| Reality Check........... 00:35 - Apr 3 with 3408 views | quad |
Obviously the quality of football under McKenna has improved considerably under McKenna. Especially in defence.
But we're still in the third division and just lost at home to Cambridge. Fkn Cambridge FFS. A draw would have been a fairer result overall, but they deserve a lot of credit and we cannot say we 100% deserved to win. We've also drawn games that on paper should have been easy wins.
Taking the blue-tinted specs off , are we really as good as we think we are? Is McKenna really the messiah and the next future England manager? Or are we guilty of going just a teeny weeny bit OTT with it all?
We're still toothless in attack and finding it difficult to win games despite being the better team overall and dominating possession. Personally I'm not convinced that we will HMS piss the league next season either. Everyone was saying that at the start of this season too and it hasn't aged well.
Yes, our terrible start under Cook has cost us dearly. However, we could and should have still made the play-offs if we weren't so powder puff up front. So however you dress it up either McKenna or the attacking players have to take some responsibility. Can't all be blamed on Cook though I'm sure it will be.
Don't really understand all the slating that Makin has got on a previous thread asking if any of the attacking players will be gone next season. Think it's a legitimate question.
For me Burns, Celina and Chaplin will all stay next season and have been generally very good. However, I would argue that they were all ineffectual today for whatever reason and that Norwood had a good game overall. So are they part of the problem in certain games by giving the ball away far too cheaply? Is it too easy to blame the strikers? They really don't look like they are getting good service.
If we're going to get an automatic spot next season we will need to improve considerably in the final third. Which strikers could we get who are better than what we have already? They've still got to fit into the system too.
I won't be popular for saying this but Aluko was very poor when he came on today. Clearly a very gifted player but he was trying to be Maradona and beat about 10 players and ended up running into traffic and getting dispossessed far too often. What's he got this season? 3 goals and zero assists? I know he looks scintillating at times but that is still a terrible return for the season even if he has missed games. With his age against him too maybe he will be the one to leave next year?
Tom Carroll was awful today and should never have replaced Bakinson. So McKenna does make mistakes and hasn't made the great escape so he's not Houdini. |  | | |  |
| Reality Check........... on 00:52 - Apr 3 with 2564 views | Cheltenham_Blue |
Good God. Get some sleep. |  |
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| Reality Check........... on 01:14 - Apr 3 with 2532 views | quad |
| Reality Check........... on 00:52 - Apr 3 by Cheltenham_Blue |
Good God. Get some sleep. |
OK, but what don't you agree with then? | | | |
| Reality Check........... on 01:16 - Apr 3 with 2531 views | Bugs |
| Reality Check........... on 00:52 - Apr 3 by Cheltenham_Blue |
Good God. Get some sleep. |
It's not that a bad a post. Legitimate opinion rather than a full on flounce.
But I think I for one will follow your advise.
Good night. |  | | |
| Reality Check........... on 02:53 - Apr 3 with 2472 views | Minneapolis_ITFC |
it were a sh1t score. We've done well with McKenna up until now. Played with intent and ambition for the most part, an off-day was surely due. Too bad it had to be today.
Not sure what some expect from the manager. A virtual unknown coming in with next to nothing of real experience on his resume. Entered the third league of "football" to begin a proper coaching capacity and with it, a major mess left behind by his predecessor. In truth (thus far) he's a done a remarkable job of things. |  | | |
| Reality Check........... on 03:51 - Apr 3 with 2443 views | jeera |
I know I'm repeating the obvious but I think for many of us we accepted McKenna was going to be far from the finished article when he joined.
But showing what he has already, and at such a young age, he could be our future.
Expect mistakes and allow him room to grow.
He appears to acknowledge faults and tries to rectify mistakes and we've had too many set in their ways who lacked that ability to learn and adapt.
Patience is required with this one and I hope he gets it or it would be a pointless appointment. |  |
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| Reality Check........... on 06:50 - Apr 3 with 2323 views | Fixed_It |
Hmmm - OTT reactions?! |  |
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| Reality Check........... on 07:58 - Apr 3 with 2226 views | Churchman |
Are we looking at one of our first ‘McKenna out’ posts, apart from him being described as smarmy in his first interview by somebody? How about ‘we’d be in the play offs with Warnock’? Or ‘where’s Mick when we need him?’.
