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Post by davidm on Jan 1, 2024 19:25:40 GMT
A good result but not a great game.
I hate playing Burton. Their sole desire is to hoof the ball upfield and win throws-ins, fouls or corners and then launch the ball into the box. Hardly any football but, unfortunately, somewhat successful. And it frustrated the life out of the game and we struggled to get to grips with it.
We deservedly won as we dominated the game but there was always the fear that the high ball into the box might somehow get them a goal.
We dominated the first half but Burton’s tactics unsettled us and the final pass was more often than not wasted.
Adeboyejo broke clear and rounded the keeper but took so long to steady himself and shoot that the keeper managed to block. He should have scored.
Morley was a one-man shot machine today and their keeper made 2 excellent saves from him in the 1st half.
It was hustle and bustle but we couldn’t get the midfield control and passing that we needed. Burton were just high ball which did cause us some concerns.
Early in the second half, Forester needlessly gave away a free kick 20 yards out. They floated the ball in and looked to have scored when their tall defender won the ball in the air and headed towards goal but we somehow scrambled it clear. Very close and typical of the way Burton matches seem to go.
We upped the pressure a bit particularly down the right but the final ball in was always just off target.
Until Maghoma freed Dacres-Cogley for him again to fire in a centre. The Burton centre half cleared straight into his colleague from where it ricocheted back into the net.
After that we had numerous half chances but they were all scrambled away and the threat of a high ball into our defence hung over us.
The final miss came from Jerome who hooked the ball over the ball from 10 yards out when, in reality, Dempsey was running in for what would have been a tap-in.
We ran the time down well and got a deserved win.
Burton are awful and I hope we don’t play them ever again – it is just anti-football. They are good at it but it kills the game as a spectacle.
4 wins out of 4 – excellent.
Now a bit of cup tie football before Cheltenham at home.
Marks:-
Baxter - 6 For the 3rd match running, just nothing to do
Dacres-Cogley - 7 Some good breaks down the right, particularly in the 2nd half. His ball in caused the chaos for the own goal.
Forester - 6 Solid enough. A few stray passes. Gave away a needless foul from which Burton went very close.
Santos - 6 Won most in the air but his play out from the back was laboured and slow. As with most of the team, a few stray passes
Toal - 7 Won most things and pulled off a great tackle after Morley had been caught in possession
Williams - 6 A lot of the ball but too many poor passes.
Thomason - 6 Not as involved as normal
Morley - 7 He had 5 or 6 shots, 2 of which brought cracking saves from the keeper.
Maghoma - 6 Mr Casual. He strolled about, did a couple of decent passes but he lost the ball too often
Adeboyejo - 5 Struggled. Caught offside a few times. Missed a great chance when he got around the keeper but was too slow to get the ball into the empty net
Charles - 6 Frustrated today. Poor service to him but nothing really fell for him
Bodvarsson - 7 He is miles better than Adeboyejo. Yet again, when he came on the ball began to stick upfront. Just needs a goal
Dempsey - 6 A couple of attempts but just off target
Sheehan - 6
Jerome - 5 Ridiculous miss late on but, as always, very good at running down the clock
Ashworth
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Post by OohMac on Jan 1, 2024 19:57:09 GMT
MacAnthony and Barry Fry are the Kings of PR. They will leak stories to get the others to bite. Remember Oliver Norwood. Barry Fry said he wants to go back home and Bolton and Wigan have made bids. Was nonsense. Just a car salesman trick. They know they have to sell him. They want close to £1M and they will leak all sorts of stories. They do not want JCH to be a posh player on 1st Feb. I would offer £400k plus maybe £200k promotion clause and leave it on the table. He can sign abroad for free already. Would Rangers not take a chance on him? He'd get 20goals easy in that league. Well judging by Evatt’s comments on the striker front, I doubt he’ll be entering the market for a striker “ The three strikers have done well over this period as well – Victor has been coming on, scored the other night, started today. Jon was excellent when he came on. Everyone has bought in and they are all applying themselves correctly but I still think there is more to come from them as a team.” If that’s not a stark warning that he, once again, won’t be adding a ‘much needed prolific goal scorer’ to the ranks, to get us over the line, then I don’t know what is!! I don't get it. Ians Job is to get promoted. Its not his job to prove to show loyalty to strikers. He's watched every game Vic, Dan, Jerome and even Bod have played. There are no goals there. Make life easy. Bite the bullet. Take what you can and buy proper strikers who score. |
