when they’re playing that within themselves the gameplan goes out of the window
I do think we have control of the game in these matches (like the first period yesterday), but not enough belief and energy to take the game to the opposition and form waves of attack.
The vibe from the stands as you say is sort of perpetuating it, this lack of energy and grabbing the game from players just not believing
First half very poor yesterday, against a Sheff Weds who were always going to be better than people expected and with an incredible bond with their fans (did you see that mass connection between players and away stand before kick-off.
Second half we were much better - albeit a headed clearance off the line by Cajuste was crucial at 2-1.
Town fans perhaps need to consider that teams are playing up against us due to our obvious squad quality, and we tend to get pressed and harried for the first 30mins. We are seeing that when they’re playing tire we can go after with a bit of frenetic attacking with numbers.
When we do go at teams with Azon, Egeli/McAteer, Nunez, Philogene/Clarke it’s very pleasing on the eye AND quite effective. |  |
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| Lack of control on 10:20 - Dec 21 with 663 views | unstableblue |
| Lack of control on 10:14 - Dec 21 by JakeITFC |
Just don’t have a midfield to do it, I think a Hackney type would have (and still would) solved so many of our woes. |
Cajuste showed he can do the Hackney thing of driving us forward, on that superb second goal
But he was anonymous in that first half, and his influence is sporadic
I did think Taylor was giving us impetus, hope he can refind that form
But he’s no Hackney. | |
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| Lack of control on 10:26 - Dec 21 with 631 views | JakeITFC |
| Lack of control on 10:20 - Dec 21 by unstableblue |
Cajuste showed he can do the Hackney thing of driving us forward, on that superb second goal
But he was anonymous in that first half, and his influence is sporadic
I did think Taylor was giving us impetus, hope he can refind that form
But he’s no Hackney. |
Yeah to the OPs point I think Cajuste’s skill set is great for us in transition - there will be nobody better than him in the division at carrying the ball after spinning a man, however a) he doesn’t do it very often and b) increasingly we don’t have opportunities in games to transition much unless we are playing an open opponent (although it is worth noting how devastating we look when given the chance such as the second goal yesterday).
We need a player in there who can go and get the ball of the keeper and stop O’Shea having 100 touches a match. Nunez was probably bought with that in mind but I think he’s better playing forward and is perhaps a bit too much of a risky ball player to give us that control we need. As it stands I don’t think we are a team that can really just decide to have a few minutes of keep ball to take the sting out of moments. | | | |
| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 10:32 - Dec 21 with 601 views | FrimleyBlue |
| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 10:19 - Dec 21 by unstableblue |
That first half Cajuste, and Egeli were so far off their best for example, we know how good those players are… and indeed we saw glimpses of it second half… but when they’re playing that within themselves the gameplan goes out of the window
I do think we have control of the game in these matches (like the first period yesterday), but not enough belief and energy to take the game to the opposition and form waves of attack.
The vibe from the stands as you say is sort of perpetuating it, this lack of energy and grabbing the game from players just not believing
First half very poor yesterday, against a Sheff Weds who were always going to be better than people expected and with an incredible bond with their fans (did you see that mass connection between players and away stand before kick-off.
Second half we were much better - albeit a headed clearance off the line by Cajuste was crucial at 2-1.
Town fans perhaps need to consider that teams are playing up against us due to our obvious squad quality, and we tend to get pressed and harried for the first 30mins. We are seeing that when they’re playing tire we can go after with a bit of frenetic attacking with numbers.
When we do go at teams with Azon, Egeli/McAteer, Nunez, Philogene/Clarke it’s very pleasing on the eye AND quite effective. |
Whilst we know the development potential of Egeli, unfortunately whilst we await that transition, his stats alongside those of Mcateer don't make great reading for the right hand side of the pitch
https://www.fotmob.com/en-GB/players/1113915/kasey-mcateer
https://www.fotmob.com/en-GB/players/1113915/kasey-mcateer
Compare those to Philogene and Clarke
https://www.fotmob.com/en-GB/players/1089645/jaden-philogene-bidace
https://www.fotmob.com/en-GB/players/914402/jack-clarke
our right hand side is an issue. |  |
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| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 10:35 - Dec 21 with 588 views | Wallingford_Boy |
Yet oddly, in the first half yesterday everything went down the right side, Davis and Jaden hardly touched the ball.
