The Swan and Cemetery

If we can’t get better at blocking runners and attacking the ball, I’d be tempted to leave 3 up front just to reduce their numbers a bit and leave the mix of our defenders left a bit higher quality than if none, one or two left up top. Noticed recently we leave two up sometimes, which maybe implies Nige is thinking the best way to defend, with current centre back troubles in particular, is to remove some of the opponents from the penalty area.

Think this is risking looking like a habit, same problem for Cardiff’s 2nd on Saturday, lots of theirs goal side of ours. That said, agree with the view that maybe we need to adapt with Atkinson and Baker out. First goal tonight Scott lost his man, doubt anyone is expecting him to be our top defender of set pieces, so think a fair bit is down to circumstances and being shorthanded at the back. Pretty much guarantees Martin his place and a fit Williams will help as well, but a defensive aerial threat is much needed. Any chance the next Academy cab off the rank is the love child of Terry Butcher and Shaun Taylor?

Decent going forward, but first half final ball not great and second half missed some good chances. HNM and Scott did very well first half, tired a bit second half, but overall great given asked to do a tricky job, no sign of being overrun in midfield. Jay doing a decent job since topping up his Oyster card. I’m reasonably convinced that we’re much better going forward since Max has been in the team, but between him and defence we’re struggling with first things first principle of defending. Not convinced by DB, often stuck to his line as well and very capable of blunders as well (see Fulham). Hopefully keeping working as a unit in training and working very, very hard at dealing with balls into the box and our current travails will improve. I almost wish Williams was rubbish, he looks so good that the angst of him breaking down again is giving me palpitations. Lots to work on, but watching a side that both works hard and is entertaining, is so different to what we’ve had for many a year, particularly at this level (post Dicks favourite teams all 3rd/4th tier).

Williams making a positive impact. Would happily crowd fund in aid of his hamstrings.

Fair enough it didn’t result in clear cut chances, but very different to endless sideways, backwards, eventually lose it possession. Intent is there and a fair bit of quality to get to final third, but so far tonight final ball missing.

Agree we absolutely should be investing in youth and the academy, but think it could be improved by being a bit leaner from 17 or so onwards. And it’s still costs, accepting that if we miss diamonds then that’s a net loss, but think there’s room to be a bit more focused than we have been. We’re at a decent level so the step from academy to U23 is big and think a few more of those lads following a different route probably better for them as well as City, too many discarded across football in recent years. With science, including understanding of players’ potential improved, we should be able reduce false positives. Jojo Wollacott is fair challenge, but - recognising I’m probably rationalising to suit my argument - he was one that probably looked decent for a few years at City, so justified the investment, just couldn’t quite get past decent incumbents?

If things go really well for him, maybe he’ll end up as a Rickie Lambert/Grant Holt type, hardly legendary athletes, but something about them and an eye for goal. As others have said, gone are the days of attempting to be some sort of Little Chelsea with armies of youngsters out on loan, using the approach that if we keep firing the gun, eventually a pheasant will fly past. We need to be more confident that players will make it, that reduces costs and means there’s a clearer pathway for those who are here, but increases the chances that we miss out on a diamond. Conway looks a fair way ahead of the other youngsters up front to me (assuming Semenyo not a youngster), with physical attributes inc pace/strength and an eye for goal. If NP is keeping Tommy close to the first team and not the others, that reassures me in terms of his judgement. If not persisting with LB turns out to be an error, que sera sera, the only way to guarantee not making errors, is to never release anyone - that increases our costs and restricts careers of those that inevitably don’t become first XI regulars.

Max blundered on the second, but keepers will at this level, eg see DB against Fulham. Defenders should have done better, we had 4 vs 3 in the middle, but not much pressure on crossing player, plus players looking confused as to whether we were aiming to be zonal or man marking, resulted in HNM’s player peeling off and having an free header (that Max should have dealt with admittedly). Personally see that goal as symptomatic of our biggest challenge, crosses is in open play, rather than a reason to change keepers. Ball out to eventual crosser, not much pressure. 4 of ours in the middle vs 3 of theirs. Kalas zonally taking the near post, the other 3 man to man, could be a bit closer? Point the ball is crossed, still no pressure, centrally similar positioning, Jay and Zak risk giving their opponents the run on them? COD and Pring overly focussed on the player nearest the bye line, which is dragging Weimann over towards the crosser. Cardiff’s 3 players all goal side of our 4, HNM’s player only one to read the flight of the cross and has a free header. Max then makes a meal of it. Cardiff had options as well with Weimann dragged over, Cardiff player free on the edge of the box.