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Post by riochforthereebok on Jan 1, 2024 20:07:03 GMT
Well judging by Evatt’s comments on the striker front, I doubt he’ll be entering the market for a striker “ The three strikers have done well over this period as well – Victor has been coming on, scored the other night, started today. Jon was excellent when he came on. Everyone has bought in and they are all applying themselves correctly but I still think there is more to come from them as a team.” If that’s not a stark warning that he, once again, won’t be adding a ‘much needed prolific goal scorer’ to the ranks, to get us over the line, then I don’t know what is!! I don't get it. Ians Job is to get promoted. It’s not his job to prove to show loyalty to strikers. He's watched every game Vic, Dan, Jerome and even Bod have played. There are no goals there. Make life easy. Bite the bullet. Take what you can and buy proper strikers who score. For me OooooM, it’s imperative that we sign a front man. That will be the message to Derby, Posh and Pompey, or we could end up in yet another play off heartache without a decent goal scorer |
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Post by whiteofthesouth on Jan 1, 2024 22:24:59 GMT
I don't get it. Ians Job is to get promoted. It’s not his job to prove to show loyalty to strikers. He's watched every game Vic, Dan, Jerome and even Bod have played. There are no goals there. Make life easy. Bite the bullet. Take what you can and buy proper strikers who score. For me OooooM, it’s imperative that we sign a front man. That will be the message to Derby, Posh and Pompey, or we could end up in yet another play off heartache without a decent goal scorer I really don’t understand why people are complaining about our goal scoring capability. We just scored a club record 113 goals in the 2023 calendar year. That certainly isn’t the sign of a club struggling for goals. I’ll admit, we do miss some sitters (notably, Dion @ Portsmouth), but we score enough most matches! |
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Post by riochforthereebok on Jan 1, 2024 23:13:12 GMT
For me OooooM, it’s imperative that we sign a front man. That will be the message to Derby, Posh and Pompey, or we could end up in yet another play off heartache without a decent goal scorer I really don’t understand why people are complaining about our goal scoring capability. We just scored a club record 113 goals in the 2023 calendar year. That certainly isn’t the sign of a club struggling for goals. I’ll admit, we do miss some sitters (notably, Dion @ Portsmouth), but we score enough most matches! It’s not just the odd sitter though Wots In the most important area, bulging the net, it’s not the best return for our front men, apart from Dion Dion 15 Adeboyejo 7 JDB 3 Jerome 0 Nlundulu 3 In the days of Rioch n Todd, yes, everyone from all over the park were banging the goals in and our cavalier football made us a joy to watch, but we also, generally had McGinlay, Walker, Paateleinan, Blake to top us up with a mega return. Deduct the Papa Johns and the Bristol St Motors goals and you can minus a good 20 from that 113, then deduct the goals from non strikers and it’s not as good to read, given we really only have Dion and if he gets injured or dare I say, sold, then where do we get the goals from. If Dion had a reliable partner to help him (McGinlay Walker style) any thoughts of him being swayed by bids from clubs above and stay the distance might be the tonic we’ve all been asking for We need another goal scorer to get us over the line whilst we are In the best possible position to do it |
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Post by whiteofthesouth on Jan 2, 2024 0:58:11 GMT
But the point I’m making is that goals are coming from all over the pitch. We aren’t completely reliant on our strikers and, in any case, Dion is scoring plenty despite missing some sitters from time to time. For example, his goal against Fleetwood was top class.
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Post by whitesince63 on Jan 2, 2024 13:56:01 GMT
It’s a tricky one this because I think I’m right in saying that we’re the top scorers in the whole country at the moment yet other than Dion it’s not down to our strikers. In fairness it doesn’t really matter who scores and personally I’d rather like Wots have a team where everyone can score rather than rely on just one or two strikers. I think the big problem with the strikers, other than Dion, is Evatt’s system which requires the strikers to chase down defenders rather than just concentrate on their scoring responsibilities. For me only Dion suits that because his game is based around chasing the ball down and he’s good at it. Bod can do it a bit because he has such good close control but for me neither Dan and especially not Victor are that type of player and it shows. Victor is a box player as the goals he has scored proves. His hat trick all came from crosses into the six yard box, his goal last week was around the six yard box.
