The bigger picture

blandford_cherry

blandford_cherry

UTC Legend
I don’t often comment at length on specific games I leave that to those who kindly write the match reports but after last night I’m at a loss on this board sometimes, yes it was an awful game, yes on paper maybe we should have won but google your Norwich’s and Watfords from last season and take a look at their results over 46 and you can apply that to any promoted team from previous years, it’s ok to criticise the performance but when the season as a whole so far is mentioned it’s a bit over the top.

You cannot walk this league and you can draw, win or lose to basically anyone. Just because on paper they had the worst defensive record in the league doesn’t mean we can go and smash 6 or 7 in without any effort. Coventry were flying and Luton, who we beat at the weekend put 5 past them. Sheff Utd, one of the favourites at the start of the season are imploding. We are unbeaten in 10, 13 points from 15, 2nd in the league and look so solid at the back and to add to that basically spent the first 4 games of the season playing kids.

I would argue you can’t have a consistent style of play in this league due to the nature of each opponent. Some games we need to grind out results, some games we need to hang on to a small leads, some games we need to play a lot more defensively to avoid defeat.

For people to suddenly say ‘I’m concerned about Scott Parker’ ‘We should have stuck with Woodgate’ ‘Playoffs at best’ ‘No plan’ ‘no consistency’ ‘need a same style of play every game’ ‘Rogers isn’t good enough’ ‘bring back JT’ ‘This is what Fulham fans warned us about to maybe to lighten up and look at the bigger picture, and maybe some of last seasons results, we’ve just won 4 in a row.

This squad is exceptionally strong, exciting and one crap draw shouldn’t cause any concern.

The league table doesn’t lie.
49CF106D-7FAC-4848-A244-2A96CB497E4D.jpeg
Rant over
 
All fair enough but those at the game will know Coventry were there for the taking, that man for man we had far better players but were too slow and predictable to get that first goal and only upped the pace in the last 10 minutes when the clock was ticking down. Not a disaster but a worry.
 
Coughlin said:
All fair enough but those at the game will know Coventry were there for the taking, that man for man we had far better players but were too slow and predictable to get that first goal and only upped the pace in the last 10 minutes when the clock was ticking down. Not a disaster but a worry.
Click to expand...
I assume you mean Pboro. Thats nonsence. We came flying out second half and penned them back. Their right back had the best game of his life, and the ref all too predictably started giving them ridiculous free kicks and broke up our momentum.

I dont think we made as many chances as we would like, but I will take 11 points fron each 5 away games, all season long.
 
The league table at this point of the season may not lie but it can be misleading. Otherwise Reading would be in the PL.

If I was a scout for a bottom third team I'd recommend to my manager we set up like they did last night. We had all of the play but barely created a chance.

There's nothing wrong with lauding our start to the season (which has been excellent, particularly impressive in the youngster matches) but, at the same time, pointing out where things could be better.
 
kirsikka said:
The league table at this point of the season may not lie but it can be misleading. Otherwise Reading would be in the PL.

If I was a scout for a bottom third team I'd recommend to my manager we set up like they did last night. We had all of the play but barely created a chance.

There's nothing wrong with lauding our start to the season (which has been excellent, particularly impressive in the youngster matches) but, at the same time, pointing out where things could be better.
Click to expand...
If that’s what people are doing then fair enough. But it’s not just that is it?
 
kirsikka said:
The league table at this point of the season may not lie but it can be misleading. Otherwise Reading would be in the PL.

If I was a scout for a bottom third team I'd recommend to my manager we set up like they did last night. We had all of the play but barely created a chance.

There's nothing wrong with lauding our start to the season (which has been excellent, particularly impressive in the youngster matches) but, at the same time, pointing out where things could be better.
Click to expand...

as long as we remain unbeaten and win most of our home games, thats fine by me.

I'm not concerned at all tbh, teams aren't going to roll over or go toe to toe with us, particularly lower teams.

we look rock solid, have faith.
 
Don't think we can look at the big picture tbh.....if we did we would be focusing on our performances rather than just our results.
I think we've just got to focus on the smaller picture .......get behind the team during games and just accept that we're not going to be that exciting.....I do think we will be very hard to beat so maybe we might get some enjoyment from that.
 
Clearly nobody can be depressed with our league position. Of course we would have all taken that at the start of the season.
My concern is that we have one of the very best squads in the league but we look lethargic and lack focus in games that should actually be easier to win. Blackpool, Hull and now Peterborough is a continued theme.
Would it be greedy to say that we should/could easily of had six more points on the board? I think not!
 
Monmouthred said:
100% agree. By the way we have conceded ONE goal away all season.

