I think our defence is okay - but we only haven’t conceded more because of Foster, that much is obvious. It still creaks under pressure and is pretty awful with the ball at their feet. And in answer to your last question, if football is still ravaged by no fans (no money) then we may be in a precarious financial situation which means we may still need to cut costs regardless of where we are in the table. And if we don’t need to sell and are doing well, players might still want to go if offered a bigger opportunity.
I wonder in a way if our fairly decent start to the season during September convinced our recruitment team that we’d be alright not signing any of the various left-backs we were linked with. Ironically had we lost three of our four openers, it might have persuaded them otherwise. I feel you need to give yourself as many options as possible, and always factor in worst-case scenarios. Early October we thought we’d soon have Perica back and could field an out and out Number 9, but of course we’ve now lost him for weeks. It seems Masina will be out for longer than first thought, so it was wrong to assume we could muddle along at left-back for just another month or two. Perish the thought and hope it doesn’t happen, but who is to say Hughes might not come back and immediately aggravate his injury. Who is to say we won’t get a Covid outbreak at the club? We wouldn’t miss one of our many central defenders that way as we are overloaded there, but imagine injuries or illness to the likes of Foster, Sarr, Pedro, Sema, Femenia etc. I wonder if the club got over-complacent towards compiling the squad based on a handful of 1-0 wins last month?
No comment: I've already been in hockey heaven. [ANECDOTE]EH put on the London FLYERZ festival in the morning of the pro-league's less 'good' teams (in 2018 it was GB vs China). Killing some time before push-back for the first match (the men) after I've loaded my son's GK kit back in the car (special permission to park at Lee Valley) we met by two members of the Italian women's squad who've got to be two of the hottest chicks professional athletes I've ever seen. They're dressed in the walking-out kits (kappa) that as you would expect for an Italian firm producing kit for the national squad is exquisite tailoring that extenuates the players' natural beauty/physique. One speaks broken Eeeeengleeesh and it turns out the other is a GK that was watching my son in the festival who has an autistic younger brother - so she's impressed with what the FLYERZ do and gives us a pass for the closed players spectator zone and tells us to come because they play GB next week and the GK will give my son a running commentary of what the GKs are doing. We go in and we're made to sit in the centre of the entire Italian squad (think 25 super models) with the girls endessly jabbering away and cooing after my son with bits translated in English. They don't take any notice of me: FFS I wasn't even 50 then and he was 11 - what a waste.[ANECDOTE]
No striker in the World can guarantee taking every chance. Murray has a record stretching back over a lot more than 500 games of scoring an average of very roughly a goal every two and a half games. You bet that is what he should be there for, but he has to play in front of goal and be fed chances. When he came on as sub I saw him out on the wing as a target man or to chase down oppo players! That is wrong in my view. He is too old to run around, but should be capable of scoring striker-type goals.
What Murray did show last night was making an intelligent run to get in a scoring position. Should probably hit the target but that's the area he needs to be playing in. Not out on the wing or on the half way line looking to run in behind the defenders. Play him with Srr and JP either side I reckon he would score goals. Would also suit Sarr more. Not playing Sarr as a winger is ******* criminal
Foster has made 15 saves of shots from inside the box this season. 8 of those came in the games against Blackburn and Wycombe. So just 7 in the other 6 games. Ben has definitely won us 4 points at least this season and will earn us plenty more, but I think more credit needs to go to the defence for the performances against Boro, Sheffield Wednesday, Luton and Derby, where Foster wasn't really required thanks to the excellent organisation. Think it was also impressive for 95 minutes against Bournemouth where we limited one of the best sides in the league to long range efforts.