If Victor played for a team that played to that strength, as Burton did where again nearly all of his goals were box goals, I’m sure he’d be a 20 goal a season man but not here under Evatt’s system. For that reason I’d be looking for Ian to find a replacement who better fits his system than Vic does and I’m sure that would be better for Victor too. We all know though that Evatt will still try to shoehorn Victor into his system rather than accept he can’t. Unless Vic himself reacts to it as Dapo and possibly Declan did I don’t think much will change because Evatt won’t alter his system to suit one player and nor should he in fairness, just look for a striker that more closely fits his way of playing which currently only Dion does. Frankly though I believe our biggest need is a LWB where neither Randell or Iredale really fit the bill and a strong box to box midfield player. If the Australian guy is still available I’d get Gethin to have a quiet word in his ear whilst he’s on International duty. 😉
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Post by realtrottersforever on Jan 2, 2024 15:38:27 GMT
Have to ask!!!! Where has our excitement gone? 14 minutes in and Rico has had about 120 touches of the ball and we’ve threatened nowt, apart from a couple of powder puffs Dion and Vic have had nothing to run on to! Pompey winning, Derby v Posh drawing 1-1 (they both scored within the first 9 mins) AND Vic is just terrible, no argument Yep. contrast this to Liverpool last night. didn't see it, but heard most of it..sensational attacking performance, against a side on paper probably closer in talent than what Burton are to us. admittedly Newcastle going thru' a bit of a bad spell. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/6781859834 shots to Newc's 5 a whopping 15 on target . Newc got 3. XG was about 7..admittedly with 2 pens, but still huge even without the pens. that's averaging a shot every 3 mins. a shot on target every 6 mins or so .they did the same away at Burnley...1st 10 minutes..... 4 shots on target already & already 1-0 up. that's why i much prefer Klopps style to the Pep stuff. they struggled to beat Sheff utd at the wk/end. . 4 shots on target..yet 80%+ possession. they even gave up to 2 shots on target to sheff. so low number themselves and hardly any margin over opponent. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67809578this short vid (below ) sums up the philosophy. full on football. not interested in high possession. fast movement, quick switches from defence to attack ( i.e going longer occasionally ) and running hard. Whites since at h/t on this thread... "and if we slow down play any more we’ll stop" . was it the Bristol game where we didn't even have a shot, never mind on target or not, in the entire first half. love Woppy's comment about the timewasting too. it has been said before but just so apt for that first half. waste so much time ourselves, it's irrelevant. no one minds if you get 3-0 up then take a break and play some Ole football. |
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Post by OohMac on Jan 2, 2024 19:21:09 GMT
For me OooooM, it’s imperative that we sign a front man. That will be the message to Derby, Posh and Pompey, or we could end up in yet another play off heartache without a decent goal scorer I really don’t understand why people are complaining about our goal scoring capability. We just scored a club record 113 goals in the 2023 calendar year. That certainly isn’t the sign of a club struggling for goals. I’ll admit, we do miss some sitters (notably, Dion @ Portsmouth), but we score enough most matches! Well I have said before I'm genuinely baffled by that stat because Dion a side no one looks like hitting 10 a season. We don't have a Beevers and Wheater type defender getting 8-10, we don't have a Nolan getting double figures. And if we are record breaking scorers that was certainly not evident last season because we were the lowest scorers in the top 6. We'd scored fewer than Exeter in 14th place. We definitely didn't score enough last season. This season were better but life would be so much easier with two scorers. Everything is good at the moment but with two capable scorers imagine we could win the league at a canter. Remember Wigan running away with the league two seasons ago. It is possible that we can be much better and win this league in style. |
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Post by whitesince63 on Jan 2, 2024 23:49:14 GMT
I just don’t see Evatt bringing in another striker, partly because he believes in the ones he’s got and partly because we don’t really have the money to bring in the quality we need. Besides that I think there are other positions which need strengthening first. I actually don’t think we’ll sign anybody unless someone leaves and I’ve not heard us even being linked with anyone which is unusual. Time will tell, there’s a month to go but as long as we keep winning with the squad we’ve got I’m happy to stick with those already here.
