AFC Wimbledon (A)

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

6 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Very similar to the 1st goal at Northampton October 2024.  Instead of Apter, McAtee, CBT it was Santos to Schon, great crossfileld ball and McAtee finished well.  Both great goals.

 

I know why we don't/can't, but I wish we could play on the counter more often

We're usually really good at it

[Tonge moor green jacket]

6 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Very similar to the 1st goal at Northampton October 2024.  Instead of Apter, McAtee, CBT it was Santos to Schon, great crossfileld ball and McAtee finished well.  Both great goals.

 

Aye.

Schon's cross was even better than McAtee's today.

McAtee then didn't need to break stride- just lashed it home.

Just needs to do that now!

[Marc505]

33 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Just left Euston. Absolute all time away day. Going forward first half was outstanding, should have been 4 up. Second half was proper steel.

@Steejay

@radcliffe white

@marple whites

@Thorpey

@embankment

@Marc505

@leighwhites

@BOWTUN BAKED

And all else in between.

Mint day.

The Whites are going up. 

Sorry but how fucking good is the Leather Bottle?

[Dr. Feelgood]

4 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Aye.

Schon's cross was even better than McAtee's today.

McAtee then didn't need to break stride- just lashed it home.

Just needs to do that now!

Yep. Needs de-coaching.

His very elegant looking side-footed 'shots' are nice technically but he needs to put his foot through the fckg thing once in a while.

[Leyther_Matt]

2 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

Sorry but how fucking good is the Leather Bottle?

Thought we’d have to slope in and then half of WWays is in there. Outstanding. 

[Wanderlust]

Definite signs of improvement going forward in the first half even though our finishing is still an issue, and we defended well second half despite some flaky moments and an inability to keep hold of it when we knocked it away which messed up our shape, but overall it’s promising.

Time to regroup now, a few days rest and we’ll see what the squad looks like on Monday night - hopefully strong enough to beat the teams behind us vying for promotion. That said, I think we have to win every game to get promoted automatically.

[jmjhb]

3 minutes ago, Wanderlust said:

Definite signs of improvement going forward in the first half even though our finishing is still an issue, and we defended well second half despite some flaky moments and an inability to keep hold of it when we knocked it away which messed up our shape, but overall it’s promising.

Time to regroup now, a few days rest and we’ll see what the squad looks like on Monday night - hopefully strong enough to beat the teams behind us vying for promotion. That said, I think we have to win every game to get promoted automatically.

12 wins gets us there or thereabouts

[Jol_BWFC]

26 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

Sorry but how fucking good is the Leather Bottle?

Great venue. Saw Fergal in there. Spotted him again at Earlsfield station an hour or two later and told him to pull his finger out in the next 24 hours. He and his mates chuckled, which was good enough for me.

[Eddie]

What will be interesting - if we’re going back to 4 at the back (which it looks like given the signings), what does he do with the centre backs?

It was an easy decision for him today because Johnston had to go left back seeing as Conway was out, so Forino and Toal in the middle. But when Conway is back, what happens?

Forino is undroppable for me, he’s just so much more physical and suited to L1 than Toal and Johnston, but then Johnston has played the most minutes this season of any player - so I’d be surprised if he was to drop to the bench - but Toal’s captain.

He could keep it as it was today. GJ is far from ideal on the ball, but Conway is poor defensively as a left back.

Whatever happens, if he reverts to a back 4 with Toal and GJ as your centre backs then he’s mad.

[Leyther_Matt]

1 minute ago, Jol_BWFC said:

Great venue. Saw Fergal in there. Spotted him again at Earlsfield station an hour or two later and told him to pull his finger out in the next 24 hours. He and his mates chuckled, which was good enough for me.

Wouldn’t know him if over him tbf

Also fairly sure you owe me a pint 👀 

[gonzo]

9 minutes ago, Wanderlust said:

Definite signs of improvement going forward in the first half even though our finishing is still an issue, and we defended well second half despite some flaky moments and an inability to keep hold of it when we knocked it away which messed up our shape, but overall it’s promising.

Time to regroup now, a few days rest and we’ll see what the squad looks like on Monday night - hopefully strong enough to beat the teams behind us vying for promotion. That said, I think we have to win every game to get promoted automatically.

We need to win at Lincoln. It's as big as it gets.

[Leyther_Matt]

Just now, Eddie said:

What will be interesting - if we’re going back to 4 at the back (which it looks like given the signings), what does he do with the centre backs?

It was an easy decision for him today because Johnston had to go left back seeing as Conway was out, so Forino and Toal in the middle. But when Conway is back, what happens?

Forino is undroppable for me, he’s just so much more physical and suited to L1 than Toal and Johnston, but then Johnston has played the most minutes this season of any player - so I’d be surprised if he was to drop to the bench - but Toal’s captain.

He could keep it as it was today. GJ is far from ideal on the ball, but Conway is poor defensively as a left back.

Whatever happens, if he reverts to a back 4 with Toal and GJ as your centre backs then he’s mad.

Forino on the left doesn’t look comfortable. But I also agree he’s solid as fuck as a defender. Wouldn’t be entirely against Forino-Johnston R/L

[deeane Koontz]

Far more confident defensively when Forino is playing. He's just no nonsense, defend first, head on everything. And one of the big lads who uses his whole weight when having a tussle rather than being shy about it.

