Our Weakest Position (6 Viewers)

coop · 2026-01-10T18:07:26+0000

Our weakest position is 100% a good forward

RoboCCFC90 · 2026-01-10T18:08:26+0000

covcity4life said:
Watching him play longer than the last few months

We’ve all seen that. The issue with Haji is he goes through spells, when he’s good he’s unplayable at this level, but when he’s bad it’s like he’s not arsed in being here.

Problem is right now is so far down the line of being bad where he’s barely being able to offer the team anything at all. That’s not going to change overnight, something is fundamentally wrong IMO.

The more concerning from Haji today, something I’ve seen so many times before, is when we are in the Stoke half he’s not the furthest player forward or even in the box to offer something in attack.

skybluecam · 2026-01-10T18:09:07+0000

A month ago people wanted £20m+ for Wright and now it’s apparently our weakest position in the squad

martincov · 2026-01-10T18:09:57+0000

viridisman said:
On current form, he's not in that squad

On current form you are correct but he was in the last USA squad, I don't know if he played? My point is he will want to be in it and getting injured or aggravating an ongoing injury will damage his ambitions in that direction. It will probably be his only chance to be part of a world cup squad.

Lamps · 2026-01-10T18:10:44+0000

I think our weakest position is 1st in the Championship table. It sends more people into meltdown than when struggling in League 2.

Freddie · 2026-01-10T18:11:19+0000

Centre halves

Mucca Mad Boys · 2026-01-10T18:14:52+0000

fatso said:
The results show we score more goals and pick up more points when BTA plays

Pretty superficial analysis. We’ve conceded more without him, I don’t think his influence directly influences that.

Your point was that Haji would benefit from playing with BTA specifically, Haji has had plenty of chances to score with and without BTA in the team so the problem here is that the striker (Haji) is not scoring their chances.

For context, Haji has scored 8 goals from 10.2 xG in the league. After his last goa v Sheff W, that was 7.6 xG (or thereabouts). He’s had the chances to have scored 5+ goals. To compare, BTA has scored 10 from 7.46 xG.

Simms has a similar xG (7.26) and actual goals scored (9) than BTA so to some extent, that goal scoring has been ‘replaced’.

The wider point is that the supporting cast we had just hasn’t contributed enough.

Chris1987 · 2026-01-10T18:19:23+0000

Grimes frequently covers the positional errors our CB's sometimes make . If anything happened to him then we would be comprehensively exposed . It's our strongest position currently but our weakest in terms of quality back up ( left back also very concerning in this respect)

DT-R · 2026-01-10T18:21:22+0000

Lamps said:
I think our weakest position is 1st in the Championship table. It sends more people into meltdown than when struggling in League 2.

So you cant be happy being 1st, and be pissed at poor performances at the same time?

I mean, a month ago people were saying, we're 12 points clear and people still finding things to moan about.
Then, we're 10 points clear...
We're 8 points clear...

How long, on this current run of form until its, we're 3 points behind second? Because our current form is as near as damn it relegation form. We cant dine out on what was, let's be honest, a hugely successful but over achieved first half of the season and hope that will be enough to get the job done. We need maybe 10-11 wins between now and the end of the season to be secure. Thats 50% win rate. On current form and current trend, we bottle it completely and settle for another play-off lottery ticket.

Sent from my SM-S711B using Tapatalk

Mucca Mad Boys · 2026-01-10T18:23:42+0000

Chris1987 said:
Grimes frequently covers the positional errors our CB's sometimes make . If anything happened to him then we would be comprehensively exposed . It's our strongest position currently but our weakest in terms of quality back up ( left back also very concerning in this respect)

There’s definitely a tactical element to it, Eccles was doing the same role today.

Agree that we need a LB and I’d like a CM/AM if possible.

JoeCCFCPUSB · 2026-01-10T18:27:52+0000

edgy said:
Not sure this will go down well with some. But it's there for all to see.

Out Weakest position currently, on form, is up front. You can all belly ache as much as you want, but they aren't top 2 material there.

We'd be miles clear with an effective forward.

From recent performances you have a point but I think you're not factoring in form.

For me mate the weak spot lies in 2 positions.

Left back and central midfield.

Bidwell today was a yard off the mark which instantly ends up with BIdwell dropping further deep almost aligning with Ktich. This then forces more pressure on the centre mid closest to Bidwell because of the huge space between BIdders and our left winger.

Bidwell is miles better than Brau purely from a defensive and experience standpoint but his passing/ crossing and general on the ball play leads to nothingness 9 times out of 10.

For me central midfield at the minute is quite stagnant. You realisee how important Torp is to Lampards style of play. Torps ability to link up the play with Grimes and Rudoni is vital to our success.

From what I have seen so far some of our key players (Rudoni and Wright) are out of form and add to the fact Asante is out injured its having a clear impact on our recent performances and results.

