Defensively sound - Offensively Lacking

[ChesterTheTabby]

What a turn around from last year, a complete 180. Defensively we are as good as any, but the target men and goal scoring is horrendously lacking. Hell, had we just kept either Dembele or McCormack we'd be in great shape, but seems that we have traded goals for clean sheets/less scored on us in a one-for-one swap. The boys of front need to start earning their pay. Martin missed an absolute sitter this afternoon - appalling miss for a man who scored 52 goals in 120 appearances or something like that for Derby.

[SuffolkWhite]

Dembele and McCormick wanted to go according to Joka, and it would have been better if they stayed for sure.

But the new players need to gel and in time I think the team will improve. The reason for that is I believe Jokavic will get it right.

Thought top ten with chance of play offs  all along and with 8 games gone we are a point away from the top 6.

[MJG]

I'd blame the strikers(and we had three out there today) more if I felt they were missing chance after chance..... But it's the supply that's the issue atm.

[Mince n Tatties]

MJG..You are in the I Paper today The Fan Matrix

While Parker and MacDonald are more suited for away games
I can't give MacDonald another go after two (for me) dreadful
games.
I wouldn't mind LVC-Tunnicliffe or Johansen starting in all honesty.
MJG (Friends of Fulham).

[H4usuallysitting]

MacDonald works well as an "out".... He makes himself available..... We should be looking at Cairney, he doesn't defend, and likes too many touches....

But, at the end of the day our main problem is we do not have an out and out goal scorer

[Mince n Tatties]

MacDonald works well as an "out".... He makes himself available..... We should be looking at Cairney, he doesn't defend, and likes too many touches....

But, at the end of the day our main problem is we do not have an out and out goal scorer

Steady dont slag Cairney or you will be losing all your
credibility with some... :022:

[H4usuallysitting]

MacDonald works well as an "out".... He makes himself available..... We should be looking at Cairney, he doesn't defend, and likes too many touches....

But, at the end of the day our main problem is we do not have an out and out goal scorer

Steady dont slag Cairney or you will be losing all your
credibility with some... :022:

Shall I go for the whole hog    " Cairney thinks he's a superstar"......there I've said it

[Mince n Tatties]

I'd blame the strikers(and we had three out there today) more if I felt they were missing chance after chance..... But it's the supply that's the issue atm.

Yes no ammo and you cant fire the gun.

[Skatzoffc]

I'd blame the strikers(and we had three out there today) more if I felt they were missing chance after chance..... But it's the supply that's the issue atm.

:plus one:

imo we need to change the midfield.
I keep banging on about it, but we don't move the ball forward quickly enough.

MacDonald, Cairney and Tunny, fine. A good balance and quicker ball

Parker, Cairney and Jozabed, ok. But slower ball.

Parker, Macdonald & Cairney, like watching paint dry. No service to forward line. Cairney comes deeper or lost on the wing.

Some say the forwards are missing chances but they simply aren't getting enough service.
Passing the ball 100 times in your own half wins you nothing in this division.
The oppo only have to score one goal on the break and they can shut you out of the game, if organised, which most are.

The strikers will gel but the service is the problem.

Its too slow!

COYW!

[epsomraver]

I'd blame the strikers(and we had three out there today) more if I felt they were missing chance after chance..... But it's the supply that's the issue atm.

:plus one:

imo we need to change the midfield.
I keep banging on about it, but we don't move the ball forward quickly enough.

MacDonald, Cairney and Tunny, fine. A good balance and quicker ball

Parker, Cairney and Jozabed, ok. But slower ball.

Parker, Macdonald & Cairney, like watching paint dry. No service to forward line. Cairney comes deeper or lost on the wing.

Some say the forwards are missing chances but they simply aren't getting enough service.
Passing the ball 100 times in your own half wins you nothing in this division.
The oppo only have to score one goal on the break and they can shut you out of the game, if organised, which most are.

The strikers will gel but the service is the problem.

Its too slow!

COYW!

0001.jpeg

[One Martin Thomas]

Not so sure about Odoi.  I think he's too slow.  Quite like the two centre-backs yesterday though our new Icelandic defender is clearly right footed.  Sessagnon looked good.  I though Wigan got passed Odoi too often yesterday.

