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v Luton Town (A) - Matchday Thread


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8 minutes ago, JustOneChrissyMartin said:

I’d imagine Davies will return against Stoke, at least he can do the ducking basics.

I don’t understand why he was dropped in the first place, you don’t need two ball-playing centre backs. Wisdom and Clarke are not that good at it anyway, bring Davies back. 

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As I said earlier I missed the second half so I won’t go too much into game details right now but here’s a bit of what I’ve grasped from the 1st half and interviews etc.

- General consensus is we played quite well? The Radio Derby podcast suggested it was old habits creeping back in but overall a better performance than other away games
-Cocu is losing patience with the players and sounded like a few harsh truths were laid out after the game. It’s a side rarely seen from him and it’s no bad thing to be honest. Tonight hurt him greatly and it’s maybe the passion side of his management we need to see more of.

-We don’t have a bad set of players, we just lack smart players and I’ve been saying this all season. Waghorn and Lawrence are the two best examples, both are having scrappy seasons so far but need to step up and take some responsibility. Waghorn especially looks like an excited kid because he’s playing with Rooney and trying to force a partnership rather than a 30 year old professional in his own right doing a job for his side. He’s essentially trying to force situations too much than just play his game and build on it. Yes I love Chris Martin, but I’d honestly play him at the moment with Knight and possibly even Jozefzoon* behind finding gaps and providing the legs. I don’t always push for Martin but unfortunately so much is breaking down around Waghorn and Lawrence atm it’s hard not to bring that option forward. There’s other examples across the pitch but I don’t want to blame the youngsters too much, but the full backs especially are guilty of doing something fantastic to then something utterly brainless.
-On the point of not being smart I do get surprised how a lot of a play is predictable. We play a easy pass so many times. Or in the final third we get the ball to Bogle without a run on the full back and tried to put an aimless cross in that hits the defender. The same predictability happens all over the pitch and easily controlled.

-Small shoutout for how Cocu shouts “WAGGEEE”, dont know why but it just makes me smile

-At this stage I hope we can get a fresh face in, although it seems unlikely. Think we just need someone about who’s not tarnished with what has been happening this season. Or maybe even Jozefzoon?**

 

*ok it’s late and I may have gone a bit ott, essentially a player with a lot of movement and pace is what I mean. Maybe Sibley but I’ve not seen enough of him
**ok this time I’m just being tongue in cheek

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Just to raise as a point of discussion here:

Why do we never seem to do well against relegation fodder? I'm not just talking about this season, either. Going back over the last five seasons (2014/15-2018/19) we've only managed to do the league double over 2 of the 15 sides that got relegated during that period: Blackpool in 2014/15, who set what was then the worst Championship points total ever, since overtaken by Rotherham in 2016/17 (who we dropped points to); and Barnsley in 2017/18, who we lost to in the League Cup that season. We've dropped points against all 13 other relegated teams during that period. In fact we've failed to beat relegated sides over that period more often than we've beaten them (W14 D8 L8), and have dropped at least 7 points in each of the last 5 seasons against those sides, only taking 11 out of 18 points in 15/16 and 14/15; 10 out of 18 in 18/19 and 17/18; and 8 out of 18 in 16/17 (as an aside, 11 points from 18 (W3 D2 L1) is what we've managed against the current bottom 3 this season).

How can it be that even during the period where we were consistently in or near the playoffs we could only manage to average the equivalent of W3 D1 L2 against relegated teams each season? What is it about teams at the foot of the table that causes us to come unstuck?

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Well coming out of work to see this was a kick in the dick.

Can't say I'm awfully arsed. Not even going to bother with the highlights where Englands greatest goalscorer has opened his account for our club. That should be ringing alarm bells really, I've been backing Cocu to the hilt but it's clear something is amiss. Feel for those going to these games. Oh well. 

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7 hours ago, Uptherams said:

Lowe, one of the stand out defenders in the SPL last season. Voted players player of the season for Aberdeen. Scott Malone experienced Championship player. Was regarded as one of the best left backs in the league before signing for us. 

Lowe inconsistent at this level, still finding his feet 

has good moments has bad moments 

malone ...... WAS a good player at this level 

key fundamental difference there 

WAS is in the past, IS is the current .. your saying we have one of the best squads in the division so I’m assuming u mean current 

either way u look at it your deluded if u think this squad is one of the best in the league 

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5 hours ago, TuffLuff said:

As I said earlier I missed the second half so I won’t go too much into game details right now but here’s a bit of what I’ve grasped from the 1st half and interviews etc.

- General consensus is we played quite well? The Radio Derby podcast suggested it was old habits creeping back in but overall a better performance than other away games
-Cocu is losing patience with the players and sounded like a few harsh truths were laid out after the game. It’s a side rarely seen from him and it’s no bad thing to be honest. Tonight hurt him greatly and it’s maybe the passion side of his management we need to see more of.

-We don’t have a bad set of players, we just lack smart players and I’ve been saying this all season. Waghorn and Lawrence are the two best examples, both are having scrappy seasons so far but need to step up and take some responsibility. Waghorn especially looks like an excited kid because he’s playing with Rooney and trying to force a partnership rather than a 30 year old professional in his own right doing a job for his side. He’s essentially trying to force situations too much than just play his game and build on it. Yes I love Chris Martin, but I’d honestly play him at the moment with Knight and possibly even Jozefzoon* behind finding gaps and providing the legs. I don’t always push for Martin but unfortunately so much is breaking down around Waghorn and Lawrence atm it’s hard not to bring that option forward. There’s other examples across the pitch but I don’t want to blame the youngsters too much, but the full backs especially are guilty of doing something fantastic to then something utterly brainless.
-On the point of not being smart I do get surprised how a lot of a play is predictable. We play a easy pass so many times. Or in the final third we get the ball to Bogle without a run on the full back and tried to put an aimless cross in that hits the defender. The same predictability happens all over the pitch and easily controlled.

