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kevinhectoring

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Posts posted by kevinhectoring

  1. 4 hours ago, TuffLuff said:

    Warne has managed Hourihane well this season and there’s enough time for him to provide more than he already has.

    The bird hourihane combo was not a success but we persevered with it. For me, that was disappointing. I think our set up and starting Xl is now strong but I agree with those who say it’s one we’ve adopted because injuries have taken other options off the table. 

  2. 12 minutes ago, CapeTownRams said:

    If CBT doesn’t now get a run out one has to wonder why on earth we bought him at all… 

    I heard that Richard Barker made some quite harsh comments about CBT’s attitude to Warne’s training schedule. If so, I’d guess we thought he was fitter than he is, and that his attitude to training would be better 

  3. 29 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

    Warne knows winning is everything in this division, and we will need goal threat. In the absence of Collins and Gayle, he will rejig the team to move Sibley further forward and more central. I think we'll line up:

    Wildsmith

    Nelson     Bradley     Cashin

    Wilson      Adams      Hourihane     Forsyth

    Sibley

    Mendez-Laing   Waghorn

     

    Subs: Loach  Ward  Elder  Thompson  Smith  Blackett-Taylor  Washington  

    If it were up to me, I would probably go 4-4-2 and include Weston on the bench, with

    Wildsmith

    Smith   Nelson    Cashin    Forsyth

    Wilson    Sibley     Adams    Blackett-Taylor

    Mendez-Laing   Waghorn

    Subs: Loach  Ward  Bradley  Hourihane  Thompson  Washington  Weston

     

    Fozzy is coming back off an injury break. Please please let’s play him at CB or (if we must) play Bradley and have F on the bench as injury cover for the other 3 CBs for the rest of the season.  
    I don’t understand why we would now change away from 3 at the back … the last 4 or so games we’ve seen how well it suits our wide players (well, not so much against Bolton…) 

  4. 10 hours ago, admira said:

    There are a few '6 pointers' remaining:

    29/03 Stevenage v Bolton

    02/04 Portsmouth v Derby

    09/04 Stevenage v Barnsley

    13/04 Bolton v Portsmouth

    13/04 Oxford v Peterborough

    16/04 Oxford v Lincoln

    16/04 Portsmouth v Barnsley

    20/04 Oxford v Stevenage

    27/04 Lincoln v Portsmouth

    27/04 Peterborough v Bolton

     

     

    I once tried to explain to my wife what a 6 pointer is 

    never again 

  5. 6 hours ago, sage said:

    I would add that if Wilson plays instead of Ward, that makes Hourihane's inclusion more likely. 

    One of several reasons to start Wilson AND Ward   

  6. 10 hours ago, jimtastic56 said:

    After his brilliant performance on Saturday- The Sun newspaper is reporting that Wildsmith has turned down the chance to play for DCFC next season . Championship clubs are reportedly after him . Leeds ? Bristol city ? How come the likes of Bird and Wildsmith are turning down contracts with us ? Sibley next ? 

    It may be as simple as: he won’t sign until he knows we’re in the championship. 
     

    it may be he’s just decided he won’t play for Warne. 

    Personally I think he’d be a good reserve keeper for a middling PL side and perhaps he’s had an offer that he’s sitting on (which triples his salary). I’d guess he reckons he’s been underpaid by a mile since he joined us and maybe we’re not now willing to offer a salary that reflects his quality

    It did my head in when he was on the bench but unless you know exactly what that was all about it’s hard to comment further 

    Hope he’s not another who’ll be added to the very long  ‘sorry to see him go’ list

  7. On 17/03/2024 at 13:52, ap04 said:

    xG, demonstrably the best metric to evaluate past performance in the public domain once you haven't followed a team's games.

    If I understand it, xg ignores the situation where

    - a precision through ball that will probably lead to a goal is marginally misplaced 

    - a player in a scoring position receives the ball but is needlessly offside by a whisker

    - a player receiving the ball in a scoring position is wrongly adjudged offside,

    - the ref doesn’t play an advantage which would lead to a goal scoring situation

    - Collo shoots into a defender instead of putting a teammate clear on goal 

    - the ref wrongly penalises an attacker as he passes a defender towards an open goal

    etc etc. It seems a really crude measure.
     

    Presumably AI could already build a system designed to eradicate ‘happenstance’ altogether and which tells you at the end of the game which team most deserved to win. When it does, is that how we should evaluate managers, build the league table…? 

  8. 2 minutes ago, Srg said:

    Fitness is not Hourihane's issue. He's a fit guy, could probably run a marathon tomorrow if he had to. He just can't sprint, twist, turn, jump... there's no burst or explosion in there at all. If he gets caught up the pitch, we are screwed. Him gassing out for an hour to get brought off wouldn't help any of that.

