ianofcleveleys
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Posts posted by ianofcleveleys
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I had a bad feeling about today when I say down and realised the ref had a disturbing likeness to Mike Riley
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I thought Connell played really well, to be fair to him, was better on the day than any of our midfielders.
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Got away with an off day today but at least we're still in the tie. Game panned out pretty much as the home league game, we didn't do anywhere near enough to change that. Evatt could have made his changes 10 mins sooner, before the time they scored.
Kachunga a strange pick, not his sort of game at all. We were far too slow and ponderous throughout, still playing football stood still in injury time. Midfield outmuscled and outplayed in all honesty, Sheehan and Morley in particular were well off it. Would sooner see MJ in for Sheehan next Friday.
Santos defended well, won a lot of headers from their long throws / corners. Traff was under a lot of pressure but kept goal very well.
We have to match them and start fast on Friday, score first and pressure is on them. Start ponderous and passive, they score first and we might as well head for the exits.
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Sound news, good sense from Sharon and her colleagues, more of the stability many clubs would crave, and of course a warning to suitors that he won't go without a wedge of compo if they want him
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Brighton tremendous again, should have been in front in first 5 mins, got their just reward in the end. Ref bottled second yellow for Casemiro
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Looking at those fixtures, not seeing any of Everton, Leeds, Leicester advancing on current points in their next two games, could all come down to last two for them all. Forest ought to get to 33 v Soton then scramble another couple of points. West Ham only really need one win or a couple of draws.
I don't see how Sam's going to get a team as incapable as Leeds are of shutting up shop to suddenly start doing it.
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7 hours ago, Zico said:
"Controlling the game without the ball"
That was it! He'd heard Mancini say it once I think and thought it was clever
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30 minutes ago, Zico said:
A strange bloke who had high opinions of himself in many ways with nothing to back it up
My abiding memory of Freedman was a home game v Yeovil where his idea of us being a counter attacking side meant we sat back for 90 minutes, treated them like Barcelona and scrambled a 1-1 draw.
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2 hours ago, Mounts Kipper said:
I’d be paying Jerome’s contract up he’s not up to it, Vic hasn’t done enough yet but I’d take a view next season if he’s still struggling cut our losses in January, Kachunga is a very different player to the 2 mentioned and his press & technical ability is very decent, if he could add some goals he’d be a useful asset…. I’ve been critical of him for a long time but that’s my take on him at the present time.
Agree re Jerome, can't see what the plan was with him. If we can't pay him up loan him out. Vic's a maybe for me too, would need that pre-season and solid start, even to be what we need for another L1 push. Not seeing a likely Championship player in him.
Evatt puts Kachunga in when a football match might be likely to break out, gets lost when we play the agricultural sides but v more open outfits who want to play out and maybe give a bit of space he can be very effective.
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9 minutes ago, only1swanny said:
From what we've seen so far..
JEROME, VICTOR OR DN..
They any better for us than JDB or EK?
No, in all honesty, don't think they are. If JDB has stayed fit he'd have been in double figures himself and we'd have scored half a dozen or so more at least. Only striker we have who ever looks like scoring a header
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19 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:
Also light years behind Bakayoko scoring stats but he was deemed surplus to requirements, just as Kachunga was in most people's eyes (mine included). I didn't think it was possible to bring in 3 strikers all worse than the pair of them, but we possibly did (only going off what I've seen so far, I get that it can change, just commenting on contribution to the current season for us).
Wasn't surprised to see Kachunga in the line up today. Evatt trusts him to do what he wants from him and thought it was the sort of game he'd do ok in, one where they might try to play a bit. If there's a likelihood of a football match breaking out he tends to give Kachunga a go
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Vic - honest, works hard, fair hold up play, we could play to his strengths more, could improve with a full pre-season and lots of work with Dion though wish he was a bit better in the air, that sort of threat is what we lack.
