SWLondon Saint

Coventry have been the better side because they have an extra unmarked player at most times thanks to our 3 CBs. We seem to have no way to play out as well since too much of the time Woods is just on top of Bazunu. No point having a ball-playing keeper if you just plonk a defender right next to him.

It doesn't, but you need to have a plan for who goes out to help. Usually it's the CB on that side, but our 3 seem glued to within the width of the 6 yard box. That definitely does leave us wide open to crosses as at the moment we're forcing either the wide one of the front three or one of the 2 CMs to help. I am pretty sure this is why we fade so badly in 2nd halves as those 4 players - CMs + wide attackers - are forced to cover a huge amount of ground.

What the hell is the point of 3 CBs when they can't clear that?

Great goal out of nothing, nice to see an oppo keeper getting caught out for a change!

Just wide open in midfield, have to change something.

He's meant to be a set piece specialist but think he's probably deferring to Armstrong as he's never going to stop wanting them.

Dunno, we haven't conceded, but there was that clear chance their striker slashed wide and also he probably should have scored that cross on the ground that went through 2 defenders. It was Downs-esque, we'd all be furious if one of ours has missed it.

Been watching the back line whenever we're out of possession and having the 3 CBs does absolutely nothing for us except cause confusion. Wood is the main marker of their lone striker but then THB and Stephens just drift in space, not really picking up unless a MF is literally standing in their zone. They leave runners to Jander and Downes to track back which is why they end up knackered in the 2nd half. Too many runners and there's always someone unmarked in our box with one of THB / Stephens just standing there aimlessly. We need an extra body in midfield, not at the back. Even in possession, if we want to pass it round the back we always have Wood right next to Baz which is daft. 2 CBs is enough and just split and use Baz as the link.

I think we'll see a lot of attacks and pressure down our right. I'm hoping either THB or Stephens will play more or less as a right full back behind Fraser but I'm not holding my breath. 2-2

Mind you it does get quite confusing when people talk about how we played in the last world cup as I literally have no idea! 😂

The whole Qatar world cup was such a f***ing circus I didn't watch a single minute of any game at all. I was hoping some team would show some balls and all put on rainbow armbands as a middle finger to the bigots - they could have done it just before all the cards are cancelled or something - but sadly not.

If Bree is happy to come back rather than stay with mad Nate I'd say he'd be the perfect fit at RB/RCB. Cancel Jelert's loan as he seems to be injured the whole time. But I would bet Charlton will do their best to keep him.

That's what I reckon as well. The problem at the moment is Fellows is forced to defend as a full back with Azaz ahead of him tracking back. Be better if Edwards was there with Fellows ahead of him. Also most of the time when they have the ball, right now we have 3 CB standing in or around the penalty spot with at least 1 marking 'space'. And it's really hard to pick up the guys running forward from midfield into the box when you're back on your heels.

I also agree with taking off Scienza as early as possible to protect him - actually I think he could've come off at halftime as it's sometimes easier for a sub to come on then and get up to speed in the game. No-one (well, very few) is 'having a go' at Tonda, people are just rightly concerned at the terrible defending / second half when West Brom deserved to come away with a point except for a terrible miss at the end there. I don't agree that having a 'Ben Mee type' would make the difference UNLESS they can also tell the midfield to stop camping on top of the box and get further up and out. If you let as many crosses as we do come into the box, sooner or later you're going to concede no matter how good you are at heading it just based on luck.

Well even with 3 CBs we don't seem to be able to win a header in the box, those corners they had were ridiculous, they won the header 4 times in a row. That can't be right.

For some reason all our recent managers seem to think 3 CB makes us more secure or something but I have no idea what they're seeing. The huge problem with the way we do it is they all want to defend in front of the goal which means on the flanks the wing back is often 1v2, so a midfielder has to drop back there which opens up a ton of space elsewhere to switch it, cross it, whatever really. Just having 2 CBs and then a FB and winger defending the flanks would make a huge difference. OR if he's determined to stick with the 3 CB then the one on the ball side has to go out wide. But that does not seem to be part of the plan right now and we're getting shafted.

Again, even though I would love us to replace Bazunu, I honestly don't think a different GK and / or CB would help as the problem is us just being far too deep and allowing the other team to cross at will.

On their corner goal, he was some way away not even in contention so something's gone wrong imo. The marking on the corner before with Frazer on the front post where he had no chance also looked f-ed up.

It wouldn't help if we bought another 3 CBs, the problem is we have too many on the pitch and not enough bodies in midfield - we just leave so much space the crosses come raining in from either side and the CBs all seem to be confused / unable to defend anything.

A thousand times this. He literally drops into the back 3 and that sucks the front 3 backwards and opens up space deep in our half. Also, I think he actually confuses the defenders as it always feels like attackers get free as no-one knows who's marking who. Ideally one of our defenders should be shouting at him to f*** off 10 yards further out of the box but we've lacked an organiser at the back forever.

None of ours was as glaring as that totally open goal miss by them though. If that had gone in for 3-2 I don't have a lot of confidence we'd have held on...

Yeah, I was thinking it looked just like against QPR and Millwall. Our midfield 2 drop back and our front 3 are all about half way between our box and the centre circle, then it's really hard for us to get out. Why play so deep? We're not playing bloody PSG or something. I just don't get it.

Good win against a decent team, though they are a bit crap away from home. I only caught from about 30 mins so missed the first 2 goals. Attacking looked decent especially when Leo is on the ball, agree he's probably the best attacking player in the league. He's also good at receiving the ball under pressure and buying the foul when he can't get away which is an invaluable skill to relieve pressure. Defensively we looked pretty ropey though especially on our left. Last 20 minutes was backs to the wall stuff with everyone in our box which I just don't understand. Honestly feel like the 3 CBs are a huge problem for our shape under pressure, if you just surrender the midfield and let lots of crosses come in you are going to concede, which we should have done with that incredible miss by them. Anyway, hopefully Tonda can figure that out, we do have options...

All about Leo 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Also, f*** me these Birmingham taters are annoying. They make Adam and Joe sound completely neutral.

Good luck to him - just have to hope he's learned from the Millwall mess up. He got absolutely schooled there, they knew exactly what we wanted to do and were all over us, and then he compounded it with shit subs. We'll have a better idea if he's figured it out today I guess.