Davefevs

Had a really good spell at Wycombe a few years back.

Whilst Naismith made some individual mistakes and criticised for it, it is just one aspect of how we were playing and what we have missed is his speed at moving the ball between the lines. I only referenced this and the word “penetration” (or lack of) a few days ago, and it was pretty much exactly what Nige said in his interview. Only Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Burnley) across the whole of the Champ has made more passes that break the lines than Naismith. Naismith helps Andi play facing forward. Naismith helps us play through the centre of the pitch. Thats not saying Naismith solves all our problems, but him missing is definitely a factor in the way we are playing. We are playing some nice stuff, but a lot more of it is in front of our opponents. They are forcing us wide and hitting percentage crosses. I hope he’s back soon. That doesn’t turn us into a top 6 side overnight, but I do think it improves our effectiveness.

I guess the question I’d be asking is “was it the international break or something else?”. Not saying these are the reasons, but… we lost Matty James ahead of QPR (first game after the break) for 5 games we lost Kal Naismith during the Coventry game (second game back) To a lesser degree we lost Scott and Williams in successive games through yellow card suspensions I think they are a part of it. Naismith not yet back.

I was too…in the open end. I’m so glad that the footage of it was found and restored. I can overlay the colour over the b@w in my mind when I watch it. A beauty.

Agree. plus, how do we know it’s a child (disabled or not) that was offended and reported it to the steward? Some adults don’t like swearing at all, a lot of people hate the c-bomb for example. A complaint suggests the OP was OTT.

Assombalonga might’ve actually been onside also….it was really tight….just looked bad because he’d timed his run well and was well beyond Moore when Moore glanced it into his path. TV view doesn’t help, but remember seeing a different view at the time and I was amazed how tight it was.

I hope he can get more minutes over the next 3 games, and give Nige food for thought post-WC. Nige talks about power and pace, and for me, that’s Cam. He’s 25 in January, so a bit of a late starter at this level, but he can make up for that. I like Jay but I think some of that is thinking back to what he was like when he first came here on loan and the potential he had. He is now fit, has been for some time, but I’m not sure he’s attained the levels I thought he would. So, I’m backtracking! ? With finances so tight, if Cam can get a good set of games under his belt pre and post-WC, then I think Jay is gonna have to up his game to “earn his new contract”. You’d imagine there are gonna be cheaper options in the summer? Reminds me of Howard Moon (Julian Barrett) and it would be a mighty boosht if he continues to play well! I’ll get me coat / poncho!

My first exposure to football swearing was from my dad….home v Liverpool….in the open end with the Liverpool fans, my dad shouts “Mabbutt, you effing fairy”. Cue applause for the Liverpool fans! Went home and told my mum ??? A few seasons back I took him to MK Dons (a) and I’m sure he called one of their players a “pussy”! He denies it, but Joe reckons he did too. So that’s where I get it from (in the right time and place)!

Nice interview, thought about his answers.

Wears white socks though!

I think it’s more a penalty than not a penalty, but it isn’t clear cut for me. The acid test for me is, would you have given a free-kick for it on the halfway line? If yes, it’s a penalty, if not, then fair enough. Where it happens is irrelevant. Contact is allowed.

Maybe just using it as a way to reinforce messages; - we were looking at loans in the summer (this one, maybe others) but they didn’t get done, so stop saying “I don’t like loans” - how an ex-PL team are further up the pecking order than us (not shit Sherlock) and recruitment isn’t a case of just getting who you want - any players we are contacting re potential loan in January, City might be a better option for you - about needing the odd “maverick” in your squad He was asked the Question re the Khadra sub / tactical change, and he answered it…and gave us some “nice” info in the process! I thought Khadra looked dangerous, and was quicker than Pring…but assume Nige must’ve heard Heckingbottom moaning about him not doing his yards in the other direction. It probably is a bit out of order some of the things said, but tame compared to the lack of class pretty much every week from Barton.

Was confirmed by Nige it was a clause in Martin’s favour, ie, if he made x appearances he could trigger an extra year. Nige said (even though he didn’t sign him) that it was something he quite liked, paraphrased, it’s a nice carrot for the player to push himself to get another year. Would imagine that is what Klose has in his “option”, e.g. if he makes x appearances he can trigger another year.

