Holmes_and_Watson

Oh is he there? I didn't see that. Linked endlessly. Was he not coming, but the loan fee/wages were supposedly too high? We might have gone for Tino after that, which worked out. I lazily thought that Williams had spent so long playing reserve football, that it would stop him progressing. Seeing him being meh at Norwich a few times probably didn't change my mind.

16 incomings last season, and 6 this. A smattering of man utd, Chelsea and spurs youngsters on frees or loans. Based on that exhaustive 15 seconds of research, suggests they built last season to stay comfortably up, and then added to the strongest core they had last time out.

Engine

Warrior

I wish photographers wouldn't take such unnecessary risks. Someone will get hurt trying to take an extreme weather snapshot.

Here's a summary... We used words...aggressive...aggressive...aggressive...aggressive...press...aggressive...aggressive...press...real good numbers...aggressive...press aggressively...aggressive...aggressive...

Just what I was typing. I thought Ferguson had a team in decline, with resources tightened in a way that changed for later managers to spend a fortune. Yet, as the embodiment of the club from near top to bottom, he dragged them over the line. As soon as he was gone the usual sorts swarmed around, probably all thinking they had a huge role in all that success. Fernandez is leading them by example. His moaning, selfish brittleness and inability to play for others is reflected right through the club. Great to see. Also shows bigger clubs can fall away, at least a bit, giving hope to others. Until the rest are bought over by country sized investment funds anyway. Great to see Tino doing well. It reflects well on us in getting other future stars through the door.

Synth

The last link in the coaching chain, leading us to promotion. A superb appointment! The coaching equivalent of bringing in Asprilla, just as things were going well. A disastrous appointment! I'll pop back at the end of the season for a quick edit. I can only hope for the best without knowing anything about his coaching. 🙂

That sounded quite specific. ... checks front covers of tomorrow's papers... "Saints fan lamps Hancock" "Turkish receives grateful thanks of nation." 'on yer bike, Hancock!' shouts Saints hero Turkish." 🙂

This is just my stepping stone forum. 🙂

Spoon

And from the second game of the season onwards? 🙂

Card

We've played in worse red and white. 🙂

Hard

As fun as it was watching them plod around, while being passed apart by City, I got extra enjoyment watching the deteriorating mentality of Fernandez. When I see him, he's nearly always the first to chuck it in, masking his frustration through whining, striking out, losing composure and petulance. Anthony is another one. A very brittle, dysfunctional group they have. Long may it continue.

Not missing it in the slightest. I'm interested in the league we're in, so not much bothered about anywhere else. We've got more resources than nearly everyone in the league we're in, which of course helps the enjoyment massivly, since we should be doing well in it. If we were losing though, I doubt I'd be any more interested in the Premier League. I caught the last 30mins of the Manchester derby. And it was interesting enough to watch (Full Flavour MartinBall from City at times 🙂 ). I'm not knocking the quality of it. We're not in it, so I don't really care what they're up to.

A 38-year old trick or treating, telling people about bottoms and cattle prods should raise no concerns. I'd keep that poster prominantly displayed though, just in case. 🙂

It's another plus in having Bree come in and do well, and have Edozie begin to feature once again, and get back to his development. SAA back on the bench, will hopefully get him some minutes too, shortly. I had heard in passing that Ipswich have some strength in depth as well this season. Either way, getting the best out of a squad will be important, and should hopefully favour those with bigger ones that got relegated.

I didn't think it would be Stu. But a quick look at lineups, and yeah I can see that. If Stewart is getting a run in the team, then Stu/ Alcaraz would seem the ones to drop. However, with the number of games, suspensions etc, I think it will be a mix of players all shuffling around to compensate for absentees. In the end, I think everyone will be getting plenty of minutes.

5 mins to kill.... so took a peek to see how our loaned out players are doing in their leagues. Form their probably already out of date wiki pages, but an indicator... Perraud - started 5 games for top of the table Nice. Onuachu - scored 3 in five games for Trabzonspor, sitting in 5th. Lyanco - 3 appearances for Al-Gharafa, although he's picked up a red card in there. Al-Gharafa in second spot. ABK - 3 starts for PSV who are top, although he's picked up an injury. Lis - 10 appearances for SR's Premier Club Goztepe, in the third place playoff spot. DCC- 3 league games for bottom of the table car wreck of Lyon. Former loanee, and deadweight, AMN has got 4 league apps for them. Ballard - 2 in 8 for Ruben Selles' Reading, currently bottom and looking a little distant already. Finnigan - 1 appearance for Shrewsbury, before suffering a long term injury. Payne has 9 appearances for League 2 Newport, down in 19th. Small has just the 1 app for St Mirren this season so far. Lawrence - 2 league apps for Scott Marshall's striggling Colchester, currently in 20th in League 2.

Colleague

What made a nice difference, and importantly, an early difference was that we were willing to dictate the tempo and get it forward. We had some good early, deeper deliveries. That caught Birmingham out, who were expecting us to do exactly what you said above. And this is a balancing issue. We've got a high posession game, we're already in the lead and Birmingham are not triggering any passing beyond shifting it aorund. keeping it fairly compact and we're not testing them too much. If we're too reckless then we increase the risk. If we pass ourselves to death, we may lose the momentum on the game and, since no team is perfect, may make an error of our own, concede and then struggle to get some tempo back. That's furstrating for everyone, as with that system, we've essentially thrown away the advantage, and Martin rightly gets the flak for that. Hopefully Martin will be developing them to be able to have the confidence to test teams in different ways when the normal triggers aren't being activated. Momentum is more than just having the ball, control is more than simply having possession, if you're not doing anything with it. Yesterday, there was a spell where waiting for them to try and get back into it, and keep possession was exactly right. We can also change that up a little, while keeping well within Martin's system. We did it early on yesterday; We've seen Baz's distribution get longer recently; Bree, Stu and Downes can all pass well directly; KWP's role has changed and we're challenging our wide players to try different things; We're looking stornger later in games and pressurising opponents. All things we've been cryign out for when it's not been going well, and seemingly all within the system Martin is developing anyway. I don't think Martin could believe his luck when he saw Smallbone in training. We got to see him work really well alongside JWP. Since then, Smallbone's role has changed. In a twist on the idea of a utility player coming on able to play one of several roles, Will is playing several roles in the same game. He tracks back, screens the defence, provides an endless outball for passes right across the park (no mean feat), and is someone who can pop up at the edge of the box with a shot. He takes up the space others leave behind as well. He's not our best defensive midfielder. He's not our best direct or attacking midfielder. In other systems (some of which I like more), he may not get a game, falling between a number of specialist areas. But in Martin's system, he, along with AA, are probably on the template team sheet Martin prints out. He's not going to get everything right, with all that going on. But he is getting better in a number of the roles, which has been really good to see. From my hazy memory, the Birmingham player went up, got the contact, and the ball was going wide, as Baz, eyes for the ball, thumped into him. The ball was gone when Baz clattered into him. But I was wondering if the ball already being away with there being no chance of the Birmingham player, or anyone else, geting it, played a part in the decision? No idea, I'm just speculating there.

Scott Marshall is interim manager at Colchester today.