The management in charge must realise that the game is not going well at half time. After a few well chosen words and if the second Half is not going well, surely subs should be on well before 70 mins. I would think players need to get into the game physically and head wise, 20 mins is no time at all to get into the groove. The reality maybe is we are not as good as we think we are. Sad to say that as a season ticket holder ( and wife ) for several years. Look forward to Sunderland, let us all hope for better.
@HCblue said:
V poor tonight. Just that really. Go again and all that, I guess. We’re better than that.
Are we though? I think we’ve had a lot of luck since the first few games. Take the luck out and this may well be what we look like.
Mmn. I take your point but I think we are. I don't suggest that that performance bore no relation to our normal play or style of play - we are what we are - but there were zero moments of quality when it counted tonight and generally we manage to find them a few times a game in a way that has led to our good record up to now and I don't think that has been luck. Our style means we get the ball into potentially dangerous areas. Tonight, we had zero moments when that was the case - perhaps McCleary's dribble into the box was one such moment but it was royally butchered by Hanlan's subsequent contribution.
So I both agree and disagree, I think. We weren't unrecognisable from our usual selves but we were short of that of which we are capable on a number of crucial fronts not least the ability to put the ball in the net.
1) we play to the whistle a lot less than we used to. Countless times tonight I saw our players turn to the referee with their arms aloft, hoping we would get a free kick.
2) our communication isn’t great and time after time, our players aren’t on the same wave length - getting in each other’s way, going for the same ball, misreading a pass etc.
3) we seem to have a habit of cushioning balls into the box these days. Sometimes I just want our wide players to drill one across the box or stick one in with a bit of pace.
This isn’t me being a negative Nancy either, it’s just a few observations.
1) we play to the whistle a lot less than we used to. Countless times tonight I saw our players turn to the referee with their arms aloft, hoping we would get a free kick.
2) our communication isn’t great and time after time, our players aren’t on the same wave length - getting in each other’s way, going for the same ball, misreading a pass etc.
3) we seem to have a habit of cushioning balls into the box these days. Sometimes I just want our wide players to drill one across the box or stick one in with a bit of pace.
This isn’t me being a negative Nancy either, it’s just a few observations.
I agree with 1 and 3 - 2 was a problem tonight but isn't usually.
If we're just not very good against the stronger teams that's not rusty or unlucky, maybe we are the 8th/9th best team in the league, nothing shameful about that. Just as easy to take from our games that we stumbled on a formation that suits the ethos but are now slaves to it. Or we're just short of 3 or 4 players so can't cope with injuries, rustiness or falling out of form.
Both fullbacks were decent at times without creating and it was an entertaining game but without control we still got chances and didn't take them.
Really difficult to see how the very strong bench wasn't used earlier or as part of any change.
Hopeful for better at the weekend but we don't often get much there.
@StrongestTeam said:
If we're just not very good against the stronger teams that's not rusty or unlucky, maybe we are the 8th/9th best team in the league, nothing shameful about that. Just as easy to take from our games that we stumbled on a formation that suits the ethos but are now slaves to it. Or we're just short of 3 or 4 players so can't cope with injuries, rustiness or falling out of form.
Both fullbacks were decent at times without creating and it was an entertaining game but without control we still got chances and didn't take them.
Really difficult to see how the very strong bench wasn't used earlier or as part of any change.
Hopeful for better at the weekend but we don't often get much there.
But we've played well v Plymouth and Sunderland - weren't bad v Wigan second half, MK we never got to see. Oh, and we were bloody brilliant against Rotherham. We're doing fine and people need to stop over-interpreting results in isolation.
Maybe give some credit to Ipswich out of possession? They hassled us, closed us down and limited our options…so we ended up with too much hopeful long ball.
Several times we had possession and after a few passes we ended up hitting an across field high ball that turned our possession into a 50/50 aerial contest…and that is down to Ipswich’s play out of possession and their forcing our play away from their box.
And don’t get me started about crossing. ‘king hell. What do we practise during the week?????? Even Joe and his magic wand failed to clear the first defender with a corner.
@StrongestTeam said:
If we're just not very good against the stronger teams that's not rusty or unlucky, maybe we are the 8th/9th best team in the league, nothing shameful about that. Just as easy to take from our games that we stumbled on a formation that suits the ethos but are now slaves to it. Or we're just short of 3 or 4 players so can't cope with injuries, rustiness or falling out of form.
