Saints 1-1 Coventry - Match Thread

[Dr Who?]

Half time it was a game we were going to lose. Saved by the sending off, and feel we should have taken all 3. Good point, but we seem to have lost our ruthlessness from a few weeks ago. Need to go to Oxford and dismantle them! 

[AlexLaw76]

6 minutes ago, austsaint said:

Lampard seemed to be singling out THB, what a prize wanker.   Completely battered them second half.  Yes they sat deeper being a man short but there was a different attitude from Saints, more urgency.   It was an enthralling second half.

Scienza once again magnificent, THB and Quarshie were both excellent, and it’s hard to see how he can drop Quarshie on that performance.  Wood was better, Manning improved second half, and needed to.   Armstrong busy all day.

Two points dropped.   Hard to believe Coventry are so far ahead of the pack judged on today.

You do realise they were down to 10 men when we took over???

[Saint_clark]

13 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

So you’re saying Fellows should never play then given our strikers. Have a day off fella. 

No, I'm saying that they were playing 5 at the back and sitting deep leaving no space for our players to get into to get onto the end of a cross. 

[Harry_SFC]

Frustrating as it was there to be won. Plus Millwall lost and Preston dropped points. Need 3 points next week that's for sure. 

[HarvSFC]

Charlie Austin and Kevin Phillips hate us, of course they're going to say penalty.

[austsaint]

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

You do realise they were down to 10 men when we took over???

I did mention that.   Despite being down to ten, I thought they looked an average side, even in the first half.  

 

 

[OneMrsWallace]

21 minutes ago, leeham_69 said:

Pretty familiar pattern for me - can't break down teams, resort to pumping it into the box to no one or shooting hopefully from range.

The biggest frustration for me is how much of our attacking play goes through our centre backs - THB admirably presents for the ball and tries to carry forwards but really that should be Flynn Downes' job, he is such a handdbrake on everything. No quality on the ball whatsoever.

That's why for me it should have been Downes off not Jander who supports the front line and is always looking for a forward pass. Also Robinson on not Archer as he's more physical. I think Tonder got the subs wrong today. 

[Patches O Houlihan]

9 minutes ago, LGTL said:

Incredible that we ended that game with 3 CB’s on the pitch, and yet we were sending fucking Bazunu up for a corner. Want to win it that much? Take a fucking defender off. All 3 were spectators second half. 

We swapped Jander for Archer, who then played as a striker. It was 2 CBs and THB playing in midfield otherwise it would have been just Downes on his tod in the middle.

Some of our fans calling out Wood for being thick as mince, but we have plenty of 'seasoned football experts' who cannot see even the most simple of tactical changes and adjustments. #dinloweb

[Sheaf Saint]

Cam Archer...

Just why? 

[Turkish]

1 minute ago, austsaint said:

I did mention that.   Despite being down to ten, I thought they looked an average side, even in the first half.  

 

 

They were didn’t they were all that first half either. Clearly well organised but nothing special at all

[Hawkswood]

Christ we need a target man. Totally limits our options without one.

[Patches O Houlihan]

9 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

2 subs. We made 2 fucking subs when chasing a winner against 10 men. 

Who on the bench who didn't come on would have improved the team?! Robinson maybe? But who are you taking off? Azaz, Scienza? THB when he is playing as our threat in the box?

Every game under Tonda the game has gone more downhill the more subs are brought on. #dinloweb

[Lighthouse]

11 minutes ago, LGTL said:

Incredible that we ended that game with 3 CB’s on the pitch, and yet we were sending fucking Bazunu up for a corner. Want to win it that much? Take a fucking defender off. All 3 were spectators second half. 

They really weren’t spectators, they were up in Coventry’s half and saw a lot of the ball, switching play from side to side and retrieving their clearances. Wright didn’t get a sniff against them and we had most of their team pinned back in their own box.

They were going up for set pieces we were regularly winning and eventually it was Wood who got on the end of a cross. That second half was entirely one way traffic and we won it 1-0. Coventry were well organised, I don’t know what else you could ask for from Saints.

[benali-shorts]

It was the sort of game and situation where I’d hoped Azaz would make the difference in tight areas. He was v disappointing. 
 

still being killed by lack of striker options really. 
 

didn’t think it was a pen, heavy touch from Wright and a 50/50 tussle. 
 

Fat Frank an emotional tit. 

[austsaint]

2 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Cam Archer...

Just why? 

Looks completely out of sorts doesn’t he.  He looks like a golfer with the yips.   

[LGTL]

4 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

We swapped Jander for Archer, who then played as a striker. It was 2 CBs and THB playing in midfield otherwise it would have been just Downes on his tod in the middle.

