Very poor that we gave away goals that early. There’s no excuse for not being ready to go, and it’s totally on MB.
Not a surprise that the defence looked shambolic, and that we struggled to move the ball thru the middle. I was worried about the midfield three as soon as the team was announced. No surprise that Brekin isn’t ready for men’s football yet either. I’m also not surprised our ‘organized fan group,‘ fell a bit flat. Altho there wasn’t much to be excited about.
I suppose with Wheeler on comms it was inevitable we would lose, as it was written in the stars he would not have to celebrate a Wycombe goal against Exeter.
The most significant concern is the same as it was before kickoff - the creative 10 role. De Barr might be the only candidate currently, but not sure if he is up to it after the attempts last season. Or maybe GMac could move over?
Was worried as soon as I saw the line up, sorry, but with the amount of center backs we have, JJ should not be starting, if Forino is fit, start him ! Also, Low is currently in the Welsh squad. Hanlan ?, please, no, just no.
Yes it's the first game so I'm not going to lose sleep over it, we'll come good I'm sure. Of the new guys I thought Leahy and espc Boyes looked decent, Keogh solid (looked very frustrated by the end) and Vincent-Young was much better 2nd half after a pretty poor 1st half.
What was pretty obvious was how much better we were as soon as Scowen came on. Felt a bit sorry for Breckin, looked very lost out there.
Apparently, I was told afterwards that we had a drum in the terrace today, really ? Never heard it once. To be fair the Exeter supporters we excellent, made loads of noise all game. Our new expected hardcore support in the terrace... never heard a thing.
Optimism met reality today - and it took a dodgy square pass from 300-game man Grimmer and 24 seconds to puncture the balloon.
Given that Exeter were always going to turn up with a quick and mobile front three, the decision to play a walking football trio at the back by Bloomfield was utterly bemusing. Keogh reads the game well, but he's so damned slow attempting to get the ball forward, while he chases back slower than my nan. And the new tippy tappy square and back 80 yards from the opposition goal with no credible product is just demoralising.
Boxes looked decent as a wb (time to widen the pitch) Potts has more vision than most and Scowen's entry was a plus. Whatever questions Blooms was trying to pose up front, Hanlan is not the answer. And the 1887 were worth a 4.5.
Breckin feels a real worry early on. He looks every bit the classic lightweight youngster who has been brought up solely in small sided non physical technical games.
He'll have to be used sparingly, and you hope we don't have some minimum use sort of clause in there.
I thought I heard a drum, but then thought, no, it's so infrequent and light in noise it's just people smacking the back advertising boardings.
I (and presumably the board) expected him to continue where Ainsworth left off. It seemed like the perfect fit; effectively promoting from the boot room like 70s Liverpool. All he needed to do was keep things going the way they were and there is literally nobody as well versed in Ainsworth's methods as Bloomfield. Instead, he came in and changed everything immediately. When it wasn't working after after three games he should've realised that the crucial thing was promotion and got back to basics. Changing the philosophy might be a reasonable long-term project but you don't take over a winning team in any business and try to reinvent the wheel. And saying that we've lost good players in the summer is no excuse because they would probably have stayed if we'd gone up. Even if Ainsworth returned, he'd now have to work double the miracles with the broken squad. I fear something will need to change sooner rather than later. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
Reasonable posts, though I think the jury is very much out on Blooms still. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong today, from player availability to being caught cold early and having an obvious penalty turned down. If we are playing Scowen from the start, we probably get at least a point and are all rather optimistic with how we are gelling!
We aren't a Championship team. Without being too negative, I dont see a problem with giving a club legend time to figure things out. If we're teetering on relegation fine, but I'd rather us give Blooms a proper chance.
Due to finances we were forced to do that with GA and look how we did
But it was the way we barely threatened anything on Exeter's goal for the rest of the game.
And in a little period where we were loosely speaking on top, they suddenly broke away, easily outstripped our defence through the centre and scored a superb 3rd goal.
We all knew we'd struggle for goals, but we all assumed we'd be solid at the back.
I can understand the challenges involved in having lots of new players coming together, especially when several are very young. And I also think that on the opening day you sometimes get weird results. So the result itself isn't that much of an issue.
Injuries are also clearly a problem. For example, first corner we were discussing the obvious lack of aerial presence with no Taff, Forino or Vokes on the pitch. No surprise to see them score from it.
So there are some mitigating factors - injuries and the difficulty of knitting together so many new players.
Nonetheless, that was a really concerning display. It seemed to me to be almost identical to the football played at the end of last season. The players still don't seem to understand the strategy, despite the fact we had a pre season to get the gameplan sorted.
There seem to be so many examples of poorly executed tactics.
