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Shortcomings


Maesknoll Red

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I’ll start off by readily admitting I don’t see as many games as I used to, so my perception may well be different than someone who has seen all, or at least most of the games.

Earlier in the season, we looked disjointed, some of the performances could have been by 11 blokes plucked from 11 different clubs and no time to gel or learn each other’s play and with no management/coaching input.

The performances have turned round, the run since November has been a credit to the Manager, coaches and players, that said, every game I have seen, we seem to have a a team that is missing a touch of quality, initiative and guile in the final third.  Maybe that’s even a bit harsh, the final ball and the finishing not being of consistent quality might be more accurate.

20 goal a season strikers are undoubtedly expensive and in demand, but I feel that with a genuine goal scorer and a back up who played off them (maybe an existing player could do just that) we’d be looking a lot more comfortable and confident.

Even when you win games week on week, it does no harm to look with a critical eye at how that was achieved and on the back of today’s game I wonder what others thoughts are on what would change us from a decent, likely playoff contending team, to one pushing for autos?

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I know Palmer seems to have gone from hero to zero in a couple of games but I hope he gets a start Tuesday.

Alongside Pisano starting. Shortcoming for me would be playing Wright at fullback again, no doubt a totally committed player and if we lost one of the center backs Baily replacing either wouldn't worry me. But he ain't a fullback in a side that want's to make the top 6.

I don't know how far Hunt is from fitness but he was starting to look the part.

Anyway would love to see us really go for it at home. Ala Sheff Utd.

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10 minutes ago, Bobby Bollax said:

We’ve had 20 goal  goalscorers before. Kodjia, Tammy, Bobby and still didn’t get promoted.  This team scores goals from all parts. This is our best defence for as long as I can remember. 

Not getting promoted might have had something to do with the other 10 players.  Just a hunch.  This team has a solid defence, a good balance and the ability to create chances.  Although I've defended Dhiedhou on here recently, Tammy-level quality up front is probably the biggest weakness in this side.  In fact I would go as far as saying that, if we had Tammy in this side, it would all but guarantee top six and possibly even top 2.

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7 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

We tried to sign Assambolonga and Hogan. Not sure what else the club can do. Who else is there?

With all his money, and the ideal Channel Island climate, I would have thought that SL would have had his gardner breeding, grafting, fertilising and pruning a Tammy tree in his Guernsey greenhouse, so that there would be a crop of ripe, championship standard , 20 goal a season strikers ripe and ready for the picking in January of every year.

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11 minutes ago, ChippenhamRed said:

Not getting promoted might have had something to do with the other 10 players.  Just a hunch.  This team has a solid defence, a good balance and the ability to create chances.  Although I've defended Dhiedhou on here recently, Tammy-level quality up front is probably the biggest weakness in this side.  In fact I would go as far as saying that, if we had Tammy in this side, it would all but guarantee top six and possibly even top 2.

Indeed. You can pick the bones out of every possible Sanario. We punch above our weight. The squad doesn’t contain any journeymen players which my villa mate is jealous of.  

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6 hours ago, Bobby Bollax said:

We’ve had 20 goal  goalscorers before. Kodjia, Tammy, Bobby and still didn’t get promoted.  This team scores goals from all parts. This is our best defence for as long as I can remember. 

Isn't the point that we didn't have a lethal goalscorer with a defence this good? Or vice versa...

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You need goals but a 20 goal striker isn’t essential. What is essential is a great team  all round. 

I think our issue is no back up for Fammy. He will have to play 3 games on his own up top this week - and the role he plays doesn’t lend itself well to that. That isn’t a criticism of the club btw just where we are. 

9 hours ago, AshtonGreat said:

Although it sounds like they weren't at the races today

Not true at all - Norwich are a very good side and at times we did well to stop th scoring more. 

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13 hours ago, Redsi2 said:

Not getting a top striker in the January transfer window will cost us again in my opinion. Not saying any were available but that top striker could make the difference. We rely on too many goals from midfield. 

It wasn’t as if LJ and MA didn’t look to sign a decent striker in the winter window. They did but there were non available at the right price as January is never the best time to sign any player because the asking price is always higher.

Add to that the strategy that LJ is adhering to.....City don’t pay top Championship wages which is another stumbling block.

