20/21 Matchday Thread

[Super_horns]

TBH I cannot think of many games where we have truly outplayed the opposition.

Maybe 4/5 at best.

In fact for most of the first half of the season reckon most teams out performed us in terms of shots and attacking threat.

But that might have been down to our tactics which basically seemed to be play for a 0-0 or 1-0 win - particularly away from home.

Maybe the switch in formation and Deeney getting injured helped - had to actually play football and look to be positive.

Sarr looks like the dominate footballer he ought to be rather than acting as if he'd rather be anywhere else as an example for how things have changed under the new manager from Ivic.

 

[SF_]

The player sales are all well and good but those wage bills couldn't be carried without parachute money, especially with empty stadiums.

 

[Super_horns]

True - not when the 2 highest paid are Troy Deeney and Andre Gray who generally have offered very little to the season really compared to others.

I presume most players would take a pay cut when relegated and I don't think we are talking about players being on more than 40/30k before a pay cut apart from the 2 I mention.

Some have signed a new contract since like Cleverley and Sema which could be reduced terms but extended.

 

[Atavistic]

I know that our entire squad took a 50% paycut upon relegation last season, as is always the case when we get relegated. So, far as I'm aware, our highest earner is the useless Drmic on £25k a week and I'm fairly sure he's the only one on more than £20k a week as it stands.

 

[SF_]

I know that our entire squad took a 50% paycut upon relegation last season, as is always the case when we get relegated. So, far as I'm aware, our highest earner is the useless Drmic on £25k a week and I'm fairly sure he's the only one on more than £20k a week as it stands.

Pukki & Buendia aren't on more than £20k? I can't believe that for a second. They would have been busting a gut to leave while their stock is high.

 

[Atavistic]

The thing is, no one's stock in our squad was high after the disastrous end to last season. Pukki's had fallen especially low as he'd contributed basically nothing for a good portion of the second half of last season as he was playing through an injury for so long. That and his age meant that no one came in for him in the end.

As for Buendia, none of us understand how he's still here, though given that he was out of the squad entirely for the early stages of the season I do think someone came in for him and he tried to push a move through, but for whatever reason it didn't work out and he's applied himself very well ever since. Whether we'll be able to keep him beyond this coming summer is another matter entirely...

 

[BelizeHatter]

I doubt Leeds are going down Kenny. But your point is valid on the ups and downs.

Both Norwich and Watford took a while to adjust and things could have gone very differently, except they found ways to grind out wins, while not being great.

Norwich to their credit stuck with Farke and its borne fruit. Watford did their usual scatter gun hire and fire and perhaps (time will tell) got it right this time in mid season. I do have a suspicion - maybe its just blind hope - the new lineup that has delivered came more through luck than good Management.

 

[Super_horns]

Could be right.

Deeney might well still be in the team if fit and as captain.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Seco

With all respect, you didn't. First game there was no Krul, Aarons, Hanley, Skipp, Cantwell, Buendia or Pukki. Second game there was no Krul, no left-back, Cantwell or Pukki - we literally didn't play a striker in that match. I don't think McLean was available for either also.

Don't misunderstand me, we still put out good sides and you were fully deserving of the wins but they were very different sides.


We sold Jamal Lewis & Ben Godfrey for around £40m which meant we didn't need to sell anyone else.

Second game is a beating. We were without our keeper, our captain and our engine in midfield. Thats the spine of our side and we dont have your resources for replacements. While i dont think theres a lot between our keepers - although Sluga is an Intl - both Bradley and Ruddock are two of our best three players and extremely influential for us

Its a beating. And a sound one. ;-)

 

[SF_]

Brentford on Saturday, they're stumbling like Swansea but i'm less confident when we're at home.

A draw would be good. 5pts from 1st, 3rd & 4th in the league would be a crazy return considering the form leading up to it. Fully expected to lose all three games by big scorelines.

No reason to move away from the diamond, it's not pretty but its solid and Swansea didn't have a sniff on Saturday. I'd probably stick with the same team too, Alan Browne doesn't deserve to walk back into the side.

Iversen
VDB, Storey, Lindsay, Hughes
Whiteman
Barkhuizen, Ledson
Potts
Evans, Riis​

 

[Luke Imp]

I see Huddersfield are fairing better post-Cowley. I'm not sure any manager is going to achieve what they think they should be doing (whatever that is, but they clearly don't seem themselves as a lower Championship side) until they sort themselves out upstairs.

Huge four game week coming up for Rotherham - Huddersfield, Coventry, QPR and Birmingham.

 

[chicowintry]

Second game is a beating. We were without our keeper, our captain and our engine in midfield. Thats the spine of our side and we dont have your resources for replacements. While i dont think theres a lot between our keepers - although Sluga is an Intl - both Bradley and Ruddock are two of our best three players and extremely influential for us

Its a beating. And a sound one. ;-)

I didn't say it wasn't a beating. He asked how did your lot beat that team twice this season. The answer is, they didn't. Only one of the players starting Tuesday night started the first game and four the other. I think most people would recognise it's easier to defend against a front four of Placheta/Buendia/Martin/Stiepermann (no striker) than Cantwell/Dowell/Buendia/Pukki (which contains all three of our best players). Likewise, it's easier to score against McGovern (and no left-back) than Krul.