Stay positive!

theskyisthelimit · 2026-01-10T18:53:48+0000

DT-R said:
Burnley weren't known for their strong goalscorers?? Josh Brownhill finished leagues second top scorer with 18, only 1 behind Piroe who topped out with 19! They also weren't anywhere near as shit at the back as we are. You cant keep conceding goals like we do and expect to win games. Regardless of how good your strikers are.

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Well brownhill was an oversight on my part, I stand corrected. However they didn't set the league alight with multiple scorers.
I agree their defence is much much better than ours though. I was just thinking you don't need to go all out attack to win games, Burnley just ground people down and won without really ever being in trouble

Hobo · 2026-01-10T19:02:01+0000

edgy said:
Not sure this will go down well with some. But it's there for all to see.

Out Weakest position currently, on form, is up front. You can all belly ache as much as you want, but they aren't top 2 material there.

We'd be miles clear with an effective forward.

When you say upfront I assume, with our formation, you mean EMC, Wright or Simms, Sakamoto.

There are good and bad bits with all of them. FL refers to EMC and Sakamoto as wingers. I'm not sure they always do their job as wingers I e balls into the box. Which in turn effects Wright and Simms.

A bit of competition may do EMC and Sakamoto some good.

Terry Gibson's perm · 2026-01-10T19:05:19+0000

We looked better when we were getting the ball into the area quicker, the last few weeks we have started playing a version of Robinsball getting into a position to cross and working back and recycling.

I said the other day I would like to see a new left back.

Perennial Lurker · 2026-01-10T19:15:16+0000

If we had decent strikers and centre backs we'd be top of the league by now .......

edgy · 2026-01-10T19:15:31+0000

Hobo said:
When you say upfront I assume, with our formation, you mean EMC, Wright or Simms, Sakamoto.

There are good and bad bits with all of them. FL refers to EMC and Sakamoto as wingers. I'm not sure they always do their job as wingers I e balls into the box. Which in turn effects Wright and Simms.

A bit of competition may do EMC and Sakamoto some good.

No I don't mean all those. I mean our central forwards. Strikers. No 9s.

You could put any like for like player in the lower championship in their position and there would be no difference.

nicksar · 2026-01-10T19:18:19+0000

Mucca Mad Boys said:
100% - anyone watching today will have seen Esse is a much better player.

I'm fairly sure Esse will be one of the first names on the team sheet while he's with us

Mucca Mad Boys · 2026-01-10T19:22:07+0000

Hobo said:
When you say upfront I assume, with our formation, you mean EMC, Wright or Simms, Sakamoto.

There are good and bad bits with all of them. FL refers to EMC and Sakamoto as wingers. I'm not sure they always do their job as wingers I e balls into the box. Which in turn effects Wright and Simms.

A bit of competition may do EMC and Sakamoto some good.

EMC has been chipping in - scored in 3 consecutive games in December.

Lampard has signed Esse to start ahead of Sakamoto. Esse does just about everything Sakamoto does but just a lot better.

Earlsdon_Skyblue1 · 2026-01-10T19:27:05+0000

Striker is an issue. We don't have enough of them and currently Wright is just seemingly not interested. He isn't even really challenging opposition players, and despite his obvious talent and ability, when you have a player that is doing that then there has to be a point where you stop playing them for the good of the team. I don't really care about today, but when you are scrapping for points you need everyone to be fighting even if they aren't playing well. He isn't doing that.

As for another unpopular view, I think LB is a very weak position for us. The back up seems to be a bigger drop off than other areas of the pitch, and I also think JDS is nowhere near as good as some on here make out. I feel like he costs us a lot of goals personally.

Three more signings: A striker, a CM, an LB. That would be nice.

Sky_Blue_Dreamer · 2026-01-10T19:28:34+0000

skybluecam said:
A month ago people wanted £200m+ for Wright and now it’s apparently our weakest position in the squad

FFY

Hobo · 2026-01-10T19:29:24+0000

Mucca Mad Boys said:
EMC has been chipping in - scored in 3 consecutive games in December.

Lampard has signed Esse to start ahead of Sakamoto. Esse does just about everything Sakamoto does but just a lot better.

I don't fault EMC's contribution in and around the six yard box. But I think his wing play and lack of balls into the box, as a winger is poor. Fans say Grimes plays too deep. But he puts in far more crosses than EMC.

I agree I think Esse will be an upgrade on the very popular Sakamoto. But some competition for EMC will be more than welcome as well.

Offhegoes · 2026-01-10T20:41:09+0000

Maybe it was just me, but I thought Wright looked lively. Simms will (and should) start next Saturday, but Wright will come again.

skybluecam · 2026-01-10T20:43:01+0000

Offhegoes said:
Maybe it was just me, but I thought Wright looked lively. Simms will (and should) start next Saturday, but Wright will come again.

