Anyone still believe..... (27 Viewers)

stupot07

Well-Known Member
Creativity is far more of an concern than a 20 goal striker. McNulty and K Thomas and Andreu have goals in them, but we don't seem to know how we want to play, the types of goals we want to score, and only seem to look OK on the counter attack.

Robins needs to decide how hr wants us to play and score goals then pick the right players to make it happen.

What we definitely need to do is stop playing with 2 defensive midfielders.


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st john

Well-Known Member
Luton have only 1 point more than us WITH James Collins. Its just too early to start throwing the towel in.
In 2015 season when we had that great start Wigan had a very average start and ended up walking away with the title.
Need to give it a few more games before we start panicking
 

Gazolba

Well-Known Member
Let's wake up a little, we're not creating many chances so what is Ponticelli gonna do? Only come in and get abused for being shit? Let him grow and develop.

<snip>
Do you really think he'll wait around until he develops? He'll probably be gone by the end of this season. He'll develop elsewhere.
 

Esoterica

Well-Known Member
Creativity is far more of an concern than a 20 goal striker. McNulty and K Thomas and Andreu have goals in them, but we don't seem to know how we want to play, the types of goals we want to score, and only seem to look OK on the counter attack.

Robins needs to decide how hr wants us to play and score goals then pick the right players to make it happen.

What we definitely need to do is stop playing with 2 defensive midfielders.


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Will be plenty of people moaning about 20 goal strikers and the keeper but the Kelly/Doyle situation is the underpinning issue that needs resolving sharpish and is the real root cause of the lack of goals. I'd start the next match with Doyle or Kelly as 6 and then play Andreu as an 8, McNulty as 9, and Nazon as free 10 (he's not suited to a wide role imo). Vincenti to come back in too because we missed some height today.
 

Hobo

Well-Known Member
People getting in a lather after two games were wide of the mark. People getting in a lather after the last two games are also wide of the mark.

The season will be a testing one.
 

torchomatic

Well-Known Member

ceetee

Well-Known Member
People getting in a lather after two games were wide of the mark. People getting in a lather after the last two games are also wide of the mark.

The season will be a testing one.
Well said. Common sense
 

steve82

Well-Known Member
Do you really think he'll wait around until he develops? He'll probably be gone by the end of this season. He'll develop elsewhere.

Don't think we really get to choose do we, besides he won't be going anywhere at least till January as long as he's still here next Friday so no need to rush him in to the match day squad the coming weeks. Let's build him up to that so he can cope when he gets a crack.

Besides if we get our build up play right and goals still ain't coming Kwame Thomas is scoring in the U23's just like Ponticelli to add food for thought.
 

Adge

Well-Known Member
God help us.
Yes Burge has to be back in for the next game and rightly so, but if anybody thinks that we will achieve anything with him in goal for the majority of the season they are dreaming.
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Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
Luton have only 1 point more than us WITH James Collins. Its just too early to start throwing the towel in.
In 2015 season when we had that great start Wigan had a very average start and ended up walking away with the title.
Need to give it a few more games before we start panicking

Portsmouth lost both their opening games last season... Plenty of time to sort it out
 

Warwickhunt

Well-Known Member
A tenth of the season gone already
 

Earlsdon-Loyal-Blue

Well-Known Member
Really unhappy at another clanger from O'Brien, we've now got 3 keepers who aren't fit for purpose and give the defence little confidence.

I'm really hoping our failure to land Collins won't cost us - Robins needs to get a striker in that finish now, before it's too late!!

Get rid of Beavon and Thomas if needed to free up the wages. Beavon struggles to score 5 goals a season never mind 20 and we don't need hard workers up front - we need goalscorers.
 

Irish Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Ponticelli will be the answer up front.
I watched him in 3 pre season friendlies, Tamworth where he played really well, Mickleover where he was okay and Nuneaton when I felt he was fairly anonymous, plus tthe twenty minutes against Blackburn when he struggled to make an impression. I would love to be wrong and for him to come in and score a hatful of goals but I don't think he is ready yet.
 

Paxman II

Well-Known Member
I think we have had a reality check. I don't think it will be the death of us. We will win more than we lose in this league. Even under performing we lost by our own gracious mistakes. That's not to say we do not need of a goalscorer. It will be interesting to see what develops next after the Shrewsbury game.
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
People getting in a lather after two games were wide of the mark. People getting in a lather after the last two games are also wide of the mark.

The season will be a testing one.
It shouldn't be, this is division 4 & we are definitely a big club in the league. Failure to get into the play-offs is unacceptable.
 

Astute

Well-Known Member
We could have a 50 a season striker but it's pointless if we don't create any chances for them.
How can we create chances for someone who isn't there?

You like to say how bad our shooting is. You like to say how far out we are shooting from. That is what happens when you are relying on midfielders to score. If we had someone in the middle who can score we might not have midfielders looking for wonder goals each game.
 

Nick

Administrator
How can we create chances for someone who isn't there?

You like to say how bad our shooting is. You like to say how far out we are shooting from. That is what happens when you are relying on midfielders to score. If we had someone in the middle who can score we might not have midfielders looking for wonder goals each game.

On Saturday there was no midfield...

Jones could have passed a fair few times but shot instead, dke wasn't at all in the game.
 

Nick

Administrator
You have someone making the right movement. Our midfield will pick them out.

They don't though, do they?

It's all well and good people going on with puns and cliches but it just makes it more and more obvious they haven't been watching or paying attention.

Who is going to pick them out?