Sorry, I will stick with McKenna has done a brilliant job since he has been here on and off the field and I am pleased with how the club is coming together. A poor result doesn’t change that. It’s sport, it happens and for the record, it might be ‘only Cambridge’ but it’s 11v11 and they’ve every right to win a game and deserve respect if they do.
KM has a lot to learn. He’s in his first managers job and he is going to get make mistakes. Nobody on here has said he is Houdini, a messiah or anyone else. He’s just a bloke trying to recover a season basically wrecked by December - by Cook’s stunning incompetence. Remember Charlton? In my experience, the only people that don’t make mistakes are those that don’t do anything.
It’s been obvious that we were short up front for months. It’s the only area of the team that doesn’t work. What was KM to do with one window having been here two weeks? Sign Harry Kane? Hopefully in the summer that area will be strengthened with a couple in and two or three out, but I’d hate to see wholesale change, as you are implying. It doesn’t work.
McKenna’s interview was very balanced, as it always is. No toys out of the pram, no Cook red face hysterics or under the bus approach. Just an honest assessment. Perhaps there is a lesson there for supporters after the initial rage and disappointment dies down.
Big picture - the club is improving in every aspect. I’ll live with that despite the season being a disappointing one. |  | | |
| Reality Check........... on 08:32 - Apr 3 with 2171 views | solomon |
This was never going to be easy, our club had been shamelessly left to deteriorate under the misguided ownership of he who shall not be mentioned. I feel we’re in a much better place than we were 12 months ago, things will improve, we will come back, it’s going to be ok. |  | | |
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| Reality Check........... on 08:40 - Apr 3 with 2154 views | RegencyBlue |
| Reality Check........... on 08:32 - Apr 3 by solomon |
This was never going to be easy, our club had been shamelessly left to deteriorate under the misguided ownership of he who shall not be mentioned. I feel we’re in a much better place than we were 12 months ago, things will improve, we will come back, it’s going to be ok. |
Agreed!
The best part of 14 years of what can only be described as managed decline was always unlikely to be put right in one season. |  | | |
| Reality Check........... on 09:32 - Apr 3 with 2090 views | quad |
| Reality Check........... on 07:58 - Apr 3 by Churchman |
Are we looking at one of our first ‘McKenna out’ posts, apart from him being described as smarmy in his first interview by somebody? How about ‘we’d be in the play offs with Warnock’? Or ‘where’s Mick when we need him?’.
Sorry, I will stick with McKenna has done a brilliant job since he has been here on and off the field and I am pleased with how the club is coming together. A poor result doesn’t change that. It’s sport, it happens and for the record, it might be ‘only Cambridge’ but it’s 11v11 and they’ve every right to win a game and deserve respect if they do.
KM has a lot to learn. He’s in his first managers job and he is going to get make mistakes. Nobody on here has said he is Houdini, a messiah or anyone else. He’s just a bloke trying to recover a season basically wrecked by December - by Cook’s stunning incompetence. Remember Charlton? In my experience, the only people that don’t make mistakes are those that don’t do anything.
It’s been obvious that we were short up front for months. It’s the only area of the team that doesn’t work. What was KM to do with one window having been here two weeks? Sign Harry Kane? Hopefully in the summer that area will be strengthened with a couple in and two or three out, but I’d hate to see wholesale change, as you are implying. It doesn’t work.
McKenna’s interview was very balanced, as it always is. No toys out of the pram, no Cook red face hysterics or under the bus approach. Just an honest assessment. Perhaps there is a lesson there for supporters after the initial rage and disappointment dies down.
Big picture - the club is improving in every aspect. I’ll live with that despite the season being a disappointing one. |
No we're not looking at one of our first McKenna out posts. I think that he has done extremely well and I fully support him. The point that I'm trying to make is that he hasn't achieved anything yet and supporters are getting a bit carried away, not surprising though I suppose given that he's given us all a lot of reason to be optimistic.