Both fullbacks were decent at times without creating and it was an entertaining game but without control we still got chances and didn't take them.
Really difficult to see how the very strong bench wasn't used earlier or as part of any change.
Hopeful for better at the weekend but we don't often get much there.
But we've played well v Plymouth and Sunderland - weren't bad v Wigan second half, MK we never got to see. Oh, and we were bloody brilliant against Rotherham. We're doing fine and people need to stop over-interpreting results in isolation.
People can draw whatever conclusions they want, we've played well in patches against some of the bigger teams and had wallopinngs at others.
Tonight wasn't a disaster but much more needed to be considered candidates for automatic promotion.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:
And don’t get me started about crossing. ‘king hell. What do we practise during the week?????? Even Joe and his magic wand failed to clear the first defender with a corner.
That wand has been more like a rancid old dog stick lately. I know class is permanent and all that so hopefully just a blip
@Forest_Blue said:
Maybe give some credit to Ipswich out of possession? They hassled us, closed us down and limited our options…so we ended up with too much hopeful long ball.
Several times we had possession and after a few passes we ended up hitting an across field high ball that turned our possession into a 50/50 aerial contest…and that is down to Ipswich’s play out of possession and their forcing our play away from their box.
Yeah, they locked down the central areas really effectively as well. Clearly still a side in transition but were organised OOP.> @StrongestTeam said:
@StrongestTeam said:
If we're just not very good against the stronger teams that's not rusty or unlucky, maybe we are the 8th/9th best team in the league, nothing shameful about that. Just as easy to take from our games that we stumbled on a formation that suits the ethos but are now slaves to it. Or we're just short of 3 or 4 players so can't cope with injuries, rustiness or falling out of form.
Both fullbacks were decent at times without creating and it was an entertaining game but without control we still got chances and didn't take them.
Really difficult to see how the very strong bench wasn't used earlier or as part of any change.
Hopeful for better at the weekend but we don't often get much there.
But we've played well v Plymouth and Sunderland - weren't bad v Wigan second half, MK we never got to see. Oh, and we were bloody brilliant against Rotherham. We're doing fine and people need to stop over-interpreting results in isolation.
People can draw whatever conclusions they want, we've played well in patches against some of the bigger teams and had wallopinngs at others.
Tonight wasn't a disaster but much more needed to be considered candidates for automatic promotion.
Yeah, I don't think we've ever been auto quality, but we're plenty good enough for play-offs.
Let's face it, we were organised and disciplined, but in terms of actual creativity we looked horribly short of match practice. We barely created a thing all night and that's not like us at all. Even in our poorer performances we tend to create a few decent opportunities, but tonight we just didn't have any sort of spark.
Fingers crossed for Saturday and hopefully we can improve and get some momentum going again.
@PJS said:
One thing I don’t like about iFollow - why did a final score notification appear from the app a very noticeable time before the final whistle blew?
I don't think there is necessarily any delay on the broadcast but I do find, especially if I log in to the game more than a minute or two before kickoff, that there tends to be some lag on the broadcast that means real life events move faster than the broadcast leading to things such as you experienced tonight. I have turned off goal and final score notifications on my phone for that reason!
@Forest_Blue said:
Maybe give some credit to Ipswich out of possession? They hassled us, closed us down and limited our options…so we ended up with too much hopeful long ball.
Several times we had possession and after a few passes we ended up hitting an across field high ball that turned our possession into a 50/50 aerial contest…and that is down to Ipswich’s play out of possession and their forcing our play away from their box.
They are a big team with a big (if mostly quiet) ground and a wonderful history and a very good squad, and they should be higher up, too many changes and playing silly buggers early in the season excepted, just think we were too predictable and unfortunately when you let teams have possession like we do you need to be defending for your life and clinical when you do get chances.
The one time we had creativity and a change of pace was when I spotted an opening and pegged it for the 950 train, result of the night and taxi hopefully avoided. Will need some recovery time for the weekend.
@PJS said:
One thing I don’t like about iFollow - why did a final score notification appear from the app a very noticeable time before the final whistle blew?
