Thoughts v Luton

kirsikka

kirsikka

UTC Legend
A mixed bag of a game. We didn't look terrible going forward in the first half yet looked extremely vulnerable at the back. It could easily have been more than two at half time.

A different game in the second half where we hunted them down and put them under pressure, and their defence cracked. It could easily have been more than two for us.

And then the injury time kicker...

Promotion candidates have to show fight at times, games will go against you for all sorts of reasons. Good to see we showed it in abundance today to get back into the game. Even if it didn't work out.

Happy for Rogers that he got a goal as its been a tough experience for him here so far.

It's getting tight at the top now. We need to start racking up points to try and build a gap again as Blackburn are motoring.

Lots of food for thought back on the training ground this week to try and resolve those defensive frailties that weren't there earlier in the season. It looks very shaky right now and the first choice CB pairing is there so...

Postive performances:
Stacey: What a run for the goal that really got us going. More of that kind of action please.

Christie: Involved in most of the good from AFCB today.

Room to improve:
Solanke: A lone furrow ploughed today. Not sure if it was hard work with no reward or a quieter game but he was pretty much anonymous.

Anthony: Not really involved during his 45 on the pitch.
 
Just an armchair football fan opinion on an Internet forum, so please don’t feel the need to tell me how upset about it you are.

The management have a fundamental misunderstanding of the footballing style/culture of this team and our relative strength in the league.
As an example, we play one of the best strikers in the league, up top, on his own, while playing 2 very defensively minded midfielders together, that cost a lot of money, but are hugely overrated, against a team like Luton.
At the moment we are not far off when Tindall was playing 5 at the back at home to Luton last season and losing.
We are competing in this league playing with the handbrake on and being happy with a point before throwing even that away. Crap. Expect more.
 
kirsikka said:
A mixed bag of a game. We didn't look terrible going forward in the first half yet looked extremely vulnerable at the back. It could easily have been more than two at half time.

A different game in the second half where we hunted them down and put them under pressure, and their defence cracked. It could easily have been more than two for us.

And then the injury time kicker...

Promotion candidates have to show fight at times, games will go against you for all sorts of reasons. Good to see we showed it in abundance today to get back into the game. Even if it didn't work out.

Happy for Rogers that he got a goal as its been a tough experience for him here so far.

It's getting tight at the top now. We need to start racking up points to try and build a gap again as Blackburn are motoring.

Lots of food for thought back on the training ground this week to try and resolve those defensive frailties that weren't there earlier in the season. It looks very shaky right now and the first choice CB pairing is there so...

Postive performances:
Stacey: What a run for the goal that really got us going. More of that kind of action please.

Christie: Involved in most of the good from AFCB today.

Room to improve:
Solanke: A lone furrow ploughed today. Not sure if it was hard work with no reward or a quieter game but he was pretty much anonymous.

Anthony: Not really involved during his 45 on the pitch.
Click to expand...
Bit harsh on Dom, that

Our problems were a lack of defence and a lack of any sort of midfield creativity

Also Luton defended well and hunted in packs, so Dom needed more support that he just didn’t get
 
Runnerrunnerru said:
Just an armchair football fan opinion on an Internet forum, so please don’t feel the need to tell me how upset about it you are.

The management have a fundamental misunderstanding of the footballing style/culture of this team and our relative strength in the league.
As an example, we play one of the best strikers in the league, up top, on his own, while playing 2 very defensively minded midfielders together, that cost a lot of money, but are hugely overrated, against a team like Luton.
At the moment we are not far off when Tindall was playing 5 at the back at home to Luton last season and losing.
We are competing in this league playing with the handbrake on and being happy with a point before throwing even that away. Crap. Expect more.
Click to expand...
Good post...... although we lost at home to Luton last season due to Jeff getting wrongly sent off.......even with 10 men that was a far better performance than this one .
 
So shaky at the back against a bustling pugnacious Luton. Weak clearances and a keeper who has yet to grow into a truly dominant presence will keep me nail biting until May.
 
I’m sorry but re Stacy. It’s not a lot of good him going on the kind of run he did to get the assist if he’s at the same time going to be such a defensive vulnerability, his positioning for the first goal was abysmal. Yet again a Stacy brain fart costs us a goal. The guy is a liability.

We got back into the game despite the horrific defending and then we did what we always do when trying to manage a game, took our foot off of the gas and let them bombard our penalty area. The momentum was with us yet we are still the ones who end up hanging on for dear life. it’s on Parker.

Anthony should be nowhere near the starting eleven right now, awful again.

We should only persist with this very unique formation if we are actually going to play with two players who are suited as playing as number eights. Lewis Cook is just a waste of space out there at the moment. Either drop him deeper or drop him completely, he’s not even that great in his actual position.

Solanke is so isolated that it’s criminal. What can we expect him to do when we are not supporting him properly?

Our defending is diabolical. All an opposition side has to do against us is start pumping long balls into our back line and the lot of them absolutely sh*t their pants.

