20/21 Matchday Thread

[That Fat Centre Half]

Brentford seem to be bottling it again, on course to lose there last 3 games. Thought they looked vulnerable against us albeit in a win but really seems to be sticky spell for them now.

 

[Atavistic]

It's interesting just how quickly things can change. Just a week ago, Brentford seemed to be unstoppable, but now they've gone and lost three in a row to make things really interesting at the top. We've also regained our mojo in that time, and Watford seem to also be coming on strong now. My only concern is that this bad run for Brentford now will probably our meeting with them in ten or so days all the more difficult, as they'll be determined to fight back and keep themselves in the race for the automatics.

Until then, just the one change for us today as Gibson drops to the bench with a slight back issue and Zimmermann slots into his place. Slightly concerning as Zimmermann has been a shadow of his former self this season after having lots of niggly injuries in the last 18 months and because we've looked so solid at the back with Gibson alongside Hanley, but we can manage for one game without him. No Hugill on the bench, surprisingly, so I guess his return from injury has taken a slight setback since our press conference yesterday.

EDIT: Scratch that, Gibson hasn't even made the bench in the end. Hopefully not something that will keep him out for too long then. Young centre back Omobamidele deputises instead.

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

Well, that was unexpected. Fantastic performance and a complete 180 from the last few displays. Having Tyler Walker back fit is going to make a huge difference.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Goal down at Stoke and with our record with coming back from behind youd probably say that’s it

 

[Kenneth E End]

What is the plan from Luton? There doesn't look like there is one.

 

[Super_horns]

Reading, Bournemouth and Swansea losing.

 

[oakroader]

Pathetic Luton

 

[Kenneth E End]

Why are lessons not being learned? That performance was absolutely crap on every area of the pitch.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Decided not to watch this weekend as I strongly suspected that what has happened would do!

Not surprised, bar sitting in and trying to be compact I am not sure what we are trying to do as a side and am not sure what our approach to actually getting on the front foot in games is. Devoid of ideas in attack and massively lacking in quality in attack. Pretty obvious we are just trying to get through this season as best we can, I do think we have enough about us to eke out enough points to keep out of trouble but you can’t be this bad an attacking side and not be worried.

 

[Atavistic]

Well, I don't think we could have possibly asked for a better set of results this weekend, with all our rivals besides Watford losing while we've picked up another three points. Sounds like we made hard work of it with poor shooting and that we could have made better use of substitutions again (waiting to make our first change until the 90th minute when most of these players have started three games in a week seems a strange decision to me), but as long as the results keep on coming it doesn't really matter.

Now seven points clear at the top, and even if Swansea win both their games in hand we'd still be two points clear of them and seven clear of the chasing pack in the play-off positions. Just got to keep on going into these two potential banana skins away at Birmingham and Wycombe next week.

 

[Craig]

Bristol City are awful

 

[oakroader]

Don’t panic,only need a few more wins...
Bollocks... we’re in quicksand and being dragged under...gonna need a strong rope to be pulled safe if these shite performances continues

 

[BelizeHatter]

Psssssshhhhhhhhh. The season going flat......lets not hope to shit

 

[BelizeHatter]

ffs. Biggest depth squad in years. Pelly, KDH, Harry, Collo, Rea start every single week. They arent robots. They each (maybe not Rea)have to cover double digit miles every single game. Wekend, midweek, weekend run coming again. Slip one in and out every week with your array of game changers. They are looking flogged to death.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

ffs. Biggest depth squad in years. Pelly, KDH, Harry, Collo, Rea start every single week. They arent robots. They each (maybe not Rea)have to cover double digit miles every single game. Wekend, midweek, weekend run coming again. Slip one in and out every week with your array of game changers. They are looking flogged to death.

Agree with this to an extent but always a bit wary that’s it’s always the players out of the team that are the answer! That first 11 could do with a few fresh faces coming in just freshen things up as it’s felt stale for a while now. Adebayo and Ince in particular can surely provide something different in attack. Not sure where Moncur has got to, at least he’s got a goal in him.