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Post by OohMac on Jan 3, 2024 10:08:31 GMT
I just don’t see Evatt bringing in another striker, partly because he believes in the ones he’s got and partly because we don’t really have the money to bring in the quality we need. Besides that I think there are other positions which need strengthening first. I actually don’t think we’ll sign anybody unless someone leaves and I’ve not heard us even being linked with anyone which is unusual. Time will tell, there’s a month to go but as long as we keep winning with the squad we’ve got I’m happy to stick with those already here. Agreed. With no Jones, and even with, I think we need two viable options for wing backs. Think it's pretty clear that Cogley and Williams both are pretty dynamic but cannot play that was 95mins three times a week. Matheson has been used sparingly so far so don't think he's the choice. So 1 RWB. Possibly OK on left with Iredale and Ashworth(but wouldn't surprise me if he returned to WBA or elsewhere, hard to know how little he's played is due to injury or below the standard) Like our L2 promotion one of our most important players was JD Williams. Just blocking, intercepting and breaking up play. A similar DM would be next priority. Maybe 1st but I know Ian thinks not and maybe thinks GT has that in his game. Thirdly MendesGomes cover. There was an odd rumour in the summer that we still had tabs on Shoretire. Obviously the only indication of if he's kicked on was the 8-1 defeat he featured in so from the outset seems unlikely but never know. He was certainly well rated at one point. |
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Post by OohMac on Jan 3, 2024 12:05:27 GMT
After all, first rumour is for a striker. From the BN. Marc doesn't usually go down the rumour mill too much so would say that's definite interest at this stage.
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Post by riochforthereebok on Jan 3, 2024 12:33:07 GMT
I really do need to stop whining and moaning about this and that and all things Evatt, but strangely enough, I just can’t.
I feel like Del Boy when he finds the John Harrison ‘Lesser Watch’ until it sells at Southerby’s
Anyway, I’ll get to my point
Remember the 2016/17 season?
Our first back in League 1 since we beat Preston to get out of it?
Parkinsons chance to get us back up into the Championship
To put our current season into context, I’ve just done a bit of Statto’ing and come up with this
At the 24 games played status back in 2016/17 this was where we were (I’ve put our current status in brackets)
Won 15 (16)
Drawn 4 (3)
Lost 5 (5)
For 29 (45)
Against 15 (24)
Points 49 (51)
Top Scorers 16/17
Clough 7
Vela 7
Madine 5
Wheater Beevers Ameobi weighing in with a few here and there
Top Scorers 23/24
Charles 15
Adeboyejo 7
Maghoma 4
Again, others chipping in with 3’s and 2’s Thomasson Bod Nlundulu
At the 24 game stage of 16/17 we sat, wait for it…..
Second in the table
So I guess, in summary, we are probably in as good, if not, better position now to back then (albeit just a 2 point gain for all their efforts)
So, with 22 games left to play and 35 points needed to match the 16/17 season of 86, are we capable of winning 10 and drawing 5??
I’d say so
So far, so good
COYWM
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Post by riochforthereebok on Jan 3, 2024 14:30:06 GMT
After all, first rumour is for a striker. From the BN. Marc doesn't usually go down the rumour mill too much so would say that's definite interest at this stage. Joe Taylor Scored 11 goals for Colchester who sit 3rd bottom of League 2!! This is not prolific in terms of what’s required for League 1 pushing for the Championship standard, although I wouldn’t say no to Macauley Langsaffe |
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Post by whitesince63 on Jan 3, 2024 14:34:57 GMT
I don’t think anyone in L1 would say no to Langstaff rioch but I have a sneaky feeling he’ll be going to Derby. Not sure we have the money for a top goalscorer so even if we do sign one I suspect it will be someone to develop.bPersonally I’d have kept Carty to see what he could do because I think he’d fit Evatt’s system but clearly IE doesn’t agree!! 😉
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