I do not reasonably expect that we can sign a goal-scorer in January.
Surely, we can sign somebody capable of holding up the ball when it goes forward.
Every team we face seems to possess a minimum of one such in their starting line-up. They can’t be all that expensive.
I was calling for 4 players in. I’ll now settle for one holder upper and a CB. (Nightingale?)
Just looked long and hard at vids of goals conceded, yesterday. Cordner was only partly responsible for their first – it was principally Bedeau who should have at least attempted to stop the free header.
We might also ask questions as to what the skipper was doing in the runup to that goal.
Hard to blame the GK too much. Few would have saved their 1st and 2nd but he had some chance with the 3rd.
I am pretty sure that it was Cordner who did not come out to allow an unchallenged header for their first.
It was definitely Cordner for their third.
Does he learn anything?
A decent enough display at Walsall but today – he was not not good enough. Again.
We have to wait a month to get some real CBs back?
Get a good CB on a two month loan before the next game. URGENT!
Without the above, we’d have had a draw – daft as it may seem.
With the latest deal with Turkey, I believe that is now 62 new trade deals already agreed in 2020 – in a fair number of which, a pretty fair dollop would have either required EU blessing, mega adjustments or could not have happened at all.
£668bn trade with EU.
An ordinary deal by Boris, yes, but if you bothered to examine the 12 points of May’s Chequers plan in painful detail, this is hugely superior. Whoever drafted that May deal had made all 12 points look like a positive but 11 were almost totally impossible if you knew EU regs as well as a certain member of my family does.
This version has few serious drawbacks.
Hope that this is now the end for all the bickering. I want a New Year with people all pulling together to make the UK be the best it can be.
In future, I shan’t be making any political points on the football board. (Or any other for that matter.)
A Happy New Year to every single contributor to this board. And yes – you too!
Ah. Harry Worth. A real favourite of my Dad, back in the distant day.
Must explain to Cass and IA that you are online with a leading fashion guru.
If I start wearing one the current slight trend is bound to magnify as myriads of fashion-conscious youngsters begin to follow my unerring sense of what is cool and what is not.
TBH, I’m getting upfed with wearing baseball caps. It is just so passé. I feel such a mammary gland having to wear them backwards.
Have been wondering about wearing the trilby backwards. Something to ponder.
Gilliead was awesome first half and pretty decent in the second.
Some of the passes made were top notch. Passes hit far too hard to him he collected like a premiership CM on quite a few occasions.
The experiment worked. If it gets the best game in a while out of Alex and their best games at the club for Taylor, Hippolyte and arguably, Cordner, then the manager merits praise.
That Cox played him as he did was one thing but that he did so little chasing down the CBs was quite another. He seemed to be ignoring them.
That meant a ten man team for the critical end of the game.
Not used to the role? – Quoi?
Chasing and harrying is something expected in any Sunday afternoon pub team. It ain’t rocket science.
Interesting how well Taylor played.
Gilliead put in a good shift. Overall pretty impressed.
Hippolyte within a whisker of getting a hat trick – certainly would have deserved a brace.
I really am not sure that the overall squad is quite as terrible as some are saying. I feel it is more the kind of players who weren’t brought in at the season’s start who are the issue than those who were. We were always going to be vulnerable to disasters if key players were crocked
Let’s not forget, we had that spell putting a few wins together and, for a brief period, we were actually entertained.
After much thought – I remain to be convinced that the legions of players touted as ‘not caring’ are really so negative. A few maybe.
We need to broker in the effects of:
Playing two matches a week for a longish period.
Key injuries.
Downward spirals create a vicious circle. (Sorry.)
Players who are good enough to play and succeed in a sound or decent team may well not be good enough to lift either their own game – or that of others – in a failing team.
As one controversial example – how do we know that in a properly functioning team – Jarvis might not show a lot more? With 50 games behind him, might he not become a fully rounded player. I do not know but total pessimism does not help.
Be concerned, be worried but seeing only doom and gloom is one more negative for the players to contend with.
Four experienced performers at this level should transform what we have. It’s only two months ago that we were talking about ‘the spine’ of the team needing to be solid. That hasn’t really changed, has it?
Up front, we have had ‘lumping the ball upfield to nobody’ – amazingly, that did not work.
We have had Jarvis making precious little impact.
We have had Loft gifting possession for fun.
We have had an injured KVV.
We have a MacAtee who is a shadow of last season’s player.
Not too much of that is down to Cox unless he had taught them to play ‘hit and hope long balls’ which I frankly doubt.
When the forwards don’t work – it has a knock on effect to both CM and wide players.
Naturally, balls into the opposition box reduce dramatically.
The main issue is that if the ball does not ‘stick’ up front – all else in your house of cards must inevitably collapse.
The McGahey absence – perhaps to be compounded with no Onariase (!!!) sends shudders down my spine.
In January, we need another CB and a CM general. Much as I respect both Spence and Beestin, I am now wondering if these two can work together. We can only know this with a functioning pair of forwards.
We really need to have two forwards capable of holding the ball up top – coz if we bring just one in – what happens when the inevitable injury occurs?
Personally, as a sticking plaster solution, I’d bring Green into the starting eleven for the moment.
The GK situation is becoming a worry but the chances of yet another keeper being brought in are zero.
So. We need four experienced in and probably a minimum of seven out. Chances?
Not really, MKI.
‘Continuity player’ implies someone who can do the average stuff Okayish but is incapable of lifting the team.
Wayne Jacobs once explained it to me.
December 21, 2020 at 8:00 am
in reply to: Loft#199445
An ‘old wise head up front’ is what has been lacking all season.
An old wise head has also been lacking in CM but, very luckily, that is part-sorted.
If the ball ‘stuck’ up front a lot more, it would gain room for CMs to have more space to work in
The trouble is, with a number of these guys, we have not really seen them playing as part of a functioning unit.
This is the problem which, in the game, is referred to as ‘the continuity player’.
Such blokes may well eventually catch up and develop in a number of cases. Over months, how much would Loft learn playing alongside a Paul Hayes – or Jarvis off a Torpey?
This sort of player is not capable of lifting their game in a moderate side.
With experience under the belt learning from old hands, better things can happen.
One of the reasons I like the two young FBs so much is that they have enough about them to do their own thinking. Sadly, that is rare at this level.
Yesterday was a good example. In the midst of a shambles – how does a relative beginner even manage to put in an adequate performance?
December 20, 2020 at 10:40 am
in reply to: Loft#199390
Does so much right then ruins it by gifting possession at least a dozen times a match.
Works hard, doesn’t win too many balls but does not give opposition too many clean headers.
Shows great thinking on occasions but cannot do that on a regular basis.
Goes in bravely.
There ought to be player in there … sigh.
In January, 3 loanees. Hope we can get another three moved on – if possible.
Ship out a number on loan.
At the season’s end – quite a few. I don’t expect too many to leave with contracts still in place, though.
Ah. just realised that I’d not counted Olamola (5.5) in. If fit, he may be better than some current forwards but if a loan/ gift opportunity came up – would still take it. He must be on a hefty deal.
We have some pretty decent players but no depth. I have been pleading for us to go for solid, know-the-division, League Two journeymen for two seasons.
We need to try very hard to get rid of three loanees in January.
It’s very clear which areas need strengthening. I doubt that any of the three are with us at bargain rates.
Get another four or five out on loan, if we possibly can.
Three semi-decent players in could change the team substantially.
