I'd like to see Pratley instead of Pearce - It would give us a lot of flexibility. Then we need Williams or Oztumer behind the front two. Or maybe even a front one and Aneke and one of the two. McGeady can come on when needed. I'd have Green on the bench too.
On a brighter note it was nice to see Mark Garvey yesterday I hadn't seen him in ages. He was our original drummer for those that don't know him. We had a chat in xbars and he is getting a season ticket next season.
Quite tragic how reference was frequently made to other scores during the match thread. Almost an acceptance that the teams future is not in their hands. Great transfer window from the Tweeter Deleter......
It's fans on thé match thread not the players so irrelevant.
no - things changed after abou 10 minutes when blackburn realised their defence had our forwards in their pocket and swarmed forward and dominated midfield / possession - we had no real pace up top and looked toothless - taylor was found out a bit today but hemed was particularly useless as was davies
Didn't see the game but I do think criticism of Bowyer is misplaced when these new wonderful owners supply him only with League One rejects and manage to lose our one and only Premier League class player.
Felt for Doughty he got an absolute pasting from their right back. McGeady looked 33 and like he hasn't played a game of football in ages..... Weird eh?
If a team sits back against us, we can't move the ball up the pitch. A tough watch.
Against teams which have more quality against us across the park we have really need that first goal. (You always want the first goal, but you know what I mean)
I don’t think we will do it but would like to see us go 433 and take the game to Luton. Green, Taylor and Bonne as the 3, with Williams, Cullen and Pratley in midfield. Should give us some energy and options in the final third, much needed.
Bonus win against Forest voided and we are in a scrap that’s for sure.
Just a small point, I know there’s a lot more other things to concern ourselves with but Cullens corners seem to be predictable, and getting worse, can no one else in our team take a decent corner? Naby or Mcgeady perhaps, just to confuse the opposition for a change!
Have read most of the previous comments with most interest. From my point of view (Season Ticket Lower West D block), guy next to me probably never been before. I like passion, the drumming atmosphere during the game. All the bloke beside did was tell the two ladies behind me that they should go and get the 5.00 clock train home. We don't need these passionless bargain hunters. Also Matt Smith reminds me of a poor Paul Bacon, hope I've got that wrong. Think the atmosphere will be better against Luton when the real supporters will be the majority. We desperately need Pratley, Williams and Purrington back in the side!
I have seen nothing to convince me that Smith is remotely better than Morgan, and plenty from the latter, to suggest he should start. Especially in a Cullen & Davis side lacking Williams.
Number ten In order:-
1. Williams 2. Morgan 3. Aneke 4. Ozzy 5. McGeady 6. Doughty 7. Smith 8. Cullen 9. Vennings or Aoucharia 10. Me
Have read most of the previous comments with most interest. From my point of view (Season Ticket Lower West D block), guy next to me probably never been before. I like passion, the drumming atmosphere during the game. All the bloke beside did was tell the two ladies behind me that they should go and get the 5.00 clock train home. We don't need these passionless bargain hunters. Also Matt Smith reminds me of a poor Paul Bacon, hope I've got that wrong. Think the atmosphere will be better against Luton when the real supporters will be the majority. We desperately need Pratley, Williams and Purrington back in the side!
I think the guy behind you was right.
Why would anyone put themselves through the shower of shit that is the train home from a sellout match for the sake of ten more minutes of that utter balls.
Bargain hunters? I came up from Cornwall. Train. Hotel. Food and took two people with me who wouldn't have gone otherwise and apologised for the total pile of shit we had to watch.
I feel like people remain a little naive to the chances of us going down. Since beating Derby County on October 19th, we've picked up 15 points. That's about 4 points per month, only 3 wins in that time. We picked up more points in the first two months of the season.
Injuries have played a massive role in this obviously. But what I worry about is this is a team that has forgotten how to play on the front foot and win. We looked confused in midfield and not great in possession. As a result we sat back and tried to hit them on the break and teams have learned if you stop Sarr and Cullen playing out from the back we run out of ideas and lump it long.
It's no coincidence that we looked better in a back four and diamond. Pearce sits far too deep and is poor in possession. Sarr and Lockyer allow us to play a higher line and with more possession.