Admittedly the 'smarmy' post by Chris Makin / FrimleyBlue was ridiculous but he has recently asked the question of whether Burns/Aluko/Chaplin and Celina will all be here next season which I think is a reasonable question for which he got slated again which I think is a tad unfair.
Credit to Cambridge but we got beaten by them because we don't have enough goal threat. Despite dominating possession again this continues to be the thorn in our side.
You could not fault Burns for effort yesterday. But I think he was guilty of trying to do too much by himself (as was Aluko when he came on). Cambridge got their tactics of trying to keep play down Ipswich's left side (so that Burns was less involved) spot on.
The question that I was asking was are the other 3 players (Burns aside) responsible for the lack of goal threat just as much as the strikers are? Bonne, Pigott, Norwood and Jackson are all good players so it can't all be down to them. The service to them must have been worse for them than what it was earlier in the season when Bonne was banging in goals for fun, surely? So are Celina, Chaplin and Aluko too greedy? Is Burns himself too greedy? McKenna has said himself that it's not all down to the strikers. | | | |
| Reality Check........... on 09:41 - Apr 3 with 2048 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Reality Check........... on 09:32 - Apr 3 by quad |
No we're not looking at one of our first McKenna out posts. I think that he has done extremely well and I fully support him. The point that I'm trying to make is that he hasn't achieved anything yet and supporters are getting a bit carried away, not surprising though I suppose given that he's given us all a lot of reason to be optimistic.
Admittedly the 'smarmy' post by Chris Makin / FrimleyBlue was ridiculous but he has recently asked the question of whether Burns/Aluko/Chaplin and Celina will all be here next season which I think is a reasonable question for which he got slated again which I think is a tad unfair.
Credit to Cambridge but we got beaten by them because we don't have enough goal threat. Despite dominating possession again this continues to be the thorn in our side.
You could not fault Burns for effort yesterday. But I think he was guilty of trying to do too much by himself (as was Aluko when he came on). Cambridge got their tactics of trying to keep play down Ipswich's left side (so that Burns was less involved) spot on.
The question that I was asking was are the other 3 players (Burns aside) responsible for the lack of goal threat just as much as the strikers are? Bonne, Pigott, Norwood and Jackson are all good players so it can't all be down to them. The service to them must have been worse for them than what it was earlier in the season when Bonne was banging in goals for fun, surely? So are Celina, Chaplin and Aluko too greedy? Is Burns himself too greedy? McKenna has said himself that it's not all down to the strikers. |
I'm surprised by the reaction to the suggestion that we need better in the final third which isn't just a striker.
Just mentioned on another post. Chaplin 2 goals in 25 games. Celina 2 in 20. Aluko 2 or 3 all season.
Regarding greediness, I agree to a point. When Jackson came back in, I remember clearly posting about the number of times he pointed to be played in and Chaplin ignored him.
It's tough to see players dropped when you like them. But it's a team game. Some have individual talents.. but overall its not collectively been good enough to win enough games or score enough goals so something has to give. |  |
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| Reality Check........... on 09:56 - Apr 3 with 2009 views | quad |
| Reality Check........... on 09:41 - Apr 3 by FrimleyBlue |
I'm surprised by the reaction to the suggestion that we need better in the final third which isn't just a striker.
Just mentioned on another post. Chaplin 2 goals in 25 games. Celina 2 in 20. Aluko 2 or 3 all season.
Regarding greediness, I agree to a point. When Jackson came back in, I remember clearly posting about the number of times he pointed to be played in and Chaplin ignored him.
It's tough to see players dropped when you like them. But it's a team game. Some have individual talents.. but overall its not collectively been good enough to win enough games or score enough goals so something has to give. |
I just read your other post on the other thread and I agree with you. And I didn't even realise that Chaplin, Celina and Aluko had such a poor goal output recently but it's blatantly obvious there is some fault there too. I get that supporters don't want to knock their favourite players, but I really don't understand either why people seem to think it's just down to the strikers and can't or don't want to see that there is more to it than that.
