SWLondon Saint

Our club captain is so strong he got himself banned for 9 games last season for having shit for brains. Setting the standard.

This. In the first 5 minutes today he had me swearing at the screen, we're dicking around at the back, he receives the ball in space and plays it first time to Wood.... Who is in our penalty area with a man closer to him than Downes, who should have just turned upfield. WTF. Then second half he steams into a challenge just in their half, doesn't get the bounce and lets his momentum take him towards the oppo goal throwing his hands up in the air like a drama queen. Get back behind the ball you TWAT.

Reckon the RM fanclub are too used to their days off and don't give a crap anyway as they've managed to get all the managers who've tried to get them to put in a shift fired. Put the shit stirrers in a bomb squad, honestly, it might hurt their resale value but relegation is going to do that anyway. Just get rid however you can, cut the cancer out of the club FFS.

Just to spread the shit a little further, Armstrong was completely anonymous today, no presence, no threat, no effort to get the team going when we went behind, inspiration factor a big fat zero. Why the f*** is he captain?

Yep, that's my verdict too. Complete crap from those 3 all day. Downes is so completely predictable, always passes it backwards even if that puts a defender in the shit and he has no-one around him, he seems to have no awareness or ability to turn on the ball. Manning wandering all over the pitch in the second half, what the f*** is up with that, he just pushes Leo to hug the touchline when if anyone should be on the ball with a free role it's Leo. Wood seems to have zero presence in the box on crosses and corners. No idea what's going on at the club but it's obvious there's a ton of shit attitude and those 3 + Stephens & Armstrong would be my best guess. Fits with what Alfie House said about needing a clear out too. Cancerous.

Take off the CB who looked like he could win a duel and leave on the c*** who can't be arsed to jump defending corner in our box.

Manning, Downes, Wood, I'd be happy if I never saw them play for us again.

Who the actual f*** at the club believes 3 CBs helps us at all? Cross comes in to the back post and you can see every time they're waiting for someone else to head it away, usually poor Tom Fellows who must be wondering why he signed up to play as a full back. Then a corner and Wood thinks he can just back into someone instead of actually competing for the ball.

Why the f*** is Wood not even jumping there?

Compared to 2 years ago, I actually think the main problem is the managers / coaching have got better for the other teams but ours hasn't. They've all realised a) we piss around at the back and will cough it up for easy chances & b) we only have 2 central midfielders so if you make them chase they'll be knackered by half time c) Can't defend crosses or corners. Once they've seen one team do it they all just copy it.

Yes, but ironically Bree would also be one of the best candidates to play as one of a back 3 as most decent 3CB teams usually play with one player who can push up when in possession. Back 4 Vs 5 just depends whether you want to force your winger / wingback to defend more or attack more and all the evidence so far is they're happy to have one of the best attacking wide players in the league spending most of his time defending...

Pretty sure these are usually the conditions which guarantee we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory 🤔

Didn't watch the first hour of the Oxford game, was Scienza poor / knackered? Otherwise only thing I can think of is he's hoping to keep it tight then let Scienza run at a tired defence?

Been busy and could only watch the last 25 mins of the Oxford game which was obviously a bloody stupid decision on my part to waste that time! They have a great home record, we can't defend or stop crosses to save our lives. Reckon it'll be 3-1 to them unfortunately, but hopefully they'll prove me and the other pessimists (realists?) wrong.

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.