For instance, we're clearly trying to get the wing backs high and switch play from side to side to find them in space. But for some reason we insist on doing it really slowly and never skipping a player with the passes across the backline. To stretch teams with wing backs we need to switch play from one flank to a other in 1 or 2 passes.
Keogh 3 or 4 times fizzed a pass into feet in the final third. That must be planned and yet nobody seemed to know the next move. Do they drive at the defence? Spread it out wide? Look for a through ball? None of them seemed to know.
We don't seem to know when to press and when not to either. At one point first half Leahy pushed up to shut down the keeper. If that's planned it should be a trigger for the strikers to press behind him and either aim to win the ball back or force the keeper to kick long. To my amazement, Taylor and Hanlan hardly reacted. Keeper was able to pass out to his left, Exeter played up the line around the (non-existent) press and ended up with a free kick not far outside our box. That should not be happening in a well-drilled team at this level.
All these things add up to a performance that feels disjointed. None of the players are going to able to really show their best individual attributes if we can't operate better as a unit of 11 players.
One final moan...we're well short of match fitness in several positions. Scowen looked sharp, as did Vincent-Young. I'm afraid several others looked a long way short of the sort of sharpness we're going to need. Too often we were on our heels and second to loose balls. A big factor in that is being in the right physical condition.
Credit to Exeter, who played with good intensity first half and finished the first chance we'll. I thought their 10 was great. Still, it reminded me of last season's opener where we battered a rubbish Burton side that made us look better than we were.
Without wanting to keep going on about Hanlan but he can't even press effectively! He just jogs, a defender or keeper must look and think 'I got a minute or so, I'll wait'. I was sincerely hoping we would see something from him playing a central role after people had strongly defended him being shoved out wide. He was lethargic of mind and body today. Maybe a half season loan to a National League side would give him a boost and get him back firing after Christmas.
He's on the bench because he is available, but only for 30mins.
Bloomfield said in his interview something to the effect of start him when he's not quite ready, and he blows, you're in big trouble.
Similar with Forino who has both had QPR messing with his head, and an injury to boot.
Obviously when fit, Forino-Scowen-Vokes is an absolutely outrageous upgrade on what we started with today.
That is the hope we cling to after an absolute shocker of a first day, with what must have been the earliest goal we've conceded on a first day for certain, but maybe fastest goal in our league days? (@ReturnToSenda any stats?)
And biggest home defeat on the first day since non league days?
I'm sorry @Malone, I'm not claiming superior knowledge, as it is of course a matter of opinion, and I do not wish to patronise in any way. I have been involved in a Premier League Champions dressing room. The mentality there was.....
"If you are not fit enough to start, then you are not fit enough to be on the bench".
I guess the depth of the squad differs to what I have seen first hand - we don't have the options that I'm comparing to, but for me it's a mentality thing.
If the management KNOW for a fact that Scowen can only play 30 mins, then he starts, and comes off after 30 mins. If Scowen starts, we are not 2-0 down in 5 mins.
If he is "not quite ready" - then....
Why is he even on the bench?
If it is a matter of match fitness, why hasn't he got match fitness? Arrange a friendly for him to get minutes. It costs nothing.
Have to say there has been a massive overreaction by some posters and many of those where saying it’s the best transfer window we have had for many years. Calling for Bloomfield head is absolutely ludicrous.We have a number of key injuries to senior players and putting 7 new players for the first game was never going to be easy. Some observations about the game. Keogh and JJ lack pace and playing them together is not going to work. Potts looks really good and with Scowen alongside , I’m confident with the middle two . Some nice touches from Vincent-Young, Leahy, Boyes and Taylor who will all improve and prove to be positive acquisitions. I know it was his first game but Breckin looked totally out of his depth. To be taken off at half time is hardly going to improve
his confidence. As for Hanlan, personally I think he is a complete waste of space. Adds nothing to the team. I’m confident that get a number of the senior players and fully integrate the new players, we will have a successful season.
Comments
Very poor that we gave away goals that early. There’s no excuse for not being ready to go, and it’s totally on MB.
Not a surprise that the defence looked shambolic, and that we struggled to move the ball thru the middle. I was worried about the midfield three as soon as the team was announced. No surprise that Brekin isn’t ready for men’s football yet either. I’m also not surprised our ‘organized fan group,‘ fell a bit flat. Altho there wasn’t much to be excited about.
Big test for Blooms now.
It’s been one game!
Hold one’s horses! It’s a marathon, not a dash!
CHAIRBOYS!
I suppose with Wheeler on comms it was inevitable we would lose, as it was written in the stars he would not have to celebrate a Wycombe goal against Exeter.
The most significant concern is the same as it was before kickoff - the creative 10 role. De Barr might be the only candidate currently, but not sure if he is up to it after the attempts last season. Or maybe GMac could move over?
I think Taylor and Vokes might work. Taylor looks mobile and skilful and wants to get a shot off.
