Shuff264

1 hour ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Derby win and both Peterborough and Bolton drop points seals, right?

Derby, Peterborough and Bolton win we go into the last day 3 points ahead?

Is there a scenario where it gets confirmed midweek if Bolton drop points tomorrow, Peterborough win tomorrow and Derby win, but Peterborough drop points in their game in hand?

 

If we better Bolton and Peterborough's results tomorrow, then its done.

A draw is enough in the unlikely scenario that they both lose.

18 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Really?!

Cross should have come earlier and been played on the ground.

CBT should still do better.

Takes an extra touch here when the ball should be played.

11 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Interested to know what changes you think he should have made?

Bringing Hourihane on and trying to gain control in midfield makes sense, but still should have come sooner and you could argue we'd have been better with Thompson.

Washington was poor through the middle and even worse out wide, should have made the switch for Barkhuizen then.

Completely exposed our one dimensional way of playing, if getting it wide and chucking it in the box doesn't work we really have no clue.

NML, CBT, Collins were all poor, Washington looks like he won a competition to be a footballer.

Smith had a good game, as did Sibley and Wildsmith.

Warnes in game management poor as well, too slow to make changes in the second half and even when they did come he didnt do enough. Looked too scared to lose the point to actually go for it.

Its another game in this season thats a missed opportunity, and another game they bored me to tears.

Leave him be, hes doing well and got a great chance of playing in Play Offs.

If we're still League 1 next season then he has a great shout to be involved.

Definitley light in midfield and at left back.

Personally would like to se JWP in there but was never likely to be included.

Will be interesting to see how we line up in midfield, maybe get away with Bellingham - Rice - Maddison against weaker opposition but you would need someone along side Rice when play a France for example.

Very strong going forward, Solanke unlucky to be behind Toney.

2 hours ago, rammieib said:

Sensible post - so I'll pick it apart a little.

We are second because other teams are atrocious. We have the highest wage bill by a long way - of course that doesn't guarantee success but I do believe we have a number of very good player - its the way they are being told to execute their jobs which is the issue for me.

5 at the back - we struggle to create. 3 Centre backs, two wing backs who often become full backs and two holding midfielders - this is a recipe for not creating - as we have seen multiple times now.

So what/how has Wildsmith been coached by Andy Warrington. Surely after the debacle at Oxford, Wildsmith would have received coaching on what to do in that situation? So poor decision by Wildsmith especially as he delayed his coming out but not being coached very well is he.

Second goal - the pass form Wilson was poor - he gunned it to Ebou Adams but it was not on the ground. why as a team do we seem to put so much focus on getting the direction of the pass correct that anything over 15 yards seems to be a few bounces. Watch Man City play, watch Arsenal, watch Brighton - when they pass to each other the ball stays on the deck. This means the receiving player can control it immediately or make a first time pass more successfully. Wilson hammered it to Adams off the deck. So poor coaching for me again - not to mention the fact that Wilson went backwards. However - I don't have such an issue with that. However - Can you tell me how many times our players actually move into space? They don't - we're static as anything. This is one of the big changes to NML's game - he wants the ball to feet every time - a defender isn't worried about him (or literally anyone) on our team making a run into space.

I'm sorry - our football has been shambolic for most of the season. We win games IMO because we generally have better players who are able to pull bits of magic out and thus deliver - NML being a prime example. Worth noting that the top five contributing players offensively this year are all Rosenoir signings/Academy. (NML, CH, JC, MB and TB). Warne hasn't bought in, as yet, an offensive player able to make any impact in this team. I trust CBT will come good though.

My final point on the coaching (away from the head tennis) - literally how dated and old school is the tactic of when we get a set piece anywhere from about 20 yards inside our half, the tactic is literally put everyone up to their box and just chip a high ball in. That's park football stuff. I cannot remember that being anywhere near successful in goals we have scored this season. I genuinely thought I'd seen a change after Stevenage away - next game goal kicks were being taken short, same with free kicks - CH, MB, NML, EC, CN - they were all allowed to 'play football' - and then we started winning - but now, this has gone out of the window again - and not once did I see Warne last night telling the team to keep the ball on the deck.

if we scrape over the finish line, I'll be amazed but grateful - but with Warne there and his limited repertoire of coaching - we're screwed next season whichever league we are in.

To add to the set pieces, does anyone know how many goals we have scored from our long throws this season?

The success rate seems to be phenomenally poor, verging on pointless.

Another inept performance, I would say one good performance this calendar year away at Exeter, our home form continues to be poor.

Our inability to build pressure and create chances from open play is a real concern, we just invite pressure onto ourselves by continually giving the ball away from poor passing and attempted dribbles.

Line up worried from the start as we set up so defensively, never looked liked creating much.

Cashin had a good game defensively but isnt a left back, I don't know what Wildsmith was thinking but Charlton only get the chance after Bradley puts two aimless balls into midfield.

A lot of people giving credit to Smith, fair enough he was alright but I don't think he adds enough to the midfield, he isnt a great tackler or passer, hes just kind of ok.

For anyone interested in xG, thats out 8th game in a row we've recorded an xG of under 1.

5 defenders and 3 defensive midfielders at home...

24 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Just because we're currently operating under a business plan doesn't mean we couldn't have signed players who would have played a greater role than the ones we did sign. A few free agents signed by L1 clubs which could have been alternatives to who we signed (and who they signed for):

Bradley: Pennington (Blackpool), Lopata (Barnsley), Jones (Charlton), Shaughnessy (Portsmouth), Poole (Portsmouth)
Elder: Sparkes (Portsmouth)
Ward: Dacres-Cogley (Bolton), Clark (Port Vale)
Fornah / Embleton: Morgan (Blackpool), Chislett (Port  Vale), Knibbs (Reading), Wing (Reading), Matt Smith (Wigan)
John-Jules / Washington / Waghorn: Martin (Bristol Rovers), Harris (Oxford), Rodrigues (Oxford), Smith (Reading)

Of the players listed, all are rated higher according to Whoscored than the players we signed, with the exception of Waghorn who is higher than Harris.