Agree this is an important period, including the Barnsley game, our record since having overcome our home record bad habit is Home: P8 W5 D1 L2 F14 A11 P16 Away: P5 W0 D1 L4 F6 A16 P1 Any vague improvement in away form and we can look up, but if our home form drops at all, we’ll be heading the other way (albeit significantly protected by points deductions). Challenge is extent to which defence and attack are linked, lots of players up the pitch helping us score goals, but exposing us when we lose the ball. Don’t think it is this, we’re not constantly being undone on the break, our ability to stop and deal with balls into the box is key. Martin helps massively from dead ball situations, but we need a better answer in open play. 16 goals conceded in last 5 away games, so whilst Fulham an anomaly, the other 4 games were 3, 3, 2 and 2. We can’t rely on our much improved attacking game to score 3 or 4 each game, in 3 of those 5 away games we’ve scored 2 and come away with one point overall. More optimistically, if we can fix our defending, even a bit, the future looks very bright.

A combination of the two would be ideal (/unrealistic), but neither clearly ahead of the other for me. Think Max will be disappointed with the 2nd today, but not seen many howlers from him and offers an awful lot more than Dan when we’ve got the ball and when opponents are breaking, as plays much higher.

Indeed, only 1 team has conceded more than us, but only 5 have scored more. Clear why Nige is after defensive ballast this window, whether Klose or not.

Starting to look a proper handful going forward. In different ways Semenyo, Martin and Weimann ran them ragged (accepting they’re not AC Milan 1990 at the back). Since start of December 14 goals in 7 league games is a long way from last season, where we seemed to struggle to get into the opponent’s half. Massengo and Scott great in lots of ways, but think we need one experienced head in there, if we can get them out of the treatment room. That said, pleased Williams wasn’t needed, a bit more recovery useful. O’Dowda did lots of things well, but his final ball is almost bizarrely poor at times. Thought Jay did okay right side. Whether it’s Klose or someone else, need some more organisation/experience in defence - our defending of set plays was better this week with Martin back in, but from open play we look poor at dealing with crosses. However, very happy to take 14 points off relegation and 9 off the playoffs.

Weimann’s been great at lifting energy of the team, always looking for quick throws and free kicks and expressing frustration with team mates when it doesn’t happen.

Thought it had a hint of, I still get the night terrors, Steve Bull bearing down on the South Bank before completely his 83rd consecutive hattrick against us.

Apparently rumours going ‘round local clubs that our Academy under 10’s coaches don’t think ANY of their boys are ready for the first team. When this scandal breaks, we’ll finally need to face facts and accept the academy just isn’t delivering.

I can forgive our previous failings if SL confirms that his number one objective to previous management, was to ensure our age chart resembled a graduation ceremony in a pendulum factory.

Guess training maybe giving some decent clues up against Martin in particular, but maybe also Conway/Britton. Being good in the air at this level is really about positioning and working out what will happen next, more than pure physical attributes. Mitrovic is 6’2” not 6’7”, but is much more skilled than most (/all) at this level in the ancient arts of being a striker. We’ve probably been guilty for too long on relying on strikers (Fam and this season CM) to defend dead balls. Now we’re seeing the fruits of a different approach/personnel up front, we’ve whack-a-moled a different problem to our defence. For one vs one against a decent striker think Baker is a big loss, whilst Vyner wasn’t great on Saturday and the team as a whole hardly demonstrated Italian-esque defending, that’s the last time we’ll see a potentially 50+ goals striker this season, which is an important part of Saturday’s puzzle/disappointment.

Definitely not saying I agree with the selection/tactics, just the objectives NP has been given maybe more like: 1. Avoid relegation 2. If 1 going to be achieved, develop something sustainable/cheaper, but successful for the future 3. If 1 and 2 achieved, finish as high up this season as possible. Normally we’d expect 3 to be a more critical priority, I’m not sure it is. And if it isn’t, we may need to get used to odd choices (and performances/results), as he works out who stays/goes in the summer and what we’ll look like in 22/23 (including using this season as some ‘free’ development time for players, both as individuals, see Scott/Benarous, and positionally, see Vyner/Dasilva). And this may include seeing what players are capable of in high pressure environments, that lead directly to negative outcomes in terms of results, but provide insight for the future. Lots of threads have had comments about why some teams that are smaller/similar sized to us are above us. Most of those teams have been working away at something for a number of years and have taken plenty of steps backward along the way, to ultimately move forward. Whilst SL can be held culpable for appointments over the years that have led us to here, here is where we are and if NP has been asked to fundamentally change things, it maybe very bumpy. But equally, it might just be selection/tactical errors by NP, all speculation!