If you have an Apple product with the latest iOS, you can set up a personal focus to stop any notifications of your choosing (so in my case, things like ifollow, Sky Sports, Twitter etc) - you can also set it to automatically come on just for Wycombe matches if you have them set in your calendar.
@LX1 said:
They did appear tactically ready for us (unlike the first 30mins at Ap). But still we got the upper hand
First few minutes McCarthy gets space down the wing and I’m sat back rubbing my hands with glee. Oooo this is gonna be good, Vokesy you’re in for a treat. And then ….
Happens so often. First few minutes we get wide, get space, and then we fail to do that consistently for the rest of the game. Tactics? Confidence? I dunno.
I agree with the posters about the subs. It almost always seems obligatory, rather than changing a game dramatically (like Fleetwood did to us). I think the game was crying out for Mehmeti a lot earlier than he arrived.
I am usually pretty optimistic, but I do think that with half a season gone, we are really among about six teams fighting for the final three playoff spots, rather than really challenging Rotherham, Sunderland and Wigan (or maybe Oxford at this rate!) for the automatics. No shame in that in what is possibly the strongest third tier of all time.
A consolidation season isn't a bad thing either. Let's see where we end up. If we finish top six but don't go up, we're still on the right track. We've got a long-term plan.> @LX1 said:
If we had nicked one before half time everyone would be hanging off the rafters in Borough Market. As it is..Accrington need a knew manager don'tt they...up north....oh god
The rafters at Portman Road looked great for hanging off tbf
If we had nicked one before half time everyone would be hanging off the rafters in Borough Market. As it is..Accrington need a knew manager don'tt they...up north....oh god
@ReturnToSenda said:
A consolidation season isn't a bad thing either. Let's see where we end up. If we finish top six but don't go up, we're still on the right track. We've got a long-term plan.> @LX1 said:
If we had nicked one before half time everyone would be hanging off the rafters in Borough Market. As it is..Accrington need a knew manager don'tt they...up north....oh god
The rafters at Portman Road looked great for hanging off tbf
Comments
The management in charge must realise that the game is not going well at half time. After a few well chosen words and if the second Half is not going well, surely subs should be on well before 70 mins. I would think players need to get into the game physically and head wise, 20 mins is no time at all to get into the groove. The reality maybe is we are not as good as we think we are. Sad to say that as a season ticket holder ( and wife ) for several years. Look forward to Sunderland, let us all hope for better.
Nice to see Scowen back
Mmn. I take your point but I think we are. I don't suggest that that performance bore no relation to our normal play or style of play - we are what we are - but there were zero moments of quality when it counted tonight and generally we manage to find them a few times a game in a way that has led to our good record up to now and I don't think that has been luck. Our style means we get the ball into potentially dangerous areas. Tonight, we had zero moments when that was the case - perhaps McCleary's dribble into the box was one such moment but it was royally butchered by Hanlan's subsequent contribution.
So I both agree and disagree, I think. We weren't unrecognisable from our usual selves but we were short of that of which we are capable on a number of crucial fronts not least the ability to put the ball in the net.
70 minutes is when we always seem to make the first sub/s.
Ipswich are a good side and we could be facing them again at Wembley. It was very frustrating we didn't test the keeper.
Three things I’ve noticed lately:
1) we play to the whistle a lot less than we used to. Countless times tonight I saw our players turn to the referee with their arms aloft, hoping we would get a free kick.
2) our communication isn’t great and time after time, our players aren’t on the same wave length - getting in each other’s way, going for the same ball, misreading a pass etc.
3) we seem to have a habit of cushioning balls into the box these days. Sometimes I just want our wide players to drill one across the box or stick one in with a bit of pace.
This isn’t me being a negative Nancy either, it’s just a few observations.
I agree with 1 and 3 - 2 was a problem tonight but isn't usually.
If we're just not very good against the stronger teams that's not rusty or unlucky, maybe we are the 8th/9th best team in the league, nothing shameful about that. Just as easy to take from our games that we stumbled on a formation that suits the ethos but are now slaves to it. Or we're just short of 3 or 4 players so can't cope with injuries, rustiness or falling out of form.
Both fullbacks were decent at times without creating and it was an entertaining game but without control we still got chances and didn't take them.