Thing about Martin is that he is a mixture of Woodrow and Smith.  IMO we have no variety up front.  We must get supply to the strikers.  Cairney should stay central and if Jozabed is to be used, it should be at the expense of one of the holding midfielders.  We need pace on the wings and after yesterday's performance, Kebano is not it (or he is not match fit).

[MJG]

I'd blame the strikers(and we had three out there today) more if I felt they were missing chance after chance..... But it's the supply that's the issue atm.

i sympathise with this view and was thinking it myself versus burton

but then you've got to ask yourself whether martin is moving enough

if a cross comes in and martin is nowhere near it, does that mean it's a bad cross from the winger or should martin have read the game and made the effort to put himself in the right spot?

cairney is playing wonderballs to the wingers all game long, slicing open the opposition defence and giving the wide players the ball in dangerous positions. maybe if martin had the same pace as kebano and sessegnon, then cairney would be putting through balls in for him all day as well

But the crosses are not coming in. Cairny was poor on Saturday again.
Also Woodrow and Smith (who got one chance) were not given much and we had changed to the oh so wanted 442 prior to that as well.
So I dont see it as Martin not on the end, but its getting the ball there for any of them.

[RaySmith]

Martin hasn't done  badly in the circumstances - he surely is entitled to more time  to acclimatise to the team.

The main problem is lack of supply to our strikers, whoever they are.

[Bronaldinho]

Think it's still early days and once we settle, we'll see games like Burton and Wigan end in 3 points for us.

We still have Martin, one of the league's best that needs to find his feet and play more with the squad.

But at the same time we are still in transition, a huge change this summer on and off the pitch.

I've actually just released a new blog post for 'The Craven Corner' around this; you can read it here:

thecravencorner.wordpress.com

[GordonMac]

Johansen could be an option, although watching him at Celtic he was played in another static midfield with Brown and Biton. He at times would look to play a sort of box to box role but then looked limited when trying to be the holding midfielder.

I like Jozabed, he's got a bit of class about him I just think he may take a bit longer to settle. He could be invaluable feeding balls through the opponents back line, a pacey striker would thrive from his vision.

We seem to have loaded in decent/good midfielders without varying the attackers. Look to be too on dimensional going forward.

Pains me to rip into my countrymen but McDonald and Cairney have had some poor Games recently, every player does of course but when three or more players have those types of games at the same time it shows more.

[filham]

Yes, clearly we have a goal scoring problem but is anyone really surprised , we lose McCormac and Dembele (a couple of 20 goals a season strikers) and havn;t bought in a good striker.

[MJG]

I'd blame the strikers(and we had three out there today) more if I felt they were missing chance after chance..... But it's the supply that's the issue atm.

i sympathise with this view and was thinking it myself versus burton

but then you've got to ask yourself whether martin is moving enough

if a cross comes in and martin is nowhere near it, does that mean it's a bad cross from the winger or should martin have read the game and made the effort to put himself in the right spot?

cairney is playing wonderballs to the wingers all game long, slicing open the opposition defence and giving the wide players the ball in dangerous positions. maybe if martin had the same pace as kebano and sessegnon, then cairney would be putting through balls in for him all day as well

But the crosses are not coming in. Cairny was poor on Saturday again.
Also Woodrow and Smith (who got one chance) were not given much and we had changed to the oh so wanted 442 prior to that as well.
So I dont see it as Martin not on the end, but its getting the ball there for any of them.

Can't comment on the last game because I wasn't there but Versus burton there were crosses. They were barely recognisable as crosses because no one was close to connecting with them, but we were repeatedly getting the ball into their penalty area. During the game it looked like poor service but then you watch the highlights back and wonder if it's because Martin wasn't finding space, making runs or anticipating the balls in. First thing on the highlights is also a Cairney through ball to one of the wide players and you wonder whether that could have been Martin he played in if he had pace.

Well he missed a Sess low cross midweek but that was by inches. But then plenty of strikers do that, be them fast or slow.
The way I see it is the central striker is about linking up with the busy bee three AM's. Thats not quite working atm but will come.

