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Time for changes?

Frustrating and just not good enough, not by a long way.

In my opinion, only Flahavan, Clarke, Foran and Hunt can come away from tonights match with any real credit.

Steve Hammell may not be the best defender I have seen at this level, but anyone who believes Che Wilson could do as good a job will have seen tonight that he can't and is out of his depth in the Championship. That is a debate that can certainly be put to bed now.

Another player who simply cannot hack it at this level also is Lee Bradbury. What does he bring to the side? He has no pace whatsoever meaning any through ball to him is absolutely hopeless. In the air he hardly wins a thing and he can't hold a ball up for more than one touch before giving it away.

I thought Freddy put in a lot of effort tonight, but he gets frustrated from having absolutely naff all to feed off. Last season Eastwood had Goater to feed off, now he has this fat lump Bradbury. An Oxford side struggling in League Two last season gave up on him as a striker - so how can it even be comtemplated that he can hack it at this level?

Matt Harrold may not be the perfect answer, but he lacks no effort and puts himself about, that can count for a fair bit in this division.

With McCormack out of the side, we needed Kevin Maher, as captain and the more experienced central midfield player, to add that crucial bite in the middle - certainly as we know that it'll never come from Mark Gower. It didn't come, and I suppose I was naive for even hoping it might. In the final minute a Palace player stood and headed a ball clear whilst Maher, more than in range stood and watched him do so, without the hint of a challenge. I know some people will think I'm mad, but we really would be better off without this guy as a regular in our team, but what are the options?

Gower was just Gower, and he hasn't proved himself at all this season, but again where are the options? unfortunately, I feel we have been left very short in midfield. Far too short.

We had plenty of possession tonight, but not enough bite all over the midfield. Why do we need one player - Alan McCormack - to inject this into our side? Do the rest of the side have it within them to lift themselves without him? It seems not, and that's just not good enough.

Palace were poor, we can't hide from that. We had a great chance for a home win to give us a good shout of staying in this League, but we were pathetic.

No passion, no bite. No points.

More of that and we have no chance.

I think this is a major over-reaction. Gower & Bradbury have proven themselves over the season yet according to you neither are good enough. Bradders link-up play and ability to hold up the ball is top quality. I'd like to see Foran given a chance up front too, but Bradbury has done a good job there.

Gower doesn't need defending. His quality is there to see.

Hunt, Sodje & Wilson were the only Southend players to really suffer last night, IMO. Che is short of match fitness and Palace was the worst game he could have come in for as Peter Taylor knows us inside out and had his team throw everything down their right, especially in the first half. Hunt had a 'mare.

Performance-wise I thought we were ok. Definately the better side up until they scored, although after the changes it all got very, very s****py. Foran was quality, Gower & Maher worked well in the middle and some of the link-up play from the very fluid group of Gower, Foran, Bradbury and Eastwood was a joy to watch. But we lacked real penetration and after we'd missed a couple of decent chances I felt for sure that it wasn't going to be our night.

Palace looked very ordinary and what makes this all the more disappointing is that we could have got three points here, but we didn't. We're all gutted but winning last night wouldn't have meant that we were staying up and losing doesn't put us down. We need five points minimum now from Wednesday, Leicester & Ipswich then lets see where we are.
 
in my humble opinion,i would not pick hunt or bradbury whatsoever.hunt is completely out of his depth and bradbury is hopeless.no pace,no shooting idea,and not able to support freddie.on the other hand,foran looks a good prospect and could easily play the bradbury role.
 
Frustrating and just not good enough, not by a long way.

In my opinion, only Flahavan, Clarke, Foran and Hunt can come away from tonights match with any real credit.

Another player who simply cannot hack it at this level also is Lee Bradbury. What does he bring to the side? He has no pace whatsoever meaning any through ball to him is absolutely hopeless. In the air he hardly wins a thing and he can't hold a ball up for more than one touch before giving it away.

I thought Freddy put in a lot of effort tonight, but he gets frustrated from having absolutely naff all to feed off. Last season Eastwood had Goater to feed off, now he has this fat lump Bradbury.

Agree with the rest but Hunt? Really? :confused:

Have to say I agree (in the most part) on Bradders. I think you're being a bit harsh on him but one thing no-one can deny is that he's just too slow for this level of football now, and Freddy would feed a LOT better off Foran - who won everything last night - up there alongside (plus his mobility would also be an asset to both Freddy and the team). Freddy's got a quick footballing brain and in terms of interlinking with his partner up front Freddy's brain is unfortunately too quick for Bradders lack of pace. Foran must start up top from now on surely.
 