The problem is, we still lack quality on the ball in midfield. Cullen has not been at his best. We definitely can't play Davis and Pratley together. Davis is better on the ball but not great. We're desperately missing Gallagher or Williams, someone who can pick the ball up and drive at teams.
We also lack seem to lack midfielders willing to play in tight spaces. On the bright side, Smith definitely looks like he had the skill set to do so, even if he feels like a box to box midfielder without a lot of creativity. Getting JFC and Williams back and fit will be so important. But I just don't know when, or for how long, that will happen.
Also, when the ball goes forward it doesn't stick, and we play too many aimless long balls and balls into the channels. We still at times look like we have the same approach as when we have Dempsey and Pratley in midfield and Bonne up front on his own.
Again, I'm not all doom and gloom. But I am seriously worried. We have players coming back from injury but still a lot who look off the pace. And the whole side lacks confidence.
I think we have to accept that we were basically playing kids who were not ready and now we look to have everybody coming back which should make us more optimistic. You are right, teams can get sucked in and we need to get out of the gravitational pull of relegation. I fear these past months have made Bowyer a bit more cautious, but also we don't know the fitness situation as well as he does.
When he came into the job, he was definitely a front foot manager and when we don't have any players it is right not to be. But a couple of recent games have worried me. If we win on Saturday I think we will go on and get enough points but we are right to be concerned.
The ball does have to stop coming back so often, so quickly from our attacks and I think we should expect this not to happen anymore whilst it was understandable when we were playing Davison as a lone striker with no creative midfielders.
Ok, we did not have a lot of choice but Davis looks a decent addition, Smith looks a bit out of his depth. McGeady looks a good option from the bench. I am disapointed with the window overall whilst accepting it is difficult. We played games and lost points in January which we might have been able to do something about. It is no point panicking though. Panic can spread and we do have enough to stay up.
I think we have to accept that we were basically playing kids who were not ready and now we look to have everybody coming back which should make us more optimistic. You are right, teams can get sucked in and we need to get out of the gravitational pull of relegation. I fear these past months have made Bowyer a bit more cautious, but also we don't know the fitness situation as well as he does.
When he came into the job, he was definitely a front foot manager and when we don't have any players it is right not to be. But a couple of recent games have worried me. If we win on Saturday I think we will go on and get enough points but we are right to be concerned.
The ball does have to stop coming back so often, so quickly from our attacks and I think we should expect this not to happen anymore whilst it was understandable when we were playing Davison as a lone striker with no creative midfielders.
Ok, we did not have a lot of choice but Davis looks a decent addition, Smith looks a bit out of his depth. McGeady looks a good option from the bench. I am disapointed with the window overall whilst accepting it is difficult. We played games and lost points in January which we might have been able to do something about. It is no point panicking though. Panic can spread and we do have enough to stay up.
I think I pretty much agree with all of this. And I'm not panicking, I just feel like there's a lot of "well, we'll be fine" that glosses over some issues.
The two things that you articulate really well is 1) Bowyer knows the fitness situation better than any of us 2) Bowyer has become more of a back foot manager.
The first one worries me because even though we have players back, a lot of them are lacking match sharpness. I feel like we saw that with Taylor and Cullen and McGeady, and Williams and JFC have disappeared again.
On the second point, yes the last few months have made Bowyer more cautious. I thought that trend actually started toward the end of last season as we played three CBs more and more. And we don't even seem to press from the front anymore.
But now is the time for that to change, and on the bright side it did look to change in the second half. I hope we start with a 4-4-2 diamond next weekend and start by defending from the front. It has been far too easy for teams to build from the back and through midfield against us, and our defending from set pieces makes that a particularly risky proposition.
no - things changed after abou 10 minutes when blackburn realised their defence had our forwards in their pocket and swarmed forward and dominated midfield / possession - we had no real pace up top and looked toothless - taylor was found out a bit today but hemed was particularly useless as was davies
well, just that everything he tried was snuffed out by a stronger, quicker defender - i like taylor but there is a limit to which he can go and yesterday he was ineffective
Three centre backs doesn't have to be defensive though. I think you stick Pratley in the middle and it becomes more flexible. It wasn't working well yesterday as Blackburn were using their extra man in midfield to good effect but Pratley could have pushed up with no need for a sub, increasing tactical options from the bench. But Pratley wasn't available. I think if Williams was playing it would have worked better.
