VulcanRam

36 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Agreed. Plus, we didn’t lose two points because Nyambe went off. We lost two points because the team on the pitch failed to deal with the passage of play that led to their goal. Some people seem to be implying Nyambe is our only decent defender and if he’s not on the pitch we’re doomed if the opposition attack down our right including relatively harmless throw ins.

Maybe, but Nyambe had dominated that side of the pitch and had little trouble with the Shrewsbury players all afternoon. Also he is excellent at defending players running at the byline just because of his strength and ability to get between the man and ball.

No criticism of Wilson per se, he had just walked onto the pitch, but he was the wrong side of his man, and between him and Collins made a hash of defending a fairly straightforward situation. So yes, I think it was highly relevant. 

51 minutes ago, Crewton said:

Nyambe spent 2 minutes on the deck being treated by the physio, after a full blooded tackle which put considerable lateral pressure on his right knee. I was surprised he was deemed OK to continue, but clearly he was still feeling it. So we lost him for 5 minutes of normal time, and lost two points, instead of perhaps losing him for a few games if he'd further aggravated his knee. 

Keeping an injured player on the field is a big risk for the player concerned and criticising Warne for looking after the welfare of his players is obtuse.

Therefore I happily apologise. 

6 minutes ago, Mick Brolly said:

Nyambe was injured wasn’t he?

Warne said he had a bit of pain on his knee. He didn't look uncomfortable, hadn't gone down and the reaction from the crowd was very surprised when his number went up.

I accept of course Warne and co know more about this than me, but you have to question whether he could have seen the game out at 1-0 having been so dominant against their front line. 2 or 3 up, yes take him off, but at this stage we were sitting back protecting a one goal lead. We needed him on. I will happily apologise if he genuinely couldn't continue.

1 hour ago, Mick Brolly said:

Nothing to do with Wilson then

Wilson didn't pick the wrong starting line up, Warne did. 

Wilson didn't make the ridiculous decision to take Nyambe off, Warne did. (Nothing about his body language suggested he couldn't have lasted the last 5 mins).

And, and I accept I may be alone in this, it wasn't Wilson's decision to sit back and try to defend for 25 minutes having gone a goal ahead against team whose away record is extremely poor and leave CBT on the bench when we were crying out for some spark. 

It was however, Wilson who let his man go. So that's 3-1. 

I'm with @DavesaRam on this. It was poor management yesterday.

Anyway, this thread is for positives. It was a better performance than against Cheltenham. South stand was noiser. Adams is great. Bird has turned up since Adams did. It wasn't so cold. I got home about 10 mins earlier than usual as the traffic didn't seem as bad as it can be. The ref was excellent for the first 15 seconds.  

14 hours ago, ck- said:

Genuine question as I seem to have lost my understanding of what counts as offside with all the “interfering with play” considerations. But who was offside? The ball was played backwards to the player who scored so it’s not him. They had a player on the line, but he was behind Wildsmith so not obstructing him. Pretty much in the same way that Hourihane was for our goal. 

The player standing behind Wildsmith and Elder on the line is in an offside position when the shot came in, he clearly interfered with Elder's ability to prevent the ball from going in by shoving/pulling him out of the way of the travelling ball. If the player hadn't of been there, Elder would have blocked it with ease. Therefore he is affecting play from an offside position and the flag should have gone up.

Only Bradley seemed to kick up a fuss, which I was surprised about. 

It was yet another poor decision in an afternoon of poor decisions from the officials. 

1Wildsmith 7 - commanded his box well, a good save at 1-1. 

24Nyambe - 7 looked to have his opponent in his pocket and there was no danger down that side til he went off.

2Wilson 5.5 - poor defending for their goal, attacked well the rest of the game

5Bradley - 6 - still looks like an accident waiting to happen

35Nelson 7 - our best defender on the day

23Ward - 5 didn't have any joy once he crossed the half way line, on the odd occasion he did

7Barkhuizen - 5 .5 needed to have more of an impact

32Adams - 7.5 along with Bird our best player on the day. Brings a new dimension to the side

16Thompson - 6 buzzed about Thommo style

4Hourihane - 5.5 Rather anonymous, is he rendered unnecessary in this team by Adams' arrival?

