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Pre-Match Thread Southend v Oldham

yogi bear up the cagire

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I decided to get this thread up and running fairly early in order to allow discusssion, particularly on the formation we are going to put out. If we are going to be there or thereabouts come the end of the season victory at home to sides like Oldham are pretty essential.............and in my view it ain't going to be easy.
Oldham started their season, on the road, by winning 2-1 at the 'O's' and then slipped to a 2-0 defeat at Millwall. Their last two travels have seen them pick up a very creditable 1-1 draw at Brentford and most recently they held a rampant Bristol Rovers to 0-0..........only slipping to defeat by a last minute Jo Kuffour goal.
It's the sort of match that has frustration written all over it and one that will provide an interesting polemic between those advocating defensive solidity and those calling for more creativity. How do we break down teams like Oldam, who essentially arrive, happy for a point and hope, with chance of a counter attack, to snatch all three?
Personally, assuming both hip problems are overcome, I believe that Steve Tilson will put out essentially the same side that started at Brighton.
The only doubt I have is as to whether he will start with Herd or Friend.....
..that may well depend on how he viewed Friend's second-half performance and what happens in training this week. I think the one difference we may see, is Tilly being willing to change things around fairly early on .....if we don't make a breakthrough. Thus, you could see Laurent on, as early as half-time.............and somewhat later, perhaps even Mr Sawyer!
 
Well, so much for creating this thread early.............not very much discussion! I think people have had their minds on a million other things.
Anyway, Tilly's pre-match thoughts didn't seem 100% confident on Herd and M'voto's early return...........or perhaps it was just bluff. They both trained today and according to Tilly we shall have to wait and see if there is any reaction tomorrow.
 
Yogi, I am interested as have not been to a game since Orient, and we are currently coming into some results form nicely.You know Tilson WILL very likely make it his usual "same again", but I very much agree with how you read Oldham's likely game plan.With this in mind, I do hope we see Sawyer earlier in the second half rather than a 12 minute cameo.We all moan about his subs policy; it reminds me of Webb here, and I think Tilson probably learnt more from DW than anyone else
 
don't think we will see to many early subs tbh, not tillys style.

howevere really looking forward to this one, making a short trip the west stand. always enjoy the atmosphere there.

i do agree though that its game like the oldams, bristol rovers etc etc that will decide our fate. i think it will be tricky. if i remember rightly i think they beat us last year although that may have been the season before i'm thinking of when lee hughes scored to beat us at home.

hoping for a 3-1 win. barney to continue his good form and o'donavan and sawyer to score.
 
I see it as an interesting test to observe Tilly's tactics. He knows that we need to win home games rather than just not lose them. I don't consider that Oldham will pose such a threat as the likes of Huddersfield, Millwall and Leeds but at the same time, I don't think that they will be as poor as Orient. It's for that reason I don't see Tilson waiting until the eightieth minute before calling the changes..................if we aren't already comfortably in front.
 
don't think we will see to many early subs tbh, not tillys style.

howevere really looking forward to this one, making a short trip the west stand. always enjoy the atmosphere there.

i do agree though that its game like the oldams, bristol rovers etc etc that will decide our fate. i think it will be tricky. if i remember rightly i think they beat us last year although that may have been the season before i'm thinking of when lee hughes scored to beat us at home.

hoping for a 3-1 win. barney to continue his good form and o'donavan and sawyer to score.

Bristol Rovers are 3rd in the table at the moment!

I think we will win tomorrow. Glad we have a game on a Saturday for a change!
 
should imagine friend will start, then pretty much the same as brighton, wonder how laurent will take to warming the bench again after his lovely goal at brighton, the main question for tilly may be does anyone deserve to be dropped the answer is probably no
 
So, on the subject of Sawyer, who would you leave out from McCormack, Moussa, Christophe or Grant?
 
We will boss the play and then go behind due to a slack piece of defending (thats never happened before !!).
Someone will come off injured 'forcing' Tilson to bring on Sawyer. Sawyer will 'destroy' Oldham AND bring out the best in everyone elseand we will ealk away with three points.

and I'm going on a Scouts father and son campingtrip with my son and won't be there --ahhhhhhhh
 
RobM said:
So, on the subject of Sawyer, who would you leave out from McCormack, Moussa, Christophe or Grant?
None of them. I wouldn't play Sawyer, not fit enough, not good enough when we don't have the ball.
 
a game of mixed emotions :( will be my last southend game before boxing day :(
i hope its a good one :)
 
None of them. I wouldn't play Sawyer, not fit enough, not good enough when we don't have the ball.


What exactly are you basing the fact he isn't fit enough on? Not good enough when we don't have the ball, isn't that the job of a holding midfielder, not an attacking midfielder?

