My 2 cents

[Xàbia Shrimper]

Quote[/b] (fbm @ Oct. 03 2006,09:20)]In my opinion we came up too quickly.  We essentially have the nucleus of a league 2 side that through spirit, guts, passion and a fair amount of luck have elevated ourselves to the second tier of English football.

Exactly what I said a few days ago - and then got flamed for doing so ...

 

[* ORM *]

Selling Eastwood in the transfer window will go someway to helping our dilemma. Hopefully we'll be able to reinvest the 1/2 mill wisely.

 

[fredheim_holm]

Quote[/b] (* ORM * @ Oct. 04 2006,09:05)]Selling Eastwood in the transfer window will go someway to helping our dilemma. Hopefully we'll be able to reinvest the 1/2 mill wisely.

Billy Sharp? hope so.

Talking about potential (if he ever goes) Eastwood signings, colin kazim richards was very cheap, can't remember the exact price, something like 125-250k for a prem club! he looked decent in the only time i saw him in a sheff utd shirt so far.

 

[Bromley Blue]

Quote[/b] (neil @ Oct. 03 2006,13:52)]If you care to look back as far as July you'd see I was saying that we would struggle because we didn't have a centre half who could head the ball away without Sodje. This is while most posters on these boards were clambering for a forward. I feel that I have, sadly, been proved right.

Goals change games in football matches, and when you are likely to concede from every set-play you give yourself a mountain to climb. How many goals have we shipped from set-plays? Probably more than 50%. Add the many goals were we've failed to just put our foot through it in the penalty area, and that's nearly every goal against accounted for.

You can go through every player in the side, but the fact remains that without centre halves that can head the ball away you will lose games. I think we've been outplayed by Cardiff (and I assume Derby) otherwise we have coped well.

So many games have changed because of a poor goal given away from a set-play: Palace, QPR, Cardiff, Leicester, and to a lesser extent Derby.

That is the bottom line. Yes, some players have not yet hit top gear but it is early days still in many respect. The dividing line between winning and losing is narrow, and when you gift a goal away every game you change the nature of the game and make it hard for yourself.

Got to agree with most of what you've said here Neil. I for one had my head in my hands every time Derby got a free kick or corner saturday. The defence just doesn't look solid as a unit at set plays.

Goals do change games. I disagree with Tilly in that he thought we played well at Leicester. I thought we didnt really look like scoring all game apart from that one chance that fell to Gutts on the volley. However, at that stage it was still 0-0 and if that went in confidence rises and we could've taken at least a point. Leicester were not really that much better attacking wise, just defended better and got the rewards.

At Palace we outplayed them for 80 minutes of the game and I came away from this game gutted we'd taken nothing but proud of the team's display. Here we conceded 2 almost identical goals from centre halfs at corners.

At QPR again I thought we were worthy of at least a point based on our second half performance but again we conceded a sloppy goal and another to a quality free kick.

Against Cardiff we again conceded to set pieces but had Paynter's header gone in it could have been a different story.

In short we need Efe back in the starting line up to make us more dominant in the air at set pieces and need to start taking our chances, especially away from home. I'm hoping that the players will start to adjust to the division and players who we know can play better than they are currently start to perform. Keep your chins up Gutts, Clarke, and Francis especially, and hopefully we'll start picking up the points some of our performances have warranted.

 

[Jam_Man]

Quote[/b] (bluethroughandthrough @ Oct. 04 2006,03:05)]WHAT ABOUT JCR IN CENTRE MID? GOOD TACKLER, GOOD SKILL GOOD PASSER NOT NECESSARILY CROSSER, UP AND DOWN AND WILL PROBABLY OFFER A GOAL OR MORE TOO. GOWER RIGHT, COLE LEFT MAHER AND JCR IN MID, RICKETTS AND FREDDY UP FRONT, USUAL DEFENCE (SODJE)

Not for me.

JCR is about pace and running with the ball, not seen anything that would qualify him as a central midfielder. (ie passing, vision, marking, tackling)

Not to mention he is only 3 foot and whilst he puts himself about for a small guy would be battered in the middle.