Just to add, I wasn't making excuses or discrediting your wins. You can only play what is in front of you and, like you've shown, we've all had to deal with missing players this season. That wasn't the point. I'm not even saying you wouldn't have beaten that team (I don't know that) - just that you didn't. ;-)

 

[BelizeHatter]

My tongue was firmly in cheek

 

[Super_horns]

Good win tonight against a strong Reading side..

Big one next week - hopefully Brentford and Swansea drop points tomorrow as we certainly won't have it easy at Luton!

 

[Atavistic]

No new injuries for us today, so it'll almost certainly be the same XI that tore Huddersfield apart again, especially as Derby also have a lot of players missing like Huddersfield did.

Only change on the injury front is that Rupp has suffered a setback on his road to recovery and will miss another three weeks of action, so I highly doubt we'll see him again this season. McGovern and Idah might be back in a game or two, though, all being well.

We can secure promotion today, but whether we do or not is irrelevant as it's very much a matter of when not if now.

 

[Atavistic]

Looks like Swansea are going to delay our promotion by at least a few days. Possibly for the best, as it means the team can be fully focused on doing their bit and getting the result today.

As expected, it's an unchanged XI for us, while Derby are putting an 18-year old right back up against Buendia. Highly doubt we'll see a repeat of Tuesday's scoreline, but we should be able to beat Derby and get revenge of sorts after they shithoused their way to a 1-0 win at Carrow Road at the start of the season.

 

[Super_horns]

Swansea winning 3-0 at Millwall .

Scored right on HT which would have given them confidence and dominated since.

For all their poor run they have a game in hand and win that will be 7 points behind us.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

We are playing Wycombe, which is going as you might expect - for some reason we have rotated out Cornick, Dewsbury-Hall and tried to play Wycombe at there own game, and its gone about as well as might be expected.

The game is pretty terrible, but Wycombe just have that extra edge about them withotu exactly being hugely threatening. We have nothing about us on the other hand.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Sucked into the opposition gameplan once again. Not an impressive half.

It’s all about attitude... there’s been none since Good Friday.

 

[thewwfc]

We are playing Wycombe, which is going as you might expect - for some reason we have rotated out Cornick, Dewsbury-Hall and tried to play Wycombe at there own game, and its gone about as well as might be expected.

The game is pretty terrible, but Wycombe just have that extra edge about them withotu exactly being hugely threatening. We have nothing about us on the other hand.

oh I dunno, Collins' whining ability is pretty impressive.

To be fair LTFC had the best of the first 20 minutes, without creating a huge amount.

Very little in it overall though, I'm certainly expecting more goals in this one.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Doubtful, we dont score away from home, especially when we are behind!

Sucked into the opposition gameplan once again. Not an impressive half.

It’s all about attitude... there’s been one since Good Friday.

Agree with this. Its getting a bit silly this obsession with matching the opposition. I remember toward the end of the Still era we did it often and he got a lot of stick for it. When NJ came in he had his way and thats how we played regardless of the opposition. Theres room for a middle ground I think but we have 0 identity as a team right now - almost caught between trying to play our way and trying to nullify the opposition.

 

[Atavistic]

1-0 up at half-time, courtesy of an excellent free kick from Kieran Dowell. That'll do for now.

Sounds like it's a little bit scrappy, as Derby had 3 players booked in the first twenty minutes.

 

[chicowintry]

Feels like a Derby equaliser is imminent. Looked very tired in the second half. Not in it at all.

Should we concede, it'd be a bad 24-hours with Watford, Swansea & Brentford all winning comfortably.


Edit - awful second half. Derby really should have scored but we somehow managed to hold on. 2 points away!

 

[thewwfc]

Disappointing defeat and whilst we're not done in mathematical terms, we might as well be. Oh well, you don't stay up or go down on the strength of one game.

 

[Atavistic]

Sounds like we got away with that second half, but it's another 3 points on the board and we now need just 2 points from our remaining 5 games to secure promotion. Next up is Bournemouth next Saturday, and I'd definitely like to give them a beating to do a little bit of damage to their hopes of finishing in the play-offs.

Of course, it's entirely possible we could be promoted without even kicking a ball, as Swansea and Brentford both have matches in midweek.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Well I didn’t see that we’d score 3 goals in the last 10 minutes. Wycombe are goners now!

 

[Super_horns]

Good comeback for Luton.

Will give you guys confidence for next week which after today's results is a must win.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Well I was wrong about us not coming back from behind then! Game very much turned on the sending off, we changed shape to something like a 424, brought on KDH and Cornick at half time and looked better in the second half, but not sure we manage to turn it around without the man advantage.

We had total domination of possession after that but even then looked like it might be one of those games with Collins, Adebayo missing some chances but Moncur scores a great free kick and worldy from LuaLua. Great to see Adebayo back in the goals to round it off, missed some chances lately, included a pretty good one at 2-1 just before, but buried that header beautifully. Wycombe almost certainly down now, really needed to win this to keep very slim hopes alive.

Again interesting that when we stopped trying to play Wycombe at there own game by bringing on Cornick and KDH that we actually started looking a bit sharper. Good confidence boost for next week.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Got to say I thought the red card for Wycombe was pretty harsh, but the penalty call a fair enough decision. Seemed to change the game, but I think their backs would've been back against the wall regardless if it was 11 v 11 anyway.

 

[thewwfc]

I think the red card was arguable but you could easily see how/why it was given.

I think we’ll probably appeal in that they seem to be far more lenient about rescinding these nowadays, but that changes nothing about the result.