saintant

Coventry will be a big test for Tonda because teams are starting to expose our weaknesses. Think they'll press us high and hard from the start and try to pin us back and wait for the inevitable errors. It's pretty evident we don't have a plan B so if the THB quick ball into midfield to get us attacking is sniffed out we'll struggle. Time to ditch playing with 3 centre backs in my book and try something different.

He'll have worked his way through a number of goalkeeping coaches who will have tried and failed to teach him the basics. Another reason to call time on his tenure and bring in an actual goalkeeper.

Thought it would be less than that.

Glad it's that because it's certainly working a treat isn't it 🙂

You and I must watch different games 🙂

Well I think it is a kind of Russball. We try to play out from the back and get THB (mainly) to hit a pass to AA or Fellows who have dropped to receive it and get on the turn to move us up the pitch. When we are allowed to do it it looks great. The problem is when teams decide to stop us doing it by committing more players into an aggressive high press so we end up pinned in with no out ball other than a long punt towards a diminutive forward. West Brom did it for the whole second half and more and more teams will be doing it.

Coventry have some big forwards who are scoring goals for fun. Can't see our defenders stopping them and then there is our weakness in goal.

Yeah, they worked out that if you kick him all over the pitch and the referee doesn't get his cards out you nullify him.

If we are serious about building a good side we simply must be ruthless and sort out our defensive frailties. That means replacing pretty much all of them bar for THB as we concede far too many goals from mistakes. It's major surgery but must be tackled because the likes of Stephens, Wood, Edwards, Manning, Wellington, Mads and our goalkeepers are simply not good enough (jury is still out on Quarshie). We can't do it all at once so the obvious place to start is by bringing in a competent goalkeeper. Just by doing that I'm convinced it will improve the performances of the defence because it must be hard playing in front of Bazunu. Let's get a centre half to partner THB, two good full backs and start playing with a back four. Easier said than done I know but it needs a rebuild.

The simple shot he let's slip from his grasp is a real shocker and it's something he seems to do on a regular basis.

Cov will be too good for us.

Whether we deserved anything from the game or not it's tough when neither the ref nor lino can spot a guy flicking the ball into the net with his hand.

When a cross comes into our box does anyone ever think to themselves, that's ok, Bazunu will come and deal with that? There's more chance of a table football goalkeeper on a rod coming to claim a cross than Bazunu.

I'm not sure we can blame Tonda. He has a choice between Bazunu or McCarthy neither of who are good enough for the Championship. Either would be ok as back up goalkeeper but they are not what is needed as first choice.

So you think we'll sign somebody then.

It's not a good combination.

I'd like to see us at least have a go at ditching the 3 centre back set up because it has huge limitations as we are now beginning to see. Let's try a back four in a 4231 or a 433 which is how most top sides play. A good enough reason to ditch our system is the fact we don't have 3 decent centre backs at the club. We are being found out and starting to lose the midfield battle where teams outnumber us.

He started as an outfield player, wasn't good enough so had a go in goal. He's clearly not good enough at that either but continues to steal a living as a professional footballer at our expense. Somebody high up in the club needs to have the balls to say enough is enough because this has gone way beyond a joke.

We seem to be going back to the worst form of Russball for some reason. Today we had 63% possession most of which was harmless tip tapping about at the back sideways and backwards. Why have we stopped the vertical passing at pace with emphasis on going forward as much as possible. Is it still ingrained in our players because we are a poor side when we play so much Russball. Cut it out.

Agree, I'd rather see him playing as an out and out winger in a 4231 but the club mantra seems to be 3 centre halves and wing backs.

Agree but is that because of fatigue or tactics? Or maybe the opposition get told to press us hard and stop us playing out but that begs the question why don't they do so from the start? We seem to be creating very little after half time which is a complete contrast to the opening 45 minutes in most cases. I get that our subs always weaken the side but surely that applies to every team except the big ones in the Prem. Hope Tonda can work something out to resolve the issue. Having said all that he is certainly giving us much more entertainment with the exciting attacking football plus 6 wins from 7 games is some record so far.

Is the drop off in second half of games due to players expending too much energy in the first 45 minutes? I remember it happening with Ralph who was often criticised because of the lack of energy in the second period of matches. We do put in a lot during the first 45 minutes which is rewarded with goals and us holding healthy leads but we then seem to retreat twenty yards and take our foot off the gas. Maybe there is a better way of conserving some energy so we've more in the tank after the break. Results are clearly fantastic but this aspect does cause concern.

Yeah, I wondered about a change of formation but the 3 centre backs option seems to be set in stone right now.

Seen a video of him where he pings lots of superb long balls which are inch perfect. Makes plenty of decent saves helped by getting his angles right. Looks to have hands like flypaper rather than crisp packets as he catches quite a few balls that were hit hard which is quite unusual in modern day keepers who tend to parry everything.

Not expecting Fellows to play in this one. He'll be a big loss and we have no natural replacement so we'll likely be less potent as an attacking force. I'm predicting a 1-1 draw which would not be a bad result in my view.