The team selection did have a hint of trying things out to see what’s needed for the future, ie accepting that 0 points likely, anything more a bonus. If NP expects all his CB’s to be able to deal with all strikers, then testing Vyner was an opportunity to learn. Our run of games up to Blackburn indicates we’d expect to pick up a fair few points and be reasonably close to safety, given the troubles of teams below us. All that said, just trying to come up with a hypothesis that it was deliberate (don’t necessarily agree the right thing to do if it was), rather than pretty straightforward errors in tactics. Whilst Vyner wouldn’t be who I’d choose to put against Mitrovic if we were desperate to win, don’t think unreasonable to expect him to have performed a lot better than he did. Not acceptable just to be pushed off the ball etc - maybe he grows as a result, maybe he doesn’t. Some of what we see indicates NP has been told to keep us up, no more, invest time/effort in building something better, but cheaper, for next season and beyond. Hoping there’s some defensive talent in the U23’s, as currently those coming through all further up the pitch, but critical there is some, as we’ve made progress going forward, but getting worse defensively, with a lack of cash to spend.

And managing to say nothing even vaguely interesting or insightful if asked these types of questions. Lots of better journalists out there as well, who, given they’re better, are more likely to be asking Klopp et al questions, which results in better answers. None of us think it’s acceptable for footballers to be terrible at the job and show no signs of trying to improve, don’t see why journalists should get a free pass. As has been mentioned, James Piercy asks better questions and gets better answers.

Don’t claim to understand FFP, but is there an argument that a 3 year timeframe doesn’t allow for a long enough cycle of up and downs? Therefore the only way to be confident of complying, is to work towards the most conservative plausible scenario you can come up with? That might be sensible for sustainability for football in the FL, but would surely result in an even more ludicrous cliff event between PL and FL? That then leads to something more akin to rugby, which then leads to questions about ring fencing. Arguably already at ‘soft’ ring fencing given parachute payments. Feels to me that whilst lots of good intent in FFP, Football League need to think a bit harder about unintended consequences and how they influence the wider game, whilst also pulling their clubs back from the unsustainable position they’ve been in. A difficult conundrum, but the sum of the powers that be, FA, PL, FL, government etc, need to recognise the extent of support for lower league clubs, which is very different to other countries. Global TV money may dampen this importance from a commercial perspective, but can’t ignore Sunderland getting >30k in tier 3, teams getting >5k in tier 5 etc. Should be a way to monetise that support into a sensible business model, whilst protecting the importance to supporters of their local club.

He’s meant to be dealing with professional journalists, not 8 year old kids doing a school project. He keeps getting asked questions he clearly can’t answer in a way that is insightful, unless he gives away things he shouldn’t, eg transfer speculation and match tactics. Think he gives a lot of thoughtful and interesting answers across the full range of his interviews (meaning the ‘talking to the fans’ point gets dealt with), doesn’t bother me that he gets frustrated with lazy/incompetent journalists (those that are, some are great).

Do fines count towards FFP… ? Personally would be very happy to take the fine for comments in this case, as need the powers that be to take notice. It wasn’t usual manager whinging to provide air cover for a poor performance, it was pointing to a performance that looked to be beyond the incompetence we often see from referees, players and managers and be something more troubling. All the “it’s really difficult being a referee” comments are fair when it’s poor performance, but this appeared to be different and Nige pointed it out.

Not saying this was the rationale, but guess a sending off and an injury, whilst very unlikely, maybe plausible and given a game that could well end in penalties, being confident of having a fit keeper on the pitch maybe more important. Given 7 other subs to cover 10 positions, not necessarily madness, particularly as also gave Wiles-Richards the matchday experience others have alluded to.

Difficult to drawn any statistically robust conclusions given low volumes, but feels like last season a lot more very long/season ending injuries, this season only Williams that we’re finding very difficult to get on the pitch, plus Baker which is an issue that don’t think any medic can really solve. This year’s King/James injuries would have been Weimann/Martin etc last season, ie not ideal this season, but much shorter. Don’t necessarily think that means Rennie performing miracles, more the previous regime were poor.