bluer than bluesRon SaundersNo it’s not what I am saying!!!
I am saying possession football in front of the opposition who have dropped back into shape is not gonna cut it.
Take risks play thru the lines.
Wingers when 1 on 1 run their full back.
I don’t care what anyone says we definitely haven’t clicked yet, perhaps due to the influx of players.
Remember Leicester and Southampton last season? Both played this system superbly and
Tore us apart at times, movement and pace and worked teams to then quickly play thru them.
As yet I don’t think we have torn teams apart especially at home, yes we may have worn them down but it’s a big ask to score all our goals after 80 minutes
Two teams who kept the majority of their squads from previous season together. It's September, we're 3rd. Have a coffee and chill.
That’s actually not true they had a big turn over of players at both clubs.
The point I am making is less about those teams it’s about the way they played the system. It has to be dynamic, it has to be risk taking. I think as yet we are struggling to get that balance.
The manager identifies it in his post match interview.
I’m sure we will get it right particularly when the season settles down but as an observation it’s far from perfect at the moment.
Bluemarc81Positives:
* Iwata looks a decent signing, neat and tidy and seems to have a good footballing brain
* Klarer and Leonard again impressed me
* it wasn’t a league game
Negatives:
* Khela cannot be played at LB again. He’s wasted there and at fault for the goal
* May has to be an out and out striker, him and Jay can’t play like that
* Paik penalty was very very poor
* Walsall are a league two side and we put an 11 out that would probably on paper should compete in the championship never mind league one
* The piss taking on social media
Any more?
Agree with you. Iwata really impressed me though, got a good un there.
Don't give a feck about what others might be saying - despite a very disjointed display (we were like it was a friendly) and despite it being another new 11 playing together, we battered them, football wise - play them another 10 times we'd win 9.
We'll be ok. Khela was very poor for their goal though, he's just not going to be a full back I don't think. maybe needs another loan because he won't be getting in the midfield soon either. Still think he's a good player in his correct position though.
I would say they were going at 50% for most of it. They either thought it would be a stroll or they were just struggling to get going. It happens. Expecting a goal fest in football is rare, even FA Cup games against non league teams you cannot expect that anymore. Walsall may have made changes but it was still a massive game for those on the pitch. We have seen it with every game so far, it's a cup final for the opposition. They are effed towards the end and some players are dead on their feet. Although in Walsall' case they dusted themselves down well for the penalties. Bring on Fulham U21, that will be massive game in front of 4567 people.
Same LionI would say they were going at 50% for most of it. They either thought it would be a stroll or they were just struggling to get going. It happens. Expecting a goal fest in football is rare, even FA Cup games against non league teams you cannot expect that anymore. Walsall may have made changes but it was still a massive game for those on the pitch. We have seen it with every game so far, it's a cup final for the opposition. They are effed towards the end and some players are dead on their feet. Although in Walsall' case they dusted themselves down well for the penalties. Bring on Fulham U21, that will be massive game in front of 4567 people.
Yeah, agree again with that.
On the U-21s. What's the rules behind how many 'first teamers' they can play? noticed vile had that Beundia (sp) playing for them last night.
Having read Twitter this morning the meltdown from some of our fans over last night has been unreal. When we lose a league game it’s going to be unusable
It’s 2 or 3 I think, they had Barkley and Ramsey playing as well. I didn’t see Fulham’s lineup against Shrewsbury to see if they fielded any first teamers
The world is full of very silly people. Add social media and football into that and it's x 10
I thought Walsall played well (seem to be saying this about every side we play) thats a little bit of a concern tbh
We will lose games this season, the positive from this is a reality check for the fans that it’s going to be more difficult than some of us thought. We probably won’t get over 100 points or score over 109 goals and promotion will be difficult, so let’s just support the players and club and see how the season unfolds
Both Southampton and Leicester generally had 6/7 players in their starting 11 that had been at club previously, some for many seasons.
I understand your point and I'm countering it by saying that it's easier to implement new systems when the majority of the team is settled.
Have a look back at their previous results, too. Southampton struggled to overcome Sheff Wed in their first game, then had a few alright games and then lost four in a row during September. It took them significant time to settle in the new system and that was with a fairly settled side.
We're doing very well so far, IMO, given the turnover of manager, staff and players.
People need to lower their expectations for these early months. You can see the progress - you could see it last night when the more established players came in, they knew how to play it better than the myriad debutants. Grinding wins out at this point is to be expected.
Spot on mate.
Also checked Leicester's early results last season, they won by 1 goal against Coventry, Huddersfield (R), Cardiff with 10 men, Rotherham (R), and lost to Hull.
That Leicester team was a super team for the championship, with a lot of already settled players as discussed, and they struggled to beat some of the worst sides in the league.
We've done well to win most of our games by a goal. Those points count just as much as those when we inevitably win 3-4 nil at some point this season. I'm sure we're going to drop points over the next 5 games, probably pick up our first defeat. But we will be right up there at the end of the season fighting for 1st, that I've no doubt about.
Sheev PalpatineHaving read Twitter this morning the meltdown from some of our fans over last night has been unreal. When we lose a league game it’s going to be unusable
It's always unusable.
The comparison to Southampton is spot on - you can play in a way where you retain possession and pass it around nicely but it takes a while to learn how to convert all of that possession into goals. At the moment, all it's doing it allowing the opposition to get organised in defence so we're actually making life harder for ourselves but the players need to stick with it.
I think there's also an element of this style being much more effective in the higher leagues than it is in League 1. It's all part of building a team that can get promoted from the Championship though...
Exactly. You can see, IMO, how much we've progressed from the Reading game in how we control the ball, and that's in four games. We still look a little bit exposed at the back, although this has greatly improved from that first game, and we are still struggling to be incisive up top but as you say this will all come with time.
I also think a big miss last night was Willumsson. He's become integral to the cohesion of the front line.
It will take time but I'm convinced we will get there - the players have already improved so much.
I think he's become integral because he's got the most experience of playing there in a relatively settled front line. Him and May have had a bunch of games together now whereas May and Stansfield only had a couple of training sessions before kickoff.
I wonder if May was trying to prove a point as well (hence the shots late in the game when he maybe should have passed it) - he's scored 20+ goals regularly in this league and got off to a great start with us and suddenly a massively expensive striker shows up... He looked desperate to score yesterday.