I like the diamond away but it needs tweaking at home. Nut agree how teams can build against us with not enough challenge. It can be like them building a base camp in our half. This is not acceptable now we have players back.
Even yesterday it could have worked as Naby clearly is very capable of stepping up with the ball, but the main problem was (other than the goals) both Locker and Pearce really struggling with simple balls over the top
It was not a great performance, yet the first 10 we were clearly on top, and for 20 minutes in the second half we were forcing the issue, once again we werent out of the game and I think this is why we have a better goal difference to most down at the bottom.
I am nervous, and there is a decent amount of anxiety for sure, we are in the deep and I'd give us 68% of survival which is too close for me.
2 wins in the last 4 is brilliant though and if we beat Luton we will be feeling really good again, we all want the anxiety to dissipate and points will do that, Lee Bowyer will be a better manager for this experience just like Powell was before him, we MUST stay up or project ESI is in trouble 6 months after it started.
Big Big game on Sat, we all know it's almost Luton's last throw of the dice, they will be fighting for their life, particularly after they turned us over at their place.
Hold tight, it's getting bumpy and it'll probably hurt more before it gets better.
Outplayed for most of the game, Blackburn had a lot more about them than us and their goalkeeper was excellent. I would rather see Pratley over Davis as I think he has a great presence in the team and works a lot harder throughout the whole game. Also would rather see William's or Oztumer instead of McGeady. Now that Bonne is back start him instead of Hemed. They pretty much closed down Taylor for large parts of the game , he didn't have his best game for us today. Overall a poor and untidy performance, gonna have to shake things up for Luton that's for sure.
Agreed and I think Bowyer does as well, which is why he probably saved them for Luton next week, rather than risking them v Blackburn.
Outplayed for most of the game, Blackburn had a lot more about them than us and their goalkeeper was excellent. I would rather see Pratley over Davis as I think he has a great presence in the team and works a lot harder throughout the whole game. Also would rather see William's or Oztumer instead of McGeady. Now that Bonne is back start him instead of Hemed. They pretty much closed down Taylor for large parts of the game , he didn't have his best game for us today. Overall a poor and untidy performance, gonna have to shake things up for Luton that's for sure.
Agreed and I think Bowyer does as well, which is why he probably saved them for Luton next week, rather than risking them v Blackburn.
Bowyer's tinkering will have had due regard to players still building up their minutes on return from injury, those needing a rest and the need to avoid a further booking resulting in a suspension, as in the case of Pratley IIRC. Furthermore having experienced Riga's targeting of games to avoid relegation in 2014, Jackson is likely to have discussed this strategy with LB.
Agreed. We can know what might be a better line up but Bowyer will know that too I'm sure. He just has information we don't have regarding fitness etc...
Comments
He was our original drummer for those that don't know him.
We had a chat in xbars and he is getting a season ticket next season.
I'd forgotten he's actually a Brighton player, but in 7 years he's played 4 games for Brighton and 152 games elsewhere on loan!
Felt for Doughty he got an absolute pasting from their right back. McGeady looked 33 and like he hasn't played a game of football in ages..... Weird eh?
If a team sits back against us, we can't move the ball up the pitch. A tough watch.
Against teams which have more quality against us across the park we have really need that first goal. (You always want the first goal, but you know what I mean)
From my point of view (Season Ticket Lower West D block), guy next
to me probably never been before. I like passion, the drumming
atmosphere during the game. All the bloke beside did was tell the
two ladies behind me that they should go and get the 5.00 clock
train home. We don't need these passionless bargain hunters.
Also Matt Smith reminds me of a poor Paul Bacon, hope I've got
that wrong. Think the atmosphere will be better against Luton
when the real supporters will be the majority. We desperately need
Pratley, Williams and Purrington back in the side!