8Bird - 7.5 Something has given him a new lease of life, either his move or Adams' arrival

17Sibley - 5 - see Ward

20Elder - 6 solid enough

11Méndez-Laing - 6 never really hit first gear

9Collins - 5 usual work rate was there, but unnecessarily offside a stupid amount of times 

On 03/02/2024 at 01:53, Chris_Martin said:

how is that absolute rubbish?

It's a fact that taking penalties inflates your performance stats, not just the goal tally. It's also a fact he is 54th in the shooting stats for league one players. 

I am talking about the season as a whole, up until last week or so we still had other forwards fit. John-Jules, Washington, & Waghorn all have better np data for most metrics this season (also a fact)

Presumably then you agree that David Lowe is Derby County's most successful manager of all time because the stats show he has a 100% win record.

He might be 54th in the shooting stats but the important on is that he's 7th equal in the top goalscorer stats. That's ok. He's doing a good job. 

Anyway, all this proves is that stats are meaningless without context.

9 minutes ago, rammieib said:

Why are people desperate for a 34-year old Dwight Gayle with 8 goals (from 99 appearances!!!) in the last five years to his name?

I'm happy to just wait for Washington to get back fit or bring Brown back when we can.

If we have to put NML or TB up there and scrap out wins, then fine. 

I'm with you on this, except if we're able to do a deal for him, he might just be the man we need off the bench in the last 15 mins when we need a goal, the opposition are camped and we're running out of ideas. While never prolific other than at his spell at West Brom, he was always a terrific finisher - better I'd argue than any of the current players - and if that got us 2 or 3 goals, it might be the 2 or 3 goals that makes a difference between 2nd and 3rd.

18 minutes ago, David said:

Don't get me wrong, it won't be a doddle, we will be games where we have to dig in, find a way to put more points on the board than the others.

It's just....we're up there and in the mix, not that you would believe it if you read other topics on this forum. I refuse to blame the lack of a positive atmosphere on Warne and style of football.

I have an alternative theory in that, it's just not that exciting getting back to the division which many fans of my own age and younger will have seen the club for the majority of their lives. 

Same manager, same football, same league position, 16 games away from potentially Premier League football, this forum would be a joy to be on. 

First point - it has to be a large contributing factor in my mind, only because of my own experience. I'm in the South Stand, have always enjoyed the banter and enthusiasm. This season it's so quiet because games are just boring. Loads of people are just chatting among themselves. People are leaving 10 mins before the end of each half to either go downstairs or go home. At the Cheltenham game there were a few around us sitting down for periods, even though it meant they couldn't see the pitch. And that's down to the style of football - it might be effective, it's great that it's got us into the top 2, but it's not nice to watch for large periods. 

Second point, I totally agree, is also a large contributing factor. It's great to get promoted, but you're only going back to where you should be anyway. Just as an aside to your last paragraph - same manager and same football wouldn't, I imagine, lead to the same league position in the Championship at this stage of the season. Nonetheless, UTR!

9 hours ago, Eddie said:

Proper beer comes from Burton.

Just in case you'd mishit a button or two.  

Just now, Ellafella said:

Does it do Turkey Twizzlers @VulcanRam 😲

No, but a nice line in cheap, fatty pre-frozen (and sometimes still frozen) burgers, I am led to believe. Salad bar included in the meal though, and that's got to be worth something. 

3 minutes ago, Crewton said:

That's made my day. Brilliant! 

1 hour ago, i-Ram said:

There are other gender type’s Grandad. 

There are also better ways of using an apostrophe, but I'd never be so pedantic..

9 minutes ago, Reggie Greenwood said:

Except that we won every game we would beat Pompey and Bolton and they would also have to play each other so on that basis Pompey and Bolton couldn’t win every game 😉😅

Perfectly put, I hadn't considered that. Top man! Or woman. 

1 hour ago, Braziliance said:

Crewton, what a wonderful insightful post, thank you.

