v Wycombe (H) - Match Thread

[California Ram.]

Post that game, how does Rooney select a team for Coventry ? Only 2 people basically pick themselves (Marshall and Kazim Richards).
 

About 20 others could argue for inclusion in the other 9 slots.  Byrne/Wisdom/Clarke/Davies/Te Wierik/Forsyth/Buchanan: 7 for 4 defensive positions.

Bird/Shinnie/Knight/Sibley/Holmes/Evans 6 for three midfield positions (plus Rooney himself if he only ruled himself out against Wycombe)

Joswiak/Stretton/Ibe/Lawrence/Waghorn/Whittaker: 6 for 2 wide striking positions.

(and there’s several in the u-23s who are worth a look as well) 

Hopefully we can settle into a team and a pattern quickly, and Rooney can make the brave decisions to say no to his former teammates.

 

[europia]

1 hour ago, Leeds Ram said:

Personally, I think we're pretty much down unless we can convince someone with big experience in this division to come in, bring in their own staff and turn this sinking ship around and fast. 

Well yes. Having resorted to hoofball, we might as well bring in a manager who is good at that type of thing. Someone who can quickly bang that simple philosophy into the (clueless but expensively assembled squad of) players heads. 

[Jimbo Ram]

6 minutes ago, California Ram. said:

Post that game, how does Rooney select a team for Coventry ? Only 2 people basically pick themselves (Marshall and Kazim Richards).
 

About 20 others could argue for inclusion in the other 9 slots.  Byrne/Wisdom/Clarke/Davies/Te Wierik/Forsyth/Buchanan: 7 for 4 defensive positions.

Bird/Shinnie/Knight/Sibley/Holmes/Evans 6 for three midfield positions (plus Rooney himself if he only ruled himself out against Wycombe)

Joswiak/Stretton/Ibe/Lawrence/Waghorn/Whittaker: 6 for 2 wide striking positions.

(and there’s several in the u-23s who are worth a look as well) 

Hopefully we can settle into a team and a pattern quickly, and Rooney can make the brave decisions to say no to his former teammates.

 

Bielik?

[brady1993]

43 minutes ago, Ramarena said:

Disagree Bird hasn’t got the physical presence or mobility to play that role on his own!

I think you are wrong on both points. I can easily point to how he's only just behind Shinnie in terms of defensive stats but I also don't think he's any less mobile than Bielik. To be honest it's not really a position you need a very mobile player, positioning matters far far more and off the 3 Bird's positional sense is far better.

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

3 hours ago, Archied said:

Jeez kash , I’m stunned ,,, that was head tennis , hoof it rowettball as you used to call it but without the style , first half we managed to match them physically and that about it , second half we were gash, 

I don’t think the first half was,sure it was very scrappy at first,lots of heading up into the air but once it settled we finally started playing nice attacking football and ckr was particularly effective and we finally started overloading the box.....we really should have been two up by halftime.

the second half was nowhere near as effective and and  our subs reverted to playing submissive cocu ball again.

there’s some way to go but the improvement to our attacking game was obvious after a short time under the new regime (I’m attributing this to Mac rather than Rooney to be honest)

so more promising I thought,especially ckr who was a revelation.

[Ramarena]

7 minutes ago, brady1993 said:

I think you are wrong on both points. I can easily point to how he's only just behind Shinnie in terms of defensive stats but I also don't think he's any less mobile than Bielik. To be honest it's not really a position you need a very mobile player, positioning matters far far more and off the 3 Bird's positional sense is far better.

You’re entitled to your opinion. 

It’s also about midfield blend. If Knight and Sibley are playing then you need some with more presence and combative qualities than Bird backing them up.

Whilst being fairly effective going forwards I’m pretty sure we’d end up losing the midfield battle, this division is incredibly unforgiving........as we are finding out!

[brady1993]

2 minutes ago, Ramarena said:

You’re entitled to your opinion. 

It’s also about midfield blend. If Knight and Sibley are playing then you need some with more presence and combative qualities than Bird backing them up.

Whilst being fairly effective going forwards I’m pretty sure we’d end up losing the midfield battle, this division is incredibly unforgiving........as we are finding out!

The reason why I think it would work is because of Knight and Sibley. Both are energetic,  aggressive and don't get bullied so can lead all the pressing, from their Bird will pick up the positions he needs to support the press and intercept if needs be whilst being there to quickly help move the ball on once it's won back. If you go back to last season Bird wins more defensive duels than any other midfielder at the club but I think it goes unnoticed as it tends to be nipping the ball of players toes before moving it on.

I also think clearly Bielik would work but I'm coming from the standpoint of ideally wanting all 4 in the same side at once with possibly Bielik in defence given our paucity of options at RCB.

Shinnie though..... I'm not convinced by two elements; can he stick to his position and is he going to be a liability on the ball. Shinnie as a player tends to charge around making tackles and in a two you can get away with that because there is always someone else but as the central player of a three you more have to keep to your position and choose your spots. I don't think that's the bigger problem though, now that's his ability on the ball particular in deep areas. He doesn't look remotely comfortable receiving the ball off the defence and looking to either turn or quickly play it on and has made quite a few mistakes in those positions, he has a tendency to either pass back to the player who gave it to him or at least in that direction. Also he's very bad at making himself available for passes either from the back four or the rest of the midfield which is honestly a critical function of that position. People might bring up Eustace but despite keeping things simple Eustace could do those things a lot better. 

