Coventry v Derby Match Day Thread

[Ruud Aralliss]

1 hour ago, NottsRam77 said:

our survival hopes basically are starting to fall on ibe and Lawrence returning ... 

[RadioactiveWaste]

Anyone made a "Sad Wayne" meme yet? Because one might rapidly start to become needed.

[Ruud Aralliss]

51 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

I think people were put off the idea of McCarthy due to playing style, but it doesn't look like we're doing much better to be honest, we are just so boring to watch it's painful. 

Unfortunately that playing style is getting teams in the top half of this league even Rowett isn’t sweating.

[Ramarena]

36 minutes ago, Ruud Aralliss said:

Just watched WR interview, sounds like he will be starting Watson Wednesday night.  Another young talent destined for premiership football, but I think it’s well seasoned championship players we need atm for the scrap that we are in

Don’t want to heap too much pressure onto the lad.....but I hope he does start.

Hes come into the team and taken responsibility, tried to be progressive and positive.

Hes actually put many of the to shame for their lack of..........well anything really!

Good on him hope he plays well if he gets the nod!

[DCFC Kicks]

2 hours ago, Chris_Martin said:

Yes Mount is quality, but he wasn't the player he is now 3 years ago. 

He also wasn't playing in the premier league 3 years ago, he was playing in an easier division.

[rad1919]

That was a truly awful, rotten to the core performance, I mean truly horrific. Not a single positive.

I will still pay my money on Wednesday night, DCFC is a way of life but these performances must be testing the resolve of most supporters.

There is no feel good factor. Every game is hard to watch. There isn't a single player I look forward to see play, not since Bielik got injured.

Throw the silence surrounding the 'takeover' into the mix and these are truly bizarre times.

There is absolutely nothing positive about our club at the moment.

[Archied]

My god we are bad ,,, can’t understand for the life of me why we can’t take risks with passes going forward but we can at the back which cost us goals ,

this squad is nowhere near good enough , no first touch ,no speed of thought and not enough quality to make the simplest of passes to a team mate , the big worry is we have brought 5 loans in that don’t seem to be any better than we had , far from the only one but as I have said for a while wizzy is a poor footballer ,

the only funny thing about this performance is the odd suggestion of lampard being our saviour ?????, 

He’s a poor rookie manager who believed his own self promotion and hype , hence his beloved Chelsea fans are glad to see the back of him in double quick time ,, Roman did him a right favour chopping him early 

[Chris_Martin]

1 minute ago, DCFClks said:

He also wasn't playing in the premier league 3 years ago, he was playing in an easier division.

true, but even without him we weren't as bad to watch as todays side

At least back then we always felt like we could score.  

[brady1993]

Well that's was a bit naff and compounds the selection issues on Saturday. Once again we got it tactically wrong and had no clear plan to progress. Knight on the left meant we had no way to progress down the left, a two man midfield with a player in Shinnie who isn't interested in getting the ball meant going through middle was difficult and both strikers pushed right up meant we had no way to progress up the pitch first half bar Roberts. And that seemed our only plan first half, hope Roberts does something. Coventry quickly sussed out that due to lack of technical quality if they pressed us into our left side we'd lose possession almost at will. 

The formation change at half time was inadequate to solve the clear problems; Knight just isn't a ten and  Waghorn on the left is inneffectual. All that still meant we had no way to progress the ball which only changed when we brought on Watson and switched to a lot sided 433. We actually started playing a bit of football at that point, create openings if not chances and the midfield started to look functional. The only problem we still couldn't effectively go down the left because of putting Gregory there and Coventry had something to defend and not long to defend it.

As much as they may have served us well we have to stop playing both Shinnie and Knight especially against teams in and around us. We need better quality in midfield or else we are going to progressively slip further back. The lesson we should be taking away from this game and Cardiff is we should be starting Watson, Bird and one of Shinnie or Knight if we want to try to vaguely have any control in a game. 

As an aside what I'm quickly realising is how technically iffy a lot of players in the squad are. There was so many times today where a player would wait for the ball to come to them, take a touch, wait a second, look up, take another touch and only then look to make a pass. It's basically only Bird, Watson, Roberts and to an extent CKR that can reliably shift possession on with any speed at all.

[Chris_Martin]

4 minutes ago, rad1919 said:

That was a truly awful, rotten to the core performance, I mean truly horrific. Not a single positive.

I will still pay my money on Wednesday night, DCFC is a way of life but these performances must be testing the resolve of most supporters.

There is no feel good factor. Every game is hard to watch. There isn't a single player I look forward to see play, not since Bielik got injured.

Throw the silence surrounding the 'takeover' into the mix and these are truly bizarre times.

There is absolutely nothing positive about our club at the moment.

I wonder if all the dire performances have put the potential owners off?

[brady1993]

1 hour ago, jono said:

Back to the drawing board. Without Bielik driving from the back, our midfield looks slow and weak. Knight is the only bright spark. Much as I like Max, he is young and has a lot to learn; but he looks for the FK instead of fighting until the whistle blows. Shinnie does what Shinnie does but isn’t electric enough to make a difference in turgid games like this. So little skill in evidence from too many in the team. Ponderous inaccurate passing, giving it away, not getting second ball. Add in a lack of teeth upfront means we will always be in a battle. Kazim gave his all as usual, Clarke deserves better. Wiz had an ok game as did Byrne - one catastrophic mistake apart. Roberts tried but is very one footed.
 

 yughhh .! . day to forget, beaten by an average but hungry team with a good CF.  Thought Joz and and the youngster did ok when they came on .. but “ok” isn’t good enough for where we are and where we want to be. 

