The player I’d like to sign in January is Jayden Stockley. Anyone know if he’s still at Fleetwood? A Dorset boy so I’d hope he’d relish the chance to relocate South.
Well, I have read all 31 pages to date of the DCFC forum on the game. Like most oppo teams forums, it is quite a mixed bag of views. The majority naturally were very anti the female referee basically saying that she got nearly every major decision wrong & booking players so early made a rod for her own back. I thought the dead opposite. Why should she "warn" a player for kicking the ball away in the first few minutes? The player should, (if he doesn't then why is he a pro player), know the rules, so doesn't need a "warning". Do the laws of the game not apply in the first few minutes, if not how long a time passes before they do? So if a player attacks another, two footed, head high and dangerously out of control and it is in the first few minutes, should that official only issue a warning? It has always irked me that the tackle from behind is nearly always punished by a telling off as it is "the first foul" that the player has committed. So what?
A majority of their fans thought we were dirty and time wasted. Don't agree with the first point at all. A few teams have come to Adams Park recently and defended very deeply, very frustrating but it is a viable tactic & is up to the opposition to find a way. The second point may have some merit, though I would say that we didn't time waste but slowed the game down so that we could draw breath. This of course ignored the fact that once DCFC had scored, they employed exactly the same tactic. Also it was pointed out that the pen was awarded in the 7th minute of extra time when the fourth official held up a board saying six minutes. As @bluntphil consistently states it is a minimum of six minutes & perhaps if they didn't employ the "time wasting" tactics that they accused us of after they had scored, then that 7th minute would not have been necessary?
TBH, I thought she was the best referee we have had so far this season and I can see why she is selected to be the first female ref to be in charge of a PL game.
Congratulations to MB & the team for the old Wycombe way of never say die attitude. It reaped a just reward. I agree with some who thought that KVY made a decent cameo appearance and hope that it is the start of better things to come, as so far, I have been unimpressed with his initial offerings.
Are the strikers really the problem, though? The best striker in the world is going to struggle if you don’t give them decent service…and we generally don’t.
As many have noted, our build-up play is generally slow and gives the opposition time to get defenders back in numbers - and by the time that happens, even if we do get a decent cross in, whoever is playing in the box will usually be marked.
Phillips seems to be the most likely to create something out of nothing, with his surging forward runs - but again he usually has so much ground to cover that the opposition generally have men back to stop him.
This isn’t just a BloomBall problem either - how many times in the late GA period would we have failed to score if it wasn’t for Mehmeti digging us out?
The strikers are the problem in so much as they offer no threat. Lyle Taylor favours falling over and whinging to showing strength when we need the ball held up, he doesn't seem that quick and that might have always been the case as opposed to age, he also possess no threat when the ball is launched at him in the air (which is not a surprise). Vokes can hold the ball up and will win his fair share of arial battles but has no pace, and when he is dropping to win a flick he can't also be the guy to pick up the flicks with run throughs.
Playing 2 up top might work, big man and man off him, but modern football doesn't go that way preferring to have 1 up front and 2 or 3 fluid players behind. Again I look at our squad and think GMac and Phillips can play the support striker but we need the right striker at the top of the 3 to make a credible threat. Vokes is the only option in that formation, it isn't either of the Taylors. Also when Potts comes back he has to be accommodated which means we can do the 2-1 up front or else we will be so narrow we will get slaughtered wide. It's time to look at our squad and come up with a solid plan A that works 90% of the time and then a couple of back up plans to counter different oppositions. And be ruthless with the squad we have to play that plan A. We have good players, we don't have good players for the system we seem to employ. Maybe the 65 minutes of 442 yesterday will give more food for thought.
Yes, a foul in the box would only be a penalty AND a red card if there was no attempt to play the ball. Otherwise penalty and a yellow or just a penalty is correct.
And two more for @bluntphil and co-comms from yesterday.
All drop balls MUST now be uncontested. If the ball hits the ref he/she must give a drop ball.
A free kick given in the six yard box can be taken from ANYWHERE in the six yard box. There was one of these late on yesterday, given on the goal line that Max moved forward to the edge of the box and took as though it was a goal kick,
I thought overall the ref had a good game but I’ve watched some of the game back and she really got a couple of decisions wrong. Hourihane on Phillips is a straight red card all day long. A nasty studs up challenge. And late on, Kane Vincent-Young clearly fouled just outside area and nothing given.
