covboy1987
Well-Known Member
Port vale - Southend and Walsall all winning - not great for us we just got to now start picking up points
Not good tonight (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter covboy1987
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Otis
Well-Known Member
nss!!
stevefloyd
Well-Known Member
We shouldn't have to worry about others results just keep winning all our games and we will win the league for sure :claping hands:
stevefloyd
Well-Known Member
We will win this weekend... or shall I say we won't lose..the rot stops here
Otis
Well-Known Member
Going to need a fantastic last part of the season now to make the top 2. I think it is beyond us.
We just need to win as many games as we can and be the in-form team going into the play-offs.
malkitccfc
Well-Known Member
The automatics were gone before today. Lets stay in the top 6
Otis
Well-Known Member
Was 6 points behind, but now 8. That and the game in hand does make a difference.
Otis
Well-Known Member
Well yep. Another defeat and teams closer than ever is really going to give us the jitters if we're not careful.
Could well play on our minds and though we talked of must wins before that was to make the top 2. Now we are talking in terms of not dropping out of the top 6 completely.
Could well play on our minds and though we talked of must wins before that was to make the top 2. Now we are talking in terms of not dropping out of the top 6 completely.
stupot07
Well-Known Member
1 win will not stop the rot, in this poor run with done that twice (e.g hammering Crewe 5-0). To stop the rot we need to eek out 2-3 wins on trot.
I think top 2 has pretty much gone now, not mathematically but we'd probably need to win 13/14 of our remaining 17 league games.
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I think top 2 has pretty much gone now, not mathematically but we'd probably need to win 13/14 of our remaining 17 league games.
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Otis
Well-Known Member
Yep, agree! It would now need a monumental run of form and probably at least 12 wins minimum and with probably no more than 1 defeat tops.1 win will not stop the rot, in this poor run with done that twice (e.g hammering Crewe 5-0). To stop the rot we need to eek out 2-3 wins on trot.
I think top 2 has pretty much gone now, not mathematically but we'd probably need to win 13/14 of our remaining 17 league games.
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Either that or a number of teams need to go on a slump.
stupot07
Well-Known Member
Yep and in the space of 11 games we have dropped from top and 3 points clear to 9 points off top and 8 points off autos with them having games in hand.
It's going to be very difficult to the change momentum around.
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It's going to be very difficult to the change momentum around.
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chiefdave
Well-Known Member
It would have a huge psychological effect. Thing is by the time we kick off on Sunday we could have the team in 7th 1 point behind us with a game in hand.
There's no must win games as obviously everything doesn't hinge on one result but we need to get out of this poor run asap. Start with a win this weekend and everyone might start thinking about promotion again. Lose and the doom and gloom will go into overdrive.
stupot07
Well-Known Member
We beat Port vale and Crewe in this awful 11 game run, but they were isolated wins. For me one win won't be enough change fans views, it will need a little run 2-3 wins in quick succession to move from doom and gloom.
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Otis
Well-Known Member
Port Vale will be just 2 points behind us if they beat us.
Definitely a must not lose, but we really could do with the win!
stupot07
Well-Known Member
"The likes of Southend"?
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stevefloyd
Well-Known Member
Lets not get too down ...this season has been fantastic so far... we may well dwindle down the league as history usually dictates but please remember we were all predicting this at the beginning of the season
Nick
Administrator
I'd say Southend were the best team I'd seen at the Ricoh this season.
Well at least Fleck didn't go and will be back on Sunday.
There are so many things that seem to have contributed in this run.
Some appalling refereeing in certain games.
Horrendous defensive Injuries.
A goalkeeper who now looks less confident /assured.
Possibly a little over confidence when getting to the top.
Croniology I'm not certain of but was the Barnsley game the first after going top?
If so that was a game I thought we seemed to take it for granted we would steamroller them,and in theory should have.
The foot came off the gas and we barely nicked it at the death.
The other observation for me now is that our play is much slower.
More touches taken, slowly building along the back line and out to the fullback (thinking Stokes here on Saturday)
who was immediately closed down as the pattern was telegraphed and predictable, no one showing for the ball off him etc.
But the most questionable point is whether the introduction of tired older heads has affected squad morale.
We must get that instant /instinctive tempo back into our play.
There are so many things that seem to have contributed in this run.
Some appalling refereeing in certain games.
Horrendous defensive Injuries.
A goalkeeper who now looks less confident /assured.
Possibly a little over confidence when getting to the top.
Croniology I'm not certain of but was the Barnsley game the first after going top?
If so that was a game I thought we seemed to take it for granted we would steamroller them,and in theory should have.
The foot came off the gas and we barely nicked it at the death.
The other observation for me now is that our play is much slower.
More touches taken, slowly building along the back line and out to the fullback (thinking Stokes here on Saturday)
who was immediately closed down as the pattern was telegraphed and predictable, no one showing for the ball off him etc.
But the most questionable point is whether the introduction of tired older heads has affected squad morale.
We must get that instant /instinctive tempo back into our play.
stupot07
Well-Known Member
It was the Bradford 0-0 away straight after the gills game.
