Davefevs

That made me spit my tea out!

Looks like he’s out if the WC with a finger injury. Gutted for him.

Agree, it doesn’t feel like a football song to me. Im more worried about Mrs F not realising that a few Saturday’s off of football isn’t setting a precedent. She’s already booked Sat 17th Dec afternoon to see friends for pre-Xmas catch-up. WTF!

I’d forgotten Austria hadn’t qualified. Rest up andi.

Yes, but you don’t think he will (in terms of your definition of success), do you? As I said that’s fine.

He also paid for local pitches to be repaired when a car went on a rampage doing wheel spins all over it.

Saw that earlier. Well done Joe.

At the WC break here’s a summary of all 24 matches missed (league and cup): and here’s a summary of yellow cards, next limit is 10 yellows by game 38: I know many will be worried about Scott getting to 10 and another game ban, but that’s the way he plays and a game off at some point would probably happen anyway.

…and if we aren’t in the bottom three (currently 18th btw) what is your opinion then? That he is the right choice? I think it’s clear you ain’t a Pearson fan (and that’s fine), so why come up with scenarios, just say you’d rather he wasn’t here. It doesn’t need “if this” and “if that” for you really does it? Thats not me having a go at you, it’s just your view on Nige is pretty clear, just come out and say it.

Also, what makes Andi Weimann’s a handball off a ball coming over his shoulder that he’s trying to control on the half volley and the Watford player’s not a handball when he visibly moves his body and arm towards it? It’s inconsistent decisions like that in the same game (and obviously the same ref) that do my head in.

His availability has been v.good too. He’s missed just two squads all season, opening day and one other. On a cheap coaches contract (and appearance money) to pass on his experience, he’s doing alright in my book.

Yes, I could see it hit the defender from my seat, just couldn’t tell if the defender had done well to block the pass lane.

Just noticed that TC has appeared in every game this season! That’s pretty good going for a 20 year old getting his first real prolonged taste of first team football. The other thing I noticed was that he’s yet to complete all 90 mins in a game. Maybe some good sport-science is keeping him sharp and not pushing him too far. I do like him, just play like he’s been around for years. Completely unfazed by it too.

Thought Cam’s timing on headers in recent games was a bit out, but yesterday we was very tidy in the air. Andy King:

That will depend on how much they want and how much we are prepared to offer. I’d guess they aren’t anywhere near parity with others, but I guess the wage structure has been lowered. Having said that you’d still expect them to be relatively cheap to extend. Clubs should realise how they often underpay homegrown talent.

From my viewing point I couldn’t tell whether the defender did well to stop the passing angle or not?

I was there on Tuesday too, and was surprised by the criticism King got (against the bar of a poor team first half). I thought he tried to get on the ball and tried to get us playing. I thought Kadji hid behind players. Hard for a player to be dominant in a midfield two when one isn’t doing much. The stats / charts were just a simple way of showing how I viewed it with my eyes.

I was confused by this being a James thread ???

I think if I generalise and say we have played predominantly 3412 counter-attacking, it’s a system with a huge emphasis on those front 3 players to get the goals in open play…it’s them busting to catch teams on the break. I think if we play more like today’s system, we might see other players in better positions, 3rd man runs, etc, and some of the goals starting to be distributed amongst other players.

I don’t think he was anywhere near as bad on Tuesday as you and others made out. Easy to blame him for Kadji playing poorly, got to be the experienced players fault hasn’t it? Maybe not. Shouldn’t Kadji have been providing some of the legs for King? I put up some charts of both players first half performances. One made 36 passes (29 successful), the other 13 (9 successful). You can tell by my post which was which! One still tried to get involved, the other hid.

Do you mean Rob Page! ???????

Careful Dave, remember it’s the players who get the credit when it goes better! ? But don’t you think you perhaps need more balance in your appraisal each week. Because we haven’t been shit that often this season, yet you are constantly castigating them all through most week’s MDT’s. Paul is pretty balanced imho. Nigel even admitted to not liking Nige, and then came up with some bullshit about he’s signed 12 players but only 2 started. Geoff saw through his agenda with comments around the academy players…and to add no credit given to Nige re Vyner, O’Leary, Pring and Wells who had no future until Nige came in. Nor did he mention injuries. Really bugged me. Joe - this is why I say that with most of our better players on the pitch we can be competitive, and I get why you are frustrated (sometimes). In some respects, the last two league games, Nige has said “sod the round pegs in round holes, I’m just gonna put my better players on the pitch”. I know it’s not quite as simple as that, but today playing King over Atkinson was probably based on his communications, as he’s alluded to Rob being an introvert. With two “lesser” (hope you get what I’m getting at?) CBs either side, it would’ve been a tough role for Rob to play as the central man and coax Vyner and Pring through. Don’t get me wrong it was a gamble. However last season, Rob was fine as the CB3 between Kalas and Baker. Today it was obvious who those better players are.

There was some excellent structure and discipline to our play this afternoon. And real trust from the players as teammates. I’ll put up this pic again. With Watford switching the ball from LCB to RCB and Conway on the chase, Dasilva makes a real effort to go to their RB Gaspar (the friendly ghost!) leaving Sema. We can see Pring is in-sync and is working hard to get to Sema, so Jay isn’t easily bypassed. Because Cam is now marking, King has to mark Davis and Vyner therefore is now shaping up to pick up the loose forward, happy to leave his man on the left wing. Weimann “on his bike” to pick up Zak’s man. With Jay about to close down the RB, Watford go back to the keeper. Pring, King and Vyner were happy to 3 v 3, whereas in the past our 3 CBs have only been happy to mark 1, let alone 2 (and have 1 spare), often meaning we get over-run in midfield. This was really good to see. Good intent (not the pub the Broomhill)! When the ball was on the opposite side, we did exactly the same with Weimann closing down the RB, in mirror-fashion.

Without belittling King’s performance, James as a screen was so good today (we’ve been crying out fir that type of performance as a CM / DM. They barely got a ground pass into Davis today. And once Pring won that tackle on Sema as he cut infield off the right wing, their attack appeared toothless.

I really enjoyed it. Went into the game quite fearful of a bad result. Nige picked predominantly his “best” players, even playing Andi out of his best position, and we controlled a game against a top 5 team. That gives me a lot of encouragement and shows with the majority of our best (fit) players on the pitch, even out of position, it’s ability and nous that will move us away from trouble. We should’ve had a penalty (high kick on Wells), Conway got into good positions too. Lots of physicality and tackles going in, winning the 45:55s too. Yep, 2 points from games where a lot of fans saw 2 defeats. A bit of mental resilience from these 2 league games. Lincoln was a mixed line-up that played poorly in the opening 45, that’s all. Max now 8 games, 8 conceded, 2 clean sheets. No save to make either. Was it windy at pitch level…his kicks seemed 25 yards shorter second half? Distribution good first half, a bit “slicy” second half.