Very weird. |  |
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| Lack of control on 10:36 - Dec 21 with 584 views | _CliveBaker_ |
I think there’s a lot of entitlement that plays into that as well, in terms of the perception of how much control we should have vs the reality.
We don’t have a right to walk over teams like Stoke 3-0 like some seem to think. We had 65% possession yesterday, 20 shots and an XG of 3. something vs theirs of 0.6. It wasn’t a top performance by any stretch and they aren’t a great side, but some of our supporters need to get real a bit. I don’t suppose Southampton or Leicester expected to be where they are either, perhaps it’s not as easy as it looks to get humped for 12 months and adjust to being expected to win every week. And while we’ve got good players, perhaps they aren’t the ‘cheat code’ some think they are. In most cases if they were premier league players they probably wouldn’t be here. Not saying none are capable of playing there, but let’s not make our seasoned championship players like Furlong, Nunez, probably Hirst, Szmodics, Taylor, Walton etc etc are demonstrably far too good for this level. We’ve got quality but we need to match opposition on work rate, desire, fans probably have a part to play in that too.
I’m not saying there isn’t room for improvement, there’s plenty, but I do wonder what our supporters are expecting at times when we’ve won 3 of the last 4 and people still aren’t happy. It’s delusional at times. |  | | |
| Lack of control on 10:42 - Dec 21 with 549 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Lack of control on 10:36 - Dec 21 by _CliveBaker_ |
I think there’s a lot of entitlement that plays into that as well, in terms of the perception of how much control we should have vs the reality.
We don’t have a right to walk over teams like Stoke 3-0 like some seem to think. We had 65% possession yesterday, 20 shots and an XG of 3. something vs theirs of 0.6. It wasn’t a top performance by any stretch and they aren’t a great side, but some of our supporters need to get real a bit. I don’t suppose Southampton or Leicester expected to be where they are either, perhaps it’s not as easy as it looks to get humped for 12 months and adjust to being expected to win every week. And while we’ve got good players, perhaps they aren’t the ‘cheat code’ some think they are. In most cases if they were premier league players they probably wouldn’t be here. Not saying none are capable of playing there, but let’s not make our seasoned championship players like Furlong, Nunez, probably Hirst, Szmodics, Taylor, Walton etc etc are demonstrably far too good for this level. We’ve got quality but we need to match opposition on work rate, desire, fans probably have a part to play in that too.
I’m not saying there isn’t room for improvement, there’s plenty, but I do wonder what our supporters are expecting at times when we’ve won 3 of the last 4 and people still aren’t happy. It’s delusional at times. |
It's not really the results,
If you look at west ham fans that got moyes out why? he had won a cup, won a good number of prem games but the football was dire.
Mick, was doing ok for town, did what he could with the funds he had, but the football was horrid
We won yesturday 3-1, probably should have scored more, but that first half again is what's causing the gripes imo
We haven't had under KM a run of incredibly slow, pedestrian performances, yet they've become the norm. Is he coaching us a different way so when we hit the prem we are ready... possibly. But that itself will take time for a lot of fans to get on board with. We had well even upto christmas last year, KM football, fast, zipping football. Score 3/4 maybe concede 2.
I don't think the expecation was 4-0 by HT yesturday, but I think attack attack attack would have been [Post edited 21 Dec 10:48]
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| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 10:47 - Dec 21 with 526 views | billlm |
Macateer has been very unlucky in amongst some of his turgid play,
Player there we will get it out of him should have scored yesterday and should have had assists by now,
Needs a bit more composure pulls the ball when should play it in and vice versa,
Near the end was easier to score for the Spanish lad than not so these stats don't help Macateer with his stats so our fan base seems him as a failure he won't be, |  | | |
| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 10:55 - Dec 21 with 485 views | FrimleyBlue |
| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 10:47 - Dec 21 by billlm |
Macateer has been very unlucky in amongst some of his turgid play,
Player there we will get it out of him should have scored yesterday and should have had assists by now,
Needs a bit more composure pulls the ball when should play it in and vice versa,
Near the end was easier to score for the Spanish lad than not so these stats don't help Macateer with his stats so our fan base seems him as a failure he won't be, |
Issue with this Mcateer should have had an assist thing, completely agree, however, we could have jackson back as a rw and he'd have got a few assists.
