Match Thread Coventry City - Preston North End FC Match Thread - Friday 23rd Feb (19 Viewers)

[Astute]

@GIMOC

Who decides the strategy of spending big money on players but not strengthening the numbers?

We've spent £6m on two players this window. He's bought an entire squad with less before.

When was the last time we spent 6m in a season other than this one? Certainly wasn't this century.

Some people need a bit of perspective. I know football is an emotional sport but but some people's moods are up and down more than my wifes.

The first 1/4 of the season we were supposed to be shite and wasted a lot of money. Suddenly we were world beaters. Then it went wrong because we didn't bring in enough players in January. It was said we were desperate for more strikers and maybe a bit more quality in defence. We were supposed to be good in midfield. Suddenly we start getting injuries in midfield to our better players. Suddenly we're shite again.

 

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[skybluegod]

well hull look to have done well from going for it in Jan. haven’t looked back. Right players were there with the backing, hull look nailed on for the playoffs as a result of excellent jan business

They have signed a load of players on loan... They still have to then win the play offs. Spent a lot of money on players who aren't theirs for a shot at top 6.

 

[alexccfc99]

well hull look to have done well from going for it in Jan. haven’t looked back. Right players were there with the backing, hull look nailed on for the playoffs as a result of excellent jan business

Funny that because when we crammed our squad full of loanees under Mowbray and under Robins the club were labelled as cheapskates

 

[wingy]

Sorry got no idea what this means @wingy.

This obsession with keeping the game moving.

 

[Londonccfcfan]

Preston are one of worst sides I seen. There's a reason their fans want Lowe gone.

Did Wilson actually make a save in the match?

 

[Londonccfcfan]

Their game plan worked better than they hoped. It was all too predictable. They pushed forward even without the ball. Our reply was to sit back. If they lost the ball we had to go forward and get past their players. If we lost the ball we were outnumbered at times at the back. And because we sat back so much there was no way forward quickly. By the time we got the ball up forward they had 7 or 8 players back. Then if we lost the ball the break was on.

If we had left 2 or 3 players up the pitch it would have been a different game. Punt it long to them. Push forward as a unit. Put the pressure on them. But we didn't even seem to try.

Personally I think this one is on Robins. Not a time to attempt pretty football. Outmuscled all over the pitch. Sat back without even trying to play on the counter with speed. And the ref was awful which didn't help.

We will move on from this. But if other sides notice we don't even have a plan A against a high press we will struggle.

The one bit of praise I have for Preston is their fitness levels. They ran around for the whole 90 minutes and were still going strong at the end.

100% agreed.. our counter was so slow and predidicatable.

Fact is you can't gift any team a 2 goal start..thing is if they cut us apart and scored od Say fair play..well deserved. But we fucking gave them the 3 goal start.

 

[alexccfc99]

Apologies if already mentioned and I never like to single out one player but Dasilva put in one of the worst individual performances from a Coventry City player I have ever seen last night, I would struggle to award him anything higher than a 1.5/10

 

[Astute]

Apologies if already mentioned and I never like to single out one player but Dasilva put in one of the worst individual performances from a Coventry City player I have ever seen last night, I would struggle to award him anything higher than a 1.5/10

Worse team display I can remember. The only players not deserving of criticism were the strikers. They were given defensive duties and then fed scraps when they actually went forward.

The way Preston played was fully expected. We should have put our biggest and strongest players on the pitch. We should have laid into them like they did to us knowing the ref let most of it go.

 

[alexccfc99]

Worse team display I can remember. The only players not deserving of criticism were the strikers. They were given defensive duties and then fed scraps when they actually went forward.

The way Preston played was fully expected. We should have put our biggest and strongest players on the pitch. We should have laid into them like they did to us knowing the ref let most of it go.

I agree but trying to pull off a drag back in your own six yard area against a team quite clearly wanting to press is utterly brain dead, the worst of a very bad bunch last night

 

[Saddlebrains]

A blind man could see we’d be absolutely fucked if Sakamoto got a bad injury. Not addressing it with a loanee or two in January is criminal. Feels obvious to me that King doesn’t think we have a chance of going up this season and didn’t want to spend on loans.

He doesnt want to spend his own cash full stop

 

[alexccfc99]

A blind man could see we’d be absolutely fucked if Sakamoto got a bad injury. Not addressing it with a loanee or two in January is criminal. Feels obvious to me that King doesn’t think we have a chance of going up this season and didn’t want to spend on loans.

Then he would be correct or at least we have a very minute chance - Top 2 a non starter, we are realistically competing for one play off spot where we would have to do a job on Southampton or Ipswich over two legs and win the final

A minute possibility

 

[Ashdown]

You mean the same model that Brighton, Brentford et all all adopt and we were crying out for Sisu to do but they wanted to just bleed the club dry. Yes King really is the problem.

Worse team display I can remember. The only players not deserving of criticism were the strikers. They were given defensive duties and then fed scraps when they actually went forward.

The way Preston played was fully expected. We should have put our biggest and strongest players on the pitch. We should have laid into them like they did to us knowing the ref let most of it go.

The strikers were pretty damn shite too. You’re talking like their keeper had saves to make. Wright is powder puff at times and Simms close control ……

 

[Sky Blue Harry H]

If we lose the next 2 games.........

 

[Astute]

If we lose the next 2 games.........

View attachment 34218

If we don't win our next game by 5 goals or more this place will go into meltdown

 

[Sky Blue Harry H]

He doesnt want to spend his own cash full stoprs

If we set up a model where we rely on King putting in cash, it's a sh*t model frankly. What happens if/when he runs out of cash? Everybody would love a sugar daddy, but as long as he isn't milking the club, then I don't disagree with setting up a sustainable way of competing. Look where we were prior to him and a few years before. We might even have gone out of existence - you only have to look at some of the basket cases out there financially to be glad of where we are now. As an aside, fingers crossed Tats can recover from what sounds a horrible injury.