Chaplin and Celina were anonymous yesterday. Burns looked like he was trying too hard and losing possession by trying to beat too many players and losing possession. Aluko was even more guilty of that when he came on, trying to beat about 10 players and then losing possession (then charging about like Rambo trying to get the ball back). The overall balance isn't right, we are too heavily reliant on Burns.
And Aluko 3 goals all season and zero assists I think, as good as he may be that is a terrible return over the whole season. And should be a concern for the manager. | | | |
| Reality Check........... on 10:13 - Apr 3 with 1969 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Reality Check........... on 09:56 - Apr 3 by quad |
I just read your other post on the other thread and I agree with you. And I didn't even realise that Chaplin, Celina and Aluko had such a poor goal output recently but it's blatantly obvious there is some fault there too. I get that supporters don't want to knock their favourite players, but I really don't understand either why people seem to think it's just down to the strikers and can't or don't want to see that there is more to it than that.
Chaplin and Celina were anonymous yesterday. Burns looked like he was trying too hard and losing possession by trying to beat too many players and losing possession. Aluko was even more guilty of that when he came on, trying to beat about 10 players and then losing possession (then charging about like Rambo trying to get the ball back). The overall balance isn't right, we are too heavily reliant on Burns.
And Aluko 3 goals all season and zero assists I think, as good as he may be that is a terrible return over the whole season. And should be a concern for the manager. |
I think he will be concerned and as you say he's made the point of saying its not just about strikers.
I feel celina gets frustrated with team mates. You see him looking for thompson who's nowhere near him. And he's constantly looking for space that's not being opened up for him by others. That's why I said he's too good for this level.
Chaplin is a great guy. But I'm not sure what he is position wise as he doesn't really assist. He doesn't score enough. He's just there.
Aluko I love his ability but am i right in that he was a winger?
As individuals. Great lads. Great players. But for balance does it work? I don't think it does, which the table and results shows in certain fixtures. | |
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| Reality Check........... on 10:24 - Apr 3 with 1917 views | Guthrum |
Some of the issue is about learning how to break down teams which set out to stifle our attacking threat and give no space for us to play. It nullifies our best threat of creating chances. Plus taking out of the game our midfield goalscorers (Burns, Celina). Causes us to lose the ball more often, thus multiplying the breakaway counterattacks we need to deal with while men are committed forward.
One would presume McKenna has encountered this as an Assistant at ManU, where lower Prem teams aim to frustrate in order to overcome the quality differential. So he ought to come up with a solution eventually - but may need to tweak the personnel, also. |  |
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| Reality Check........... on 10:33 - Apr 3 with 1893 views | pointofblue |
| Reality Check........... on 10:24 - Apr 3 by Guthrum |
Some of the issue is about learning how to break down teams which set out to stifle our attacking threat and give no space for us to play. It nullifies our best threat of creating chances. Plus taking out of the game our midfield goalscorers (Burns, Celina). Causes us to lose the ball more often, thus multiplying the breakaway counterattacks we need to deal with while men are committed forward.
One would presume McKenna has encountered this as an Assistant at ManU, where lower Prem teams aim to frustrate in order to overcome the quality differential. So he ought to come up with a solution eventually - but may need to tweak the personnel, also. |
If I was him I would be tempted to return to two up top which he inherited from McGreal and used against Wycombe and Gillingham. I think he’s returned to it briefly on a couple of occasions - Burton at home being the most memorable - but in general, after the loss to Bolton, he’s stuck with either a 3-5-1-1 or 3-4-2-1. Perhaps we need an extra body up top. | |
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| Reality Check........... on 10:35 - Apr 3 with 1889 views | Radlett_blue |
| Reality Check........... on 10:24 - Apr 3 by Guthrum |
Some of the issue is about learning how to break down teams which set out to stifle our attacking threat and give no space for us to play. It nullifies our best threat of creating chances. Plus taking out of the game our midfield goalscorers (Burns, Celina). Causes us to lose the ball more often, thus multiplying the breakaway counterattacks we need to deal with while men are committed forward.