Knibbs, Wing and Smith were three I really wanted in the summer. Can't see how Reading would've been able to pay more than us?

Wildsmith and Vickers are a similar level of shot stoppers, but I think Wildsmith is clearly ahead in the air and with the ball at his feet.

I don't think that performance is too far off from for we have been playing for a while, we've just been relying on someone doing something brilliant to drag us through.

NML looks off it, as he did around this time last season which is a worry as he has so often been out difference maker 

Thought it was a very similar game to Rovers, turgid first half where neither side showed any real quality and then we improved second and deserved it overall.

Still lacking in overall performance, but we can take comfort in 3pts.

I did miss the goal because I was in Port Vales delightful portaloos, but oh well.

NML, Wilson, Fornah were standouts for me, Collins and especially Hourihane had off days (Seriously Conor, can you beat the first man from a set piece?)

12 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

I was kind of joking really. Ridley Scott is a brilliant director; Bladerunner, Alien, Robin Hood, American Gangster, Galdiator et al, he has a wonderful back catalogue. He does however churn out the odd turkey, Exodus, Gods and Kings springs to mind and this and by all accounts is just as awful. Shame really.

Its an ambitious film, I will grant him that, but it is definitely a "Miss".

Its a shame, we get so few good historical films. 

1 hour ago, The Last Post said:

😁

A far more accurate representation of the Duke Of Wellington

12 hours ago, Comrade 86 said:

I'm intrigued purely on the basis of how much Ridley Scott has managed to piss off the entire French nation. 

It's not a good film anyway, and if you care about history like I do, it's a painful watch.

12 hours ago, The Last Post said:

A far more accurate representation of Napoleon 

Napoleon, don't bother 

We weren't great, but we were good enough to beat Rovers and deserved the win.

Still worried about our attacking play as it is so one dimensional, and our inability to progress the ball from deep is a real concern. We were only able to create chances once the game became stretched, against a low block we still look clueless.

Defence had a good game, thought midfield was fairly nonexistent aside from Bird, looked better once Fornah came on, and in attack we are entirely reliant on NML.

A good 3pts but not necessarily a great performance.

30 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Could be gone for anything from 2 weeks to a month. First game is Jan 15th and last group game is Jan 23rd. They have Senegal, Guinea and Cameroon in their group - top 2 go through automatically, plus best 4 out of the 6 3rd place teams. The Final is Feb 11th.

Tunisia, Mali and South Africa.

Think you mixed up Namibia with Gambia!

Just awful last night.

Hourihane and Smith wanted dragging off at halftime, miles off the pace.

Baffled as to why he didn't use the academy players on the bench, some terrible performances out there - surely they couldn't be any worse?

Leaving subs so late, wasting one on a centre back and not even using one. Questions have to asked about Warnes in game management and decision making.

22 minutes ago, StaffsRam said:

The stats from yesterday’s match tell you everything you need to know about where are frailties lie. 32 shots, 2 goals, 7 shots conceded, 2 goals. 

We’re nowhere near clinical enough in the final third, and simultaneously we’re too porous in defence.

The tactic for getting the ball to NML so that he can pump near-endless balls into the box doesn’t work because we don’t have the brute of a centre forward that we need on the end of them. If we had Steve Howard, or a striker of that ilk then we’d be fine, but this tactic doesn’t seem to benefit Collins, Washington or Waghorn. We also need to up out shooting practice, the number of scuffed/weak shots we unleashed yesterday…

Defensively, I don’t think I’d play Bradley ever again. We expected a bedrock, instead he just seems to be an agent of chaos, sewing seeds of doubt and sapping confidence from those around him. It’s disappointing that the defence was the priority in the summer and the area that got most attention and yet no one really seems to know what system we should be playing or the personnel we should be using there.

With a few players likely to leave in January, and even more being out of contract in the summer than this summer is looking like another major rebuild. If that’s the case then we’re near enough back to square one, meaning we’ve effectively just wasted a couple of seasons. In that scenario I’m not sure what the value is of giving Warne even more time.

I'm not sure its failing to be clinical, more that the quality of the chance we create is poor.

Earlier in the thread I think I saw xG at 2.96, which sounds good, but from 32 shots gives you an average xG per shot of 0.09, individually these aren't chances you should "expect" to score from.

SofaScore had us as having 1 "Big Chance" yesterday, which was missed by NML (I'm not sure which chance this was). Crewe had 2, scoring 1 and missing 1.

We need to be focused on creating a better quality of chance, chances you think to yourself "he should score that", rather than a series of half chances.

6 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Was the second goal "flukey"?

Just watched it back, maybe a little harsh but at least we've learnt of the first 61 crosses don't work, the 62nd will.

Couple flukey goals papers over the cracks of another poor performance.

Not sure how you justify the tactic of crossing the ball at every opportunity versus a back 3 and with Connor Washington up front on his own.

Warne then backed this up with his usual trick of waiting too long to make subs and switching between a back 3 and 4 at every available opportunity.

4 minutes ago, Grumpy Git said:

I'm not bothered if the average age of the starting 11 is 40.3 if we play like that every game.

No but it does have ramifications over the course of the season and beyond that means they probably can't play like that every game.

Also doesn't help the narrative that PW doesn't trust young players.