[boltonboris]

The 3 CB’s are very evenly matched. You could pair any of them without any drop off, which is great. Best defence in the league 

[Winchester White]

1 minute ago, boltonboris said:

The 3 CB’s are very evenly matched. You could pair any of them without any drop off, which is great. Best defence in the league 

You wouldn't think so given WWs numpties.

 

[worthy10]

1 hour ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I find it puzzling.  We see shots flying in at L2 level every week never mind L1, but we seem to lack the basic skill to pull the foot back and put some power behind a shot or even cross.  Cissoko played well generally but he epitomises this, every cross or shot is weak as piss, hard to understand how they get to this level without that basic ability.

Cissoko is one of our weakest kickers. Seems to close his foot at impact. Hooding the club for our golfers. 3 other examples today, McAtee shot, pass to the goalie and apters sorry attempt in the first half. And Burstow shot in the 2nd half. For so many of our pros to be weak in this area, probably speaks volumes of the standard that we're at. Let's hope our new striker is good at kicking the ball properly. It may be a confidence thing but it's a consistent trait

[Eddie]

Just now, boltonboris said:

The 3 CB’s are very evenly matched. You could pair any of them without any drop off, which is great. Best defence in the league 

See I completely disagree. Toal an GJ as a pair just does not have the physicality. I don’t mind them individually as L1 centre backs, but together they are just too susceptible to being bullied by the bigger, older, experienced centre forwards in the league.

Even today, there are occasions that aren’t that obvious where Toal goes up for a header and is just nudged which means he either misses it or the header goes nowhere / the wrong place - he moans every time to the ref that he’s been pushed but I’d say 1 in 10 he’ll get a free kick, refs just don’t care in this league.

Johnston is better at using his body but he’s hampered by his height.

Forino has none of that. He’s exactly the kind of centre back that will take none of it, he’s the boss and forwards will have to do him for pace or skill to score.

[boltonboris]

7 minutes ago, Eddie said:

See I completely disagree. Toal an GJ as a pair just does not have the physicality. I don’t mind them individually as L1 centre backs, but together they are just too susceptible to being bullied by the bigger, older, experienced centre forwards in the league.

Even today, there are occasions that aren’t that obvious where Toal goes up for a header and is just nudged which means he either misses it or the header goes nowhere / the wrong place - he moans every time to the ref that he’s been pushed but I’d say 1 in 10 he’ll get a free kick, refs just don’t care in this league.

Johnston is better at using his body but he’s hampered by his height.

Forino has none of that. He’s exactly the kind of centre back that will take none of it, he’s the boss and forwards will have to do him for pace or skill to score.

You’re absolutely entitled to disagree. But the fact that no other team in this league has conceded less goals than us, to me, suggests something different than you see mate. 
 

I don’t often see them getting bullied either. And statistically it happens to the less than any other defenders in the division

[Tonge moor green jacket]

10 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

The 3 CB’s are very evenly matched. You could pair any of them without any drop off, which is great. Best defence in the league 

Toal hasn't been anywhere near as effective the odd time he's gone to the left.

That's why Johnson gets so much time- provides balance.

What will be interesting is the return of Conway when fit.

I wonder if CBT will offer more defensive support on that side, meaning Conway gets more help.

It is clear that SS wants his full backs to be attack minded, so assistance the other way will help.

I think right back is more of a concern- Tutu isn't a right back, and that leaves Christie.

Tutu as a wing back- fine, but unfair to ask him to be a defender for me.

I suspect though, that we won't bring in another. 

[jmjhb]

That same group of 3 conceded 70 goals last season. Testament to the work SS has done and their improvement.

[boltonboris]

But again, whilst you raise some valid points, I think we are all trying to identify problems that aren’t necessarily there

[Tonge moor green jacket]

2 minutes ago, jmjhb said:

That same group of 3 conceded 70 goals last season. Testament to the work SS has done and their improvement.

I think what has skewed fans' view is that for a while, it seemed an opponent pretty much scored from their first (or only) shot on target.

Whereas we keep missing them! 

Get that bit right, and the odd one in our net won't be quite so damaging. 

[burnden]

41 minutes ago, Jol_BWFC said:

Great venue. Saw Fergal in there. Spotted him again at Earlsfield station an hour or two later and told him to pull his finger out in the next 24 hours. He and his mates chuckled, which was good enough for me.

[desperado]

Two times that stick in my mind when Forino and Johnston were paired together as CBs in a back 4 - Burton and Northampton away! 😩

Think we have to be careful making sweeping statements on a game to game basis.

Seen similar with Tutu. When he plays well we shouldn’t be lauding him as needing to start every game. When he’s not so good, like today, we shouldn’t be saying we don’t want to see him at FB again.

L1 players are pretty inconsistent, ours included.

Although our defensive record suggests we are getting it right a lot more than we are getting it wrong. 

[Eddie]

25 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

You’re absolutely entitled to disagree. But the fact that no other team in this league has conceded less goals than us, to me, suggests something different than you see mate. 
 

I don’t often see them getting bullied either. And statistically it happens to the less than any other defenders in the division

Fair and reasonable response. I’d only point out that we’ve taken that mantle as the best defence in the league since Forino came in for the last 5 games - but you could just as much put the emphasis on Bonham to be fair.

We also only had 3 clean sheets in the 10 games before Forino came in, conceding 10, whereas we’ve conceded 2 in 5 since and had 3 clean sheets.

Anyway, it’s a good problem to have. We’ve got 3 good centre backs for this level - let’s hope they all stay fit so we have the question to be asked.