The Derby fans basing their critique purely on gender says everything you need to know about that horrid little bunch. She did get the Hourihane one wrong for sure but every other decision she was spot on. The kicking the ball away bookings were spot on, it should be enforced more and it would stop it quicker. The other bookings were textbook yellow cards. And as for not making Phillips leave the pitch after the booking and the physios coming on that was a great moment on comms, and of course she was spot on.
It was a really good performance by a referee who looked in control. I do wonder if players will be less likely to abuse a female referee like they do week after week in the Premier League. I would love to have referees mic'd up.
Watching on my phone in the airport wasn't ideal. From what I saw it looked a good performance overall. Much improved on the last game I saw.
We looked far more comfortable in the 4231. Seemed to allow us to win a few turnovers higher up the pitch and everyone seemed to know their role better.
Their players were woefully ill-disciplined, particularly in the first half and every single one of their yellow cards was justified. Indeed, Hourihane's probably should have been a red.
Personally I never think it's a good look when fans whinge on about referees in the aftermath of a poor result. No fan ever seems to criticise a referee when their team wins
We need pace on the wings, as someone said earlier, Mehmeti’s pace allowed us to score quite a few goals. We need wide men with pace in our squad, that will allow us to spread the game and break out more quickly.
We simply have no pace up front and even GMac seems to have lost a little pace, which is to be expected.
Just these little changes and injection of pace may make a massive difference as we have the core of a really good team with Max, Forino, Low, Grimmer, Josh, Potts, Leahy, Phillips and Boyce being players who would get into most league 1 teams.
Many/most (?) People from the South West (we have many in the North West) would find living in the North preferable to London and the South East which they often don't like (wrongly) thinking we're all arrogant tossers. TBH if I didn't COME from the SE I wouldn't touch the region with a bargepole as far as quality of life goes.
I have no doubt that Bloomfield scans the Gasroom on a daily basis for tips on how to set up the team and what formation to play. He’s clearly listening to the Gasroom advice and should be applauded as such.
Could definitely do with at least one pacey wing option. Especially if we continue with 433 or a variant.
What will happen when Potts is back? Potts, Scowen and Leahy all have to play, but will they work as a 3? Or will we have to shift Leahy back to left wing?
Can Phillips be a wide option to allow those 3 to be central?
PROtip: It's always better put nonsense in the form of a question if you are looking for people to bite. Is there any city the equal of London? might have worked.
Fixture list for the next few weeks, on paper, looks reasonably favourable. Fixtures against Port Vale ( home and away), Exeter, Leyton Orient, Bristol Rovers, Burton, Lincoln , Wigan , Fleetwood and Cheltenham . All potentially winnable games. Should be an opportunity to move away from the wrong end of the table and hopefully get closer to the play off end. Still concerned who is going to score the goals to win us games.
I thought it was a pretty decent game, and the reason Derby looked off their roasting hot pace was because we were well drilled and tenacious in our half.
I liked the ref too - she certainly did not seem overawed by the crowd, and to my mind applied common sense in her decisions.
I am hopeful going forward. Playing in-form Derby at their digs is a difficult game to get a read on how our attack will look in more forgiving games, so I am going to apply optimism and hope that we have just turned the corner a little.
Just watched United v Liverpool. At times Onana’s distribution was comical and he kicked the ball straight out into touch three times in a row. Far too much is made of Stryjek’s distribution.
Comments
The player I’d like to sign in January is Jayden Stockley. Anyone know if he’s still at Fleetwood? A Dorset boy so I’d hope he’d relish the chance to relocate South.
I hadn’t considered that, you might be right. No better place to rebuild a career.
Well, I have read all 31 pages to date of the DCFC forum on the game. Like most oppo teams forums, it is quite a mixed bag of views. The majority naturally were very anti the female referee basically saying that she got nearly every major decision wrong & booking players so early made a rod for her own back. I thought the dead opposite. Why should she "warn" a player for kicking the ball away in the first few minutes? The player should, (if he doesn't then why is he a pro player), know the rules, so doesn't need a "warning". Do the laws of the game not apply in the first few minutes, if not how long a time passes before they do? So if a player attacks another, two footed, head high and dangerously out of control and it is in the first few minutes, should that official only issue a warning? It has always irked me that the tackle from behind is nearly always punished by a telling off as it is "the first foul" that the player has committed. So what?