To be honest there is no point even asking the question of who should Sawyer start instead of, because quite frankly it is never going to happen until someone is injured or suspended and it is more and more looking like a waste of a loan signing, especially in regards to the fact of how talented he is. If i were Sawyer and was looking to get my career started there is no way i would, go out on loan from a premiership club to a league one club and expect to sit on the bench every week. If he was a contracted player its a bit different, but the reason you go out on loan is to gain some experience of playing matches, and well he isn't getting that is he. If Tilly doesn't want him surely the best thing for him to do is let Lee go back to Chelsea and find another club where he will play games. It is a waste of Talent otherwise.
 
haveaguiness said:
What exactly are you basing the fact he isn't fit enough on? Not good enough when we don't have the ball, isn't that the job of a holding midfielder, not an attacking midfielder?
Based on the fact that he's never finished a game that he's started for us. You can't just have an Attacking Midfielder without him being able to defend, otherwise you'll never get the ball back. All midfielders need to be just as good when we don't have the ball, in fact it's probably more important.

To be honest there is no point even asking the question of who should Sawyer start instead of, because quite frankly it is never going to happen until someone is injured or suspended and it is more and more looking like a waste of a loan signing, especially in regards to the fact of how talented he is.

He shouldn't start in place of any of our midfield when we've only lost 1 of our 1st 8 games.
 
You can't have central midfielders going swanning off on attacking bursts and then not being able to defend when they don't have the ball. We're not Real Madrid, we don't have that luxury.

Sad as I am to say it, Nicky Bailey was a tremendous example of a player who was as adept at covering his team mates and shutting down when he didn't have the ball as he was dangerous when going forward. McCormack is also decent at both, but not as dangerous as Bailey or Sawyer going forward
 
You can't have central midfielders going swanning off on attacking bursts and then not being able to defend when they don't have the ball. We're not Real Madrid, we don't have that luxury.

Sad as I am to say it, Nicky Bailey was a tremendous example of a player who was as adept at covering his team mates and shutting down when he didn't have the ball as he was dangerous when going forward. McCormack is also decent at both, but not as dangerous as Bailey or Sawyer going forward

McCormack wasn't anywhere near close to Bailey's ability off the ball. Bailey was a joy to watch... his tracking, awareness and intelligence on the pitch was probably the best from any player I've seen wear the blue shirt.
 
McCormack wasn't anywhere near close to Bailey's ability off the ball. Bailey was a joy to watch... his tracking, awareness and intelligence on the pitch was probably the best from any player I've seen wear the blue shirt.

bailey was that damn good indeed, Id still put keith jones and peter butler ahead of him but thats for another day
 
You can't have central midfielders going swanning off on attacking bursts and then not being able to defend when they don't have the ball. We're not Real Madrid, we don't have that luxury.

Sad as I am to say it, Nicky Bailey was a tremendous example of a player who was as adept at covering his team mates and shutting down when he didn't have the ball as he was dangerous when going forward. McCormack is also decent at both, but not as dangerous as Bailey or Sawyer going forward

It's not like we are even playing with wingers though, so yes i think at home we could definitely let one of the midfielders have bit of a free role.we never look remotely dangerous down the middle and the only time we ever do look dangerous is when the moussa and francis have the ball. Macca isn't in the same league as either Bailey or Sawyer in terms of ability, ok he may be a slightly better defensive player than Sawyer but that isn't what he is in the team for.

I wouldn't drop any of the midfield after a victory but Sawyer needs to be given some pitch time and not just 5 or 10 minutes a game where he is going to have no impact.
 
What exactly are you basing the fact he isn't fit enough on? Not good enough when we don't have the ball, isn't that the job of a holding midfielder, not an attacking midfielder?

To be honest there is no point even asking the question of who should Sawyer start instead of, because quite frankly it is never going to happen until someone is injured or suspended and it is more and more looking like a waste of a loan signing, especially in regards to the fact of how talented he is. If i were Sawyer and was looking to get my career started there is no way i would, go out on loan from a premiership club to a league one club and expect to sit on the bench every week. If he was a contracted player its a bit different, but the reason you go out on loan is to gain some experience of playing matches, and well he isn't getting that is he. If Tilly doesn't want him surely the best thing for him to do is let Lee go back to Chelsea and find another club where he will play games. It is a waste of Talent otherwise.

I wouldn't mind betting that there is more to this whole Sawyer situation, than meets the eye...........right from the very start when he appeared to be almost foist upon us by Chelsea. Perhaps we will find out one day but for the moment the situation doesn't seem to be benefiting anyone.
 
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