20/21 Matchday Thread

[Kenneth E End]

That was Cliff Thorburn v Ray Reardon levels of grind in that game. Dreadful match, but hey, job done. Lets say no more, move on.

Brum are going down.

 

[Atavistic]

I hadn't realised Birmingham had slipped into the bottom three, but I'm entirely unsurprised as they've been absolute dross for a good 5 or so years now. And yet, they'll probably still scrape survival again at the end of the season, as they keep on managing to do.

For us, today's result poses a question of how we can more consistently balance defence and attack; the slower approach we'd been taking before today worked to a point, but the offensive threat could be nullified with the right counter-approach (as both Boro and Millwall proved). On the flip side, we were virtually unstoppable going forward today, partially because of the pace of play but also much more intelligent movement and decision-making in the final third (Buendia helps out massively in that sense). However, we were far more open at the back and a more clinical side would have absolutely punished that defensive display we put in today.

The good thing is that we've got a run of fixtures now which is much more generous on paper, so we have time to figure it out before the big match against Brentford at the start of March.

 

[Kenneth E End]

So we need 13 points for survival - I think we'll do that comfortably and get to 50 points with about 6-7 games to go.

Yes, the goalscoring is crap, but we're in a pandemic and the first priority is to win games and stay up and get the additional £6m that you get at this level, considering it is unlikely there are going to be m(any) fans coming through the door until August.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

So we need 13 points for survival - I think we'll do that comfortably and get to 50 points with about 6-7 games to go.

Yes, the goalscoring is crap, but we're in a pandemic and the first priority is to win games and stay up and get the additional £6m that you get at this level, considering it is unlikely there are going to be m(any) fans coming through the door until August.

Agree think we have enough about us to grind out enough points to be fine but no one is going to come away from a game with us thinking “bloody hell they are a good side”!

I like the solid foundations we are building though, we look so much better defensively, Lockyer has been a brilliant signing. We can build off that next season but for now let’s just make sure we stay up.

 

[thewwfc]

Another Gavin Ward masterclass.

I'm not for criticising referees for every single mistake, but some of the officials at this level need to be set out to pasture.

yup. He is truly dire.

 

[thewwfc]

Huddersfield contenders for the bottom three?

I guess they are low on confidence - "they don't like it up 'em" basically and we were able to bully our way back into the game today. Obviously you can't judge a side fully on only watching them twice in a season - I would say they've got the quality of player needed not to get into trouble, but they definitely need to cope with physicality better than they did today, and they also fanny about at the back quite a lot with a slightly vulnerable-looking keeper, which they would do well to stop.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I guess they are low on confidence - "they don't like it up 'em" basically and we were able to bully our way back into the game today. Obviously you can't judge a side fully on only watching them twice in a season - I would say they've got the quality of player needed not to get into trouble, but they definitely need to cope with physicality better than they did today, and they also fanny about at the back quite a lot with a slightly vulnerable-looking keeper, which they would do well to stop.

Thought you might have a chance today, they cant defend the ball into the box which you do as well as anyone.

 

[SF_]

I guess they are low on confidence - "they don't like it up 'em" basically and we were able to bully our way back into the game today. Obviously you can't judge a side fully on only watching them twice in a season - I would say they've got the quality of player needed not to get into trouble, but they definitely need to cope with physicality better than they did today, and they also fanny about at the back quite a lot with a slightly vulnerable-looking keeper, which they would do well to stop.

Yeah, I thought they looked a bit of a nancy boy side against us too and don't have a consistent goal scorer.

Probably won't go down but maybe another bottom 6 season like last year.

Their manager is also a little prick.

 

[thewwfc]

Yeah, I thought they looked a bit of a nancy boy side against us too and don't have a consistent goal scorer.

Probably won't go down but maybe another bottom 6 season like last year.

Their manager is also a little prick.

Actually their forum is alight with "we're in a relegation dogfight"-type stuff right now.

Part of it is "we should be beating teams like Wycombe" etc, but their fans also say that they can't cope with physical sides in general, don't have a plan B when tippy-tappy doesn't work, and don't show any heart and resolve when things don't go their way.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Important win for the the reasons TFCH gave. Birmingham caused us zero problems other than Sluga getting cold. Yet again we were sleepy in the second half, asking for trouble. Guess Ince must be less fit than they realised.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Important win for the the reasons TFCH gave. Birmingham caused us zero problems other than Sluga getting cold. Yet again we were sleepy in the second half, asking for trouble. Guess Ince must be less fit than they realised.

Must be as we need more output from that position. Might be a bit controversial as he seems well rated by most people but I don’t get Jordan Clark. He seems a competent footballer don’t get me wrong, does the defensive aspects of a winger well and all that good stuff but he’s not offering enough in the final third for me. Could really do with getting Ince in to see if he can offer something more in an attacking sense.

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

We're going down, simple as.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Lots to play for. You seem to pick up points more easily and readily than a normal relegation side.......but theres nothing normal about this season.

Mid table sides and other relagation fighters are the games to look to pick up points.

 

[Atavistic]

From our meetings with Coventry this season, I feel fairly confident in saying there are three worse teams, though it is getting tight in that bottom seven (hell, most of the bottom half in general) apart from Wycombe being near-enough gone already barring an absolute miracle.

My gut feeling is that Wycombe and Sheffield Wednesday will go down along with either Birmingham, Huddersfield or Rotherham, while Derby look likely to pull themselves away from danger unless their perilous financial situation worsens (in which case they could end up doing a Wigan.

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

That’s the thing, we look alright if you only see how we play in the middle of the park but the truth is we’re utterly hopeless in both boxes. We’ve scored 7 goals in our last 12 games and have conceded the third most in the league. If you looked at the stats from the game yesterday you’d probably thing we were unlucky to lose but it was far from it. We were pathetic until we went 3-0 with 40 minutes left to play at which point Cardiff were content to sit on their lead and let us have as much of the ball as we liked.