Pelly I love for what’s he’s done for us, but has been in some really poor form for a little while now IMO. He used to carry the ball superbly and really get us up the pitch quickly by being positive with the ball, not sure if it’s an energy thing but he doesn’t seem to be doing that at all at the moment leaving KDH often being the only midfield player wanting to play forward. If he’s off then we have 0 players in the middle of the park looking to play positive.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Is it poor form, or is it the negative mindset from the management downwards? Pelly is a positive player - always has been, so to ask him to go against his natural game is going to be hard.

We look like a team full of fear at the moment... I remember the days where our fans used to be blamed for that! We need to bin this constant negative setup, playing for a 0-0 and knicking a late winner. It worked post Lockdown 1 where we had a bit of a siege mentality, but we've been found out now. Look at Coventry yesterday how they played on the front foot against Brentford - terrific performance. That needs to be us.

I still think we're in a comfortable league position, but longer term we cannot keep playing this way. We have a lot of crucial fixtures coming up in the next few weeks. Millwall are rehitting their early season form now as we play them at home on Tuesday.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

It’s a bit easier said than done though really.

The “constant negative set up” is what has got us into our current mid table position - we’ve not really been a dominant fluent team at any point this season. It’s all been about “doing the basics” as Jones says, in particular out of possession which has given us a chance in most games to pick up points. We’ve had the odd game like yesterday where we haven’t done those basics and we have been punished for it. It’s a difficult thing to change that mid season.

We could do a bit more I think though, instead of Rea we could give morrell a run at defensive midfield whose a bit more of a positive type player but perhaps not as defensively good. There’s players like Moncur and Ince could come in who have got something a bit different in them. Moncur has lost his place to Clark lately, don’t get me wrong I like Clark as a player and I h set stand he seemed to be the one player who did ok yesterday, but his end product and play in the final third is nowhere near Moncurs. He’s primarily there for his defensive output IMO.

Fundamentally I think structurally this season we are always going to be a “stay in the game” keep it tight type team first and foremost but changing the personnel could give us a bit more at the other end of the pitch but it’s always going to be about staying in games as long as we can as ultimately, we don’t have a great deal of Individual quality and it’s always going to be about collective organisation as a result

 

[Kenneth E End]

As I keep saying, we just need to get over this pandemic as it's hurting us as much as anyone not having the income - get back into the Championship for next season and collect the extra £6m. That will have cost us probably £3-4m when all is done just from gate receipts and commercial packages. But we cannot keep playing like this long term - the supporter base I don't think will stand for it.

 

[Kenneth E End]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1363435422131638275

Proof as to how bad our first goal was yesterday. Not to mention the other two which were equally as bad for their own reasons.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

As I keep saying, we just need to get over this pandemic as it's hurting us as much as anyone not having the income - get back into the Championship for next season and collect the extra £6m. That will have cost us probably £3-4m when all is done just from gate receipts and commercial packages. But we cannot keep playing like this long term - the supporter base I don't think will stand for it.

This is the way I see it too, just get through the season staying up by hook or by crook and go from there. Worry about being more expansive next season.

All the goals yesterday were awful having now watched them. Errors all over the place and showed what a big miss that settled defence of Lockyer/Bradley is. Really hope it’s not long term as the next 3 games are important ones to keep us out of trouble.

That first goal there is just classic us in attack this season. If someone asked what our games are like as an attacking team just show them that. We are in the final third, Collins is wide right for some reason and just standing there and only Cornick is making some kind of attacking move. What are we trying to achieve in that passage of play? So Pelly just kind of lobs it in the general direction of Cornick with 0 quality on the ball, who has no chance to win it. Rinse repeat with every attack. Then it’s error after error on the turnover.

The third is a real warning sign for me as well where Bree just gets done at the back post. That’s the James Bree I did not like at all under Graeme Jones. Always been a concern for me that he turned up at the end of last season but prior to lockdown, I don’t think anyone would have said “yeah I want James Bree back” prior to that. He’s one we’ve probably marked as a resale value potential but that’s a mistake he’s already made too many times in his career here.