Though Bird probably looked the most combative of our midfielders today and was the only one who was attempting anything like progressive passing. Think he's suffering at the minute from the fact teams really have clicked on to that he's the only midfielder currently in the team that will actively look to get on the ball and get us playing. It's been noticeable in the last two games that he seemed to come more alive when he had Watson on with him.

[brady1993]

1 hour ago, Chris_Martin said:

I think people were put off the idea of McCarthy due to playing style, but it doesn't look like we're doing much better to be honest, we are just so boring to watch it's painful. 

The weird thing is that right now I think we seem stuck between playing styles and it's seem to vary during the game. Like we will pass it around a bit at the back, see there isn't a way through because the midfield isn't set up for it and then hoof it. We don't seem to a clear plan and it seems to change game to game. Our two best performances of the season came playing a true 433 and using Knight and Shinnie in an aggressive press and yet we've not used that at all since then.

[jono]

14 minutes ago, brady1993 said:

The weird thing is that right now I think we seem stuck between playing styles and it's seem to vary during the game. Like we will pass it around a bit at the back, see there isn't a way through because the midfield isn't set up for it and then hoof it. We don't seem to a clear plan and it seems to change game to game. Our two best performances of the season came playing a true 433 and using Knight and Shinnie in an aggressive press and yet we've not used that at all since then.

I take your point and it is valid, but today, regardless of personal - in or out of position - we moved the too ball slowly, our first touch was agricultural, we lacked focused aggression, willingness and vim as a unit. No one player is at fault, there were odd passages where we might have done something but the team was watered down, diluted and disjointed. Not gloomy .. just recognising that we didn’t play well or more importantly, as a team today. I know we can .. so next game please 

[Jimbo Ram]

3 minutes ago, jono said:

I take your point and it is valid, but today, regardless of personal - in or out of position - we moved the too ball slowly, our first touch was agricultural, we lacked focused aggression, willingness and vim as a unit. No one player is at fault, there were odd passages where we might have done something but the team was watered down, diluted and disjointed. Not gloomy .. just recognising that we didn’t play well or more importantly, as a team today. I know we can .. so next game please 

We don’t seem to have anybody who has the pace, confidence or skill to run at opposition defences and try and beat their man....

[Chris_Martin]

9 minutes ago, jono said:

I take your point and it is valid, but today, regardless of personal - in or out of position - we moved the too ball slowly, our first touch was agricultural, we lacked focused aggression, willingness and vim as a unit. No one player is at fault, there were odd passages where we might have done something but the team was watered down, diluted and disjointed. Not gloomy .. just recognising that we didn’t play well or more importantly, as a team today. I know we can .. so next game please 

we haven't played well for a while now, just that results have been masking it

[Jourdan]

1 minute ago, Jimbo Ram said:

We don’t seem to have anybody who has the pace, confidence or skill to run at opposition defences and try and beat their man....

Lawrence has been injured for 60 percent of the campaign, Ibe was a massive gamble that might not ever pay off, Waghorn is not really a wide player and is having his biggest crisis of confidence in 6 years, and Jozwiak is struggling to settle in.

We’ve not really helped ourselves by adding Roberts to the mix, who isn’t an improvement on any of the above if you are looking for someone more consistent and more reliable.

To be honest, only 1 or 2 of them should be here beyond the summer.

 

[jono]

20 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

We don’t seem to have anybody who has the pace, confidence or skill to run at opposition defences and try and beat their man....

Although Roberts did well all things considered, I thought Joz added something .. he is a proper whack a mole of a player. He chews it and comes back for more. Not saying he is a genius but the attitude and intent is what we need more of.

[Jimbo Ram]

11 minutes ago, jono said:

Although Roberts did well all things considered, I thought Joz added something .. he is a proper whack a mole of a player. He chews it and comes back for more. Not saying he is a genius but the attitude and intent is what we need more of.

How often does he beat his man and get a cross in though, not very often...

[Ghost of Clough]

2 games in a row where our CF has had to deal with 3 CBs whilst our 'wingers' stay wide. Coupled with someone that isn't a midfielder playing as midfielder I'm not surprised we've struggled to create much.

[brady1993]

50 minutes ago, jono said:

I take your point and it is valid, but today, regardless of personal - in or out of position - we moved the too ball slowly, our first touch was agricultural, we lacked focused aggression, willingness and vim as a unit. No one player is at fault, there were odd passages where we might have done something but the team was watered down, diluted and disjointed. Not gloomy .. just recognising that we didn’t play well or more importantly, as a team today. I know we can .. so next game please 

You are completely right and as I kinda mentioned in another post I realised today that we have a lot of players who are technically a bit iffy with only really Bird, CKR and Roberts in the starting 11 looking like they can take the ball under pressure and shift the ball quickly.

Honestly I think we need to restructure the midfield because the balance has been wrong for a while and we've overlooked it.