[loweman2]

[Steve Buckley’s Dog]

Interesting read. I have taken everyone’s views on boards and decided to have a hand shandy because God knows I could do with a positive end result.

[kevinhectoring]

1 hour ago, Ramarena said:

Disagree Bird hasn’t got the physical presence or mobility to play that role on his own!

but does he have the experience? Our youngsters are great and SIbley did well again today. But what about their strength and experience, especially if we have several of them on the pitch? With SM in charge (I think he is thank God) I reckon we will see less of them, certainly until things are turned round

The first half today was strong, not least because we had some older heads like Fozzie, Shinnie and Evans around. 

[brady1993]

2 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

but does he have the experience? Our youngsters are great and SIbley did well again today. But what about their strength and experience, especially if we have several of them on the pitch? With SM in charge (I think he is thank God) I reckon we will see less of them, certainly until things are turned round

The first half today was strong, not least because we had some older heads like Fozzie, Shinnie and Evans around. 

Well I mean the experienced players we have are and have largely been poor to middling. Even with the 3 you mentioned I think you can only really say Forsyth played well (and he faded second half) with the other two failing to give any kind of control against a poor Wycombe side.

I honestly wouldn't say we were particularly strong first half, we were ok against a poor performance.

To be honest I saw nothing to suggest SM had any input in the side today, can't remember Mac ever naming 6 defenders practically.

[kevinhectoring]

1 hour ago, brady1993 said:

To be honest I saw nothing to suggest SM had any input in the side today, can't remember Mac ever naming 6 defenders practically.

we'll see the dynamic btw Rooney and Mac when we have more cameras around. I think they brought Mac in because of his history w Rooney.  Sort of wondering who gave the half time team talk today, which was less than a roaring success. I guess it must have been WR

[brady1993]

1 minute ago, kevinhectoring said:

we'll see the dynamic btw Rooney and Mac when we have more cameras around. I think they brought Mac in because of his history w Rooney.  Sort of wondering who gave the half time team talk today, which was less than a roaring success. I guess it must have been WR

Honestly it looks every bit like Rooney is in charge, Mac will mostly there to observe and possibly bounce ideas off. Rooney will have had a bigger voice in Cocu's set up than I expect Mac has currently.

[Chris_Martin]

3 hours ago, Tyler Durden said:

I remember what a clean sheet is....just 

how can you have almost forgotten, its what our opponents get most weekends. 

[irobinson]

Bielik if fit needs to come in 

 

 

[OoooMarkWright]

Why is McClaren going into the dressing room at half time? The whole point of Rooney being in charge was to have one voice, less confusion. What the hell is McClaren’s role? We either use him for his strengths - excellent coach or he stays away from the nitty gritty of the running of the club. Fair enough he might be there to advise Rooney, but his role now seems to be adding further confusion. A technical director should not be in the changing room. We need to appoint McClaren as caretaker or get rid. Another farcical decision by Morris. 

[i-Ram]

I see @Owen87ITKis logged on. Tell me Owen, when you do your two Uber Eats intros, are Barks or Shinner contracted to squeeze your soft bits a little? You do go up an octave or two, and rush through the message like you need some physical release (or perhaps relief). Remember that next time you make your intro as I sit in my armchair smiling.

[Jimbo Ram]

2 hours ago, enachops said:

Why is McClaren going into the dressing room at half time? The whole point of Rooney being in charge was to have one voice, less confusion. What the hell is McClaren’s role? We either use him for his strengths - excellent coach or he stays away from the nitty gritty of the running of the club. Fair enough he might be there to advise Rooney, but his role now seems to be adding further confusion. A technical director should not be in the changing room. We need to appoint McClaren as caretaker or get rid. Another farcical decision by Morris. 

Yea, should leave the dressing room visits to Mel ?

[BaaLocks]

12 hours ago, loweman2 said:

I'm always a bit nervous with Clough quotes, and photos, because I'm never quite sure whether I'm quoting him from his time as Forest manager. There are some on here who have photos of him as Forest manager on their profile pic, which is something to consider when you take a moment. As it's Brian I guess he's worthy of remembrance for all that he said, and even forgiven for where he was when he said it, but it does cause me some degree of internal conflict.

There, that's that off my chest....

[David]

Thought the first half was probably the best we have played in a long time. Ironically we looked worse when the players came on that many were complaining weren’t in the team at 2pm.

Will need to see that offside decision again, difficult to see from the angle, looked like he was just off but back on when the ball was played. Open to being proved wrong, haven’t seen it back yet.

Credit to Allsopp for clawing Evans effort out. 

Disappointing to not only have buried a couple more of the chances we had and not to hold out.

Wycombe were never going to be rollovers, watched them play Norwich and were incredibly unlucky to have lost that. Norwich top of the league also drew with Coventry yesterday and lost to us.

I’d say it’s a funny old league, but it’s difficult to laugh right now. Plenty of positives to be had from yesterday though if you are open to seeing them. 

On we go to Tuesday. Another difficult game.