Think this is all somewhat harsh on Bradders. He was finding it tough against a good defensive partnership but managed to win a few good headers in the 2nd half, albeit that Freddy was often running in the wrong direction to get onto them. But more than that, how many times last night did we break forward via Bradders holding the ball and playing a little flick to one of the other attacking players? it looked like our best chance of getting through the defence for most of the game, and I think that's why he was left on rather than pushing Foran up top.
 
in my humble opinion,i would not pick hunt or bradbury whatsoever.hunt is completely out of his depth and bradbury is hopeless.no pace,no shooting idea,and not able to support freddie.on the other hand,foran looks a good prospect and could easily play the bradbury role.

With you 100% on both players Lombard.

Hunt is a pedestrain for much of the game. Bradders I think is a good player but never looks like scoring and therefore is no good to us a striker.

DtS
 
Another player who simply cannot hack it at this level also is Lee Bradbury. What does he bring to the side? He has no pace whatsoever meaning any through ball to him is absolutely hopeless. In the air he hardly wins a thing and he can't hold a ball up for more than one touch before giving it away.

Matt Harrold may not be the perfect answer, but he lacks no effort and puts himself about, that can count for a fair bit in this division.

Over the top and in my opinion totally wrong!

He is probably the best we have at winning the ball and holding it up! He may not have done as well as he normally does but those are the very attributes he does bring to the team.

You then say Harrold lacks no effort and puts himself about, exactly what Bradders does!


. Bradders I think is a good player but never looks like scoring and therefore is no good to us a striker.

DtS

Been discussed to death but to dismiss Bradbury because of lack of goals completely ignores everything else he does. He is of use, he plays a part in most of the attacks we make, how many would break down if he didnt get the ball and hold onto it for us.

Im inclined to give Foran a go up front personally just to try to add a spark but not because Bradbury isnt any good.
 
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Personally, I've not seen a lot of real effort from Bradbury, but this could be an impression I get because he simply isn't fit enough or quick enough to compete at this level.

As for for putting himself about, in my opinion he doesn't. Not at all.
 
No effort - see the goal against QPR, if he hadnt made the effort closing Royce down we wouldnt have scored.

Putting himself about - Same game in the S/E corner when he got elbowed. He is a very physical player.

As I say, I think he is a good player for us, however wouldnt be disappointed to see Foran given a go.
 
I do think Bradbury although can tend to hold the ball up at times, is noway a Striker. I Agree Foran did impress last night although im not so sure his heading would of been so great in the middle against Cork. I think he deserves a chance up front .... as for Fredy last night, every time he had the ball he had 3 defenders on him and does seem to lack a Goat/Gray assitant....I dont think Foran would be so effective as those...but certainly in my opinion deserves a crack at it.We have little to loose now but very much to gain .
 
I think Tilly would agree, but Foran has ot been 90 minutes match fit, he is getting better, but tired last night, I think he is being given suitable time to settle in!!
 
We were lucky enough to attend the sponsors evening and the quote from Ron Martin was that 'if the stadium gets the go ahead, then Tilly will have a serious war chest available in January'.

The fact that we got New Stadium giving an go-ahead on Jan 23rd & 24th, its leave it bit late for Tilson to get the player he "wanted" in - he don't want to sign another Ricketts again, If Tilson wanted to, he would got in better players in than what we got - its easy to do it on FM 2007, but not in real life. Its will change next season, whatever we are in Championship or not.

I think Tilly would agree, but Foran has ot been 90 minutes match fit, he is getting better, but tired last night, I think he is being given suitable time to settle in!!

Its time to pair Foran with Freddy up front! I have seen enough that Foran will do miles better than Bradbury.

Freddy & Foran :guns: Championship defence & Goalkeeper!

Let the FAF strike parthership begin!
 
All said and done I dont think we actually have much need to change anything.

All we need is McCormack back then the only real decision is whether and where to play Foran.

Id give him a chance up front at some point to see how he does there.
 
I think most of us would want to see Foran & Eastwood up front. Foran was very, very impressive last night and once we've got enough midfielders to be able to push him forward I hope its done.

That doesn't count against Bradders though. Our record with and without him in the side shows what a good player he's been this season. If he was bad last night (which he wasn't IMO) then how many times has he been top notch this season? He was great against West Brom, Southampton, QPR, he can definately hack it at this level, even if he won't ever be prolific.
 
in my humble opinion,i would not pick hunt or bradbury whatsoever.hunt is completely out of his depth and bradbury is hopeless.no pace,no shooting idea,and not able to support freddie.on the other hand,foran looks a good prospect and could easily play the bradbury role.

Have to agree with you on both these players .
I have been saying for ages that Lee Bradbury is just not good enough or dangerous enough or a good partner for F.Eastwood .Those Two Strikers play as Two seperate enterties and Bradbury has had so many chances put on a plate to him this season (Headers and Shots)only to put most of them feebly into the Goalies grateful Arms .I said at the beginning of our winless run that lack of Goals per game and link up with Freddy from Bradbury could soon find us in trouble at the bottom of the table .Yes I know that there are other reasons as well .
The way that Foran linked up with Eastwood looked on a different Planet .
 
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