Yeah, not seen any stats per se. Re City, it’s clear from recent comments, Nige isn’t a back 3 man either, but he’s compromised because of the players he has. My big question is - how does he transition this squad to a back 4 system? My second biggest question is - how does that reflect on previous recruitment? My thoughts - why bring in wingbacks (Wilson)? Why recruit a ball-playing CB (Naismith) when you want a ball winner? My answer - he got what he could and adapted, and in an ideal world he’d have brought in different players. For pure speculation, had we signed Rinomhota (or similar) as our first signing, ie bringing in a ratty CM, might he have felt better about going with 2 CBs and using Rinomhota as the screen? The rest of recruitment might’ve revolved around whether he got Naismith or Rinomhota. Getting both wasn’t necessary / affordable. I’m intrigued where Khadra was gonna fit in….maybe it was as cover for someone leaving like Antoine?

I suspect you are the type of bloke who if a steward approached you and asked you to tone it down because there’d been a complaint, you’d respect that…and tone it down. I know I would.

Nobody is gonna take Chris Martin off our hands and pay him his current wage….it would cost us money to “mutually terminate” his contract. Even if we loaned him, nobody is gonna pay 100% of his wages, so it’s not gonna free much up, if anything at all. His contract renewal last season was because his appearances triggered an extra year. I’m guessing he won’t hit that trigger this season, and it will be “Viva La Vida” for Chris Martin in the summer. Because those radio commentators have little appreciation of what Chris Martin can and has done over his career, because they saw him for 10 games in 17/18 season, in what was a struggling Reading team. You only have to look back to last season and 19/20 season to see he can be effective at this level. He’s definitely over his peak, he’s 34 tomorrow, but hugely disrespectful for a guy who’s played well over 400 games at this level and scored over 100 goals. It might well be time to move on, but 6 months ago he was part of one of the best forward lines in this division, and he played a big part of that WSM.

It will change over time. Certain formations become en vogue, trying to mirror certain teams. We only have to go back to 66 and Alf’s 442 wingless wonders, and see how that changed how so many team played. And even within that, you have different styles. Re your 433 and how you’d play it, I see that as your “philosophy”, and if you were manager, you’d have a good idea of how you’d want to develop and recruit your squad to play that way. The squad you start with might be a million miles from it though, and that’s where the fun begins!

It is what it is, it’s better than infogol, but not as good as Statsbomb. There is also a difference between “understanding” and then “using” any stats. If a successful pass is counted purely because the next contact is by our player, you can have a player who gets a tick on the box even though it’s a hospital pass. Nagy was a good example of high pass success, but the pass receiver was sometimes played into trouble. That’s difficult to quantify by stats. In my head there’s a model that needs to show “what happens next” and then link that back, e.g. Nagy passes to 5 players with 90% success, but each of those 5 players have varying stats for retaining the ball. Does that highlight Nagy giving hospital passes, or does it highlight the receiving player deficiency. I’m a big believer in player pairings, combos, e.g. how does the RWB link with the CM and the RCB3. I digress. Football is far too fluid a game (as you state) to rely solely on stats, the eyes are still way more important. I like stats to be the “backing up” of what the eyes saw. And sometimes you’re surprised, although we shouldn’t be. In the main, us fans are “ball watchers”, we aren’t looking at off the ball stuff, shape changes etc. You can of course use stats for trends. You are right, there is great opportunity to use stats to streamline the search for new players. Take Joe Ward at Peterborough for example. We are looking for a creative RWB. Just knocking up a set of scatter diagrams shows that he does a lot of (x axis): - passes to the pen area - through passes - crosses (Ignore free-kicks / corners) compared to all Lg1 FBs/WBs But, how accurate (y-axis) is he: - average success for passes - slightly above average for through passes - average for crosses You can obviously repeat this for many other “stats”….I have an additional 17 (plus the 4 above) of these that help me build a data picture of a player, both with and without ball. I’d still have lots of Qs, like: - how much of his volume is because of the team he plays for and their style of play So, can help you fine tune, but it can’t tell me everything, and nor do I ever start by looking at data…unless someone asks me - “who is the best ball winner in Lg1/2 who can pass well”. You’d still caveat it massively!

Hereford home to Portsmouth on Friday night, assume it’s the televised game….???

Ta, he didn’t stop it for long enough then ?

How does he do it then!

Yes, he stood his ground and Scott ran into the back of him.

WTF

Was that when Scott ran into the back of him?

When we got our first VCR (VHS I’ll have you know too!) we went to the local video rental store, my bruv hired the Who “Kids are alright”, and I hired a compilation of the 1972 FA Cup run. Must’ve been early 80s. That goal was on it.