    If you want an experienced player, then it's Smith until Bird is back. I'd really like Fornah to be fit and see what he can do in there next to Ebou. A midfield with true athleticism.

    Too late to resort to Fornah imo but wish we’d seen more of him earlier in the season 

    Understand your comments about CH but for me fitness is a part of the issue. Too often he needs to make a defensive run but instead he pulls up. 

  9. 13 minutes ago, Srg said:

    I get we are struggling with players available, I just don't understand how we can keep watching Hourihane and then put him in the team the game after

    Well at least the current set up (w CH starting) avoids the Bird Hourihane combo in mf which cost us dearly early in the season. Adams and Smith paper over the cracks
     

    Hourihane seems to pace himself for 90 minutes. I don’t understand why he is not on a fitness regime that tunes him for 60 mins and why he’s not told that he needs to come off after that wanting to throw up. Otherwise our mf is like Swiss cheese 

    strongly disagree with people who say ‘the captain has to play’. 

  10. 7 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

    i do worry that the onset of spring might spur a dangerous development and tempt Warne into going hatless which would be a disaster in my view

    Oh don’t : we’re 4-5 down in the SF shoot out. The clouds part, Warne’s shining pate is dangerously bare and, as Conor completes his biden-like jog up to the ball,   a sun ray, a single beam of laser sharp light, is freakishly deflected from the frontal bone of Warne’s skull directly into the back of CH’s retina. The ball flies over the bar, CH falls to the ground, distraught and … we all step back onto the div 1 Groundhog Day express (reassuring ourselves the league will be even weaker in 24/25 )

  11. On 13/03/2024 at 15:11, BOB BIGGS said:

    I think having Gayle has made a huge difference.

    That’s hugely disrespectful to @ the running man whose post about sacking the manager has undoubtedly galvanised Warne into a brilliant tactician and led us to glory against Lincoln, Bristol and Bolton. You’ll be saying next that Adams had made a difference. Lay off it 

  12. 14 hours ago, ap04 said:

    Two students sit a set on exams on a subject, rule is the one with the most A+'s (goals) passes with all other efforts (chances) chucked away - equal both fail.

    Student A gets A+ B C D (and passes), student B gets A A B C (and fails). Was A clearly the better student, or lucky to have passed?

    We had an economics teacher at school who - every year it seemed - predicted which essay questions would come up in the exams.  I felt I was unlucky not to be in his class but lucky to have a friend who was. Maybe that cancels out. 

    I was definitely unlucky in my land law finals at uni. I was sitting right behind STUDENT C who was so nervous they threw up violently 5 minutes in. So there I was trying to decide calmly which questions to do - and there was sand, disinfectant, mops, ‘that smell’ and this awful simpering whimpering which just went on and on. My most vivid memory (from the entire principles of land law class) was of the long spiders-web-like sticky noxious strands which emanated from the mouth and stubbornly affixed themselves like some magic wonder glue to Student C’s  hands, pencils, clothes, shoulder bag …  It was like a strange tropical plant from a sci-fi movie

    It was an enormous exam hall and the students at the back were oblivious once the initial outpouring subsided. I felt I was unlucky to be in the next row. On reflection, though, STUDENT D (sitting immediately in front of the unfortunate STUDENT C) inevitably suffered from the splatter and was damp for the entire 3 hour examination period, so I was lucky to be behind not in front. But overall, unlucky I’d say
     

    (It’s not strictly relevant to your question but I’ve always wanted to know what was said on the inevitable post-exam phone call when STUDENT C’s Mum asks, how did it go dear?  I’m sure it was better than you were expecting …?)

  13. 34 minutes ago, ram59 said:

    The ref had a decent game today in such an important game.

    He should have given Ward a yellow card early on for a clear pull and inexplicably pulled us back a couple of times when we had a clear advantage, although not in a dangerous position, but nothing that seemed to have any effect on the result.

    Plenty of refs would have given NML a red 

  14. 1 hour ago, Comrade 86 said:

    Did wonder what was up with those subs tbh, so glad to hear they were for valid reasons.

    Get them all in ice-baths now Warney!

    Yes Barks and Ward were sorely missed when they went off. But very sensible to protect them (even in such a big game). 
     

    If we’d started w Smith not Hourihane, the Gayle sub would have been like-for-like. 
     

    What Warne in fact did (bringing on Smith, moving Adams forward) was a good move imo.  We were beginning to be overrun in mf and the changes gave us more strength in the middle as well as insight into Adams’ flexibility 
     

    Maybe the  lesson is that we should start Hourihane only against weaker opposition - or, if we start him we should have Adams and Smith on the pitch as well. If luck’s not with us we’re in danger of being 2 down at HT otherwise. 
     

    so when Bradley’s fit, is he on the bench or is Fozzie? Given his performance today, I’d stick w Fozzie. 
     

    Step forward CBT 

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