Holmes_and_Watson

AA reduced to hoofing. We look to have given up a lot of our passing game so far. Not a suprise since we've gone with a different line up. Lots of possession, but doing even less with it than usual.

A bit KWP, a bit Smallbone. And since we've no left back, a bit like Manning. 🙂

With no KWP, he's being encouraged to push forward. He will reinforce the midfield too, and more directly, which will be one reason why Smallbone has been left out. That'll be the plan anyway...

COYR!

Sorry. We only wait for The Kraken waking

No chance it goes beyond 5 with a specialist shot stopper like Baz in goal. 🙂

2 0 to us. Oh sure, Ipswich work hard and try and pressure us into errors with their hard work and relentless attacking. But all taken care of effortlessly by our CBs. Stu gets one and AA the other.

Right at the start of this. Cuthbert looking to take a quick throw, with multi-ball. The Arsenal coach takes exception, because Chelsea wanted single ball, and his team are ahead. Cuthbert reacts.

Thoughtcrime

Very poor from Hayes. Her side insisted on the way it would be played. At the final whistle she took Eidevall's hand and deliberately barged into him, pushing him back. Then she went on a finger waving rant as she was on the pitch. Bad enough to be a sour loser. But to then come out and use gender, when there's genuine issues for women in the real world, is pathetic. Imagine the outcry if he had barged right into her. Even worse, she's discriminating against male coaches. If any form of argument, disagreement is perceived as "male aggression" and that it shoul "not be tolerated" in the woman's game, she's suggesting there should be no male coaches. Again, imagine he had used a stereotype to explain Hayes' actions and undermined women in football.

Price of football podcast with Man It's moving to Dublin following lack of support for new stadium.

Would they see where we are as "poor results continuing" I can see arguments for there being some acknowledgment of some rebuild required; the unbeaten run; the lack of getting in a fit striker or a Tella replacement; RM is clearly in line with the system they feel will deliver success in the longer term. Sure, there are then arguments to go the other way again. But just wanted to point out that failure to get through the playoffs could well give RM another season. I think this is exactly how they see it. A reliance on system to augment the difference in skill levels to keep us up. Which is what we got, to a fair degree, from Poch and Ralph. Just with different approaches. They also fancy themselves as a left field, budget Man City. Hoover up enough of their young talent, play a possession game and outsmart other clubs to success and riches, when players move on. When I last mentioned Man City, someone pointed out Burnley's fortunes. I've not really seen them. But possibly worth a look.

Yard

On having someone to tuck the ball in from a few yards out: RM's system devotes itself so much to the control of possession and patient creation of a chance. Our attackers are part of that and it's difficult for them to then get into a postion to put the ball away, when they've also been somewhere else as part of the set up. We don;t generally set up for quick, direct counters using crosses to then have a finisher to tuck away. We've tried a bit of that in the last couple with Sule, who really hasn;t created that much. Edozie or another, dribbling in to cut it back for attackers running in from set up positions has got more finishes. It allows AA or Che time to be part of the build up and get into the box. It suits AA a lot more than Che. We could do with someone with a bit of Che's physical presence, AA's work rate, some psychic power of knowing when to be in the set up and when to make a run, and a decent finisher all in one player. In the meantime, having a team that has a plan with the ball to incease temp and activate attacks from possession would at least give us more chances in the match, for those we do have to put away.

Animal

Are we going to get into bother, when they find out we've sold him twice?

A good opportunity for broader discussions on when Jesus came back from the dead, not as a zombie, what biological sex/gender Jesus had second time round. 🙂

Dine

Underground

With there being only small variations on Plan A, you kind of know what you’ll get from us. Dominating possession, patiently looking to create chances, and hope we put enough of them away while our defence hold out at the other end. Some flaws are inbuilt, like the gaps the inverted players leave. Some are areas you’d hope we’d develop. Like being able to up the tempo to force more chances when we’re passing it around the middle. Today was no exception. 62% possession. We struggled to create for large spells in the first half. But we certainly created enough good ones to have finished ‘Boro off. They hit the post in the first half, as they pressed our automatic passing shape. Later, Stephens did really well to stop a one on one. Their other real chance was their goal. We looked organised enough to stop everything else they had. In the first half Sule was involved in a lot of the play. He offers pace and can pin back defences. He doesn’t offer a link to our passing game or a finish though. It’s not the only reason it wasn’t clicking, but was more disruptive when he switched flanks. That lack of creativity from the middle to the final third meant Che had a quiet half too. In the second half Che was getting opportunities when everyone remembered how well AA, KWP and Will paly when they link up. Stu was the outlet for those moves, and Che fed on those. It was working well. Sure, Che will be frustrated with the misses. Bringing Fraser and Brooks on, meant we had no one really in the middle to offer any physical presence. We were looking for dribbling runs and cut backs. We did create opportunities, but none quite as clear cut. Will put one well over. After they equalised, we looked disjointed and a little desperate. Martin still has to solve the issues that have dogged us all season. How to use that possession to move defences and create good chances. How to do that at a pace that stops their defence resetting to stop those chances being converted. How to adapt to seeing out games if we’re struggling to create with a narrow lead.

It was indeed

Edozie on for Will. More direct and time to get a late winner.

Oh sods...

At the other end, Will puts it well over.

Baz!