Positives for me:
-Christie better when central. It’s clearly where he should be playing as he only ever tries to come in field anyway and is not really the type of player to take on a full back.
-Travers again was good, good saves and command of his area. Not at fault for any of the goals.
-Marcondes drifts in and out but crucially he does at least have moments where he provides a goal threat. Definitely more of an out and out number ten though.
-I actually thought Davis had a good game today. Only defender who didn’t look vulnerable and good going forward.
-Lowe did okay when he came on but compared to Anthony all he really had to do was complete a couple of passes to better him.

Final verdict:
As I’ve said before, there are just too many vulnerabilities in this team for us to be promoted automatically. You can take your pick, whether it be; ability to manage a game, defending against teams who play directly, over reliance on a few individuals, not enough creativity in the number eight positions, the weaknesses are definitely there.
 
Second half looked better as we started to get in early crosses and more players in the box. First half too slow and square with Dom with the team looking like they could stroll through the game.

Credit the team for the fightback but the lack of drive to get a winner was shocking. Luton looked more up for it.

The midfieid balance is just not right. Pearson key to stop players ghosting between the lines.

Christie given mom was travers was my choice
 
We have a system which only produces 10 chances a game - though they may me good chances - if we are playing well. Not many chances to look back on today.

Defence gets penned in and doesn't seem to be able to get the ball clear,

Anthony hasn't played well for a while now - even if Zemura is there to partner with.

We haven't used Stacey's attacking runs to good effect this season. Ethan Laird may be even better going forward, but don't think he is going to improve things defensively on the right.

Christie was totally totally man-marked today. Though he still managed to put in some key moments.
 
Personally think Travers will be disappointed with his performance today. His positioning wasn’t quite right, hence so many saves with his feet and not covering his posts.

Ironically, even during a poor first half he looked better with dealing with crosses, getting in some good enough punches.
 
My worry is passion and hunger. Even when we were on our winning run it was through control and movement not outright desire. When teams get at us we disappear and we don’t hunt teams down like Luton did us.. it’s all a bit pretty and stroll about and dirty work is what lesser players do, not us. Obviously I don’t include Lerma in this assessment.

First half we were outfought and didn’t lay a glove or look bothered by it. Second half we had our period of control like earlier in the season and looked good. Normally if a team comes back from two down they go on to win it (if there is a deciding goal). We stopped, they fought to get the decider and we hardly had a kick. One team wanted it the other team thought they deserved it on talent.

I sometimes see us looking excellent (less recently) but I never see us busting a gut. Not sure if it’s the management, (it’s been like this for the last four managers and three years) or the players we have collected who in the main are better technically than those they face every week.

If it’s the latter we have a transfer window and might need to lose some to get some difference. If it’s the former then we’re screwed because it will be a long time before a change.
 
Issues today...

Kelly - His lazy style and lack of speed of thought gets us in trouble every match. The guy can look class at times but there is confidence on the ball and arrogance. He too many times falls into the latter. He waits and waits until hes closed down and then plays it to another player with a defender on them. Just play it earlier. I understand why he draws the player in but he doesnt do it correctly and either gets caught or lays the ball off to someone who has no time left.

Lerma - Normally a rock but was sadly poor today. Its his fault for having high standards. Excellent choice to take the yellow to cover for Kellys mistakes but he made so many mis-passes today and didnt jump several times to win the ball. Very unlike him.

Dom - He got very little today but the top strikers either make something happen or take their chances when they come to them. He didnt do that today and while the Luton strikers will take the plaudits you have to wonder where Dom was?

Anthony. - Its pretty clear by now that if you dont play JZ you dont play Anthony. He doesnt seem to work well with any other leftback.

We seemed lethargic today....despite two weeks off. Its getting close at the top now. Nothing good was ever easy.

Props to Luton, played some great football and thoroughly deserved their win.
 
Neil Dawson said:
My worry is passion and hunger. Even when we were on our winning run it was through control and movement not outright desire. When teams get at us we disappear and we don’t hunt teams down like Luton did us.. it’s all a bit pretty and stroll about and dirty work is what lesser players do, not us. Obviously I don’t include Lerma in this assessment.

First half we were outfought and didn’t lay a glove or look bothered by it. Second half we had our period of control like earlier in the season and looked good. Normally if a team comes back from two down they go on to win it (if there is a deciding goal). We stopped, they fought to get the decider and we hardly had a kick. One team wanted it the other team thought they deserved it on talent.

I sometimes see us looking excellent (less recently) but I never see us busting a gut. Not sure if it’s the management, (it’s been like this for the last four managers and three years) or the players we have collected who in the main are better technically than those they face every week.

If it’s the latter we have a transfer window and might need to lose some to get some difference. If it’s the former then we’re screwed because it will be a long time before a change.
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I disagree with a lot of that...many times this season we have simply worked harder than the other team and closed down more. We were excellent in the first half of the season.
 
And I also don’t necessarily agree that those defensive frailties were not completely there earlier in the season. Vs Luton at home was not a dissimilar performance to the one we witnessed today, they just happened to miss a couple of absolute sitters that day. We were still penned in for long periods of that game and looked very vulnerable. It’s the point I’ve been trying to make relating to XG, you can’t really get away with finishing top two over an entire season when the opposition are at least semi regularly the team who are creating the better chances. You may get away with it to a point, but over the entire season is not an easy thing to do.
 
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