Thought we were fantastic

[Whitestone]

We played some great stuff today but the two goals conceded were absolute shockers, allowing Huddersfield to get a foothold in the game that they really didn't deserve.  In the end I thought they were unlucky to go home pointless. Hector and Rodak were absolutely brilliant. The rest of the defence not great.

[Mince n Tatties]

Really can't fathom out what happened to us in that game, 3-0 up and looking so good and then concede a couple of goals and not really in the game again.
Huddersfield so dominant all of the second half, they must consider themselves unlucky to go home without at least a point.

Guy next to me moaning when they scored second goal for Parker to wake up.
I told him give it a rest,its nowt to do with him,its the old habit of many sides,players thought it was all over at 3-0,like a lot of our fans.
Its never over till that final whistle.

[SuffolkWhite]

Strange game, thought we would win 5 nil when 3 up. Not sure if the goals conceeded could be avoided as we were open to counter attacks and luck plays a part. Positives are, we looked unbeatable for 35 mins and if we can play like that more consistently more wins will come, also 2 other players scored other than Mitro, and Mitro is back.
Next game please.

[roberto w6]

As others have said, for the first 30 minutes we looked incredible. I was hoping we'd get 5 or 6 and take our goal difference closer to Brentford, Leeds and West Brom.
Alas, over the 90 minutes, I think we were lucky to get the 3 points rather than a draw and I don't think it would have been a major shock if Huddersfield had put away 2 more of their chances (thank you Marek Rodak) and we'd have come away with nothing.
Stating the obvious, the thing that troubles me is the inconsistency. I could equally see us finishing Top 2 as I could 7th or 8th. Even within games we are incredibly inconsistent (yesterday and Middlesbrough, for example).
There's probably no magic answer. This team are not Brazil 70 and Scott Parker is not Alex Ferguson. That said, I think both are capable of making it to the Premier and of staying there (perhaps with a few experienced Premier buys in the summer).
I feel a settled midfield (injury permitting) would help as would more discipline in defence at shutting up shop. Clearly, it would have been a pipe-dream yesterday to assume that because we were 3-0 up after 30 minutes, we were on for 9-0 after 90 minutes. But we should be able to count on our defence to protect a 3-0 lead while our attack caught their breath. Let's hope Hector and Kongolo form a partnership to do so and that if we decide to play 3 at the back Denis Odoi comes in as the 3rd central defender with his great ball-playing skills.
But, let's keep positive: 3 extremely well taken goals and sitting in 3rd with 2nd place in our sights
COYW

[ALG01]

I actually thought TC was one of our worst today. He seems to be so negative nowadays shame as he has it all even I right foot as he proved today

TC is played far too advanced and far too wide. Thus his talent is often nullified.
However a sublime pass to bryan led to mitro's goal and he also scored a top class goal himself. Not bad for one of the worse players.

In fact we were at our best when he dropped deep and even when he apparently plays a negative pass he does it quickly.

Not sure most people would agree with your assaesment.

[Motspur Park]

Can't agree with Denis in the centre. To me he is a liability in the centre. It has to be Hector plus one of Ream or Mawson and we have looked much tighter with Kmac sitting in front and just doing his job. The problem with all others doing that job this season is their desire to move forward. It unbalances the team and makes us vulnerable.

[roberto w6]

Totally with you on Kmac and I hear you on Denis if he was one of 2 CDs. But I feel as a "spare man"/"sweeper" he may have the ability to use his ball skill to bring the ball out and distribute. Maybe something to practice when points are in the bag!

[Hatch007]

Can't agree with Denis in the centre. To me he is a liability in the centre. It has to be Hector plus one of Ream or Mawson and we have looked much tighter with Kmac sitting in front and just doing his job. The problem with all others doing that job this season is their desire to move forward. It unbalances the team and makes us vulnerable.

I think you may have misunderstood. W6's suggestion was to play Hector and Kongolo as first choice CBs (whereas you're reply seems to poo poo the notion of Odoi as 2nd CB which is fair enough) and only bring in Odoi as sweeper if SP opts for 3 at the back with wing backs.

Odoi as sweeper with his passing ability isn't a bad shout IMHO but I prefer 4-3-3 with our personnel for the majority of matches.

Still, given our full backs are all seemingly more proficient attacking rather than defending, 5-3-2 or 5-2-3 isn't a bad shout either

[Motspur Park]

I am also of the age where sweepers were a good option. I think Denis could play that role because he is mobile.

[Whitesideup]

I actually thought TC was one of our worst today. He seems to be so negative nowadays shame as he has it all even I right foot as he proved today

TC is played far too advanced and far too wide. Thus his talent is often nullified.
However a sublime pass to bryan led to mitro's goal and he also scored a top class goal himself. Not bad for one of the worse players.

In fact we were at our best when he dropped deep and even when he apparently plays a negative pass he does it quickly.

Not sure most people would agree with your assaesment.

Happy to agree with ALG01. As it turned out Tom's contributions for 2nd and 3rd goals (plus Rodak's 2nd half performance) were the key to 3 points. I was surprised when Tom was substituted.

[MJG]

I dont get the comments about Odoi being able to take the ball out from back. I know I'm critical of him at CB but what some of you are saying is exactly why he gives me the wobbles in that position. He did it yesterday, runs out with it and passed two yards straight to a Huddersfield player. When he actually runs with it and pushes ball in front he usually puts it too far forward and that when he loses its. Not for me sorry, rb fine.

[Whitesideup]

I dont get the comments about Odoi being able to take the ball out from back. I know I'm critical of him at CB but what some of you are saying is exactly why he gives me the wobbles in that position. He did it yesterday, runs out with it and passed two yards straight to a Huddersfield player. When he actually runs with it and pushes ball in front he usually puts it too far forward and that when he loses its. Not for me sorry, rb fine.