 

[Sky Blue Harry H]

If we don't win our next game by 5 goals or more this place will go into meltdown

Might as well start now then. I'll settle for a win and no more injuries.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

If we set up a model where we rely on King putting in cash, it's a sh*t model frankly. What happens if/when he runs out of cash? Everybody would love a sugar daddy, but as long as he isn't milking the club, then I don't disagree with setting up a sustainable way of competing. Look where we were prior to him and a few years before. We might even have gone out of existence - you only have to look at some of the basket cases out there financially to be glad of where we are now. As an aside, fingers crossed Tats can recover from what sounds a horrible injury.

Equally if the owner of a football club doesn’t want to inject any of his own funds, what is the point in being the owner? Might as well have it fan owned at that point.

 

[covcity4life]

Still think 3 at the back can work so be interesting to see if that's what we do till end of season now

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Still think 3 at the back can work so be interesting to see if that's what we do till end of season now

Needs Torp in the side to have a chance of being viable. It basically turned into a 7 man defence earlier in the season

 

[ccfc1234]

Preston are one of worst sides I seen. There's a reason their fans want Lowe gone.

Did Wilson actually make a save in the match?

Not that I can recall. He was lucky he had nothing to do vs Stoke and proved how much of a liability he is again last night.
If you look at the cup games goals he conceded vs Oxford and Wednesday I think what happened last night was no surprise.
Given how bad the team collectively were it's hard to blame it all on the keeper but for those in dount he has regressed rather than improved (like Simon Moore in some ways) I would inagine that last night was a reality check. We absolutely need to look at the goalkeepers in the summer.

 

[covcity4life]

Needs Torp in the side to have a chance of being viable. It basically turned into a 7 man defence earlier in the season

Yeah will need sheaf too soon if we're gonna stay in playoff hunt

Maybe should have kept fadz around!

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Yeah will need sheaf too soon if we're gonna stay in playoff hunt

Maybe should have kept fadz around!

Maybe. But for me that’s the playoff challenge over and potentially serious career implications for Saka as well.

Letting players have time off has backfired every time this season. Need to bring them in even if it’s just for tactical stuff off the training pitch.

 

[Sky Blue Harry H]

Equally if the owner of a football club doesn’t want to inject any of his own funds, what is the point in being the owner? Might as well have it fan owned at that point.

Which is fine, but we didn't come together as a fanbase to buy SISU out, did we? If DK holds onto it until some coke dealer from Wood End comes in to make him an offer he can't refuse, and then invests in the club (once the bloke has inevitably passed the 'fit and proper person' test) then I'm happy with the DK model at present.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Based on tonight, yes. Do you really think we will play so badly again next week though?

Why does one awful performance automatically spill over into two absolutely awful performances?

I reckon we will play much better next week. Not saying we are going to win or anything, but I think we will play a lot better than that for sure

My lad said the same to me

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

The best way to counter it is to play it over the top of their players to our strikers. Couple of problems with it thought.

1 Our strikers don't have the best 1st touch

2 We brought every player back for every set piece.

Simms wasn’t bad last night first touch

 

[covcity4life]

Maybe. But for me that’s the playoff challenge over and potentially serious career implications for Saka as well.

Letting players have time off has backfired every time this season. Need to bring them in even if it’s just for tactical stuff off the training pitch.

Wait and see on saka. Too much speculation at the moment.

 

[Sky Blue Harry H]

Letting players have time off has backfired every time this season. Need to bring them in even if it’s just for tactical stuff off the training pitch.

We played poorly last night, but Da Silva for the second goal (which killed the game imo) was just one of them - nothing 'tactics can do about that. Don't think we looked physically up to it last night once those 2 early goals went in - literally took the wind out of any sails we might have had.

 

[pusbccfc]

He doesnt want to spend his own cash full stop

He hasn't and shouldn't need to.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Wait and see on saka. Too much speculation at the moment.

He looked in a huge amount of pain, tried to raise himself off the ground and just couldn’t. Referee not bothered of course and should be ashamed of himself, PNE players also not arsed.

 

[Balli001]

Maybe. But for me that’s the playoff challenge over and potentially serious career implications for Saka as well.

Letting players have time off has backfired every time this season. Need to bring them in even if it’s just for tactical stuff off the training pitch.

We are 9th and barely more than a win off 6th.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

We are 9th and barely more than a win off 6th.

Been playing poorly for a while now and just had one of our few wide attacking players put in hospital. Will be mid table come the end of the season.

 

[pusbccfc]

Been playing poorly for a while now and just had one of our few wide attacking players put in hospital. Will be mid table come the end of the season.

Two of our best players are out. The other is half injured and on the bench last night.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Two of our best players are out. The other is half injured and on the bench last night.

We have no depth in either wide attacking position and are conceding awful goals for fun.

We built last season on a tight defence. That really is the difference and we have no fitness issues at the back to speak of.

 

[skybluericoh]

We have no depth in either wide attacking position and are conceding awful goals for fun.

We built last season on a tight defence. That really is the difference and we have no fitness issues at the back to speak of.

Yep last season we were the clean sheet kings now we’re turning into the goal gift clowns

 

[TomRad85]

We have no depth in either wide attacking position and are conceding awful goals for fun.

We built last season on a tight defence. That really is the difference and we have no fitness issues at the back to speak of.

Tbf mate the defence was performing OK before he started pissing around with it again.
Collins
MVE Thomas Kitching Bidwell
Should play every game they are fit to play outside Maidstone.
Away from the clown in goal, imagine not playing Bidwell and Kitching, especially vs a team like PNE!!!

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