[toshes mate]

I'd blame the strikers(and we had three out there today) more if I felt they were missing chance after chance..... But it's the supply that's the issue atm.

i sympathise with this view and was thinking it myself versus burton

but then you've got to ask yourself whether martin is moving enough

if a cross comes in and martin is nowhere near it, does that mean it's a bad cross from the winger or should martin have read the game and made the effort to put himself in the right spot?

cairney is playing wonderballs to the wingers all game long, slicing open the opposition defence and giving the wide players the ball in dangerous positions. maybe if martin had the same pace as kebano and sessegnon, then cairney would be putting through balls in for him all day as well

But the crosses are not coming in. Cairny was poor on Saturday again.
Also Woodrow and Smith (who got one chance) were not given much and we had changed to the oh so wanted 442 prior to that as well.
So I dont see it as Martin not on the end, but its getting the ball there for any of them.

Can't comment on the last game because I wasn't there but Versus burton there were crosses. They were barely recognisable as crosses because no one was close to connecting with them, but we were repeatedly getting the ball into their penalty area. During the game it looked like poor service but then you watch the highlights back and wonder if it's because Martin wasn't finding space, making runs or anticipating the balls in. First thing on the highlights is also a Cairney through ball to one of the wide players and you wonder whether that could have been Martin he played in if he had pace.

Martin missed an absolute sitter of a chance getting his header wrong on one of the few occasions we broke quickly against Wigan and delivered a brilliant cross from the right wing (from Jozabed if I remember correctly).   Other than that I thought Martin spent too long trying to get free kicks when he may have done better getting up and drfting away from defenders or drawing them out of position.    I thought we were far too easy to dominate by a Wigan team who squeezed space out of the midfield game but also managed a fair few chances of their own by simple direct football mostly playing on the lack of pace from Odoi when caught out on the break.    We really do need to have long ball options as well as playing through the midfield because even if moves break down  they make teams wary of variations.

[MJG]

I'd blame the strikers(and we had three out there today) more if I felt they were missing chance after chance..... But it's the supply that's the issue atm.

i sympathise with this view and was thinking it myself versus burton

but then you've got to ask yourself whether martin is moving enough

if a cross comes in and martin is nowhere near it, does that mean it's a bad cross from the winger or should martin have read the game and made the effort to put himself in the right spot?

cairney is playing wonderballs to the wingers all game long, slicing open the opposition defence and giving the wide players the ball in dangerous positions. maybe if martin had the same pace as kebano and sessegnon, then cairney would be putting through balls in for him all day as well

But the crosses are not coming in. Cairny was poor on Saturday again.
Also Woodrow and Smith (who got one chance) were not given much and we had changed to the oh so wanted 442 prior to that as well.
So I dont see it as Martin not on the end, but its getting the ball there for any of them.

Can't comment on the last game because I wasn't there but Versus burton there were crosses. They were barely recognisable as crosses because no one was close to connecting with them, but we were repeatedly getting the ball into their penalty area. During the game it looked like poor service but then you watch the highlights back and wonder if it's because Martin wasn't finding space, making runs or anticipating the balls in. First thing on the highlights is also a Cairney through ball to one of the wide players and you wonder whether that could have been Martin he played in if he had pace.

Martin missed an absolute sitter of a chance getting his header wrong on one of the few occasions we broke quickly against Wigan and delivered a brilliant cross from the right wing (from Jozabed if I remember correctly).   Other than that I thought Martin spent too long trying to get free kicks when he may have done better getting up and drfting away from defenders or drawing them out of position.    I thought we were far too easy to dominate by a Wigan team who squeezed space out of the midfield game but also managed a fair few chances of their own by simple direct football mostly playing on the lack of pace from Odoi when caught out on the break.    We really do need to have long ball options as well as playing through the midfield because even if moves break down  they make teams wary of variations.

I wont disagree hes looking like a player trying to find form or for something to happen as the actual play to him isnt going well.
It was a bad header and not sure what he was trying to do.
But he is a good player i have no doubt about that having seen him over last 3 seasons. It will come.

[RaySmith]

Did he see it at the last moment - he seemed to mistime his jump, and then headed it back across goal, which would have suited someone running in - except there wasn't anyone.

He was yards from the  goal with only the keeper to beat, and needed to  meet the ball as it arrived , and twist  his neck to direct  it at the goal, but just headed it back in the direction it came from, falling backwards to the ground as he did so.

It looked terrible, the sort of gilt edged chance you expect a top striker to convert, but these things happen to the best players, and he is still finding his feet with us, and may be lacking in fitness. And these chances are never as easy as they look. He may also have  consciously directed the ball back across goal - if he thought someone was running in.

he also found the space in the first place.