Very true @Scoham and I'd also wager a lot of it is down to a distinct lack of concentration on our part. Too many times in recent seasons I've seen centre backs just stand and stare as an attacking player gets infront of them to score, or point and shout at someone else as a second ball drops to a player to dispatch past our goalkeeper
Time to liven this board up - got a 20 year old released by Chelsea on trial at the moment - can play anywhere in midfield or defence - good player but probably suffered from not nailing down 1 position - feeling is he will probably end up as a full back
Henry Lawrence?
Sounds about right
In fact yes that is him
Played for AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons
Cheap option, relegated last two seasons in a row. Game time ahead of Chin?
Very true @Scoham and I'd also wager a lot of it is down to a distinct lack of concentration on our part. Too many times in recent seasons I've seen centre backs just stand and stare as an attacking player gets infront of them to score, or point and shout at someone else as a second ball drops to a player to dispatch past our goalkeeper
Garner's use of zonal marking didn't help either and we lacked a leader at the back to sort out defending of set pieces.
guess im wrong that we have goals everywhere when our top scorer has 15 yet somehow w score 70 over the season
How many involved JRS ? I'd guess 1/3 without googling the stats, so half our goals from 2 players and the biggest contributers is no longer here.
15 goals, 8 assists. So almost exactly a third actually. He'll be tough to replace, but hopefully we'll be getting in better players across the pitch to reduce the reliance on him. CBT was actually on a decent season before he got injured, got a surprisingly high 8 goals and 3 assists. He did that in 1,711 minutes which is a little less than half the minutes JRS played (3,498). I don't think he'd have matched JRS if he'd played the same number of minutes and wasn't as influential overall but it's not a bad run for half a season's worth of minutes played. If we can keep him fit and supply him well then no reason he can't improve on that tally. Leaburn got 12 goals and 2 assists in 1,816 minutes, so between him and CBT they played only 29 minutes more than JRS but provided 20 goals and 5 assists in that time.
We were actually a fairly clinical team at times last season. Our biggest problem was that we may have scored 70 goals, the 6th highest in the league, but we conceded 66, which is the 8th most. We conceded the same number as MK Dons and they got relegated. You have to go down to 14th before you find a team who conceded more than us. In that sense I'm really glad that we're looking hard at our defence and hopefully our midfield early. Yes we need a striker, yes we need to replace JRS's contribution probably in more than one position, but we're not getting anywhere if we keep shipping goals like we have been. I think it's actually more important that we get the right players in and in front of the defence to set up in a way that will see us able to win games by the odd goal if we need to rather than having to guarantee we need 2 or 3 goals every game. We scored 8 goals more than 4th placed Bolton and they finished 19 points ahead of us, mostly because they shipped 30 fewer goals.
guess im wrong that we have goals everywhere when our top scorer has 15 yet somehow w score 70 over the season
How many involved JRS ? I'd guess 1/3 without googling the stats, so half our goals from 2 players and the biggest contributers is no longer here.
15 goals, 8 assists. So almost exactly a third actually. He'll be tough to replace, but hopefully we'll be getting in better players across the pitch to reduce the reliance on him. CBT was actually on a decent season before he got injured, got a surprisingly high 8 goals and 3 assists. He did that in 1,711 minutes which is a little less than half the minutes JRS played (3,498). I don't think he'd have matched JRS if he'd played the same number of minutes and wasn't as influential overall but it's not a bad run for half a season's worth of minutes played. If we can keep him fit and supply him well then no reason he can't improve on that tally. Leaburn got 12 goals and 2 assists in 1,816 minutes, so between him and CBT they played only 29 minutes more than JRS but provided 20 goals and 5 assists in that time.
We were actually a fairly clinical team at times last season. Our biggest problem was that we may have scored 70 goals, the 6th highest in the league, but we conceded 66, which is the 8th most. We conceded the same number as MK Dons and they got relegated. You have to go down to 14th before you find a team who conceded more than us. In that sense I'm really glad that we're looking hard at our defence and hopefully our midfield early. Yes we need a striker, yes we need to replace JRS's contribution probably in more than one position, but we're not getting anywhere if we keep shipping goals like we have been. I think it's actually more important that we get the right players in and in front of the defence to set up in a way that will see us able to win games by the odd goal if we need to rather than having to guarantee we need 2 or 3 goals every game. We scored 8 goals more than 4th placed Bolton and they finished 19 points ahead of us, mostly because they shipped 30 fewer goals.
Unfortunately for us this comment seems to get used far too often regarding a few of our players.
Fair play, we are going all in on like for like replacements, we have even managed to grab the second coming of Ryan Innis allegedly
"No Dickheads"
Did you see the word allegedly.
Allegedly.. no dickheads
I presume that Dean Holden has cut & pasted this idea from the All Blacks who adopted it some time ago.
Plenty of ABs have been dickheads off the park/in their youth...but its on the pitch and in training where it is used.
More importantly the ABs use it as a bottom up philosophy, it isn't something imposed on them by the coaching staff. The players enforce it amongst themselves.
Very much looks like we will be playing a back 5 this season then,
Fyi I didn't mean to cause dramas over the Lloyd Jones post, was making a light hearted joke about the similar background of Ryan Innis, he will have my 100% support until he does a Ryan Innis Wimbledon horror challenge. By all Cambridge fans accounts he sounds promising
Ryan Sweeney maybe? Left Dundee this summer. Former Wimbledon CB, from London.
Would rate that but would be surprised if he had agreed to going on trial.
Unless it's more just a workaround so he gets a game rather than a "real" trial. Not sure what the rules are for friendlies, can you just have someone rock up and play halfway game or do they actually have to be "triallists" first?
With Hector, Jones, Ness, TT and the youngsters we will be CB heavy. Without mentioning Lavell.
If another CB does come in you'd have to presume the youngsters will be out on loan. Lavelle is surely out as soon as we get an acceptable offer and TT is probably going to be LB as much as CB.
Comments
Some good points about CBT's stats...but it isn't just about his fitness.
If we could improve his finishing then with his pace he would easily be in double figures every season.
The trouble is when he gets into shooting position half the fans behind the goal duck.
I presume that Dean Holden has cut & pasted this idea from the All Blacks who adopted it some time ago.
Plenty of ABs have been dickheads off the park/in their youth...but its on the pitch and in training where it is used.
More importantly the ABs use it as a bottom up philosophy, it isn't something imposed on them by the coaching staff. The players enforce it amongst themselves.
By named, I mean as Trialist.
Fyi I didn't mean to cause dramas over the Lloyd Jones post, was making a light hearted joke about the similar background of Ryan Innis, he will have my 100% support until he does a Ryan Innis Wimbledon horror challenge. By all Cambridge fans accounts he sounds promising