 

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5 minutes ago, Robbored said:

It wasn’t as if LJ and MA didn’t look to sign a decent striker in the winter window. They did but there were non available at the right price as January is never the best time to sign any player because the asking price is always higher.

Add to that the strategy that LJ is adhering to.....City don’t pay top Championship wages which is another stumbling block.

 

The club have got many things right this season but they know how much Championship strikers cost and it is a failure on their part not to have bought a striker in given that it was announced that was what LJ wanted ( I don’t buy this ‘ Taylor came back from injury sooner than expected smoke screen ) .

We need a top class striker, an upgrade , Matty , Weimann and Diedhiou should now have serious competition for their places helping us assure our play off place but they haven’t.

If you can’t shop in Harrod’s you go elsewhere.

There must be strikers good enough out there , Europe or otherwise , to have done the job I just hope we don’t miss out through lack of goals.

 

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6 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

The club have got many things right this season but they know how much Championship strikers cost and it is a failure on their part not to have bought a striker in given that it was announced that was what LJ wanted ( I don’t buy this ‘ Taylor came back from injury sooner than expected smoke screen ) .

We need a top class striker, an upgrade , Matty , Weimann and Diedhiou should now have serious competition for their places helping us assure our play off place but they haven’t.

If you can’t shop in Harrod’s you go elsewhere.

There must be strikers good enough out there , Europe or otherwise , to have done the job I just hope we don’t miss out through lack of goals.

 

Of all the different playing positions strikers are top of the list followed by attacking midfielders. All clubs both here and abroad know that so wherever you look you’ll have the same problem.

When you buy from abroad you can never tell just how quickly the player will adapt, not just to the Championship but to a new country and new language. City were fortune with Kodjia but Dionsy was a flop. Famara is a good striker in the Championship but not an out and out goal scorer.

So.....it’s not as simple as “shopping elsewhere”.

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Would you rather a Diony or no one? I think we tried to get strikers who would be better than Fam but could not do it. So instead of getting in a risky foreign signing or risky young player we stuck with what we had. Not signing a striker will undoubetly cost us down the line but if we couldn’t sign one better than Fam we’d just have spent money to not progress. Can’t beat the club up on this one imo. 

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I obviously don’t want us the miss out, but previously I’ve said that progress isn’t all about league position, and i’ll reiterate that now, because I’ve seen progress in recruitment, style / identity of play, and in the main consistency of selection.  Those were areas I thought needed improvement and LJ has done that.

It is no shame if we finish below 6th, assuming we are in the mix between now and May.  I’m not expecting a dramatic fall away like last season.  I would be disappointed if that did happen. Of course it would feel like we’ve wasted an opportunity, but I'm realistic to know how tough a league this is.

For me, yesterday was about us not defending as a team.  I thought we got a bit carried away in the second half, and didn’t run as hard going towards our own goal as we did towards theirs.  That has been the foundation of our run, and yesterday (against a good side) we didn’t do the basics after h-t.

I hope this was a one-off.  We will see on Tuesday.

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1 hour ago, Robbored said:

Of all the different playing positions strikers are top of the list followed by attacking midfielders. All clubs both here and abroad know that so wherever you look you’ll have the same problem.

When you buy from abroad you can never tell just how quickly the player will adapt, not just to the Championship but to a new country and new language. City were fortune with Kodjia but Dionsy was a flop. Famara is a good striker in the Championship but not an out and out goal scorer.

So.....it’s not as simple as “shopping elsewhere”.

I didn’t say it was simple but certain people at the club are paid small fortunes to deliver and in this window they didn’t.

You write as though I never thought about those things ! 

So you need a goalscorer ? Do you suddenly wake up on the 1st of January and start looking ? 

There are analysts, scouts and a whole team of recruitment specialists doing the research non stop so we would have had a list of that type of player .

We didn’t land a single goal scorer , for whatever reason , and that may just go down as a reason why we miss out on promotion this season.

It may not but no one can hand on heart say that we are over endowed with natural finishers at the club . 

Had we had one on the pitch yesterday we may well be talking about automatic promotion after beating or drawing with Norwich as it is we are still well placed for the lottery of a play off spot.