One would presume McKenna has encountered this as an Assistant at ManU, where lower Prem teams aim to frustrate in order to overcome the quality differential. So he ought to come up with a solution eventually - but may need to tweak the personnel, also. |
McKenna has made a huge difference to how Town play and to results with essentially the same players, so he appears a very talented coach. As the original poster said, we still don't create as many chances as we should, but McKenna will be aware of that. It will be interesting to see which players leave in the summer & the players he brings in. Everyone will have their own idea of whom should stay, so I won't get into that debate. Picking players is a slightly different skill from coaching & setting up a team, but I would have confidence that McKenna will have a good idea of what he wants. The owners should have seen enough to want to give McKenna enough backing. We already have a strong core of Walton, Donacien, Wolf, Edmundson/Burgess, Morsy & Chaplin so we don't need wholesale change. |  |
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| Reality Check........... on 10:38 - Apr 3 with 1871 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Reality Check........... on 10:33 - Apr 3 by pointofblue |
If I was him I would be tempted to return to two up top which he inherited from McGreal and used against Wycombe and Gillingham. I think he’s returned to it briefly on a couple of occasions - Burton at home being the most memorable - but in general, after the loss to Bolton, he’s stuck with either a 3-5-1-1 or 3-4-2-1. Perhaps we need an extra body up top. |
I was surprised we moved away very quickly from the norwood bonne combo where they played quite close together. Was that Burton? Where morsy showed his first game as a roaming cm in the final third. | |
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| Reality Check........... on 10:41 - Apr 3 with 1859 views | pointofblue |
| Reality Check........... on 10:38 - Apr 3 by FrimleyBlue |
I was surprised we moved away very quickly from the norwood bonne combo where they played quite close together. Was that Burton? Where morsy showed his first game as a roaming cm in the final third. |
Burton was Jackson and Pigott. McKenna then switched Pigott for Chaplin against Cheltenham. Don’t think Norwood and Bonne have started together since the Bolton defeat. | |
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| Reality Check........... on 10:46 - Apr 3 with 1850 views | Guthrum |
| Reality Check........... on 10:33 - Apr 3 by pointofblue |
If I was him I would be tempted to return to two up top which he inherited from McGreal and used against Wycombe and Gillingham. I think he’s returned to it briefly on a couple of occasions - Burton at home being the most memorable - but in general, after the loss to Bolton, he’s stuck with either a 3-5-1-1 or 3-4-2-1. Perhaps we need an extra body up top. |
The problem with putting a second man right up front is that it then deprives us of someone in the midfield. That strength in the middle and out wide has been the key to our ball-retention, which in turn has allowed us to go to a back three (with some licence for even they to maraud well up the pitch).
Plus with all our uninjured strikers seemingly out of form in front of goal (esp. marksmanship), not sure that adding more of them will necessarily improve the situation. | |
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| Reality Check........... on 10:48 - Apr 3 with 1835 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Reality Check........... on 10:41 - Apr 3 by pointofblue |
Burton was Jackson and Pigott. McKenna then switched Pigott for Chaplin against Cheltenham. Don’t think Norwood and Bonne have started together since the Bolton defeat. |
Cheers POB. Which was the nors bonne game. It was quite soon into KM time here. Maybe it was Wycombe then.
It's the one where donacien passed into bonne he passed wide to morsy who passed it across for norwood ( I think) | |
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| Reality Check........... on 11:01 - Apr 3 with 1795 views | TheBoyBlue |
Yesterday was a bad day at the office. If you take it to an extreme, even Man City and Liverpool have bad days.
However, the difference under McKenna is obvious to anyone who isn't look to push a negative agenda (not saying you are by the way!). The performances have been brilliant, the defence is reliable again and even with the defeat yesterday, if you took the points ratio we've had under McKenna over a whole season, we're on for 89/90 points, which would see us right up there challenging for automatic. And that's without a striker who can shoot!
Which takes me to what we need. Imagine a striker scoring goals in this team at this level? Easier said then done, but I'm confident that those running the club and McKenna will be looking at various option.
