Match Thread Shrewsbury v Coventry Match Thread - Saturday 4th Mar (8 Viewers)

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

We're down, I've accepted that. I'm pleased the players still gave everything today despite this however.

We've drawn 0-0 against Shrewsbury and it practically feels like a victory. I'm almost happy.

Being a Coventry fan is fucked up.

 

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[The Reverend Skyblue]

I'm getting a little concerned that we will retain Slade for next season.
He's on about can't build anything without clean sheets, Russell we don't want you to build anything here, all we want is for you to please FUCK OFF.

 

[The Reverend Skyblue]

It's the way he's talking and the fact the Wembley final will make the club a tidy profit.
If the prat in the cap stays we are truely deserve everything we will get next season and I can't support or watch such an incompetant twat try and do his job.
Fisher make one decent decision for once in your pathetic life, sack the twat now and start to build for next season with a manager who can look at what we've got and decide now who he wants to keep.
Fuck me if we keep Slade I will be a raving alcoholic from August to May 2018

 

[Evo1883]

midfield 3 the difference today , 57% possession and almost double shrewsburys shots , basically the fact Stevenson and Bigi were getting the ball down and knocking it about allowed us to keep the ball and create more , when normally we bypass the middle and the ball keeps coming back constantly .
listened to slades interview after and he didn't seem too keen on Bigi , yea he gave him some credit but it felt half hearted.
All in all much improved but only because it took injuries to get the correct players on the pitch , but still slade to go asap

 

[dongonzalos]

Lol. First game we haven't scored in 7 isn't it?

We haven't played long ball tactics for weeks. I'm not convinced we ever did - the full backs just released the ball quicker.

I wouldn't worry about Wembley - I'm sure the players will be up for that one.

You are not sure we ever played long ball?
We did we just did it very very badly.

 

[dongonzalos]

midfield 3 the difference today , 57% possession and almost double shrewsburys shots , basically the fact Stevenson and Bigi were getting the ball down and knocking it about allowed us to keep the ball and create more , when normally we bypass the middle and the ball keeps coming back constantly .
listened to slades interview after and he didn't seem too keen on Bigi , yea he gave him some credit but it felt half hearted.
All in all much improved but only because it took injuries to get the correct players on the pitch , but still slade to go asap

You are bang on the money.

(Apparently we never have been by passing the midfield band playing long ball. )

 

[Cov kid 55]

Fans celebrating a goalless draw against Shrewsbury.

Sign of the times I guess.

The point is, we were celebrating a much improved performance, which should have brought 3 points.

 

[mds]

A shame, as said the injuries made the difference, Bigi seemed to be everywhere today, MOTM for me by far, you might expect after todays performance that this or very close to this finishing eleven to be the starting eleven next week. Then again anything can happen its Coventry City.
Should of been 3 pts, much improved all around performance, we`re still shit and in the shit but huge improvement, a shame its too little too late, well, its still mathmatically possible, bwaahaaahaaaa!

I live in hope, even when there is none!

 

[shmmeee]

What formation did we play by the way?

 

[Johnnythespider]

Shame we couldn't manage a winner, sounded better on the radio and a win would've given us 7 points from the last 12 available, fine margins. When we look back at the season I think the lack of goals in the team has been the killer.

I forgot we lost at Bury in the week

 

[Grendel]

midfield 3 the difference today , 57% possession and almost double shrewsburys shots , basically the fact Stevenson and Bigi were getting the ball down and knocking it about allowed us to keep the ball and create more , when normally we bypass the middle and the ball keeps coming back constantly .
listened to slades interview after and he didn't seem too keen on Bigi , yea he gave him some credit but it felt half hearted.
All in all much improved but only because it took injuries to get the correct players on the pitch , but still slade to go asap

First game we haven't scored in 6.

I think you will find his reluctance to play a certain player has more to do with the player than the manager.

 

[Grendel]

You are bang on the money.

(Apparently we never have been by passing the midfield band playing long ball. )

So you are suggesting Slade changed tactics discussed prior to the game and managed to get this effectively communicated to the revised line up which we ended up with 2 minutes into the game?

 

[Evo1883]

First game we haven't scored in 6.

I think you will find his reluctance to play a certain player has more to do with the player than the manager.

Well it was the first clean sheet in a while too , sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say we we a tad unlucky , today was one of them I thought on the balance of play we were the better side , and let's not forget Shrewsbury have been doing half decent lately and we made them look extremely ordinary .
On another day we probably would have scored a couple , the thing is it's far more pleasing on the eye and in my opinion troubles opponents more when you get the ball down and play football .