Mbete - nowhere near what we needed at this time, doesn't give any assurance defensively and offers zero with ball at his feet, send back
Shoretire - has some attributes for sure but only shown them in flashes over first few games. Gone backwards a lot since. Send back
Williams - baffling that a three year deal's been put his way. Essentially saying Hull were making a huge mistake with him. Not bad at the forward aspects of his role, piss weak defensively
Nlundulu - injured too much but aside from that not seen that he offers us anything new and different that we need. One of those that looks busy and ready to make something happen but actually doesn't
Jerome - another baffler, not sure what the strategic thinking was here. Again, injured too much, which hasn't helped, but given us next to nothing.
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A few weeks back I wouldn't have fancied us against any of them, especially Barnsley, and although we're not really playing any better, they've shown their flaws too so bring them on. If we beat whoever we face in the semi we'll win the final 👍
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7 hours ago, Mounts Kipper said:
I’m worried about tomorrow, think they are decent will be motivated and wouldn’t be surprised if they took 1 or all 3 points.
Scott Brown was a pretty smart appointment, done well with them, won't be easy to roll over tomorrow.
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4 hours ago, Traf said:
All three would leave for considerably more money than they cost us.
We'd be able to replace them with L1 standard defenders for less money than we make on sales, enabing us to strengthen elsewhere and bank a bit of profit.
Moneyball.Absolutely, you're right, hopefully we get the right sort of money for any or all of them. Was more thinking of the sheer number of gaps to fill in a short time, especially if we got into play-offs, even final, then lost. Where IE and Markham's succession planning has to be ready to be tested
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8 hours ago, Casino said:
All 3 first choice centre backs will be interesting the league above
Anyway, ill leave this thread to the slashers
Good point, the danger with having a talented squad that just misses out is, aside from the loanees returning, we have to fill more gaps left by plundering of some of that talent by interested others.
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22 hours ago, Ani said:
Wonder if MK Dons and Oxford fans were saying at end of last season , 'we will be able to build from here' ??
Fair point that, not easy to shake yourselves down, fill all the gaps and go again after a near miss.
Most clubs below Prem are reliant on 2-3 loans at least to help their push, maybe one of our issues is, because we've essentially started from scratch at all levels since nearly going busy, we haven't got the depth and longevity of our own players to come through, establish themselves and place a bit less emphasis on the wheeler dealing we've done in the last few windows.
Ideally Evatt would have a squad ready to go again in L1 (if we have to) that just needed a 2-3 good loans and maybe 2-3 signings rather than another big rebuild. We're a fair way off that as things stand and it might take time to build a bottom up structure that sees more home grown talent form a bigger part of the first team on matchdays.
Problem with all that, I know, is time isn't something anyone has in football, at any level
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Start fast, score first. Play with pace, force errors and build pressure early doors. Consign the walking football approach v Cambridge to the bin. Trouble free afternoon if we do
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3 minutes ago, Ani said:
https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2023/april/club-statement/
Anyone singing songs about this is a moron btw.
That's the club's take on it, about as measured and low key as I expected in all honesty. Some of our 'fans' ought to make some attempt to respect that tone, otherwise they become the embarrassment, not him
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12 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:
Bit strong that.
Jerome has no legs any more, but still a touch of class.
Big Vic needs service like any other striker.
First half yesterday was the lack of prompt passing from the back and Sheehan whose job it was to link the lines.
Charles would have struggled with that, and become frustrated.
We were too rigid and not prepared to play a percentage ball over the top occasionally to make them defend facing their own goal, nor get it wide and supply an early cross for the too big lads to attack.
That changed quickly once Lee and Morely replaced the two midfielders, and picked the pace up.
Well said sir, 100% as I saw it. We spent about 35 of the first 45 mins playing in our own half.
No stress or pressure on their back line, nothing apart from the one effort from DJ for crowd to get engaged with. They caused us far more problems by simply shifting it forward quickly and getting it into dangerous areas with minimum fuss.