Will certainly look to give these places a visit and give myself plenty of time to look around (providing work doesn't shaft me) 

Whether or not I drink yet is if I drive which is up in the air, but one won't hurt 😎

Genuinely really looking forward to having a little wander, I did the same at Lincoln and was in awe at the Lincoln Cathedral, as I am getting older, I am finding the best part of the away days, is exploring the cities themselves. Probably doesn't help that we are so rubbish at the moment mind you 😂

Probably worth adding @Braziliance that if you're not into real ale, and want a normal pub instead of beer-bellied beardies admiring the content of their glasses more than they would their wives, if they ever had them, and droning on about "real" beer in a superior manner to no-one in particular, then the Harvester near the back entrance to the station (en route to the ground) is the designated away fans pub so will find your fellow Addicks there downing pints of nicely chilled continental lager.

21 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Now we're back up in (effective) 3rd place, based on points per game, we're again faced with the question of can we push on? Will we move properly into the automatic places and, if so, can we cement our place there? 

Warne knows we need to haul ourselves over the 2 points per game mark, and the players know that too. Will we fall back again, or will we finally seize the opportunity? Is it a question more for the players or the manager? Is it for the manager to instill the right mindset in his players? 

Warne is proving himself a pragmatist and our trajectory has been upwards, but is his ceiling the playoffs or automatics? I'm so pleased we're within touching distance, but because we haven't yet gone further, I'm not totally convinced. I am more convinced that a few months ago. 

Is it not a moot point until things are in our own hands? Until then it doesn't matter what we do - we could be brilliant and win every game left this season and still end up in the play offs if Pompey and Bolton do the same.

Just as I was disappointed for Jason Knight that he couldn't attract better interest than Bristol City, same with Max Bird, who not long ago was being linked with Chelsea. If he's going to leave, I'd rather see him play at a higher level than a team who might only be as good as us next season.

Equally, maybe he was waiting for more/better offers in the summer but we've forced his hand because we need the money now we know he won't be staying.  

But I'm not really sure about the loan back. He hasn't been that important a player for us this season given the way we play, and if he won't be here next season I'd rather see us giving more game time to Sibley, Thompson, Adams and Fornah. 

2 hours ago, May Contain Nuts said:

Like someone who understands how humans being speak, understands what the word paraphrasing means and like someone who actually wanted to discuss the topic at hand in a civilised manner, rather than like someone who wants to hold everyone to weirdly exacting standards like you're a prosecutor grilling a witness and need to find a way of proving them wrong?

Essentially it boils down to the original post saying "he's said so" instead of "he's said as much", which naturally you've jumped on. 

All the context has been explained to you, yet you're still banging on about midfielders he's using in an advanced / attacking role.

You've done a good job trying to explain the wider context on several posts. Nothing about the way we play, in and out of possession, can surely make anyone think Warne believes the midfield to be a key area of the team.

Add this to things Warne has said after (at least) a couple of games (it might be more, I don't listen to too many of his interviews) where he refers to only wanting the midfielders to take a couple of touches before moving it on, to actively avoiding the midfield area in certain games.

Add this to what we see with our own eyes when teams just run through our middle. Where does any of that tell you he thinks the midfield area is critical to what he wants to achieve? 

That's not to say he doesn't value Bird/Hourihane, doesn't see a role for them or wants them to leave or anything like that. If he wanted a holding midfielder, or indeed another midfielder, I presume he would have said so by now, instead of just focusing on the wide areas and a striker.

For what it's worth, if he wanted to change the midfield dynamic he has Fornah, Sibley and Thompson, all of whom could help affect change in there regards setup, style and tactics, but clearly he doesn't, and that's fine, he's the manager and its his choice. He's clearly happy with what he's got and how he's deploying them.

I don't see any point adding to the midfield if, as it seems, nothing will change. It'll just be another player bought and wasted. 

2 hours ago, DRBee said:

This is just not true - see whoscored stats or just imagine how he scored his recent goals or assists.

Most of thet ime our centre backs are very deep  - too far back and thats one of our problems.

Hourihane is doing what Warne tells him.