There are one or two other things that bug me like not getting the ball and bodies into the opposition's box more often and the set pieces of course, but I'm confident that these will be things that can be ironed out under a McKenna pre-season. | |
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| Reality Check........... on 11:13 - Apr 3 with 1748 views | longtimefan |
| Reality Check........... on 09:32 - Apr 3 by quad |
No we're not looking at one of our first McKenna out posts. I think that he has done extremely well and I fully support him. The point that I'm trying to make is that he hasn't achieved anything yet and supporters are getting a bit carried away, not surprising though I suppose given that he's given us all a lot of reason to be optimistic.
Admittedly the 'smarmy' post by Chris Makin / FrimleyBlue was ridiculous but he has recently asked the question of whether Burns/Aluko/Chaplin and Celina will all be here next season which I think is a reasonable question for which he got slated again which I think is a tad unfair.
Credit to Cambridge but we got beaten by them because we don't have enough goal threat. Despite dominating possession again this continues to be the thorn in our side.
You could not fault Burns for effort yesterday. But I think he was guilty of trying to do too much by himself (as was Aluko when he came on). Cambridge got their tactics of trying to keep play down Ipswich's left side (so that Burns was less involved) spot on.
The question that I was asking was are the other 3 players (Burns aside) responsible for the lack of goal threat just as much as the strikers are? Bonne, Pigott, Norwood and Jackson are all good players so it can't all be down to them. The service to them must have been worse for them than what it was earlier in the season when Bonne was banging in goals for fun, surely? So are Celina, Chaplin and Aluko too greedy? Is Burns himself too greedy? McKenna has said himself that it's not all down to the strikers. |
I don’t necessarily think the problem is greediness, I think it more to do with picking the right option at the time. There was one instance in the Plymouth match where Aluko got into the area with the ball on his left foot where the best option was really for him to shoot himself. Instead he slipped it to Burns then blasted the ball across the area with so much pace that no one could get near it. As Burns himself said we seem to want to score the perfect goal. For all the possession we have around the penalty area really don’t have enough shots. One other thing I noticed yesterday, and have seen a few times before is that when Chaplin plays he often encroaches on the space Burns like to operate in. I think this tends to negate Burns impact to a degree as the space he normally gets to operate in gets far more congested. | | | |
| Reality Check........... on 11:16 - Apr 3 with 1733 views | OldFart71 |
We can't blame Marcus Evans for this, except perhaps the installing Of PC. But then Cook did what Hurst tried to do and that was get rid of a team that failed. Brought in 19 new players but couldn't get them to gel. McKenna has to a great extent managed to get the defence into some sort of shape. But as we have seen without Morsy we are all at sea in midfield and even with him we still sometimes struggle. As for the forward line we don't have that leader. Last weekend the club celebrated Paul Mariner. Here was a leader. Loads of our attacks went through him. We are far to lightweight upfront and with Burns on about 9 goals being the leading goalscorer that just not enough when the midfield don't contribute many goals and the defence even less. | | | |
| Reality Check........... on 11:23 - Apr 3 with 1713 views | pointofblue |
| Reality Check........... on 10:46 - Apr 3 by Guthrum |
The problem with putting a second man right up front is that it then deprives us of someone in the midfield. That strength in the middle and out wide has been the key to our ball-retention, which in turn has allowed us to go to a back three (with some licence for even they to maraud well up the pitch).
Plus with all our uninjured strikers seemingly out of form in front of goal (esp. marksmanship), not sure that adding more of them will necessarily improve the situation. |
For ball retention but not for scoring. Bonne’s last goal came with two up top and Norwood is better playing in a two; we were hardly complaining about the formation when we eased past Wycombe or netted four at Gillingham. Then he did a switch after Bolton.
We could basically go with Walton, Donacien, Woolfenden, Burgess, Burns, Morsy, Bakinson, Thompson, Celina, Bonne, Norwood. I don’t think a striker ahead of a second, generally ineffective, number ten is going to affect our play that much. | |
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| Reality Check........... on 11:30 - Apr 3 with 1699 views | Stewart27 |
“Taking the blue-tinted specs off , are we really as good as we think we are? Is McKenna really the messiah and the next future England manager? Or are we guilty of going just a teeny weeny bit OTT with it all?”
This is all completely in your head. Nobody is going over the top. Just you. | | | |
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