I agree with the points wingy. Would also add that I think teams have worked us out a tad, they know we don't score from crosses and rely on pace to get in behind. They're now defending deep to nullify the pace, and packing the midfield so we can't play through them. For a couple of months now we've been limited to mainly shots from outside the box. They know we have a mistake in us so they're no longer overcommitting.
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I agree with the points wingy. Would also add that I think teams have worked us out a tad, they know we don't score from crosses and rely on pace to get in behind. They're now defending deep to nullify the pace, and packing the midfield so we can't play through them. For a couple of months now we've been limited to mainly shots from outside the box. They know we have a mistake in us so they're no longer overcommitting.
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st john
Well-Known Member
Need to put the last 3 games behind us now, there is no reason why we can't get back to the sort of form we had.
Hopefully the defence will be sorted now, and I don't think there is any reason to be especially concerned about RCC, the defence just got cut to pieces too many times in the last 2 games.
We have obviously missed Fleck, with no playmaker and Vincelot not playing to his usual standard it's not surprising we have been struggling to create chances.
I think Fleck and Rose will make a big difference compared to the last couple of games.
Hopefully the defence will be sorted now, and I don't think there is any reason to be especially concerned about RCC, the defence just got cut to pieces too many times in the last 2 games.
We have obviously missed Fleck, with no playmaker and Vincelot not playing to his usual standard it's not surprising we have been struggling to create chances.
I think Fleck and Rose will make a big difference compared to the last couple of games.
Otis
Well-Known Member
We have become rather predictable for sure.It was the Bradford 0-0 away straight after the gills game.
I agree with the points wingy. Would also add that I think teams have worked us out a tad, they know we don't score from crosses and rely on pace to get in behind. They're now defending deep to nullify the pace, and packing the midfield so we can't play through them. For a couple of months now we've been limited to mainly shots from outside the box. They know we have a mistake in us so they're no longer overcommitting.
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As you say, we aren't really getting crosses in and are trying to play our way through teams. This makes it easier for teams to defend against and anticipate what we are going to do.
Stokes has been brilliant for us, but the downside of his game is that he is not at his best going forwards and so, every time we give him the ball out wide when we are on the attack, we seemingly isolate him, as if we expect him to go past defenders and get balls into the box and that's simply not his game.
Been banging on about this for weeks, but we give him the ball on the left, don't support him, leave him there isolated and 9 times out 10 the ball is then just passed sideways and backwards from him, as he has nowhere else left to go and we have gone nowhere at all with our play. It is incredibly predictable.
Think we should have changed our game plan too as soon as we had to play Ramage. No use playing the ball around the back four with a player who is slow and not that comfortable on the ball. I don't think it is any coincidence that since we played Ramage we have lost 3 games on the trot and shipped in 7 goals in the process.
As has been said many a time, we need a plan b and TM said this himself, that we would need to change our game plan from time to time, but we do seem to try and play pretty much the same way every week.
The other player we isolate is Adam Armstrong! At times he gets no support at all.
Finally, when Murphy doesn't play well, we don't seem to play well. He has been badly out of form now since Crewe.
We do need to alter our tactical approach. Rose is a different type of player to what we have had in the squad and Lorentzson is said to be a player who will go down the flanks and try and help support the attack. Phillips of course does try and do that too, but lacks the experience and the skill to be able to consistently put a good game together.
Be interesting to see how we approach Sunday. I think we are going to be a lot more defensive and try and keep things tight at the back and hope to score on the counter.
Whether Cole comes back remains to be seen, but we have had difficulty trying to accommodate him into our set up and he does slow our play down a lot of the time, whereas earlier in the season we were playing the ball into feet a lot more quickly.
So, a few problems. Injuries at the back, bringing Ramage, being a mistake (though we have to accept we were desperate for anyone to cover that role at the time), accommodating Cole, isolating Armstrong and not getting quality balls in from the flanks.
Murphy has been woefully out of form and also we have to accept that Bigi is a very poor imitation of John Fleck.
Not insurmountable problems, but unless TM can add to our attacking prowess, I think it is going to be hard for us to replicate our early season threat going forwards.
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skyblue1991
Well-Known Member
Why? I hope they win the league.
Lord_Nampil
Well-Known Member
Personally think the Maddison transfer speculation was having a deeper effect than we could see, ironic our bad form came during the window! Now we have fleck back and defenders In and the Maddison situation is resolved I think you may see a change, yes we need another forward, but we also need both Cole and fleck in the starting 11 something that hasn't happened since Walsall! The season isn't over so let's see what we can do from now on! Preston and mk both had bad runs this time last season so let's make sure we get back in it like they did!
Astute
Well-Known Member
There is normally one club at least that falls away from the top of the table and one that climbs the table that wasn't considered for promotion. There is still a long way to go. All teams near the top have been dropping points unexpectedly. Whoever goes on a run will get promoted. If our defenders stop getting injured it could well be us.
magicmanfan
Member
Have they? The leading teams have been pretty consistent all season, including recently and in the form table are still around the 2 points per game automatic promotion target....
