by URZZZZ »
09 Feb 2023 09:52
Stranded URZZZZ As with last season, we don’t press high enough up the park. We let the opposition settle into every game as a result. Very few teams are able to successfully execute playing it out from the back so I’m not quite sure why we play so cautiously so often. I get we try and play with pressing “trigger points” but I don’t think it’s worked particularly well which goes with the amount of goals we concede
Similarly I’m not sure we have much of a plan attacking. We can’t string three passes together without it going back to Lumley. Must have one of the lowest possession stats in the league? We rarely create good chances for our strikers (four talented strikers on how many goals between them?). The movement in the team is too static. Said it many times before but this formation is so dependent on the wide players. Look how closely our form corresponds with Hoilett’s drop in form - almost from the exact same game (Norwich H game). Pace and directness hurts and to be fair to Ince, Azeez was a great choice as a sub at LWB on Saturday. The use of Rahman this season is baffling
Where we have improved tenfold this season is our ability to mix it up physically. Compare our performance at Luton this season to our home one last season back in January. Likewise winning at the Den is a fantastic result
16th is obviously a decent achievement given the pre-season predictions. But we’ve been on borderline relegation form since matchday 8 (that sounds familiar) and 4 wins in 18 is a concern. Calls for him to go are premature but the last thing we need is to be dragged down into a relegation fight with the fixtures we have coming up this month. And Ince has a history of starting well at jobs before dismantling
Whilst I agree with a lot above I do just get annoyed by the parroting of the 4 in 18 stat without context. We had a run of 9 games, mainly away against teams, who st the time were largely in form or at the top of the table. We picked up about as many points as people expected in that run. It's why the good start was key.
In the 9 games since then, we are a top 10 team.
If you take from the restart, we are 14th and taken more points than all the bottom 5 bar Huddersfield, who have taken the same from a much easier run.
Our form is fine.
Context? We lost 2-0 to a team that had been winless for 8 games. Twice we’ve thrown away 2 goal leads. Also threw away two more leads against QPR and Burnley (although of course Burnley was desperately unlucky). Gave away a three goal lead against Birmingham (their only home win in
, and lost 4-0 to a pretty woeful Stoke side
Course you can mitigate that with the 2-0 recovery on Saturday, winning from behind at Hull, and a decent point at Norwich but the bottom line is we should have more wins in that period. And that’s why we’ve dropped to being 1st in October (even if it was only for four minutes!) to being 16th
Sure, do think there is an every growing divide in the Championship that wasn’t so apparent before. The top six is all fairly predictable with West Brom, Watford, Boro, SU and Burnley all there. But do somewhat feel there’s been a missed opportunity given our start.