Tonda Eckert

[St. Ciervo]

8 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

That doesn't explain the huge drop off in second halves of games, which is massively concerning. 

The drop off comes from Scienza truly being able to last 60 minutes at his blistering pace, and we are a one trick pony.

Edited 13 hours ago by St. Ciervo

[benjii]

3 hours ago, St. Ciervo said:

The drop off comes from Scienza truly being able to last 60 minutes at his blistering pace, and we are a one trick pony.

Yeah, he definitely looks to run out of puff and his touch gets noticeably worse. If he's here next season we need to get a proper expert to help him with his stamina in pre-season.

But yesterday the drop off came much earlier than that so I don't think we can say this was the cause.

Edited 10 hours ago by benjii

[Sheaf Saint]

1 hour ago, benjii said:

Yeah, he definitely looks to run out of puff and his touch gets noticeably worse. If he's here next season we need to get a proper expert to help him with his stamina in pre-season.

But yesterday the drop off came much earlier than that so I don't think we can say this was the cause.

Leo actually played the full 90 yesterday for once, but we were appalling from the moment the second half kicked off.

[AlexLaw76]

59 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Leo actually played the full 90 yesterday for once, but we were appalling from the moment the second half kicked off.

we were bad from about 15 mins in. They, like WBA did in the 2nd half and others before that, just shut down the space in the middle of the park. That is why we pass it around the back, because THB is not Pirlo in defence ffs...

I will be amazed if Coventry do not try and do that. 

Obviously, we do have good players, which is why we usually score early, but the patterns of the games cannot be ignored.

[coalman]

7 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

we were bad from about 15 mins in. They, like WBA did in the 2nd half and others before that, just shut down the space in the middle of the park. That is why we pass it around the back, because THB is not Pirlo in defence ffs...

I will be amazed if Coventry do not try and do that. 

Obviously, we do have good players, which is why we usually score early, but the patterns of the games cannot be ignored.

Agreed.

When we move through ball so slowly it's easy for the man receiving our obvious passes to be under pressure as they're receiving the ball. 

Then we have no out ball. Then the ball keeps coming back at us. Whereupon nobody puts a tackle in and the other side strolls up to the edge of our box to cross.

Rinse and repeat.

That's two games running we've managed to repeat the worst Russball from Martin, Juric and Rusk only in a League lower. The only difference being that Norwich figured us out early rather than in the second half.

[Toussaint]

We don’t have a traditional 9 to provide an outlet, especially in second halves when we would benefit from someone holding the ball up. 

[S-Clarke]

2 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

we were bad from about 15 mins in. They, like WBA did in the 2nd half and others before that, just shut down the space in the middle of the park. That is why we pass it around the back, because THB is not Pirlo in defence ffs...

I will be amazed if Coventry do not try and do that. 

Obviously, we do have good players, which is why we usually score early, but the patterns of the games cannot be ignored.

This is something I hope we don't expect to happen every week, the space THB got to play that role against Charlton in particular was an anomaly. The space Armstrong got to receive and turn in those games deep in CM was an anomaly, it's not the norm. The worry is that this is now all we will try, every week, and act surprised it doesn't work every week.

It won't. 1 or two games a season you may get lucky with passive teams enabling that, but in the main in this league teams press, harry and remove space in the midfield areas. That's basic lower league 101. If we have nothing to our game bar THB getting in space, and being able to spray it to an unchallenged Armstrong, then we will tumble down this league quicker than we came up it.

Edited 5 hours ago by S-Clarke

[Maggie May]

14 hours ago, Fabrice29 said:

I really think if we won a game because of a handball and the opponents missing a penalty you wouldn’t be claiming our manager had sussed theirs out. 

If you look at my post history, I posted Norwich had our number 10 minutes into the first half. I was met with a few laughs, but ultimately I was spot on as usual.

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

This is something I hope we don't expect to happen every week, the space THB got to play that role against Charlton in particular was an anomaly. The space Armstrong got to receive and turn in those games deep in CM was an anomaly, it's not the norm. The worry is that this is now all we will try, every week, and act surprised it doesn't work every week.

It won't. 1 or two games a season you may get lucky with passive teams enabling that, but in the main in this league teams press, harry and remove space in the midfield areas. That's basic lower league 101. If we have nothing to our game bar THB getting in space, and being able to spray it to an unchallenged Armstrong, then we will tumble down this league quicker than we came up it.

The plan from kick offs also seems to be to get the ball to Scienza or Fellows and hope one of them can run past a player or two and create space for the others. With Fellows out yesterday, it limited our options...and from kick off it was frustrating to see the ball in our corner flag, that's asking for trouble.

I would have though Matsuki or even Edozie might also be able to run at players and create openings but these two seem to be sidelined.

[sadoldgit]

1 hour ago, Maggie May said:

If you look at my post history, I posted Norwich had our number 10 minutes into the first half. I was met with a few laughs, but ultimately I was spot on as usual.

Can you apply for the job when Eckert gets sacked please?

😉

[AlexLaw76]

45 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

Can you apply for the job when Eckert gets sacked please?

😉

Around May 2026

[Fabrice29]

2 hours ago, Maggie May said:

If you look at my post history, I posted Norwich had our number 10 minutes into the first half. I was met with a few laughs, but ultimately I was spot on as usual.

Good for you. Again though, you wouldn’t be saying we had their number if we had won because of a handball goal and a missed penalty. So you were overreacting after 10 minutes and now. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Fabrice29

[bangkoksaint]

TE isn’t taking this team up. A nice purple patch of results but most teams will have worked us out now so together with sticking with a back 5, playing tippy tappy football and having a clown in goal we’ll just fizzle out. It’ll then be when they sack him

[AlexLaw76]

2 minutes ago, bangkoksaint said:

TE isn’t taking this team up. A nice purple patch of results but most teams will have worked us out now so together with sticking with a back 5, playing tippy tappy football and having a clown in goal we’ll just fizzle out. It’ll then be when they sack him

Agree

Tonda won’t be our manager next season. 

[Wade Garrett]

14 minutes ago, bangkoksaint said:

TE isn’t taking this team up. A nice purple patch of results but most teams will have worked us out now so together with sticking with a back 5, playing tippy tappy football and having a clown in goal we’ll just fizzle out. It’ll then be when they sack him

If the season pans out like that then you’re probably right.  I would like to think he is an intelligent guy who’ll work out how to get the best from his squad.

It wasn’t that long ago that a lot of people were questioning Tuchel, an intelligent manager who has now worked it out.  I’m not saying Eckert can be compared to his countryman, but there is a chance that he can work it out and show he isn’t another philosophy manager wedded to one system.