This is an interesting point. From a good vantage point high in the South Stand on Saturday I spent a bit of time focusing solely on Max Bird's positioning (let's face it, there wasn't much else of interest going on). 

There were a few times when, in possession coming from the back, the most blatantly obvious thing to do was for Bird to drop into the huge vacant space in midfield to receive the ball yet he deliberately stayed, or even moved into, a position further wide; further away from his midfield partner, into an area where there were other players, and leaving this hole in the middle of the park.

I couldn't work out why the first time but then after watching him for a bit longer this exact thought occurred to me - he's not using his intuition or natural footballing brain/ability here, he looks like he's following strict orders, even if his movement doesn't seem (to me, anyway) to make much sense. 

6 hours ago, ramsbottom said:

One thing I didn't get was when Ward came on, why was NML still on corners??  TBF to the lad, his dead balls are very good, and there keeper was iffy all game.  Why were we leaving them to Nat when he barely cleared their man at the front post?

"One thing I didn't get" is the start of a sentence that could go on for a very, very long time.

Even a badly defending Ward which allows Wilson to play on the wing is better than playing Wilson at RB. We've only got 2 creative players anyway, now one of them is lost to defence, leaving us NML, and as we saw last night, if he's not on it, we struggle to create.

I'd put Ward back in and play Wilson higher up against Cheltenham. Other than NML, he'd walk into my team ahead of anyone in that position.

The potential reward outweighs the risk.

Dare I say, in the mad rush to apportion blame for everything, Burton's second goal was an absolute belter. When our cross went into their area Hugill was on the edge of his own box and was about the furthest forward Burton player. We had at least three players directly between him and the half way line.

If you look at the Burton player who comes away with the ball - he's facing and running towards (broadly) the west stand. As soon as he gets it Hugill is off in another direction - more towards the centre spot. 

Elder, as the last man, is following the trajectory of the man with the ball and looking to cover that area, not realising at that stage that Hugill is running on his blind side and approaching his territory. As the ball is being played, he has to change direction, change his body shape, and try to get across to the ball. Plenty of times he might have managed that, but for two things. 

Firstly it was an outstanding ball from the Burton player to Hugill, absolutely pinpoint and virtually the only spot he could have put it to allow Hugill a straight run on goal. Secondly, look at Hugill's first touch, it was sublime. Any element of close control, stopping it, scuffing it and Elder is on him, but his first touch takes it out of his feet and directly towards goal, giving him the run on Elder. Also, he started that run from the edge of his area as soon as possession was turned over. Brilliant play. 

Yes we can ask questions about Elder (I thought he had a decent game tbf), and maybe Hourihane's positioning and movement if we want, but I just thought it was an outstanding bit of play by Burton. Good finish too.

9 minutes ago, sage said:

Most staff are on nothing like that

Average salary (a year) £24,000 Starter. £65,000 Experienced.

Typical hours (a week) 35 to 40 a week.

You could work. evenings / weekends / bank holidays on shifts.

From the Govt website. 

Anyway, looks like Charlton on Rams TV it is then. Shame really, was one of the few away games in the diary. 

5 minutes ago, Jubbs said:

Unless I'm reading that wrong, are we suggesting that Wilson is below average and near the bottom for running with the ball, but in the elite section for winning headers? Interesting....

42 minutes ago, sage said:

He is entertaining but to view him as a 'big success' or even 'above average' is a little over egging the pudding.

He is an impact sub for a top 6 side.

This side has been carried by the back 4, Hourihane, Bird, NML and Collins. All of theur faults but are above average. The other 2 places are support acts.

Sadly these are now 4 support acts.

 

I'd view entertaining as being a success because that's what supporters pay to see. Wilson and NML about the only players who excite amid what can often be 90 minutes of rather boring football. Ebosele wasn't the most effective of players but he was exciting to watch and a reason to go to games.

To suggest Hourihane and Bird are carrying the side? They might be better than Sibley and Fornah but no way are they carrying this team - Cashin and Nelson are doing a far better job in that respect. Our midfield is the weakest part of the team and, apart from Thommo who I would like to see develop to see what he has - I wouldn't be sorry to see any of them leave.