We had a good run in December when the league was kind enough to let us play basically every bottom half side in a row, but we drew far too many games that we stood a decent chance of winning via negative tactics. Now we’ve got to play the top three within a week, no chance we get any points there, followed by Blackburn who absolutely schooled us in the reverse fixture, and Middlesbrough who also easily beat us previously. I think it’s pretty likely that we get 0 points from at least our next 4 games at which point we’re sure to be a few points adrift in the relegation zone given the recent form of the teams around us.

 

[Kenneth E End]

From our meetings with Coventry this season, I feel fairly confident in saying there are three worse teams, though it is getting tight in that bottom seven (hell, most of the bottom half in general) apart from Wycombe being near-enough gone already barring an absolute miracle.

My gut feeling is that Wycombe and Sheffield Wednesday will go down along with either Birmingham, Huddersfield or Rotherham, while Derby look likely to pull themselves away from danger unless their perilous financial situation worsens (in which case they could end up doing a Wigan.

100% there is more dross this season that last season. We have scored 7 goals away from home and taken 17 points thus far!

 

[Atavistic]

A surprising scoreline developing in the Brentford game this afternoon. Hopefully Barnsley can keep it up and put a bit of pressure on Brentford as we approach the final third of the season.

Also, when on earth did Cardiff manage to crawl back up to 7th? Last I checked they hadn't won in ages and were down in 17th, albeit they have sacked Harris since then.

 

[Craig]

Shite

 

[Super_horns]

A surprising scoreline developing in the Brentford game this afternoon. Hopefully Barnsley can keep it up and put a bit of pressure on Brentford as we approach the final third of the season.

Also, when on earth did Cardiff manage to crawl back up to 7th? Last I checked they hadn't won in ages and were down in 17th, albeit they have sacked Harris since then.

Won 3/4 in a row apparently.

Shows how tight it is.

Handy from Barnsley.

Good team on their day .

 

[MagpieBee]

Barnsley the better team today. Took their chances but out fought us all over the pitch, we’re really organised with their defending and pressing, we just looked really poor.

Despite the long unbeaten run, a loss like this has been coming, we’ve been quite lucky of late (which has made a change from previous years!)

 

[SF_]

Watford tomorrow who have just raped Bristol City 6-0, Sarr is by far the best player in the league so i'm not looking forward to playing against him again.

Not sure if we will stick to the 5-3-2 system we used against Blackburn, I probably would but might be difficult to squeeze Gordon into it unless we play him just behind the strikers, plus you want Sinclair back in the team as well, ideally. Means leaving two of Johnson, Molumby and Ledson on the bench too.

Iversen
Storey, Lindsay, Hughes
Browne, Whiteman, Johnson, Cunningham
Gordon
Barkhuizen, Evans​

Hard to guess at the moment.

 

[Super_horns]

Hopefully we will keep the same team and play with the same desire but it’s away and we have a bad record at Deepdale !

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Home to Cardiff tomorrow night. They have hit some form having finally got rid of Harris and brought in McCarthy.

Think we know exactly the type of game we are going to be in for, lots of awkward balls forward to deal with and set pieces will be really important. Moore always looks a difficult striker to deal with and they did us our only real lesson this season with the 4-0 in the reverse fixture. We didn’t seem ready for the physical test that day so I think NJ will be really emphasising that.

The win at the weekend really takes some of the pressure off here and I’d take a point in what I think is going to be a really tricky game.

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

Norwich at home for us on Wednesday. We don’t have a left back because the only one in the squad is on loan from them and can’t play. Should be a spanking.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Some of the negativity on this thread is just unbelievable. We're in the Championship - the tightening of the division for all teams outside of the play offs proves anyone can beat anyone.

 

[Atavistic]

The fact that Coventry are on a poor run of form as of late makes me more wary of playing them now than I perhaps should be, as they'll surely be fighting harder than ever to get a result and stop that slide before they do potentially end up in the bottom three. Even more so as they've already gotten a result against us this season and shown that they can do it, so it's certainly not as easy a fixture as it looks on paper.

On the flipside, we seemingly found our own mojo again on Saturday, so that and a defeat for Brentford on Sunday will surely see us very eager to get a run going again and try and put a top two finish back in our own hands, rather than relying on Swansea to slip up in either of their two games in hand.

 

[Super_horns]

Some of the negativity on this thread is just unbelievable. We're in the Championship - the tightening of the division for all teams outside of the play offs proves anyone can beat anyone.

I think the main issue very few teams get on a long run of good form or don’t score many so everyone is inconsistent.

 

[SF_]

I was definitely wrong about Ivan Toney, thought he would struggle to match Watkins' numbers but his return is incredible.

29 games, 23 goals and 9 assists

Only 8th in the shots per game table too, so it's not like he has chance after chance put on the table for him.

Frightening.

 

[SF_]

Incidentally.

Toney, Armstrong, Moore, Woodrow & Lowe are all former targets of ours that we failed to stump up the cash for, be it fee, or wages.

5 of the top 10 scorers in the league.

A perfect example of why we've never kicked on and grabbed one of those top six places in the last 5 seasons.

 

[thewwfc]

Wayne Rooney's Derby County™ at home tonight.

Their form: LWWWLW (6th in the form table)
Ours: LLdLLW (22nd)

We played a more experimental side actually playing with proper wingers last team and it paid off v Hudds, although I don't expect Derby to be quite as much of a bunch of bullyphobic tippy-tappy softies as HTAFC were.

We'll see.

Not doing our usual thing of giving away a shite early goal would be a good start.