If Haaland was playing for us in that half he wouldn't have scored.
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45 minutes ago, captainmed said:
That’s where I am at.
Play-offs are clear progress for the club & the experience will do the players a world of good.
Unfortunately with Santos & Toal potentially out for the season, then we are going to struggle away from home, both in the remaining league games and particularly in the play-off away game.
With you both on that, massive blow to lose those two at the same time, they were big misses today in more ways than just basic defending.
Fatigue no doubt an issue in some (Jones was out on his feet last 10 mins), back up options and alternatives limited, going to be a stumble and a limp into play offs.
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1 hour ago, Johnnyrotten said:
We all see games differently but I thought Tomo was really poor most of the time. A couple of good moments, a lot of bad one's is my memory of his performance.
Johnstone defended well without a doubt but part of the problem was how much he slowed the game down in possession. He must have had as many touches as the rest of the team put together apart from Sheehan, so many passes, so little progress apart from a 10 or 15 minute spell in the 2nd half when we hit it longer a couple of times. But if its tactical to make so many short, slow passes its not always down to the player, he must be told to play that way as well.
Johnston was main culprit in the walking football stakes first half, Mbete and Jones close behind. Issue for me was they didn't trust midfield three to have it off them in a tight area and looked shit scared of a rant from Evatt if they slung a ball over the back line, into the channels (even though Vic and Jerome were constantly asking for that ball).
Result - another turgid 45 mins played largely in our own half. They had about 30% possession but were far more effective with it.
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What I noticed watching on the box last night was, presumably, a bit of what had been talked about in the week between Evatt and the lads. We played it out from the back but quicker, Santos and Toal moved forward 20 yards or so with it then played it forward rather than standing still in our penalty area as last week.
Couple of times I also saw Evatt telling throw in takers to look forward, not always go back. Overall we played our way but did it quicker and further up the pitch. Sheff Wed found it more and more difficult to handle as game wore on.
Sheehan helped that, he's a bit more nimble if given the ball in tight areas and can wriggle away from pressing midfielders rather than play it back again or sideways. Thought Morley was hard done to being dropped but Sheehan justified his place
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Well done all, big reset since last week, not the best start but, crucially, we didn't let a 2nd in, gradually got ourselves back into it and deserved to go in level at HT
Second half was as solid as we've been for a couple of months, better than them as it wore on, limited Bannan's effect and restricted them to lumping it a lot. Some much more sound, low risk defending from Santos, Toal (back to best again tonight) and Jones
Could see some things that were different from last week, we played it out still but did it quicker and CBs passed it forward more sharply / more often, back to how we were in Dec / Jan.
Jerome's experience was important late on
Didn't think it was a pen in real time, confirmed by replay.
Can look forward to Wembley in much better heart
Barnsley away 2nd leg
in Terrace Talk
Posted
No doubt that Evatt wants to model us on City, fine by me, I'm not into the Michael Duff school of football (albeit they do it well and it's got them up). But, even Pep has seen the need to evolve the approach to take them to the next level. Haaland gives them a big, physical focal point that occupies and scares central defenders, and the scope to play a longer, quicker, more direct ball. Even if he doesn't score time and space is created for others.
City also started lightning fast v Real the other night, much quicker and more direct passing, high energy recovery of the ball. Apart from Wembley, over the past couple of months we've lapsed back into walking football that achieves nothing. It doesn't work and gives what are often pretty basic defenders far too easy a ride
None of the three signed in Jan appear to be capable of offering any of that so back to JDB, who can do some of it but hasn't much pace and whose fitness is an issue.
I'd keep JDB to see if he could do that sort of job for 60-70 mins in a game or 30 as a sub, if Evatt could find someone else who did the early shift. Jerome needs loaning out for the season, Nlundulu returning and Kachunga waving off. Not easy to shift Vic so Evatt needs to work out how to get more out of him.