Did it once in the second half. Agree decision making in those positions could be better. Now one error like that can be very costly (we got away with it) so it is a factor in overall performance, but for me Denis did ok, and won a couple of crucial balls. Given that Ream, Kongolo, Mawson and Le Marchand all not available, Denis good cover. But for me he is our starting rb.

[toshes mate]

Intensity is a force which should be present, and at the same level, no matter what the score of a game may be.  The force is always focused on the next move (i.e. never on past success or failure) and it is the same force from the first whistle – basically to stop the opponent from scoring a goal but to score goals (plural) at the other end.
 
Intensity or lack of has been a problem we have had all season.   Yesterday, Huddersfield's first goal undid us in a most unexpected manner especially since our players made numerous errors in the build-up to it suggesting intensity had already gone.   Perhaps there are just too many 'go with the flow' types  in this team who are diminishing the effects of the more formidable and harder to deal with characters around, and that includes the coaching staff personalities and so on.
   
Intensity comes from wanting something and knowing there is a way to achieve it but it does need to be harnessed and properly released if it isn't going to go to waste because others are not so committed. All three of our goals were down to excellent personal intent.  1) Hector's pass to BDR and his electric footwork to fool the defender and open up the goal.  2) Christie's shimmy to wrong foot the defender, followed by TC's right foot shot.  3) Bryan's look up and cross into AM's path.   At the moment the third goal went in what was said or done to change things so we completely lost that intensity and struggled to get any semblance of it back?  Whatever it was that did happen was missing for goals 1 and 2.

Look back at other games where the same thing has happened – purple patches followed by cluelessness mostly without such a sizeable lead.   

[roberto w6]

Intensity is a force which should be present, and at the same level, no matter what the score of a game may be.  The force is always focused on the next move (i.e. never on past success or failure) and it is the same force from the first whistle – basically to stop the opponent from scoring a goal but to score goals (plural) at the other end.
 
Intensity or lack of has been a problem we have had all season.   Yesterday, Huddersfield's first goal undid us in a most unexpected manner especially since our players made numerous errors in the build-up to it suggesting intensity had already gone.   Perhaps there are just too many 'go with the flow' types  in this team who are diminishing the effects of the more formidable and harder to deal with characters around, and that includes the coaching staff personalities and so on.
   
Intensity comes from wanting something and knowing there is a way to achieve it but it does need to be harnessed and properly released if it isn't going to go to waste because others are not so committed. All three of our goals were down to excellent personal intent.  1) Hector's pass to BDR and his electric footwork to fool the defender and open up the goal.  2) Christie's shimmy to wrong foot the defender, followed by TC's right foot shot.  3) Bryan's look up and cross into AM's path.   At the moment the third goal went in what was said or done to change things so we completely lost that intensity and struggled to get any semblance of it back?  Whatever it was that did happen was missing for goals 1 and 2.

Look back at other games where the same thing has happened – purple patches followed by cluelessness mostly without such a sizeable lead.


Very eloquently put. I tried to say the same thing using the word "inconsistency" but you are right, it can more accurately be described as "intensity". Still, at least we know we can do it when our stars are aligned which must give us hope that we can learn to apply the intensity throughout

[General]

Before January we would have lost that game. Rodak played a stunner, we were lucky mitro came back in as he galvanises our front line and attacking player. Reids goal was inspired. What I'd give for a fully fit squad though for the rest of the season. If we had a fully fit squad we'd stand a good chance at automatic promotion I reckon.

[Fulham 442]

Before January we would have lost that game. Rodak played a stunner, we were lucky mitro came back in as he galvanises our front line and attacking player. Reids goal was inspired. What I'd give for a fully fit squad though for the rest of the season. If we had a fully fit squad we'd stand a good chance at automatic promotion I reckon.

+1

[Hatch007]

I dont get the comments about Odoi being able to take the ball out from back. I know I'm critical of him at CB but what some of you are saying is exactly why he gives me the wobbles in that position. He did it yesterday, runs out with it and passed two yards straight to a Huddersfield player. When he actually runs with it and pushes ball in front he usually puts it too far forward and that when he loses its. Not for me sorry, rb fine.

The difference being he was playing in a CB pairing yesterday. In a back 3 he would be afforded cover either side of him to cover for his occasional, yet epically monumental, brain fades

[Motspur Park]

Whilst a back 3 is a possible experimental option, it is not a system we employ. We are pretty well set up with a 4-1-4-1 with Kmac sitting in front of the defence and Mitro as lone striker. We have a number of wide and midfield options and whilst I would like to see 2 up front, it is frustrating when we get picked off at the back. I would prefer to be defending with a holding midfielder rather than defend deeper with 3 at the back.

[Bassey the warrior]

We scored fantastic goals but I wouldn't say we were fantastic for the first 35 minutes. There were plenty of sloppy passes. It's more that Huddersfield were incredibly sloppy. Once they started playing we looked very vulnerable, very weak down the flanks but also in midfield.

Overall they were probably the better side, so we have to hope that it's down to us having so many centre backs missing and Odoi not being used to playing cb. McDonald was off the pace as well and Christie looked very poor defensively.

[Bassey the warrior]

I actually thought TC was one of our worst today. He seems to be so negative nowadays shame as he has it all even I right foot as he proved today

TC is played far too advanced and far too wide. Thus his talent is often nullified.
However a sublime pass to bryan led to mitro's goal and he also scored a top class goal himself. Not bad for one of the worse players.

In fact we were at our best when he dropped deep and even when he apparently plays a negative pass he does it quickly.

Not sure most people would agree with your assaesment.

I'm going to go against the tide and say if he plays too deep his shooting ability and ability to get assists is nullified. I appreciate he's good at getting us moving forward but he's also a good finisher.