Fine margins.

 I respect Steve Lansdown but sometimes feel that he is over prudent in his approach to the footballing side of things.

For those who cry ‘ FFP ‘ well , we could have sold on two or three players to make the wages available for one quality finisher .

 

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6 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

I didn’t say it was simple but certain people at the club are paid small fortunes to deliver and in this window they didn’t.

You write as though I never thought about those things ! 

So you need a goalscorer ? Do you suddenly wake up on the 1st of January and start looking ? 

There are analysts, scouts and a whole team of recruitment specialists doing the research non stop so we would have had a list of that type of player .

We didn’t land a single goal scorer , for whatever reason , and that may just go down as a reason why we miss out on promotion this season.

Of course there are analysts, scouts  and recruitment specialists at City, every Championship club has them and are all fishing from the same pond. Fact is that many of them have better bait than we do.

I posted awhile back that LJ is doing a tremendous  job and all with one hand tied behind his back because of the sustainability strategy from SL and that factor almost certainly played a significant part in why City didn’t sign a striker in January - assuming there were some available. 

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1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

I didn’t say it was simple but certain people at the club are paid small fortunes to deliver and in this window they didn’t.

You write as though I never thought about those things ! 

So you need a goalscorer ? Do you suddenly wake up on the 1st of January and start looking ? 

There are analysts, scouts and a whole team of recruitment specialists doing the research non stop so we would have had a list of that type of player .

We didn’t land a single goal scorer , for whatever reason , and that may just go down as a reason why we miss out on promotion this season.

It may not but no one can hand on heart say that we are over endowed with natural finishers at the club . 

Had we had one on the pitch yesterday we may well be talking about automatic promotion after beating or drawing with Norwich as it is we are still well placed for the lottery of a play off spot.

Fine margins.

 I respect Steve Lansdown but sometimes feel that he is over prudent in his approach to the footballing side of things.

For those who cry ‘ FFP ‘ well , we could have sold on two or three players to make the wages available for one quality finisher .

 

1st bold - we will indeed have a list, but they gave to be available and willing to come here all at a justifiable fee and wage, plus all the other bits and bobs too.

2nd bold - we could indeed, but by the same token, you’ve got to have clubs after them and willing to pay their fees and wages too...and the player has got to want to go too.  Most of our players who’d command a fee and would free up wages are getting gametime, or are / were injured, so I’m not sure who we could’ve lost.

If we don’t go up, I do agree that LJ needs to go with a trimmer squad (for next season), to accommodate a couple of “better” players to lift the levels.

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We were told the lad coming back from Newport  was for the first team. That would have kept to the plan of promoting youth. I would be happy if we need a goal to chuck him on but he not even making the bench. Why didn't we leave him to develop at Newport. He must be disgruntled. 

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3 minutes ago, Redsi2 said:

We were told the lad coming back from Newport  was for the first team. That would have kept to the plan of promoting youth. I would be happy if we need a goal to chuck him on but he not even making the bench. Why didn't we leave him to develop at Newport. He must be disgruntled. 

Where did you hear that Semenyo was recalled for the first team?   

There was wild speculation on here that that was the reason but I don’t recall seeing anything official via an interview or in the media.

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7 minutes ago, Robbored said:

Where did you hear that Semenyo was recalled for the first team?   

There was wild speculation on here that that was the reason but I don’t recall seeing anything official via an interview or in the media.

Maybe he worked it out for himself , probably helped by the fact he was actually on the bench for the first team a couple of weeks back .

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18 hours ago, downendcity said:

With all his money, and the ideal Channel Island climate, I would have thought that SL would have had his gardner breeding, grafting, fertilising and pruning a Tammy tree in his Guernsey greenhouse, so that there would be a crop of ripe, championship standard , 20 goal a season strikers ripe and ready for the picking in January of every year.

He has this facility,  it's called the academy,  and it costs a fortune!

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9 minutes ago, Robbored said:

Where did you hear that Semenyo was recalled for the first team?   

There was wild speculation on here that that was the reason but I don’t recall seeing anything official via an interview or in the media.

So why else would he have been recalled? He was getting regular games and positive reviews in league 2. Cant see any reason in bringing him back if it isn't to be involved in the first team.

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