Some of our fans calling out Wood for being thick as mince, but we have plenty of 'seasoned football experts' who cannot see even the most simple of tactical changes and adjustments. #dinloweb

That’s still three CB’s on the pitch though, whether he’s stepping forward or not. Here’s a novel fucking idea, how about take off one of the three for Archer, and keep an actual midfielder in midfield? #dinlow

[Ex Lion Tamer]

6 minutes ago, OneMrsWallace said:

That's why for me it should have been Downes off not Jander who supports the front line and is always looking for a forward pass. Also Robinson on not Archer as he's more physical. I think Tonder got the subs wrong today. 

Downes seemed to win every 50/50 tussle he was involved in second half. Thought he was useful

[tdmickey3]

8 minutes ago, OneMrsWallace said:

That's why for me it should have been Downes off not Jander who supports the front line and is always looking for a forward pass. Also Robinson on not Archer as he's more physical. I think Tonder got the subs wrong today. 

He always make wrong subs

[tdmickey3]

2 minutes ago, LGTL said:

That’s still three CB’s on the pitch though, whether he’s stepping forward or not. Here’s a novel fucking idea, how about take off one of the three for Archer, and keep an actual midfielder in midfield? #dinlow

Yep obvious to most but some on here and TE think different 

[saintant]

9 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Cam Archer...

Just why? 

Exactly, he did the square root of fuck all and we took off Caspar and lost our composure. Stupid change that.

[LGTL]

1 minute ago, tdmickey3 said:

Yep obvious to most but some on here and TE think different 

The so called experts think we should play a CB in midfield instead of actual midfielders. #dinlowweb indeed…

[Patches O Houlihan]

3 minutes ago, LGTL said:

That’s still three CB’s on the pitch though, whether he’s stepping forward or not. Here’s a novel fucking idea, how about take off one of the three for Archer, and keep an actual midfielder in midfield? #dinlow

Archer came on (and was useless). Fellows came on and hoofed it up into the air for their keeper and CBs

Who on the bench would have been more likely to score a goal in a packed box than Wood/Quashie/THB?

Where is that game changing sub, when actually the most threat we showed was from the CBs at set pieces, including our only goal??!!

#dinloweb

[macca155]

Coventry are a good outfit, you can see why they are doing well. Take a point but so easily could have been 3.

As others have said, without a target man, they just don't have the ability to put real pressure on the defence. Cross after cross was easily dealt with.

No need to get all unnecessary about the tactics. Until they improve the strike options, it's hard to see how any variation is going to work.

Long way to go, play offs are well within reach. Just need to keep the pressure up.

[saintant]

10 minutes ago, benali-shorts said:

It was the sort of game and situation where I’d hoped Azaz would make the difference in tight areas. He was v disappointing. 
 

still being killed by lack of striker options really. 
 

didn’t think it was a pen, heavy touch from Wright and a 50/50 tussle. 
 

Fat Frank an emotional tit. 

Agree, Azaz was quite poor today and gave the ball away a lot. Near the end Scienza wide left was the obvious pass but he ignored him. He's done well lately but today wasn't one of his better games.

[Lighthouse]

6 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

He always make wrong subs

Fellows for Wely looked like a no-brainer to me. Jander’s strength is collecting the ball from deep, taking it forward and playing it into space. Given that we were already camped on the edge of their box and Coventry were very compact, I’d say the reason for bringing him off, for a striker, was fairly self explanatory.

[Patches O Houlihan]

Just now, saintant said:

Agree, Azaz was quite poor today and gave the ball away a lot. Near the end Scienza wide left was the obvious pass but he ignored him. He's done well lately but today wasn't one of his better games.

I was got quite frustrated with some of Downes' short sighted passing when Scienza or Azaz was free

[Patches O Houlihan]

1 minute ago, Lighthouse said:

Fellows for Wely looked like a no-brainer to me. Jander’s strength is collecting the ball from deep, taking it forward and playing it into space. Given that we were already camped on the edge of their box and Coventry were very compact, I’d say the reason for bringing him off, for a striker, was fairly self explanatory.

Also Jander has looked tired and a little off it recently, and may be carrying an injury we don't know about

[Saint_clark]

18 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Charlie Austin and Kevin Phillips hate us, of course they're going to say penalty.

For what? The shoulder to shoulder between THB and Wright? 

[LGTL]

5 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Archer came on (and was useless). Fellows came on and hoofed it up into the air for their keeper and CBs

Who on the bench would have been more likely to score a goal in a packed box than Wood/Quashie/THB?

Where is that game changing sub, when actually the most threat we showed was from the CBs at set pieces, including our only goal??!!