Wright is now into confirmation bias territory with people watching him all game expecting a poor performance - most strikers will look poor when they don't score.

Ccfcisparks · 2026-01-10T20:45:11+0000

skybluecam said:
Wright is now into confirmation bias territory with people watching him all game expecting a poor performance - most strikers will look poor when they don't score.

13 games without a goal

shmmeee · 2026-01-10T21:35:22+0000

Hobo said:
I don't fault EMC's contribution in and around the six yard box. But I think his wing play and lack of balls into the box, as a winger is poor. Fans say Grimes plays too deep. But he puts in far more crosses than EMC.

I agree I think Esse will be an upgrade on the very popular Sakamoto. But some competition for EMC will be more than welcome as well.

Grimes does take corners tbf

Evo1883 · 2026-01-10T21:40:43+0000

coop said:
Our weakest position is 100% a good forward

Its not come on our forwards have scored 27 goals already this season and one has been out for 8 weeks , weve 3 forwards we can rotate if needed

Evo1883 · 2026-01-10T21:41:53+0000

Ccfcisparks said:
13 games without a goal

Most strikers have bad patches , he will be fine

hill83 · 2026-01-10T22:13:26+0000

edgy said:
Not sure this will go down well with some. But it's there for all to see.

Out Weakest position currently, on form, is up front. You can all belly ache as much as you want, but they aren't top 2 material there.

We'd be miles clear with an effective forward.

BTA

No injury we are 15/20 clear

Cov4life · 2026-01-10T22:18:48+0000

For me, it comes down to application and trust. Do I believe Wright is getting the most out of himself right now? And do I trust him in this crucial part of the season?
I’d be inclined to go all out on bringing in a quality forward. There’s so much at stake for the club, and Wright’s form hasn’t been at the level required for a while. At this stage of the season, I’m not sure I fully trust him to deliver.

SBT · 2026-01-10T22:50:06+0000

Next week it’ll be our keeper making an error and there’ll be a new thread on how GK has been our weakest position all along and Lampard MUST be allowed to sign two new keepers in January otherwise we’ve no chance of the playoffs

shepardo01 · 2026-01-10T22:55:58+0000

skybluecam said:
Gone off Evan Ferguson?

Napoli the latest to be interested in him.
End of all conversation and "links" to us.

shepardo01 · 2026-01-10T23:01:45+0000

Yes Simms has a decent goals/mins ratio.
Yes Wright has 8 and "the boys are backing him"

But neither are ruthless/hungry enough to get us over the line.

They are too soft and have zero killer instinct.

We needs somebody who has a real presence and a strikers instinct. No idea who - but I'd honestly have Bamford and Piroe in over either of these two and be more confident of us converting balls into the box and ruthlessly putting away loose balls (a fair few at Charlton after good saves that out forwards just stared at)

oscillatewildly · 2026-01-10T23:13:19+0000

martincov said:
On current form you are correct but he was in the last USA squad, I don't know if he played? My point is he will want to be in it and getting injured or aggravating an ongoing injury will damage his ambitions in that direction. It will probably be his only chance to be part of a world cup squad.

The truth is there is very little competition for a striker in the USA team outside of the USA domestic top league.
He’ll be included and surprise, surprise no doubt make an impact.
West Ham, do you still need a partially proven C’ship goal scorer now you are gonna be at that level?

Mucca Mad Boys · 2026-01-10T23:14:58+0000

coop said:
Our weakest position is 100% a good forward

Said with 0 irony when not 1, not 2 but 3 of our own strikers are in the top 20 goal scorers in the league.

Morgan Whittaker, Keiffer Moore, Burrell, Vipotnik and Gelhardt are all tied with BTA, 1 goal in front of Simms and 2 in front of Haji.

Simms being on 9 goals means he has the same amount of goals as Philogene, Sorba Thomas, McBurnie and Makama… more than Sargent, Windass, Riis (who many wanted in the summer), Stansfield, Jack Clarke, Fatawa, Justin James, Mehmeti and COH (plus many more). Most of these players people have been dying for us to sign.

People need to start putting some respect on Simms name.

Mucca Mad Boys · 2026-01-10T23:50:43+0000

martincov said:
IMO Haji Wright has his head at the World Cup, had a niggling injury, he don't want it to worsen. He will be desperate to stay in the USA squad. Next International break no doubt USA have some kind of warm up games and Wright will want to be part of it. Is he being careful or lazy? Lack of urgency and aggression?

Idk what it is but he’s not making a good case to be in the USA squad when he’s not scored for 3 months.

The only thing I can really clutch at is that he’s been in goal scoring positions so he’s doing something right.

He’s lost his place to Simms, BTA is back soon so if that doesn’t restore to factory settings, I’m not sure what will.

Our Weakest Position (6 Viewers)

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