 

[djs]

It's all very well Andy Burgess pointing out the numerous errors that led to the first goal, but what he hasn't pointed out is that the players all covered the requisite 11K running, therefore the data people are happy.

I often wonder what exactly our technical/data staff, coaches/managers/etc do with their time when us muppets (copyright Joe Kinnear) can see the bleeding obvious week in week out, but they seemingly can't.

 

[oakroader]

What do the following all have in common?
Chocolate fire guards,ashtrays on motorbikes,LTFC coaches....?????

 

[Super_horns]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1363435422131638275

Proof as to how bad our first goal was yesterday. Not to mention the other two which were equally as bad for their own reasons.

Looks like they basically gave up and that was in the first half wasn't it?

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

It's all very well Andy Burgess pointing out the numerous errors that led to the first goal, but what he hasn't pointed out is that the players all covered the requisite 11K running, therefore the data people are happy.

I often wonder what exactly our technical/data staff, coaches/managers/etc do with their time when us muppets (copyright Joe Kinnear) can see the bleeding obvious week in week out, but they seemingly can't.

Judging from NJs comments after the game it doesn’t seem that anyone is particularly happy with that! He was furious.

 

[BelizeHatter]

But as stated above its his fault. He hasnt rotated or used subs at all well.

To be fair and balanced tho, he has got us midtable to this point with most of our tough fixtures behind us.

Overall very happy with the season. Vital we consolidated and became harder to beat and less porous, which always comes at the cost of less flair and attacking........I do wonder what happen next season without KDH but we will cross that bridge........

 

[Atavistic]

Gibson still out for tomorrow's game, but no other injury concerns for us tomorrow (besides the perpetually-injured Byram, anyway). Based on that, would fully expect to see us start the same 11 again, though I would like to see Vrancic given a rest so Dowell can get more minutes in the number 10 role.

Not expecting Birmingham to offer much, but they'll do everything they can to be solid at the back to try and get a 0-0. Hopefully the slip-ups against Boro and Millwall will see us handle that approach better and able to properly break through for the win.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

But as stated above its his fault. He hasnt rotated or used subs at all well.

To be fair and balanced tho, he has got us midtable to this point with most of our tough fixtures behind us.

Overall very happy with the season. Vital we consolidated and became harder to beat and less porous, which always comes at the cost of less flair and attacking........I do wonder what happen next season without KDH but we will cross that bridge........

Not sure I agree it’s “his fault” obvious injury issues for a start on Saturday and the goals were more individual errors than anything.

We had a bad game on Saturday where players didn’t do the basics - that he preaches to them - and we got done 3-0. That by and large hasn’t happened this season and why he was upset - he certainly wasn’t happy with the running stats as was suggested!

We are in a sticky spell but am not sure that he or anyone for that matter, could realistically done much better with this group. This group of players is at the limit of where there ability can take them probably. Yes we could make a few changes, we can nit pick and say “I’d like to see Moncur/insert player Name here” more but too much rotation and people start throwing out “he doesn’t know his best team”. And would it have netted us more points? I doubt it highly.

I agree with Kenny, it’s been about getting through the season unscathed and to date we’ve done that through prioritising organisation and not taking too many risks. Let’s see what happens in the coming weeks but I’m not certainly not playing the blame game and getting pissed off with the coaching staff and NJ just yet.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Holy shit, did he change it up tonight

 

[Kenneth E End]

Just come across some fly on the wall coverage from after Saturday's performance...

 

[Atavistic]

Very poor from us tonight, haven't really got going at all against Birmingham and did not deserve to be in the lead. Of course, had we scored the penalty to double our lead we might be faring better, but this is terrible from us so far.

Though I'm not too surprised. We haven't rotated at all despite playing three games in a week, and I get the feeling we just expected to be able to turn up and thrash Birmingham without any real effort here.