robin_unreliant

Pretty much the best team available I'd say. No complaints from me.

47 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Or very wasteful strikers, not taking chances

Are we creating any more chances than we were under Nige though? I think I saw a post saying xG has hardly changed. In which case you can't pin the worse PPG on them, it is more about letting in more goals.

Whether that is down to the changes made by LM or just worse performance by individual players is quite hard for me, as an average fan, to fathom.

1 hour ago, firstdivision said:

My impression of the first half was that the players said ‘let’s go back to how we were playing before LM came in.’ Mind you, it was dire, which is kind of why the board made the change in the first place.
We improved when we started to pass it. Eg lovely move down the right that ended with Knight’s shot saved by keeper to his left. 

Yeah, I do wonder if the players are actually doing what LM is asking them to. Maybe, under pressure, they revert to their comfort zone.

It's not like he can drop them en masse as the squad is too small. Comments by Naismith on RTV suggested what he was seeing wasn't what they did in training. All of which makes you wonder if LM is failing to take the players with him.

21 minutes ago, Loosey Boy said:

What did Kal and Nahki say?

From what I remember they were mostly saying that what they were seeing didn't match what was happening in training. Naismith was very critical of Max constantly humping it long and for players not moving into space to make options for a pass. He said they needed to be braver 

It was exactly what I would've said. However it seemed more critical of the players than the coach.

Biggest concern for me is that NP seemed to have tightened up the defence but now we are back to letting in soft goals. With a misfiring attack that is a recipe for a slide down the table.

A shitload of defenders and not one jumps!

Just now, Buster said:

We look like relegation candidates

This.

I would see 6 points from the next 5 games. That could put us a lot closer to the relegation than playoff zone. Get ready for a meltdown on OTIB.

Did we get compensation for him from Burnley? Looked on several transfer sites and they all show it as a Free Transfer. I don't recall hearing anything from the club confirming a compo number.

7 minutes ago, Gert Mare said:

However, at the moment we are equally playing a dangerously high line that can put us in a position of having to try to get back into a game against a team that otherwise wouldn’t necessarily cause us any serious attacking threat.

 

 

I agree with this, we look a bit more prone to conceding when the ball is turned over. Opposition coaches will be getting an idea of how LM sets us up now and potentially will exploit it in future.

Wasn't the stodgy element due to NP trying to play a style that reduced the impact of individual errors? By playing deeper and counter-attacking we were a bit more solid - or stodgy in your terms.

My concern with the way we're playing now is when we lose the ball we look more likely to concede.

Swings and roundabouts I guess. While it is good to see us attack more often, reverting to giving away soft goals just leaves me frustrated and a bit fed up of the same old weaknesses coming back to the fore.

W.T.A.F Sykes off makes no sense unless he's carrying an injury.

1 minute ago, bexhill reds said:

Then why try to play to a system we’ve not got the quality for…. THAT IS Mannings fault. 
 

The previous manager played to a system that suited the players we did have….

Exactly. Nige was being pragmatic with what he'd been allowed to spend.

Just now, steviestevieneville said:

343 not working for me at the moment . Way too much space down our flanks especially our left . 

Point I made earlier. Nige gave up on three at the back because we leaked goals. It was when he switched to a back four that things improved. We're just going back there it seems.

Just now, transfer reader said:

A largely decent performance, barring an individual error for their goal and a spell for about 10 minutes afterwards.

Well on top before the goal and really should have got a couple.

Even after our poor spell there were a couple of very good chances where players took the wrong options.

Bear in mind that was our good half....

Sykes is wasted in this team. Forget Bell and Conway, he'll be the next nest egg enhancer.

4 minutes ago, Wanderingred said:

We are so utterly dominant here that I expect us to concede soon.

Did you have to

Did we not come to the conclusion under NP that this squad really doesn't suit three at the back?

5 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Could well be this

                     Max

         Tanner. Dickie. Vyner

Weimann. James. Williams. Sykes

         Bell.  Conway.   Knight. 
 

or knight behind two strikers 

I'm thinking if you swapped Bell and Sykes in your lineup  it would make some sense imho.

1 minute ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

I think he's very data driven and that impacts his decisions. 

I don't know how we're lining up but lets say Sykes is playing at LB then that will be because he's seen something in the data which makes him think it would be beneficial for us to play Sykes at LB. 

If that's the case I suggest he stops looking down at the data on his tablet and tries looking at the bloody pitch.

On 17/10/2023 at 14:48, Lanterne Rouge said:

 

A case in point local to me is the reopening of the Okehampton to Exeter passenger service a couple of years ago - the passengers using it are (I think) 200%+ of what was forecast and you can`t get a seat at peak times. With the traffic into Exeter from the A30 and the eye-watering cost of parking in the city (I paid £2.80 for an hour around a mile from the centre last week) it`s a no-brainer if you live in Okey and work in Exeter and don`t need a car while you`re there. 

The car parks in Exeter now have a two hour minimum stay at £3.50. For me to go in from Cullompton it is only £2 each way on a bus but it takes fifty minutes to get there. They are planning to reopen the train station here in a couple of years but these things always take soooo long. They were talking about it when I moved here ten years ago!

2 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

Just read the evening post write up and this line stood out for me:

”Matty James said that’s the most controlled he’d ever felt in a game, complete dominance”

Now, that quote to me is revealing for a few reasons;

- He’s name dropping a senior professional and a “Pearson” player. A bit of this is to say “look the players are on side” but it is also a classic tactic when you know you’re under pressure or haven’t performed well “look x said it was good”. Any of us who have worked in offices will have seen that tactic and it’s normally the preserve of the weak

- It’s very unlikely to be true. Matty James has played for teams who have won this league and the league above. He’s undoubtedly been in more control of games.

It just feels uncomfortable to have a head coach quoting one of the senior players. Surely that should be left to MJ to say, you don't generally hear what's said in the dressing room, for obvious reasons. Comes across as LM lacking confidence imo.

3 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The nepotism thing isn't uncommon in family or corporate businesses of course but this is particularly bad.

Just watch Succession to see the possible outcome. Not sure which of the useless offspring is closest to Jon but can't see how he is better than any of them.

20 minutes ago, cheese said:

 

Fine margins and I'm optimistic it will come good and the results will come.

My concern is that we don't have enough quality up front to consistently take the chances we create. Plus the soft goals are creeping back in again after we seemed to have cut them out. So, to summarise, I am not as optimistic as you. All comes down to inconsistency due to the level of players in the squad imo.

41 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Yup. Posted similar the other day. He’s no doubt and by all accounts a good coach. Jury definitely out on if he’s a good manager.

But according to JL what we needed to 'kick on' was a coach who worked on the grass to organise our Top 6 squad, not a manager. Apparently Tins can do the rest. Deluded unfortunately.