Jones - He will make runs and get into good positions to pass or put a ball across the box but will shoot 8/10 times.
Doyle - Unless it is some Hollywood pass that splits open 6 players to put a striker through then it isn't going to happen.
Kelly - It's no co-incidence that in second halves when he pushes forward we look more creative, see his assist for Duck. Can't happen when he is tied to Doyle
Stevenson and DKE - Weren't in the game on Saturday at all to do anything, let alone pick a through ball
 

Nick

Administrator
Think you need to question MR as well then. He thinks we are getting decent balls into the box and that the strikers are not getting on the end of them.

Which decent balls are being put into the box? It's getting a bit boring now people seeing the shot stat and crying into their coco pops about James Collins but not really paying attention to the shots we are resorting to.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
Think you need to question MR as well then. He thinks we are getting decent balls into the box and that the strikers are not getting on the end of them.

Well you hate Robins as he exposed your fat mate for what he was and it's a grudge you still harbour.
 

Astute

Well-Known Member
On Saturday there was no midfield...

Jones could have passed a fair few times but shot instead, dke wasn't at all in the game.
So which goalscorer who was in a better position could he have passed it to?
 

Nick

Administrator
So which goalscorer who was in a better position could he have passed it to?

Which time?

There was one where Duck was in a better position and Jones tried to shoot, there was one where I think it was Biamou and McNulty were in the box and Jones could have literally hammered it across the 6 yard line (like he did for the own goal) and it would have been a tap in or maybe an own goal.

Here are a quick 3. On one of them McNulty is screaming for it and runs into space.

Watching it back, to be fair to DKE he was making some really good runs into space but was never used.

pass1.JPG pass2.JPG pass3.JPG
 

Esoterica

Well-Known Member
You have someone making the right movement. Our midfield will pick them out.
These teams we struggle to break down are just sitting deep. Early season it was to counter Jones so as not to give him the space to knock it round his marker and run after it but I think everyone now knows how deep our central midfield sit so the teams who are happy with a point against us are now also doing it to further stretch the gap between our already defensive central midfield and the strikers. There's a few of consequences to that:

* There's no room to get in behind the defence and drop a ball over the top (although it doesn't stop Doyle trying it 4 or 5 times a game!). Last time I remember us managing that was Swindon who had started very high up the pitch and after Biamou got in twice in 5 minutes they soon dropped deeper.
* Our midfield very rarely run beyond our strikers - it's a key element missing from our game all season. Doyle's done it once and scored but most of the time we're just too deep to do it.
* Jones gets the ball very high up the pitch and that means Grimmer doesn't actually get past him very often to take a man away as he's got to cover the whole pitch just to get there. There's no midfield inside to pass to either as they're miles back and so we've had this repetitive situation in every game where his 3 options are try and beat two men, shoot from 20-25 yards or knock the ball back 15 yards to Grimmer which slows the whole attack down as it usually means the ball going back across the back 4. Jones has almost become a victim of his own success this season now too - his decision making of when to pass, dribble or shoot is quite poor recently, like he feels he has to do something amazing every time he gets the ball.
* Our attacks all get squashed up on the top of the box with nowhere to go and so often the ball is cut back for a long shot.
I've linked it a couple of times before (apologies to all for that) but this red empty oval is 90% of our attacking problems.

tactical-board.com(2).png
MR did an awesome job getting the squad together early and on longer contracts and I genuinely believe the recruitment has been excellent, including strikers. He's clearly instilled a good team spirit too. We're doing ok on the pitch as well - defence is tight, we've had some good victories against the better teams who have attacked us and given us a little more space but we've dropped a lot of points now against lower league defensive teams or teams who sit deep after scoring an early goal. There's still loads of time to go in the season but what is concerning me is not so much the points we've dropped, our position in the league or how the teams around us are doing but that so far we've just done the same thing all season, whoever we're playing, home or away. Any personnel changes have been as a result of injuries and we're not showing any adaptability to situations either proactively or reactively other than pushing Kelly higher after high time. My worry with it is that this stubborness will cost us over the course of the season - the fine margins between autos and playoffs, and I'm increasingly worried that MR isn't showing willing to make the tweaks which are clearly needed against negative teams.
 

steve82

Well-Known Member
We've not got a consistent creator in the side, Kelly-Evans is disappearing in games, JJ is more miss than hit if he's just gonna alone and Nazon quite rightly at times like the long shot in tight games. Doyle sits deep in front of the back four so it's only Kelly who's also generally deep at times threading the ball through.

JJ is too selfish to pass 70% of the time, always wanting to be the hero and try the spectacular which generally never leaves the turf and easy collected or wide.
Plenty of times the better option is to pass, like at Chesterfield in the dying seconds he chose to shoot from a ridiculously tight angle and it sailed way over.

He's not up to the level yet with regular goals in him, but he's clearly our stand out player who can make things happen and frightens the life out of many fullbacks if he links in his team mates we will profit more from his dangers as we've seen when he does.
 

Esoterica

Well-Known Member
Which time?

There was one where Duck was in a better position and Jones tried to shoot, there was one where I think it was Biamou and McNulty were in the box and Jones could have literally hammered it across the 6 yard line (like he did for the own goal) and it would have been a tap in or maybe an own goal.

Here are a quick 3. On one of them McNulty is screaming for it and runs into space.

Watching it back, to be fair to DKE he was making some really good runs into space but was never used.

View attachment 8159 View attachment 8160 View attachment 8161
Not a central midfielder in sight!
 

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