#dinloweb

If you think playing a CB in midfield is preferable over playing a midfielder in midfield, then there’s no hope for you. #dinlowweb

[badgerx16]

I'm sure THB's future FiL would enjoy taking his side against Frankie.

[James G]

I think the game highlights the need for a proper striker 

[die Mannyschaft]

Better 2nd half, at we kept going. A bit sideways RM plus. Good job they had a red card and played for draw with players sitting down pretending to be injured. Lampard bad losser

[Jack]

41 minutes ago, austsaint said:

Lampard seemed to be singling out THB, what a prize wanker.   Completely battered them second half.  Yes they sat deeper being a man short but there was a different attitude from Saints, more urgency.   It was an enthralling second half.

Scienza once again magnificent, THB and Quarshie were both excellent, and it’s hard to see how he can drop Quarshie on that performance.  Wood was better, Manning improved second half, and needed to.   Armstrong busy all day.

Two points dropped.   Hard to believe Coventry are so far ahead of the pack judged on today.

Really? Quarshie is a massive weak link for me. If you want to play a system where the back 3 have loads of possession to draw a press and make space, you need those players to be able to pass. You know where Quarshie’s passes are going 3 working days before he makes them - almost exclusively wide to Manning or square to Wood. Wood isn’t much better, so it’s a massive flaw in our system IMO. Quarshie’s touch is also shit so he’s a trigger for the opposition press and not really good enough for us to play through it. 
 

Manning is a horrible footballer, absolutely thick as mince. He only gets away with it as he’s occasionally handy going forward. That Cov goal was on him, fucking about at the back then clearing it blindly to a Cov player just beyond the edge of our box. Cov looked a far more competent side 11 vs 11 

Edited 2 hours ago by Jack

[tdmickey3]

14 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Archer came on (and was useless). Fellows came on and hoofed it up into the air for their keeper and CBs

Who on the bench would have been more likely to score a goal in a packed box than Wood/Quashie/THB?

Where is that game changing sub, when actually the most threat we showed was from the CBs at set pieces, including our only goal??!!

#dinloweb

Bragging and Robinson 

[Saint NL]

Boro losing, could be a very good point for Coventry today 

[tdmickey3]

14 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Fellows for Wely looked like a no-brainer to me. Jander’s strength is collecting the ball from deep, taking it forward and playing it into space. Given that we were already camped on the edge of their box and Coventry were very compact, I’d say the reason for bringing him off, for a striker, was fairly self explanatory.

Yep, we didn't need 3 Cb's another attacker as well as Fellows, Robinson would have been the right move

[Saint Matty 76]

Baffled that he didn’t throw one or two of the CBs up top but still pulled the Bazunu stunt.

[Harry_SFC]

7 minutes ago, Jack said:

Really? Quarshie is a massive weak link for me. If you want to play a system where the back 3 have loads of possession to draw a press and make space, you need those players to be able to pass. You know where Quarshie’s passes are going 3 working days before he makes them - almost exclusively wide to Manning or square to Wood. Wood isn’t much better, so it’s a massive flaw in our system IMO. Quarshie’s touch is also shit so he’s a trigger for the opposition press and not really good enough for us to play through it. 
 

Manning is a horrible footballer, absolutely thick as mince. He only gets away with it as he’s occasionally handy going forward. That Cov goal was on him, fucking about at the back then clearing it blindly to a Cov player just beyond the edge of our box. Cov looked a far more competent side 11 vs 11 

Quarshies passing is poor but in terms of actual defending he looked pretty solid to me. Covered for Manning on numerous occasions. Probably our best CB today tbh. 

[bugenhagen]

24 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

We swapped Jander for Archer, who then played as a striker. It was 2 CBs and THB playing in midfield otherwise it would have been just Downes on his tod in the middle.

Some of our fans calling out Wood for being thick as mince, but we have plenty of 'seasoned football experts' who cannot see even the most simple of tactical changes and adjustments. #dinloweb

Be kind 😉 What really happened was that Archer went up top, pushed Armstrong to the right, and Azaz stepped deeper into midfield. It is more attacking players in certian roles, but we did not really change the genereal shape. What often happened was that Azaz was more on the left, pushing higher than Downes on the right, and THB often pushed up into the same space as Downes was in.

[Patches O Houlihan]

10 minutes ago, LGTL said:

If you think playing a CB in midfield is preferable over playing a midfielder in midfield, then there’s no hope for you. #dinlowweb

So you'd sub off THB (on a yellow) and loose his aerial threat, combatively and occasional ability to play a good forward ball in exchange for:

• Aribo to phone it in
• Fraser to turn and play it backwards 
• Romeu to try to regain match fitness

There might have been a temptation to bring Robinson on, but we've seen endlessly this season that bring on a whole bench full of second tier attackers does nothing for us. We'd already brought on Fellows and Archer who didn't contribute much.