Ok, here's my thoughts... feel free to ignore
Was worried as soon as I saw the line up, sorry, but with the amount of center backs we have, JJ should not be starting, if Forino is fit, start him ! Also, Low is currently in the Welsh squad. Hanlan ?, please, no, just no.
Yes it's the first game so I'm not going to lose sleep over it, we'll come good I'm sure. Of the new guys I thought Leahy and espc Boyes looked decent, Keogh solid (looked very frustrated by the end) and Vincent-Young was much better 2nd half after a pretty poor 1st half.
What was pretty obvious was how much better we were as soon as Scowen came on. Felt a bit sorry for Breckin, looked very lost out there.
Apparently, I was told afterwards that we had a drum in the terrace today, really ? Never heard it once. To be fair the Exeter supporters we excellent, made loads of noise all game. Our new expected hardcore support in the terrace... never heard a thing.
Bring on next week
Optimism met reality today - and it took a dodgy square pass from 300-game man Grimmer and 24 seconds to puncture the balloon.
Given that Exeter were always going to turn up with a quick and mobile front three, the decision to play a walking football trio at the back by Bloomfield was utterly bemusing. Keogh reads the game well, but he's so damned slow attempting to get the ball forward, while he chases back slower than my nan. And the new tippy tappy square and back 80 yards from the opposition goal with no credible product is just demoralising.
Boxes looked decent as a wb (time to widen the pitch) Potts has more vision than most and Scowen's entry was a plus. Whatever questions Blooms was trying to pose up front, Hanlan is not the answer. And the 1887 were worth a 4.5.
That was as dreary as the weather.
Breckin feels a real worry early on. He looks every bit the classic lightweight youngster who has been brought up solely in small sided non physical technical games.
He'll have to be used sparingly, and you hope we don't have some minimum use sort of clause in there.
I thought I heard a drum, but then thought, no, it's so infrequent and light in noise it's just people smacking the back advertising boardings.
Luke Leahy actually wears ten, which I don’t fully understand.
We looked a bit Forest Green didn't we. High pass count between keeper and defenders, but zero purpose.
Quickly stopped that in the second half though.
Keogh and JJ definitely shouldn't play together again
I (and presumably the board) expected him to continue where Ainsworth left off. It seemed like the perfect fit; effectively promoting from the boot room like 70s Liverpool. All he needed to do was keep things going the way they were and there is literally nobody as well versed in Ainsworth's methods as Bloomfield. Instead, he came in and changed everything immediately. When it wasn't working after after three games he should've realised that the crucial thing was promotion and got back to basics. Changing the philosophy might be a reasonable long-term project but you don't take over a winning team in any business and try to reinvent the wheel. And saying that we've lost good players in the summer is no excuse because they would probably have stayed if we'd gone up. Even if Ainsworth returned, he'd now have to work double the miracles with the broken squad. I fear something will need to change sooner rather than later. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
I know it wasn't an internal appointment, but it was very close to one and they rarely work out.
Not sure you can criticise him for not playing Ainsworth's way, though - every manager has their own philosophy.
Reasonable posts, though I think the jury is very much out on Blooms still. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong today, from player availability to being caught cold early and having an obvious penalty turned down. If we are playing Scowen from the start, we probably get at least a point and are all rather optimistic with how we are gelling!
We aren't a Championship team. Without being too negative, I dont see a problem with giving a club legend time to figure things out. If we're teetering on relegation fine, but I'd rather us give Blooms a proper chance.
Due to finances we were forced to do that with GA and look how we did
The first 3 mins were worrying.
But it was the way we barely threatened anything on Exeter's goal for the rest of the game.
And in a little period where we were loosely speaking on top, they suddenly broke away, easily outstripped our defence through the centre and scored a superb 3rd goal.
We all knew we'd struggle for goals, but we all assumed we'd be solid at the back.
Nick Freeman
I’ll find some positives
Boyes Looked good in defence and attack
Potts Looked good, always wanting the ball. Role changed when Scowen came on and he faded. If we use a midfield he will be great
Food. Excellent quality and priced appropriately
I can understand the challenges involved in having lots of new players coming together, especially when several are very young. And I also think that on the opening day you sometimes get weird results. So the result itself isn't that much of an issue.
Injuries are also clearly a problem. For example, first corner we were discussing the obvious lack of aerial presence with no Taff, Forino or Vokes on the pitch. No surprise to see them score from it.
So there are some mitigating factors - injuries and the difficulty of knitting together so many new players.
Nonetheless, that was a really concerning display. It seemed to me to be almost identical to the football played at the end of last season. The players still don't seem to understand the strategy, despite the fact we had a pre season to get the gameplan sorted.
There seem to be so many examples of poorly executed tactics.