Really difficult to see how the very strong bench wasn't used earlier or as part of any change.
Hopeful for better at the weekend but we don't often get much there.
First openly trans poster on the Gasroom?
But we've played well v Plymouth and Sunderland - weren't bad v Wigan second half, MK we never got to see. Oh, and we were bloody brilliant against Rotherham. We're doing fine and people need to stop over-interpreting results in isolation.
Maybe give some credit to Ipswich out of possession? They hassled us, closed us down and limited our options…so we ended up with too much hopeful long ball.
Several times we had possession and after a few passes we ended up hitting an across field high ball that turned our possession into a 50/50 aerial contest…and that is down to Ipswich’s play out of possession and their forcing our play away from their box.
And don’t get me started about crossing. ‘king hell. What do we practise during the week?????? Even Joe and his magic wand failed to clear the first defender with a corner.
One thing I don’t like about iFollow - why did a final score notification appear from the app a very noticeable time before the final whistle blew?
People can draw whatever conclusions they want, we've played well in patches against some of the bigger teams and had wallopinngs at others.
Tonight wasn't a disaster but much more needed to be considered candidates for automatic promotion.
That wand has been more like a rancid old dog stick lately. I know class is permanent and all that so hopefully just a blip
Yeah, they locked down the central areas really effectively as well. Clearly still a side in transition but were organised OOP.> @StrongestTeam said:
Yeah, I don't think we've ever been auto quality, but we're plenty good enough for play-offs.
Let's face it, we were organised and disciplined, but in terms of actual creativity we looked horribly short of match practice. We barely created a thing all night and that's not like us at all. Even in our poorer performances we tend to create a few decent opportunities, but tonight we just didn't have any sort of spark.
Fingers crossed for Saturday and hopefully we can improve and get some momentum going again.
They did appear tactically ready for us (unlike the first 30mins at Ap). But still we got the upper hand
I don't think there is necessarily any delay on the broadcast but I do find, especially if I log in to the game more than a minute or two before kickoff, that there tends to be some lag on the broadcast that means real life events move faster than the broadcast leading to things such as you experienced tonight. I have turned off goal and final score notifications on my phone for that reason!
They are a big team with a big (if mostly quiet) ground and a wonderful history and a very good squad, and they should be higher up, too many changes and playing silly buggers early in the season excepted, just think we were too predictable and unfortunately when you let teams have possession like we do you need to be defending for your life and clinical when you do get chances.
The one time we had creativity and a change of pace was when I spotted an opening and pegged it for the 950 train, result of the night and taxi hopefully avoided. Will need some recovery time for the weekend.
If you have an Apple product with the latest iOS, you can set up a personal focus to stop any notifications of your choosing (so in my case, things like ifollow, Sky Sports, Twitter etc) - you can also set it to automatically come on just for Wycombe matches if you have them set in your calendar.
First few minutes McCarthy gets space down the wing and I’m sat back rubbing my hands with glee. Oooo this is gonna be good, Vokesy you’re in for a treat. And then ….
Happens so often. First few minutes we get wide, get space, and then we fail to do that consistently for the rest of the game. Tactics? Confidence? I dunno.
We go again. Not the result we wanted.
We did seem surprised every time we had a goalscoring opportunity. Frustrating
I agree with the posters about the subs. It almost always seems obligatory, rather than changing a game dramatically (like Fleetwood did to us). I think the game was crying out for Mehmeti a lot earlier than he arrived.
I am usually pretty optimistic, but I do think that with half a season gone, we are really among about six teams fighting for the final three playoff spots, rather than really challenging Rotherham, Sunderland and Wigan (or maybe Oxford at this rate!) for the automatics. No shame in that in what is possibly the strongest third tier of all time.
My thoughts exactly @Shev. I think we're a good side, just not top three good.
A consolidation season isn't a bad thing either. Let's see where we end up. If we finish top six but don't go up, we're still on the right track. We've got a long-term plan.> @LX1 said:
The rafters at Portman Road looked great for hanging off tbf
If we had nicked one before half time everyone would be hanging off the rafters in Borough Market. As it is..Accrington need a knew manager don'tt they...up north....oh god
steel if I remember?
Only Charlton, Sunderland and Oxford up next.