You do expect more from Mcateer. Is it his fault what we paid no, but we did pay it, so there is an expectation on what that brings in and thus far, he's not shown it. Clearly the manager feels the same as he's barely selecting him recently. | |
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| Lack of control on 11:25 - Dec 21 with 428 views | _CliveBaker_ |
| Lack of control on 10:42 - Dec 21 by FrimleyBlue |
It's not really the results,
If you look at west ham fans that got moyes out why? he had won a cup, won a good number of prem games but the football was dire.
Mick, was doing ok for town, did what he could with the funds he had, but the football was horrid
We won yesturday 3-1, probably should have scored more, but that first half again is what's causing the gripes imo
We haven't had under KM a run of incredibly slow, pedestrian performances, yet they've become the norm. Is he coaching us a different way so when we hit the prem we are ready... possibly. But that itself will take time for a lot of fans to get on board with. We had well even upto christmas last year, KM football, fast, zipping football. Score 3/4 maybe concede 2.
I don't think the expecation was 4-0 by HT yesturday, but I think attack attack attack would have been [Post edited 21 Dec 10:48]
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If anyone thinks our football is dire or even remotely resembles that of Mick or Moyes then they’ll probably never be won over. We’ve not had the season we wanted to so far but we’re the 2nd highest scorers in the league, there’s loads to improve on but it’s not all doom and gloom. We’ve scored 7 in our last 3 at home, we’ve scored some bangers as well. More complete and joined up performances will come, I think the fixture list for the first few months of 2026 has the potential to see us really kick on. | | | |
| Lack of control on 11:27 - Dec 21 with 423 views | tractorboy1978 |
| Lack of control on 10:26 - Dec 21 by JakeITFC |
Yeah to the OPs point I think Cajuste’s skill set is great for us in transition - there will be nobody better than him in the division at carrying the ball after spinning a man, however a) he doesn’t do it very often and b) increasingly we don’t have opportunities in games to transition much unless we are playing an open opponent (although it is worth noting how devastating we look when given the chance such as the second goal yesterday).
We need a player in there who can go and get the ball of the keeper and stop O’Shea having 100 touches a match. Nunez was probably bought with that in mind but I think he’s better playing forward and is perhaps a bit too much of a risky ball player to give us that control we need. As it stands I don’t think we are a team that can really just decide to have a few minutes of keep ball to take the sting out of moments. |
Nunez was definitely signed to fulfil that role. By my reckoning him and Matusiwa have only played once together as a midfield two though. I think he’s done well in the 10 but still think his best position is as a deeper playmaker. He might take risks in that position but I think that is what we need - someone that will punch the ball through the lines faster rather than taking a safe pass. Someone that will hit Davis directly from a deeper position.
Easy when you are 3-1 up and have the game won perhaps but I thought Young did well for the last 10 mins in midfield. Played several punchy, clever balls through. | | | |
| Lack of control on 11:36 - Dec 21 with 378 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Lack of control on 11:25 - Dec 21 by _CliveBaker_ |
If anyone thinks our football is dire or even remotely resembles that of Mick or Moyes then they’ll probably never be won over. We’ve not had the season we wanted to so far but we’re the 2nd highest scorers in the league, there’s loads to improve on but it’s not all doom and gloom. We’ve scored 7 in our last 3 at home, we’ve scored some bangers as well. More complete and joined up performances will come, I think the fixture list for the first few months of 2026 has the potential to see us really kick on. |
I wasny directly comparing them as such
I was just meaning a large amount of people who returned to watching town have seen a vastly different speed of football under KM to what we are seeing | |
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| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 11:36 - Dec 21 with 378 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
Absolutely agree.