They are down to 10 men, they are going to pack the box and defend. We are mostly likely to score from a corner or Scienza being bulldozed over again and a free kick sent in for one of our big solid headers of the ball (that will be the CBs then)

[Lighthouse]

Just now, tdmickey3 said:

Yep, we didn't need 3 Cb's another attacker as well as Fellows, Robinson would have been the right move

We were playing against ten men, not seven. Going two at the back against  the league leaders, even with a man advantage, would have been reckless stupidity. One decent break and we lose 2-1.

[DellBlockH]

Once Coventry went down to 10 men, they gave up all ambition of winning the match. They no longer pressed our backline, giving them the freedom to move up the pitch at will. Unfortunately, for all our dominance, we could only make a couple of shots that caused their keeper any concern. On another day, we'd have scored three or four. A point against the league leaders isn't too bad - even though people expect to win with a man advantage. I thought we'd probably lose so I'm quite happy.

Also, a shout out to Baz for a couple of good saves to keep us in it in the first half. 

[LGTL]

3 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

We were playing against ten men, not seven. Going two at the back against  the league leaders, even with a man advantage, would have been reckless stupidity. One decent break and we lose 2-1.

And yet we sent up Bazunu for a fucking corner, which was the most reckless thing of all. 

[saintant]

2 minutes ago, DellBlockH said:

Once Coventry went down to 10 men, they gave up all ambition of winning the match. They no longer pressed our backline, giving them the freedom to move up the pitch at will. Unfortunately, for all our dominance, we could only make a couple of shots that caused their keeper any concern. On another day, we'd have scored three or four. A point against the league leaders isn't too bad - even though people expect to win with a man advantage. I thought we'd probably lose so I'm quite happy.

Also, a shout out to Baz for a couple of good saves to keep us in it in the first half. 

Agree but they were fairly routine and we'd have been horrified if he hadn't comfortably dealt with them.

[RedArmy]

37 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Who on the bench who didn't come on would have improved the team?! Robinson maybe? But who are you taking off? Azaz, Scienza? THB when he is playing as our threat in the box?

Every game under Tonda the game has gone more downhill the more subs are brought on. #dinloweb

Yea I guess let’s just keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different result rather than trying something different for the last 10 minutes. 

[Challenger]

29 minutes ago, saintant said:

Exactly, he did the square root of fuck all and we took off Caspar and lost our composure. Stupid change that.

The club is so desperate that he ( and Downs before that) fluke a goal that leads to them becoming anything other than shite. It,s not going to happen.

[redkeith]

46 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

2 subs. We made 2 fucking subs when chasing a winner against 10 men. 

The only other attacking sub we had was Robinson and you are not going to sub Leo or Fellows to bring him on. 

I thought we did OK  in the 2nd , kept manning up the other end of the pitch where he was less of a threat on our goal. Thb did play in midfield a lot more.  We just needed to move the ball a bit quicker, and needed someone to come short when fellows got wide , ad he wax playing against a wall of blue shirts .

[notnowcato]

55 minutes ago, Turkish said:

It was unreal really. They had one up front, 5 at the back and barely got into our half second half. 

It was a definite 3 at the back though rather than a 5, with THB supporting the attack on the right. I’m ok with that. 

[spyinthesky]

My view on todays game:
Playing Wellington at Right Back didnt help us but perhaps the Manager had no choice with two 'proper' right backs injured.
Baz made three outstanding saves, albeit one one not have counted for offside.
He was also very quick off his line and brave too in the first half.
Quite what he was doing in the Coventry box in extra time is beyond me. OK if the team is losing but not when we have a point.
Aziz had one of those games the 'Boro' fans mentioned. Thought he was poor today.
We seem to be Ok when able to use speed of Armstrong, Leo and Fellows to break forward.
Trying to overcome a massed defence is certainly not our strong point.
Plenty of crosses into the box but no one with any strength of heading ability to take advantage.
Archer + Downes + Stewart = £30m+ outlay with absolutely no benefit at the moment.
Two games against 10 men and 1 point to show for it.
I wouldnt fancy our chanced against any team if we were down to 10 men!!

[Viking Saint]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

Another generally poor performance and only the sending off allowed us a point because Coventry would likely have won otherwise. We are almost a good side and I think something is missing - possibly we need to play a back four but don't have two good enough full backs. Also we badly need a big number nine whether starting or to bring on and mix the game up. Still, a point is the most I was expecting and thought we'd probably lose so onwards to Oxford.

The decision to loan out both Bree and Sugawara leaving us with only one recognised RB looks pretty bloody stupid now