-Small shoutout for how Cocu shouts “WAGGEEE”, dont know why but it just makes me smile

-At this stage I hope we can get a fresh face in, although it seems unlikely. Think we just need someone about who’s not tarnished with what has been happening this season. Or maybe even Jozefzoon?**

 

*ok it’s late and I may have gone a bit ott, essentially a player with a lot of movement and pace is what I mean. Maybe Sibley but I’ve not seen enough of him
**ok this time I’m just being tongue in cheek

I question too if the players are losing patience with cocu and his style of play that quite clearly isn’t getting the best out of them 

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8 hours ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

We have now won 2 away games in the league since December 2018. Which is an absolute disgrace. So all the blame can't just lie at Cocu's door. These players are an absolute shambles.

There's so many things wrong at this football club it's frightening. I said on another thread the other day that in the summer we need 7-9 players to even be remotely competitive and I stand by that. But how on earth are we supposed to do that? No sign of this investment is there?

To give that game away tonight pretty much sums up our season and the mentality that these pathetic bunch of bottle jobs continue to show season on season.

The lack of creativity is alarming. It really is. Waghorn has never ever been a lone striker. Not once in his career. You can see from the start that it doesn't work, before the game nobody wants to see it. Yet we go again with it. As soon as it went 1-1 that should have been us making a change. To leave it till 80 minutes out of desperation is poor. 

I honestly can't see us signing anyone this week. 

I can see Stoke beating us on Friday and then back to back away games at Swansea and Bristol City. 

I'm sick of the players at this football club letting us down time and time again. Rotten to the core.

 

Is that stat correct ? 2 away wins since December 18? What is going on. That is awful.

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9 minutes ago, Theres’s Only Wan Chope said:

Is that stat correct ? 2 away wins since December 18? What is going on. That is awful.

Not quite

Championship
Huddersfield 05/08/19 -2-1
Leeds 15/05/19 4-2 (playoffs)
Bristol 27/04/19 2-0

Carabao Cup
Scunthorpe 13/08/19 1-0

FA Cup
Palace 05/01/20 1-0
Accrington 26/01/19 1-0
Southampton 16/01/19 2-2 (won on pens)

6 Championship wins, and 3 Carabao Cup wins earlier in the 18/19 season too

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1 hour ago, NottsRam77 said:

I question too if the players are losing patience with cocu and his style of play that quite clearly isn’t getting the best out of them 

I’m not sure I quite see it that way, I think I see it more that some of them could be over coached and are becoming too frightened to make a mistake.

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5 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Not quite

Championship
Huddersfield 05/08/19 -2-1
Leeds 15/05/19 4-2 (playoffs)
Bristol 27/04/19 2-0

Carabao Cup
Scunthorpe 13/08/19 1-0

FA Cup
Palace 05/01/20 1-0
Accrington 26/01/19 1-0
Southampton 16/01/19 2-2 (won on pens)

6 Championship wins, and 3 Carabao Cup wins earlier in the 18/19 season too

I said 2 away wins in the league. We have won 2 away wins in the league since December 29th 2018.

Couldn't care less if we won at Accrington, Southampton (we drew if you're being pedantic) or Scunthorpe.

The league is our bread and butter.

2 league away wins since December 29 2018 is absolutely pathetic.

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i am like most peoples opinion on here this season is over or lets be honest never really got started

Poor summer transfer window for one reason or another as left us with this shambles of a team,i am all for playing the young players but if we continue as we are its going to hurt there confidence.It looks like the investment is being held back just in case we do get a points deduction which would put us on the relegation line and even more presuure heaped on young shoulders

I am on the fence when it comes to Cocu my worry is he is not learning from previous mistakes and if i was in a job for say 6 months and kept making the same mistakes and no plan of action i would be out of a job

Still lets see were we are come May  

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9 hours ago, Uptherams said:

Name all the squads that are better than ours then...

All those above us in the league for starters.we are where we are because we’re not good enough to be higher.The lack of ability/skill/quality in the squad is alarming.

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14 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Not quite

Championship
Huddersfield 05/08/19 -2-1
Leeds 15/05/19 4-2 (playoffs)
Bristol 27/04/19 2-0

Carabao Cup
Scunthorpe 13/08/19 1-0

FA Cup
Palace 05/01/20 1-0
Accrington 26/01/19 1-0
Southampton 16/01/19 2-2 (won on pens)

6 Championship wins, and 3 Carabao Cup wins earlier in the 18/19 season too

Ok, so in terms of the league that stat is correct. Some good results in there outside of the league still doesn’t deflect from what is an abysmal record. 
Derby were poor away in the Clough years too, I’m beginning to think this is worse.

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9 hours ago, Dean (hick) Saunders said:

We play him (Marriott) though and he’s still poo also. We have no solutions with current staff which isn’t poo. I think we should have all worked that out by now.

 

“We have no solutions with current staff which isn’t poo” Spot on says it all about the squad/club.

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