A majority of their fans thought we were dirty and time wasted. Don't agree with the first point at all. A few teams have come to Adams Park recently and defended very deeply, very frustrating but it is a viable tactic & is up to the opposition to find a way. The second point may have some merit, though I would say that we didn't time waste but slowed the game down so that we could draw breath. This of course ignored the fact that once DCFC had scored, they employed exactly the same tactic. Also it was pointed out that the pen was awarded in the 7th minute of extra time when the fourth official held up a board saying six minutes. As @bluntphil consistently states it is a minimum of six minutes & perhaps if they didn't employ the "time wasting" tactics that they accused us of after they had scored, then that 7th minute would not have been necessary?
TBH, I thought she was the best referee we have had so far this season and I can see why she is selected to be the first female ref to be in charge of a PL game.
Congratulations to MB & the team for the old Wycombe way of never say die attitude. It reaped a just reward. I agree with some who thought that KVY made a decent cameo appearance and hope that it is the start of better things to come, as so far, I have been unimpressed with his initial offerings.
Are the strikers really the problem, though? The best striker in the world is going to struggle if you don’t give them decent service…and we generally don’t.
As many have noted, our build-up play is generally slow and gives the opposition time to get defenders back in numbers - and by the time that happens, even if we do get a decent cross in, whoever is playing in the box will usually be marked.
Phillips seems to be the most likely to create something out of nothing, with his surging forward runs - but again he usually has so much ground to cover that the opposition generally have men back to stop him.
This isn’t just a BloomBall problem either - how many times in the late GA period would we have failed to score if it wasn’t for Mehmeti digging us out?
The strikers are the problem in so much as they offer no threat. Lyle Taylor favours falling over and whinging to showing strength when we need the ball held up, he doesn't seem that quick and that might have always been the case as opposed to age, he also possess no threat when the ball is launched at him in the air (which is not a surprise). Vokes can hold the ball up and will win his fair share of arial battles but has no pace, and when he is dropping to win a flick he can't also be the guy to pick up the flicks with run throughs.
Playing 2 up top might work, big man and man off him, but modern football doesn't go that way preferring to have 1 up front and 2 or 3 fluid players behind. Again I look at our squad and think GMac and Phillips can play the support striker but we need the right striker at the top of the 3 to make a credible threat. Vokes is the only option in that formation, it isn't either of the Taylors. Also when Potts comes back he has to be accommodated which means we can do the 2-1 up front or else we will be so narrow we will get slaughtered wide. It's time to look at our squad and come up with a solid plan A that works 90% of the time and then a couple of back up plans to counter different oppositions. And be ruthless with the squad we have to play that plan A. We have good players, we don't have good players for the system we seem to employ. Maybe the 65 minutes of 442 yesterday will give more food for thought.
Yes, a foul in the box would only be a penalty AND a red card if there was no attempt to play the ball. Otherwise penalty and a yellow or just a penalty is correct.
And two more for @bluntphil and co-comms from yesterday.
All drop balls MUST now be uncontested. If the ball hits the ref he/she must give a drop ball.
A free kick given in the six yard box can be taken from ANYWHERE in the six yard box. There was one of these late on yesterday, given on the goal line that Max moved forward to the edge of the box and took as though it was a goal kick,
…from an ex-ref.
I thought overall the ref had a good game but I’ve watched some of the game back and she really got a couple of decisions wrong. Hourihane on Phillips is a straight red card all day long. A nasty studs up challenge. And late on, Kane Vincent-Young clearly fouled just outside area and nothing given.
The Derby fans basing their critique purely on gender says everything you need to know about that horrid little bunch. She did get the Hourihane one wrong for sure but every other decision she was spot on. The kicking the ball away bookings were spot on, it should be enforced more and it would stop it quicker. The other bookings were textbook yellow cards. And as for not making Phillips leave the pitch after the booking and the physios coming on that was a great moment on comms, and of course she was spot on.