Darnell Furlong does have his plus points. I think he’s a good 1v1 defender and what I like most is his strength in the air. Seems to deal with a lot of long cross field passes really well. In possession he is pretty poor. Now that’s ok if the RW in front of you is firing. Axel wasn’t particularly attacking but he had Omari and Burns causing havoc in front of him.
Egeli has had a couple of nice finishes this season. His general play I think has been pretty poor. He looks very simply to defend against. Yesterday the defender has no problem with him because you knew he was coming inside every time and he doesn’t have the pace or 1v1 ability to run at a defender head on. Now I’m sure he’s going to improve in the future but he’s not ready yet. The issue is Egeli is better than Mcateer so we don’t have a viable option to rotate him with. If we could just sort out that right hand side this team would be sooooo much better. |  |
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| Lack of control on 11:50 - Dec 21 with 344 views | strikalite |
| Lack of control on 10:36 - Dec 21 by _CliveBaker_ |
I think there’s a lot of entitlement that plays into that as well, in terms of the perception of how much control we should have vs the reality.
We don’t have a right to walk over teams like Stoke 3-0 like some seem to think. We had 65% possession yesterday, 20 shots and an XG of 3. something vs theirs of 0.6. It wasn’t a top performance by any stretch and they aren’t a great side, but some of our supporters need to get real a bit. I don’t suppose Southampton or Leicester expected to be where they are either, perhaps it’s not as easy as it looks to get humped for 12 months and adjust to being expected to win every week. And while we’ve got good players, perhaps they aren’t the ‘cheat code’ some think they are. In most cases if they were premier league players they probably wouldn’t be here. Not saying none are capable of playing there, but let’s not make our seasoned championship players like Furlong, Nunez, probably Hirst, Szmodics, Taylor, Walton etc etc are demonstrably far too good for this level. We’ve got quality but we need to match opposition on work rate, desire, fans probably have a part to play in that too.
I’m not saying there isn’t room for improvement, there’s plenty, but I do wonder what our supporters are expecting at times when we’ve won 3 of the last 4 and people still aren’t happy. It’s delusional at times. |
Said it many times that there's very little in any of these players at this level, it's that touch and close control that gets you to that next level and I really hate to say this but apart from Philogene I'm struggling to see who would be good enough and even he is where he is due to his lack of physicality. Even on a bad day, top players don't lose their touch, Morsy for example, receiving the ball in tight areas, this is the next level and where are recruitment needs to be... |  | | |
| Lack of control on 11:53 - Dec 21 with 328 views | GlasgowBlue |
| Lack of control on 10:14 - Dec 21 by JakeITFC |
Just don’t have a midfield to do it, I think a Hackney type would have (and still would) solved so many of our woes. |
Nunez could play the Hackney role but we don't have a number 10 so he's filling in that spot. |  |
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| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 12:11 - Dec 21 with 275 views | billlm |
| I do think it’s individual player form and confidence at the heart of this on 10:55 - Dec 21 by FrimleyBlue |
Issue with this Mcateer should have had an assist thing, completely agree, however, we could have jackson back as a rw and he'd have got a few assists.
You do expect more from Mcateer. Is it his fault what we paid no, but we did pay it, so there is an expectation on what that brings in and thus far, he's not shown it. Clearly the manager feels the same as he's barely selecting him recently. |
And he will deliver with this coaching team,
Probably score the goal that takes up now wouldn't that be irony for a percentage of our fans, | | | |
| Lack of control on 12:57 - Dec 21 with 200 views | Scuzzer |
Correct. |  |
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| Lack of control on 12:59 - Dec 21 with 194 views | Scuzzer |
| Lack of control on 11:53 - Dec 21 by GlasgowBlue |
Nunez could play the Hackney role but we don't have a number 10 so he's filling in that spot. |
Do we need to fill the number ten position? 4-3-3 would be perfectly workable. | |
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