In regards to Bigi , I think he showed today that on his day he is one of the better players in the squad , he needs to do this consistently.
Him , Stevenson and Reilly were putting themselves about today and this is the midfield 3 that should start against Bradford on Saturday.
I am a little baffled that you don't seem to think we have played a lot of long ball football under slade so far , I guess we see different things

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

So you are suggesting Slade changed tactics discussed prior to the game and managed to get this effectively communicated to the revised line up which we ended up with 2 minutes into the game?

Tbf I don't think Slade does much on the way of tactics, he just picks the players and lets them go from there.

Today we had a midfield who wanted the ball to be passed to them and who could retain possession effectively as opposed to the usual midfield who don't want to receive the ball and give it away more often than not.

 

[dongonzalos]

So you are suggesting Slade changed tactics discussed prior to the game and managed to get this effectively communicated to the revised line up which we ended up with 2 minutes into the game?

Nope Stevenson and Bigi in midfield naturally directs a change in our style of play. With footballing midfielders you naturally have more possession and create more chances.
That's what happened today.
With the right players playing long ball and not having a lot of possession can also be effective.
We don't have the right players for long ball. Look at the goals we concede playing long ball because we invite the opposition in to us. We constantly give possession away as we don't have the strikers for long ball.
With our strikers we need to create as many chances as possible, as we don't have a prolific striker.
It doesn't take a genius to look at our squad and know we are more suited to possession football.
I would have given Slade a chance at Long ball if he had signed Joe Murphy, Clarke, Beavon and a Hanson type.
That's what would have been needed.

 

[letsallsingtogether]

So you are suggesting Slade changed tactics discussed prior to the game and managed to get this effectively communicated to the revised line up which we ended up with 2 minutes into the game?

No just forced to play Bigi our best player for the first half of the season.
Just goes to show what little he knows of football like others who failed to see Bigi is one of our best players at the moment.

 

[letsallsingtogether]

Well done Burge for keeping it that way!

He is the worst keeper in our history didn't you know.

 

[Broken Hearted Sky Blue]

RCC with his flaws is 10X the 'keeper Burge will ever be

10 times the keeper? Are you for real?

 

[Cov kid 55]

As has been said, having Bigi and Stevenson in the middle of the park enabled us to retain possession and build momentum. Bigi didn't play any killer balls, but he was tidy and didn't give the ball away. The midfield were aggressive and more than held their own, a change from other games, where we have been overrun. On an another day, we would have won. We need to start with a similar line up going forward. It's noticeable that we have struggled to get Jodi Jones into the game when he has come on as sub in the past two games - this needs addressing.

I'd also like to pay tribute to the Sky Blue army who I thought were fantastic from first to last today. At the end of the game, the players again came right up to the fans at the wall and there was applause for the hard work. I was then surprised to see Slade amongst the fans at the wall, talking to them and thanking them for their excellent support. Having seen the abuse that he has received on this forum, I was waiting for a similar response from the fans, but it never came. I've never seen any of our Managers do that before (doesn't mean they haven't) and he deserves credit for that. How much do we need to win the next game? - not to avoid relegation, I think it's too late for that, but to build momentum and the positivity I've witnessed in the last two games.

 

[letsallsingtogether]

10 times the keeper? Are you for real?

Was to busy laughing to able to reply to that post.

 

[Cov kid 55]

Well done also to Burge and the defense for a clean sheet, and a penalty save.

 

[mds]

We can moan all day long about not having anyone that can finish or just natural goal scorers, but ffs if we dont put the ball into the area that you would expect a goal scorer to score from then the goal scorers arnt going to score goals, thats the be all and end all, thats it, full stop. We could have the three best finishers in the league but if we dont give them the ball in a position they may score from then they aint going to score, same today as yesterday and all previous days, when the front 1 2 or 3 are missing a hatfull.......but we arnt and havnt for a long time been creating them chances, if you dont create you dont score, we shoot from outside the area, try to be too elaborate, dont get and havnt for weeks got the ball into the middle where someone may get onto the end of it, give the finishers a chance to finish!
Next 8 games, 6 at home, you have to have a little, very little glimmer of hope we can pull off what would be the greatest of great escapes.
6 from 8 at home, i would take that, but its us and it just aint happening.

