Size Matters.

[Eatonram]

Words I never wanted to utter. But, in the Championship you need "physical presence". You can be a lesser player to an extent but have a greater impact on the game. We saw this with both Cardiff and Rotherham, where our players can be brushed aside far too easily. Clearly you have to strike the right balance but we need more physicality in the squad.

[Rampage]

We have a more physical size in the squad than for a few years now. We still need more 6 ft plus players. Byrne makes nonsense of this idea.

[OoooMarkWright]

It does indeed. Cardiff had the perfect blend last night of pace, power, strength, blended with the quality on the ball. We, unfortunately don’t have that balance right. If anything, we have gone more physical this season,  but have lost the quality on the ball. That midfield 3 last night, as it has for most of this season, had zero creativity or movement off the ball. Work still required to strike that balance.

 

[Steve Buckley’s Dog]

49 minutes ago, enachops said:

It does indeed. Cardiff had the perfect blend last night of pace, power, strength, blended with the quality on the ball. We, unfortunately don’t have that balance right. If anything, we have gone more physical this season,  but have lost the quality on the ball. That midfield 3 last night, as it has for most of this season, had zero creativity or movement off the ball. Work still required to strike that balance.

 

I disagree. I think that except for pace, power, quality on the ball and strength we had all of these things last night. It’s a wonder we lost really. 

[TINMANTED]

1 hour ago, Eatonram said:

Words I never wanted to utter. But, in the Championship you need "physical presence". You can be a lesser player to an extent but have a greater impact on the game. We saw this with both Cardiff and Rotherham, where our players can be brushed aside far too easily. Clearly you have to strike the right balance but we need more physicality in the squad.

exactly this,and we are happy packing our half and playing head tennis, dwarfs against giants,never going to end well.the only way to compete is fast flowing football on the floor as we played before christmas in our better spell

[brady1993]

We didn't really lose to Cardiff because of physicality though. 

We lost because we had an absolute mess of lineup, zero movement or ability to play through midfield and a striker trying to compete against 3 centre backs without any support.

[kevinhectoring]

11 hours ago, brady1993 said:

We didn't really lose to Cardiff because of physicality though. 

We lost because we had an absolute mess of lineup, zero movement or ability to play through midfield and a striker trying to compete against 3 centre backs without any support.

Lack of pace is an issue for us tho    It’s a problem with some of our starlets 

[TheresOnlyWanChope]

14 hours ago, brady1993 said:

We didn't really lose to Cardiff because of physicality though. 

We lost because we had an absolute mess of lineup, zero movement or ability to play through midfield and a striker trying to compete against 3 centre backs without any support.

It must be up there with one of the most rubbish and lacklustre Derby performances in recent years. 

[Angry Ram]

17 hours ago, Eatonram said:

Words I never wanted to utter. But, in the Championship you need "physical presence". You can be a lesser player to an extent but have a greater impact on the game. We saw this with both Cardiff and Rotherham, where our players can be brushed aside far too easily. Clearly you have to strike the right balance but we need more physicality in the squad.

We need intelligence. Sadly lacking though at the moment on the pitch and off it.

[brady1993]

4 hours ago, kevinhectoring said:

Lack of pace is an issue for us tho    It’s a problem with some of our starlets 

I'm not convinced that it is a major issue right now or is at least a fair way down the list. Could we use a bit more ? Yeah but who couldn't. Most of the squad are varying degrees of mobile to quick if not outright rapid.

['Rambe33]

 

4 hours ago, kevinhectoring said:

Lack of pace is an issue for us tho    It’s a problem with some of our starlets 

The lack of pace in our ranks has been a problem for a number of years now. We still find ourselves in that situation where we still don't really have a proper winger in the club. 

All our so-called wide players drift in field and play inverted. Unless this is part of the tactics it is still a major issue that we don't have a player capable of dribbling past a player and getting a cross in. 

I did think Jozwiak would be the answer to this but he hasn't yet done it and picks the ball up infield too often. 

[Rampage]

2 hours ago, 'Rambe33 said:

 

The lack of pace in our ranks has been a problem for a number of years now. We still find ourselves in that situation where we still don't really have a proper winger in the club. 

All our so-called wide players drift in field and play inverted. Unless this is part of the tactics it is still a major issue that we don't have a player capable of dribbling past a player and getting a cross in. 

I did think Jozwiak would be the answer to this but he hasn't yet done it and picks the ball up infield too often. 

Ability to beat an opponent should remain around the same level. Same for making a short pass or a long pass or running into a space or challenging for a header at a corner. if you cannot do these stock in trade skills after six months it is likely to be a confidence issue. Management can increase confidence in players. Wayne is making good strides in increasing the confidence of the players and there is still work to do. We are getting there.

[Duracell]

While I agree that perhaps some - myself included - have been too quick to dismiss physical presence over the past decade, I hope we don't do this soul-searching routine about the merits of playing industrial hoofball each time we lose to a team who are masters of the art.

There's been a lot of "HA! Told you so!" about Mick McCarthy following Tuesday night. You know what, it's perfectly possible that they will be promoted this season via the playoffs, and that would be another incredible achievement in what's been an outstanding career in football for MM. I respect him hugely.

That doesn't alter my opinion that I don't want him as our manager. If Cardiff go up, they will come back down - it may not be immediately, but it will be within 3 seasons and each of those seasons will be miserable.

Cardiff are 8th. They're also not that physical, just very drilled, like any decent MM side.  Good luck to them. Norwich, Brenford and Watford are in the top 3, and while none of them are performing compelling renditions of tikka-takka, those teams play. Get promoted that way, and there's always a chance that you can genuinely compete if you go up and invest wisely. 

As for Rotherham, well done for beating us twice, but they're in the relegation zone. I wouldn't rebuild the whole squad to match a side who most likely won't be in our league next year.

[Rab a dab doo]

'Size matters' depends which angle your looking at it from

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

I think we are discussing athleticism. This is becoming more and more important. Not physical bulk as such more the power and speed. We look to be lacking to some degree in that department.

[David]

If you trim the grass they look bigger. So I’m told.

[Dimmu]

It's all about width, they say.

We really don't have proper swingers, some people here are crying after Tom ducking Lawrence.

[Tyler Durden]

Really shameful that after being brought up on a diet of wingers such as Gary Micklewhite, Nigel Callaghan, Paul Simpson and Ted McMinn we're in the position now where for some time we haven't had a player who can beat a man, dribble or put a decent cross in.

Not sure how we've contrived to end up in this situation, it's really desperate.

[SKRam]

5 hours ago, brady1993 said:

I'm not convinced that it is a major issue right now or is at least a fair way down the list. Could we use a bit more ? Yeah but who couldn't. Most of the squad are varying degrees of mobile to quick if not outright rapid.

We just need to sign a striker called Dean. It’s a winning formula, they’ll be lightning fast.  Ask Saunders and Sturridge 

[David]

2 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

Really shameful that after being brought up on a diet of wingers such as Gary Micklewhite, Nigel Callaghan, Paul Simpson and Ted McMinn we're in the position now where for some time we haven't had a player who can beat a man, dribble or put a decent cross in.

Not sure how we've contrived to end up in this situation, it's really desperate.

Tyler, do you never think, you know what, there’s a lot going on in the world, a lot of clubs are in a much much worse position than us, let’s just enjoy what we have and not poo poo everything?

I know it might be a little weird at first, but once you get to grips with it and where we are, football becomes more tolerable and you actually start to look forward to match days ?