Number ten In order:-
1. Williams
2. Morgan
3. Aneke
4. Ozzy
5. McGeady
6. Doughty
7. Smith
8. Cullen
9. Vennings or Aoucharia
10. Me
Why would anyone put themselves through the shower of shit that is the train home from a sellout match for the sake of ten more minutes of that utter balls.
Bargain hunters? I came up from Cornwall. Train. Hotel. Food and took two people with me who wouldn't have gone otherwise and apologised for the total pile of shit we had to watch.
Welcome to the forum btw
I feel like people remain a little naive to the chances of us going down. Since beating Derby County on October 19th, we've picked up 15 points. That's about 4 points per month, only 3 wins in that time. We picked up more points in the first two months of the season.
Injuries have played a massive role in this obviously. But what I worry about is this is a team that has forgotten how to play on the front foot and win. We looked confused in midfield and not great in possession. As a result we sat back and tried to hit them on the break and teams have learned if you stop Sarr and Cullen playing out from the back we run out of ideas and lump it long.
It's no coincidence that we looked better in a back four and diamond. Pearce sits far too deep and is poor in possession. Sarr and Lockyer allow us to play a higher line and with more possession.
The problem is, we still lack quality on the ball in midfield. Cullen has not been at his best. We definitely can't play Davis and Pratley together. Davis is better on the ball but not great. We're desperately missing Gallagher or Williams, someone who can pick the ball up and drive at teams.
We also lack seem to lack midfielders willing to play in tight spaces. On the bright side, Smith definitely looks like he had the skill set to do so, even if he feels like a box to box midfielder without a lot of creativity. Getting JFC and Williams back and fit will be so important. But I just don't know when, or for how long, that will happen.
Also, when the ball goes forward it doesn't stick, and we play too many aimless long balls and balls into the channels. We still at times look like we have the same approach as when we have Dempsey and Pratley in midfield and Bonne up front on his own.
Again, I'm not all doom and gloom. But I am seriously worried. We have players coming back from injury but still a lot who look off the pace. And the whole side lacks confidence.
When he came into the job, he was definitely a front foot manager and when we don't have any players it is right not to be. But a couple of recent games have worried me. If we win on Saturday I think we will go on and get enough points but we are right to be concerned.
The ball does have to stop coming back so often, so quickly from our attacks and I think we should expect this not to happen anymore whilst it was understandable when we were playing Davison as a lone striker with no creative midfielders.
Ok, we did not have a lot of choice but Davis looks a decent addition, Smith looks a bit out of his depth. McGeady looks a good option from the bench. I am disapointed with the window overall whilst accepting it is difficult. We played games and lost points in January which we might have been able to do something about. It is no point panicking though. Panic can spread and we do have enough to stay up.
The two things that you articulate really well is
1) Bowyer knows the fitness situation better than any of us
2) Bowyer has become more of a back foot manager.
The first one worries me because even though we have players back, a lot of them are lacking match sharpness. I feel like we saw that with Taylor and Cullen and McGeady, and Williams and JFC have disappeared again.
On the second point, yes the last few months have made Bowyer more cautious. I thought that trend actually started toward the end of last season as we played three CBs more and more. And we don't even seem to press from the front anymore.
But now is the time for that to change, and on the bright side it did look to change in the second half. I hope we start with a 4-4-2 diamond next weekend and start by defending from the front. It has been far too easy for teams to build from the back and through midfield against us, and our defending from set pieces makes that a particularly risky proposition.
I like the diamond away but it needs tweaking at home. Nut agree how teams can build against us with not enough challenge. It can be like them building a base camp in our half. This is not acceptable now we have players back.
I am nervous, and there is a decent amount of anxiety for sure, we are in the deep and I'd give us 68% of survival which is too close for me.
2 wins in the last 4 is brilliant though and if we beat Luton we will be feeling really good again, we all want the anxiety to dissipate and points will do that, Lee Bowyer will be a better manager for this experience just like Powell was before him, we MUST stay up or project ESI is in trouble 6 months after it started.
Big Big game on Sat, we all know it's almost Luton's last throw of the dice, they will be fighting for their life, particularly after they turned us over at their place.
Hold tight, it's getting bumpy and it'll probably hurt more before it gets better.
I'd probably do the same in his shoes, yet its a very risky approach and hope it don't backfire for him