 

[steve82]

midfield 3 the difference today , 57% possession and almost double shrewsburys shots , basically the fact Stevenson and Bigi were getting the ball down and knocking it about allowed us to keep the ball and create more , when normally we bypass the middle and the ball keeps coming back constantly .
listened to slades interview after and he didn't seem too keen on Bigi , yea he gave him some credit but it felt half hearted.
All in all much improved but only because it took injuries to get the correct players on the pitch , but still slade to go asap

Well it was the first clean sheet in a while too , sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say we we a tad unlucky , today was one of them I thought on the balance of play we were the better side , and let's not forget Shrewsbury have been doing half decent lately and we made them look extremely ordinary .
On another day we probably would have scored a couple , the thing is it's far more pleasing on the eye and in my opinion troubles opponents more when you get the ball down and play football .

In regards to Bigi , I think he showed today that on his day he is one of the better players in the squad , he needs to do this consistently.
Him , Stevenson and Reilly were putting themselves about today and this is the midfield 3 that should start against Bradford on Saturday.
I am a little baffled that you don't seem to think we have played a lot of long ball football under slade so far , I guess we see different things

Pleased to hear Bigi played well today, he's one of the players I want to see well but let's not kid our selves here neat and tidy he has not been most the season.
Like you said when he's on form he's a great asset to sit and tidy up in front of the back 4 but his passing can be shocking on his bad days.
Let's not forget he was part of most our sides thats been poor this year and capitulated at Charlton, Oxford, Southend and Cambridge.
You cannot pin the blame on him for the results but the fact is he's not been consistent in the 2nd spell back here and I've been in the stands hearing fans on his back for being just that. Inconsistent and sloppy, simple balls he's been so wasteful giving the ball away in dangerous areas.
I also don't get the theory Stevenson has been alienated from the 1st team too, he's featured in every game he's been fit to be selected in the match day 18 baring the Bristol Rovers game and Bolton draw under RS.

 

[Hobo]

Fans celebrating a goalless draw against Shrewsbury.

Sign of the times I guess.

No, celebrating an improved performance and effort. Also celebrating how fate/circumstances plonked the right team selection in Slades lap.

 

[Hobo]

First game we haven't scored in 6.

I think you will find his reluctance to play a certain player has more to do with the player than the manager.

But first game in eleven we have kept a clean sheet. You are closer to victory with a clean sheet because you only need one goal to win. Clean sheets are a good starting point for improved form and improved confidence. Any upturn in form would be welcome even if it won't save us.

 

[stevefloyd]

Especially with Wembley around the corner...maybe we will have an upturn until then because players want to play there

 

[Grendel]

No just forced to play Bigi our best player for the first half of the season.
Just goes to show what little he knows of football like others who failed to see Bigi is one of our best players at the moment.

Prior to Slade arriving we lost 7 games in succession with our best creative midfield on show.

 

[Grendel]

He is the worst keeper in our history didn't you know.

Well he is. He's a shocking goalkeeper.

 

[Broken Hearted Sky Blue]

Well he is. He's a shocking goalkeeper.

He's the better of the two shocking goalkeepers we've got

 

[Otis]

He's the better of the two shocking goalkeepers we've got

Have to say I think you are very much in the minority on that one.

Speak to most Sky Blue fans and I believe they would say RCC is the better of the two.

 

[Broken Hearted Sky Blue]

Have to say I think you are very much in the minority on that one.

Speak to most Sky Blue fans and I believe they would say RCC is the better of the two.

That's alright just proves I'm not very good at spotting the difference In two piles of shite

 

[Otis]

That's alright just proves I'm not very good at spotting the difference I two piles of shite

They are both not good enough. Far too many mistakes from both of them.

 

[covcity4life]

Slade got lucky. He played bigi because his physical midfield not workijg and desperate to try something different and also needed injury to rose to get stevenson alongside him. Lets not give him too much credit .

 

[Broken Hearted Sky Blue]

They are both not good enough. Far too many mistakes from both of them.

Exactly just like the rest of the squad.

 

[steve82]

Slade got lucky. He played bigi because his physical midfield not workijg and desperate to try something different and also needed injury to rose to get stevenson alongside him. Lets not give him too much credit .

I think yesterday is more down to the group pulling together and actually working for each other for 96 mins. Keeper played well, defence did just that so you've a fighting chance. That's something we've rarely had all season.
Without being there is sounds like we could of win it if we had that ruthless striker we so desperately need.
The team deserves the credit on this occasion and the players like Bigi coming in stepping up to show there worth, and Stevenson showing why he's a hot talent.