It was a really good performance by a referee who looked in control. I do wonder if players will be less likely to abuse a female referee like they do week after week in the Premier League. I would love to have referees mic'd up.
Watching on my phone in the airport wasn't ideal. From what I saw it looked a good performance overall. Much improved on the last game I saw.
We looked far more comfortable in the 4231. Seemed to allow us to win a few turnovers higher up the pitch and everyone seemed to know their role better.
I agree about the Derby fans and the ref.
Their players were woefully ill-disciplined, particularly in the first half and every single one of their yellow cards was justified. Indeed, Hourihane's probably should have been a red.
Personally I never think it's a good look when fans whinge on about referees in the aftermath of a poor result. No fan ever seems to criticise a referee when their team wins
https://x.com/wwfcofficial/status/1736289325367611881?s=46&t=nP2_BYMX7gw5cEw8INkXzA
MB interview.
”I really liked (4 at the back)”…well fingers crossed it becomes the default then.
We need pace on the wings, as someone said earlier, Mehmeti’s pace allowed us to score quite a few goals. We need wide men with pace in our squad, that will allow us to spread the game and break out more quickly.
We simply have no pace up front and even GMac seems to have lost a little pace, which is to be expected.
Just these little changes and injection of pace may make a massive difference as we have the core of a really good team with Max, Forino, Low, Grimmer, Josh, Potts, Leahy, Phillips and Boyce being players who would get into most league 1 teams.
Many/most (?) People from the South West (we have many in the North West) would find living in the North preferable to London and the South East which they often don't like (wrongly) thinking we're all arrogant tossers. TBH if I didn't COME from the SE I wouldn't touch the region with a bargepole as far as quality of life goes.
Nice use of 'bargepole' there
I have no doubt that Bloomfield scans the Gasroom on a daily basis for tips on how to set up the team and what formation to play. He’s clearly listening to the Gasroom advice and should be applauded as such.
Arrogant unfriendly tossers serving flat beer at five quid a pint, they’re ‘avin’ a laugh!
Could definitely do with at least one pacey wing option. Especially if we continue with 433 or a variant.
What will happen when Potts is back? Potts, Scowen and Leahy all have to play, but will they work as a 3? Or will we have to shift Leahy back to left wing?
Can Phillips be a wide option to allow those 3 to be central?
The exact opposite for me. I wouldn't want to live anywhere north of Watford, west of Reading, south of Croydon, or east of Dartford.
Being within easy commuting distance of the capital is essential, London is the best city on the planet.
KVY fouled or was fouled @Midlander ?
POTD @EwanHoosaami. Your magnum opus.
Well @aloysius did predict that we'd seen the last of a back five last week. Maybe not for a full 90 quite yet but we'll get there...
PROtip: It's always better put nonsense in the form of a question if you are looking for people to bite. Is there any city the equal of London? might have worked.
Not intending to be overly critical but it was very likely that we would start the game with a back four.
Great to catch up with a few people yesterday xx
Fixture list for the next few weeks, on paper, looks reasonably favourable. Fixtures against Port Vale ( home and away), Exeter, Leyton Orient, Bristol Rovers, Burton, Lincoln , Wigan , Fleetwood and Cheltenham . All potentially winnable games. Should be an opportunity to move away from the wrong end of the table and hopefully get closer to the play off end. Still concerned who is going to score the goals to win us games.
I thought it was a pretty decent game, and the reason Derby looked off their roasting hot pace was because we were well drilled and tenacious in our half.
I liked the ref too - she certainly did not seem overawed by the crowd, and to my mind applied common sense in her decisions.
I am hopeful going forward. Playing in-form Derby at their digs is a difficult game to get a read on how our attack will look in more forgiving games, so I am going to apply optimism and hope that we have just turned the corner a little.
I thought it would be a back five again, happy to be wrong.
Just catching up to the highlights and I can't believe people are blaming Max for their goal - what do you expect him to do with it?
Certainly no blame there at all.
Just watched United v Liverpool. At times Onana’s distribution was comical and he kicked the ball straight out into touch three times in a row. Far too much is made of Stryjek’s distribution.