Except the odd game like Sheff Wed, he offers nothing. His movement is absolutely non existent. I would say he was the worst player yesterday yes, there were some other outstanding candidates though including the bloke who had printed off the match ticket instead of scanning it on his phone! It had basically turned in to a mush. Not sure if he got in or not
We had a polite ‘back-and-forth a few games ago (post Burnley I think) where I was worried about the direction of travel we looked to be facing. And to your credit, you were more hopeful. What we did agree on is that we had a pretty kind set of Christmas fixtures that would likely tell us a lot. Well, a last gasp ‘come-from-behind’ win against Pompey, and weak efforts in defeat against Cardiff and QPR, sadly indicate there is a concern to be had now.
After much deliberation about our problems I tend to think that a big part of the problem we have is TC, or should I say his tactics. Looking at half our players they don't seem to have a clue how to play the game instinctively, it's all driven into their heads in training and basically he's asking them to play a game they either are not used to, or are not capable of. So from the start they are not comfortable unless the oppo back off. We totally struggle getting the ball thru midfield with dozens of sideways passes and hey what team at this level doesn't love it - it's so easy to press. Not wanting to knock Tom but the trick is getting your team to play in a way they know and feel confident. Playing as we do relies so much on fast skillful midfielders, and then having no target man also makes it harder. Get Raj back and play Vata off him I reckon. Tom needs to get the guys clicking and giving their all not fussing about how many passes they can string together.(but I guess our guys just aren't fit enough to play that way as they don't look very fit compared with most other teams?)
Interesting take. I think we discussed the general fitness of the side when Edwards was in charge. We looked woefully fatigued half way through a game. It's a few seasons on from that now but these are professional athletes (supposedly) who can last at least 60 mins. When we had players' like Kucka, Rose and Tufa(t) they looked gassed after 20mins but some of that was down to age and in Rose's case -weight. I do think you are correct on the lack of a gameplan. It seems the objective each game is to concede early most games then play hoof ball or lose it as soon as the midfield fails to find a target man. As good as some of our midfielders are in scoring (Baah/Kayembe) they are not strikers. I think that is also a big flaw in how we play. Nobody seems to trust passing to Bayo (on yesterday's evidence who can blame them) hence why we rely so much on Baah/Louza/Chak to run at teams and create something themselves. Other teams who do have at least semi-competent strikers can press us, pass through our non-existent central midfield then use their strikers to finish a move. We need a decent DM badly, just as much as we need a potent striker.
Our strikers are costing us big time. Had Bayo not air-kicked yesterday, we have been 1-1. Had he not put that header wide, we’d have been very much in the match second half. Had Jebbo not missed that header on Sunday we’d have been 2-2 and who knows how the final few minutes would have played out. Yes we won on Boxing Day but it was a close run thing and we were seconds away from regretting Jebbo’s missed one-on-one not giving us an early lead and a chance to stamp our authority. Yes our defence is poor and our midfield too slow and not very physical, but for the sake of one decent finisher we are throwing points away so regularly.
It was the sort of performance that was typical of previous years. And by that I mean losing to a technically weaker team due to sheer effort and wanting it more. Yesterday was the first time I have seen that this season. I truly hope it's a one off but I guess time will tell
The two headers from Bayo and Jebbison are unacceptable at any level of football. To not even hit the target is a joke.
Did you have your eyes closed for the Cardiff game a few days beforehand then? We have dropped a large number of points against sides in the bottom 6/7 at the time of playing them - are you suggesting there are that many teams at the bottom who are better than us technically? If so, then we must be in a ridiculously false position in the table - but that’s another thing you have disagreed with before.
We are currently 15th in the championship xG table which feels about right based on our performances. We have won a lot of close fought matches, up to the last 2 games, and are 8 places above where we would sit based on chances created/conceded. https://footballxg.com/xg-league-tables/
No, you have got it all wrong. Let me explain it for you. We can play ****, and have done many times this season. Individual players can drop absolute clangers leading to game changing goals, this has happiend a lot as well. But QPR was the first time I felt we didn't want it as much as the opposition, that's what worried / annoyed me, because if this becomes a trend we will end well down the table. I hadn't seen this before QPR this season. If yesterday was a one off, and we display the correct attitude (as well as cutting out the early goals / clangers) we are a top 6 (or thereabouts) team. All in my opinion of course.