For instance, we're clearly trying to get the wing backs high and switch play from side to side to find them in space. But for some reason we insist on doing it really slowly and never skipping a player with the passes across the backline. To stretch teams with wing backs we need to switch play from one flank to a other in 1 or 2 passes.
Keogh 3 or 4 times fizzed a pass into feet in the final third. That must be planned and yet nobody seemed to know the next move. Do they drive at the defence? Spread it out wide? Look for a through ball? None of them seemed to know.
We don't seem to know when to press and when not to either. At one point first half Leahy pushed up to shut down the keeper. If that's planned it should be a trigger for the strikers to press behind him and either aim to win the ball back or force the keeper to kick long. To my amazement, Taylor and Hanlan hardly reacted. Keeper was able to pass out to his left, Exeter played up the line around the (non-existent) press and ended up with a free kick not far outside our box. That should not be happening in a well-drilled team at this level.
All these things add up to a performance that feels disjointed. None of the players are going to able to really show their best individual attributes if we can't operate better as a unit of 11 players.
One final moan...we're well short of match fitness in several positions. Scowen looked sharp, as did Vincent-Young. I'm afraid several others looked a long way short of the sort of sharpness we're going to need. Too often we were on our heels and second to loose balls. A big factor in that is being in the right physical condition.
Credit to Exeter, who played with good intensity first half and finished the first chance we'll. I thought their 10 was great. Still, it reminded me of last season's opener where we battered a rubbish Burton side that made us look better than we were.
Without wanting to keep going on about Hanlan but he can't even press effectively! He just jogs, a defender or keeper must look and think 'I got a minute or so, I'll wait'. I was sincerely hoping we would see something from him playing a central role after people had strongly defended him being shoved out wide. He was lethargic of mind and body today. Maybe a half season loan to a National League side would give him a boost and get him back firing after Christmas.
I'm sorry if this has been said already.
If Scowen is fit enough to be on the bench, then he is fit enough to start/If he is not fit enough to start then he shouldn't be on the bench.
If players have not had enough minutes in "pre-season" - why haven't they?
Our best player is on the bench, why?
It's early days and nothing can be judged from the first game of the season, but the season started TODAY, Why weren't we ready?
Onwards and upwards.
He's on the bench because he is available, but only for 30mins.
Bloomfield said in his interview something to the effect of start him when he's not quite ready, and he blows, you're in big trouble.
Similar with Forino who has both had QPR messing with his head, and an injury to boot.
Obviously when fit, Forino-Scowen-Vokes is an absolutely outrageous upgrade on what we started with today.
That is the hope we cling to after an absolute shocker of a first day, with what must have been the earliest goal we've conceded on a first day for certain, but maybe fastest goal in our league days? (@ReturnToSenda any stats?)
And biggest home defeat on the first day since non league days?
The chips were good
I'm sorry @Malone, I'm not claiming superior knowledge, as it is of course a matter of opinion, and I do not wish to patronise in any way. I have been involved in a Premier League Champions dressing room. The mentality there was.....
"If you are not fit enough to start, then you are not fit enough to be on the bench".
I guess the depth of the squad differs to what I have seen first hand - we don't have the options that I'm comparing to, but for me it's a mentality thing.
If the management KNOW for a fact that Scowen can only play 30 mins, then he starts, and comes off after 30 mins. If Scowen starts, we are not 2-0 down in 5 mins.
If he is "not quite ready" - then....
Different levels, different thinking.
If Scowen can only play 30mins what happens if it's 0-0 or we're losing when it's time for him to leave?
Do we concede after he's left etc.
Chances are we risk leaving him on and aggravate his niggles etc.
Have to say there has been a massive overreaction by some posters and many of those where saying it’s the best transfer window we have had for many years. Calling for Bloomfield head is absolutely ludicrous.We have a number of key injuries to senior players and putting 7 new players for the first game was never going to be easy. Some observations about the game. Keogh and JJ lack pace and playing them together is not going to work. Potts looks really good and with Scowen alongside , I’m confident with the middle two . Some nice touches from Vincent-Young, Leahy, Boyes and Taylor who will all improve and prove to be positive acquisitions. I know it was his first game but Breckin looked totally out of his depth. To be taken off at half time is hardly going to improve
Either way, he played 45 mins so equal chance of aggravating niggles whether he starts or comes on. That's what management is about.
I would have rather started with our best team and gone in at half time 0-0 (maybe?).
If they knew he only had 45 mins in him, then it's a risk either way - which is why he shouldn't even be on the bench.
If you're not ready to play, then you are no use being on the bench,
his confidence. As for Hanlan, personally I think he is a complete waste of space. Adds nothing to the team. I’m confident that get a number of the senior players and fully integrate the new players, we will have a successful season.
One thing I don't get is having such a narrow pitch if we are going to be playing wing backs
Makes no sense at all
It is narrower isn’t it? Compared to last season. I thought it was