Last night was a game you would win 8 times out of ten. Hull the same.

I am delighted with where we are after ten games.
Click to expand...

Great post, I think it reflects on a relative balance between attacking and defensive bias.

If you're an attacking side you're more likely to get a goal that will turn 1 point into 3, conversely you're more likely to concede a goal that could make the game very difficult.

I'd say we're a positive but not attacking side so our scoring margins typically we score a goal or two but rarely concede. We missed two big changes among a number of shots, one of those goes in and the reaction would be completely different. The xG was 0.14 - 1.66 in our favour, interestingly the Luton game was 0.79 - 1.49 against us but there was no criticism.
 
If home sides set up to waste time, fall over under any challenge and keep 10 men compact behind the ball from the start, it's going to be difficult to break them down.

Not my idea of entertainment either!
 
TrevorMorganFanClub said:
If home sides set up to waste time, fall over under any challenge and keep 10 men compact behind the ball from the start, it's going to be difficult to break them down.

Not my idea of entertainment either!
Click to expand...

I think going away to the mid table sides will be a good chance for us to create more chances and come away with a win... games like Birmingham, Forest away. Defensively we look resolute, so no concerns there.

Theres only a few teams that will be as negative as Peterborough at home this season and keep it up for 90 mins. Even then, on another night we could have come away with the win as we keep probing at them.
 
Valencian said:
Clearly nobody can be depressed with our league position. Of course we would have all taken that at the start of the season.
My concern is that we have one of the very best squads in the league but we look lethargic and lack focus in games that should actually be easier to win. Blackpool, Hull and now Peterborough is a continued theme.
Would it be greedy to say that we should/could easily of had six more points on the board? I think not!
Click to expand...

It's 'lethargic' if you don't get a result, 'patient' or 'measured' if you do.

I'd say it's equally likely a lack of defensive discipline would/could easily cost us 6 points.
 
kirsikka said:
The league table at this point of the season may not lie but it can be misleading. Otherwise Reading would be in the PL.

If I was a scout for a bottom third team I'd recommend to my manager we set up like they did last night. We had all of the play but barely created a chance.

There's nothing wrong with lauding our start to the season (which has been excellent, particularly impressive in the youngster matches) but, at the same time, pointing out where things could be better.
Click to expand...

Of course, but some of the statements I’ve put in speech marks are what was said last night and it’s completely over the top. The league table can be deceiving at this stage but as I say the first 4 games we played with kids, we’ve still remained unbeaten and find ourselves second.
 
TrevorMorganFanClub said:
If home sides set up to waste time, fall over under any challenge and keep 10 men compact behind the ball from the start, it's going to be difficult to break them down.

Not my idea of entertainment either!
Click to expand...
I don't think we can take the moral high ground regarding those tactics after our recent second half performances tbh.
 
Topfarrier said:
I don't think we can take the moral high ground regarding those tactics after our recent second half performances tbh.
Click to expand...

But the point I’m trying to make is the season as a whole so far there’s not a lot to be negative about. Even Saturday, ok we should have put the game to bed but we didn’t, we changed our shape and made some subs and held onto the game, next game Luton lose 5-1. It’s a tough league to get consistency in hence why it’s only us and West Brom unbeaten.
 
I don't know if it's just the enjoyment of being back in the ground and watching the games again, but I'm enjoying this season and I think we've had spells of looking rather good and certainly entertaining.

I don't see some of the complaints being banded about by others. We do have a clear game plan, you can see patterns of play and can see what they are trying to do.

You can also see that they are working hard at what they're trying to do, you can see an identity emerging and all this in just three months. We're not the finished article, far from it, but we're pretty darn good in spells and those spells have been long enough to win more often than not, whilst remaining difficult to beat.
 
The main problem last night was a lack of partnerships or understanding between our attacking players. There's plenty of time to work on that. If we're still seeing disjointed play like that past Christmas then something has gone wrong, but it's probably what you expect at this point in the season.

Dom needs help up top though, Lowe needs to grow into his new role. When the central and deep areas are packed with defenders, Dom naturally pulls wide and back to find space, but it means there's nobody to threaten and leads to us playing pretty triangles in safe spaces. It comes back to partnerships, when Dom moves out here someone else goes in there etc.
 
I haven't seen us play much this season because the games clash with my own league season. Saw the second half yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. Most of our build up play was fast and effective. Peterborough defended very well, got a touch of luck and deserve a lot of credit. We have to remember that our budget has been decimated, but the football we are playing is still better than the last few seasons. I genuinely expected us to end up around 10th this season, so for me Parker is doing an excellent job.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;