I don’t really understand how we can have lost 9 games, but only once has it been a case of us not wanting it as much as the opposition? Surely if we have played **** and lost 8 more games, that shows we didn’t really fancy those games either? Not many (if any) were unfortunate. Are you really suggesting we ‘wanted it’ when L*ton stream-rolled us? Or when we got turned over horrifically by Norwich? I get it’s only your opinion - but I do think there’s some large blind-spots in it! I’m not sure I have ‘got it all wrong.’
I find it all very confusing as this makes me think Bayo and Bachmann are outperforming at either end when I can see with my own eyes they are sewage.
I know ! I guess it means that our opponents have missed a number of changes without requiring a save, and that our non-strikers have been pretty effective at despatching their chances ? Probably more the former though, I can think of many examples where we have been lucky our opponents "missed", esp at home. @reids may have more valuable insight.....
Bachmann has conceded more goals than he should have done based on the shots he's faced (for the first time in his time here), Bayo's xG is very similar to his actual goals scored (inflated by Hillsborough of course), I'd have thought Kayembe more than anyone is overshooting his xG
xG can be deceiving, especially for individual players. If a goalkeeper comes out and claims a cross, there's zero xG involved, but if the goalkeeper doesn't come out and claim it but saves a resulting header he will have prevented some xG, which looks positive in the stats. Bachmann is a good shot stopper, so you would expect his xG prevented to be higher than the xG expected, but that doesn't tell the full story. Having said that, I think we have way bigger problems than Bachmann in our team. He's limited, but he has kept us in quite a few games with his reaction saves. He's a bang average Championship goalkeeper with obvious weaknesses and strengths.
In the league he has scored 4 goals in 10 appearances (654 minutes). 163 minutes per goal. Bayo has 9 in 23 (1530 minutes). 170 minutes per goal. But Rajovic has scored a few in the cups as well.
Thank you. Interesting stats compared to Bayo (I know the leagues are probably different levels of ability) but he does have a knack for scoring from a scramble in the box as we did see a few times. I know we've got Jebbison till May, but I hope there is a plan to bring him back in the Summer with Bayo (finally) leaving for Udinese unless we do the totally moronic thing and loan him back for another season...
Preston away was 10x worse than QPR. We created but didn't finish yesterday I can't honestly remember the Preston keeper do anything of note.
I presume you didn't see the Luton Game because if yesterday worried you, that game would have you locked in a padded cell
Well, I don't know what else I can tell you! i'm not saying you are wrong either (just how you interpreted my post), we will see how the season plays out, but for the 1st time this season i saw traces of the problems of recent years in our performance yesterday. I thought you might mention Luton, and I was hoping you wouldn't, because It kills me to say it, but scum were very very good when they played us, yes we were **** also, but that day they looked good. I'm obviously happy they are where they are right now, but that game they looked like the top 6 team many pundits predicted them to be at the start of the season. I'm very glad I was wrong!
Yeah, to be honest I still don't understand. If your point is that yesterday was the first time you had seen a very specific hallmark of previous seasons, then I can kind of understand. But saying yesterday was the first time this season you have seen us not want it as much as the opposition, despite the very clear evidence that it has happened a fair few other times - yeah, that's where you have lost me!
The only thing I can think off is we have different ideas of what "wanting it" and just playing **** / dropping clangers is. Mistakes, lack of ability, etc, are not good obviously but they don't always go hand in hand with not wanting it enough IMO
And the ref was experienced-243 games over 13 seasons so maybe why TC is now calling out for more "nous" from our players but like a politician (can face in two opposite directiuons at the same time) he doesn't aim that at the players ! Saturdays ref is equally experienced but maybe Wilder will have more dark arts to use (particularly as 6'8'' CB Souttar is out for the season -it was him and Hamer booked along with Jebbison in that ugly extra time free for all)
The alternative is that the squad isn't very good, first XI is ok but once you look past that the options just aren't there. We were garbage against QPR as there was no combination of midfielders available that could take the ball from the defenders and progress it up the pitch when Louza (and to a lesser extent Dele-Bashiru) is out. We have no striker that we can go long to as they can't hold the ball up and bring others into play. So we can't play through the middle and we can't be more direct. I don't think any coach can magic up a solution to that, no matter what the coaching instructions are.
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. We have crap players that make mistake, but the manager makes mistakes too. Putting aside the issues you raised, which are all completely valid, our defence yesterday was shambolic. I don’t believe that is completely down to the players, more down to the manager chopping and changing and poor coaching. We’ve had extremely limited defenders many times in the past (the likes of Doyle/Stewart etc.) but that doesn’t mean they still couldn’t and didn’t play well as a defensive unit when coached well.