Our recuitment last Season still haunts us now. We signed a superb winger without considering where the hell they would fit with a manager who doesn't play with wingers. We signed a CB who was relegated the Season before and then got relegated with us, playing a pivotal role in the final game as well in sending us down. We were desperate enough to accept a year long loan just so we got his wages off the payroll and will still have 2 years to serve when he comes back. Pussetto did the square sum of bugger and all, Spurs cameo aside and has since gone back on loan to the club we signed him from 6 months earlier. Welbeck made sense and didn't pan out, so am more sympathetic to the club with that signing as it did make sense given what we needed up front on paper. We persisted with playing the old guard who were on the decline in an attempt to "get on with it" but that only goes so far without having a clear playing philosophy and recuitment that are in sync with each other. (Why the absolute hell was Pedro not playing during that run in? Why did we choose to use Deeney who was not fit ahead of Welbeck in that central role? Many other questions in that vein can be asked) We tried banging out a 4-2-3-1 in the run in and "get on with it" last Season when **** hit the fan and look where it got us when we sacked Gracia after failing to recruit for his play style. QSF's usual 4-2-3-1 went even more defensive with 5 atb due to our inept defensive recruits. He even said as much. Pearson seemed to get things going, but then it just stopped working after the new manager bounce failed. There comes a time where a reset needs to happen so that the club and players can be refocused and fix the fundamental flaws of the squad that have been slowly building since 2017-18 and spectacularly imploded last Season. It was always going to take time to undo 2-3 years of atrophy defensively and offensively. Frankly. we are ahead of where I thought we would be given how much of the squad was unavailable at the start of the Season. Ivic has the whole squad playing to an identity even if it doesn't always work so which is no mean feat, especially defensively which was our achilles heel for the last few Seasons. He's shown some flexibility with adapting to our squad's unbalanced composition (We have our only natural LB injured, whilst we're forced to play a winger as a wingback as it is. Femenia is naturally an RB and although can play there will leave us horribly exposed which is currently masked with the extra CB) with his line-ups and subs which make sense, even if they don't always inspire. He isn't shoe-horning players into unnatural roles. (With Sarr being the exception, but given our dearth of options there and Sarr's attributes it's an understandable choice) His 4-3-3 needs a defensive minded LB, but the only options we have is out til January and the club actively ignored this. He's also rotating the squad effectively so we do not burn out later in the Season that I am very confident we will see with Reading and similar sides. This doesn't mean I don't think Ivic is doing perfectly though or that he has done enough, especially last night and against Blackburn. Our central midfield needs work to get them to be more cohesive and we need that fast. Cleverley and Chalobah should never be in the same lineup for example as they do not compliment each other in any regard. He has the right players for the job and he has to take responsibility for that, which he appears to. The same can be said for our chance creation. He acknowledges it but he needs to come up with a solution. Quina should be the answer but he has been a massive dissapointment so far. TDB was a big blow as well. Hughes will be a big boost to helping balance that area. Having Gray back I think will see a positive shift in our line-ups which will hopefully see Sarr or Pedro rested a little bit now.
The Championship is a dreadfully weak league this season. Which of the teams with their current squad would survive in the Premier League if promoted? We're 5th now, but we have been awful and rode our luck in the games so far. We are far higher in the league than l thought we would be. This is mainly due to the poor level of football in the Championship. I hope we can get better, that Ivic finds a winning formation and we play with some heart/passion. Somehow l think none of this will happen. We are a mediocre side in a poor Championship. We had better get use to it unless Ivic/Duxbury/Pozzo can pull off an amazing magic trick. We can live in hope...
Still plenty of work to do, clearly. But there are signs of what is coming. The defence is largely solid, though if we were going to continue with a three I'd go with Cathcart, Troost-Ekong and Wilmott. Our midfield in a few weeks will be totally different to that which started the season. Hughes, Capoue and Garner would be my three. Chalobah and Cleverley on the bench. Quina simply isn't good enough. Pedro has all the makings of a superstar but he needs a bit of assistance. He looked lost against WW. Pedro plus one of Deeney/Gray/Murray would be my shout, with Gray the most likely candidate. Sema as left wing back, Sarr on the right.
Agree with most of this however I would give Quina a bit of slack. Also, as has already been said, we need a dominant tough centre half Does anyone think Britos would not have left his mark on on Bayo?
I think it was a missed opportunity not allowing Quina to take one of the multiple loan moves available last season. When all are fit he will be behind Capoue, Hughes, Cleverley, Garner, & Chalobah. Hopefully the club will be able to help him get out on loan in January, some regular games at a lower level might help him develop but right now he isn't good enough.
I think you mean he needs time to develop much like Garner is not Man Utd standard at present but would be harsh for Manure fans to say " not good enough"
Saw an interview with their big lump Akinfenwah (spelling) on the box today and he was wearing a ******* great big knee brace on his right knee, and still we could not handle him on Tuesday night FFS
Could go either way. Garner is a huge talent, I’m not convinced Quina is good enough. I might be wrong and hope I am, but none of the head coaches in our revolving door have played him regularly yet and having seen his performances this season I can see why. Hopefully you are right and I’m wrong and he just needs more time. Either way regular football elsewhere will help him do that rather than sitting on our bench.
True agree with this . However injuries to key player will hinder any team in the championship. Probably us least of all , because as most pundits have said we have one of the strongest squads in the championship . Most championship teams don’t have really quality in depth . What would happen to Brentford if Toney were injured for example .
Such as who ? And what credential does your undoubted indepth research show that they are better than those two or Deeney and Gray who are ahead of those in the pecking order, actually making Perica And Murray the 4th and 5th choice .
In news which made me feel a little better about our showing at their place, Akinfenwa played the whole 90 against Brum, winning 21 aerial duels (13 against Sheffield Wednesday, not sure about us, but he definitely won most of his battles in the air). He may look like a gimmick, but he bloody well is proving to be a handful at Championship level!
