| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 21:06 - Dec 31 with 1419 views | Northernr |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 21:00 - Dec 31 by Benny_the_Ball |
Trust me, it was pretty bad on TV too. |
I thought the sun always shines there? |  | |  |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 21:14 - Dec 31 with 1407 views | Hooparoo |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 21:36 - Dec 30 by nix |
Just a thought though Dave I wonder if it looked worse in the ground than on TV. You get a lot more idea of lack of movement off the ball and how few times our players got in their box when watching it live. It's harder to see that on TV as they focus a lot more on close ups of the player with the ball. |
Good point but one thing you do get a better idea of on tv is the body language and expressions from the players all of which I found alarming. There’s something very wrong I fear as it was mostly negative and flat. Lots of shoulder shrugs and frustrated moaning. Not good. |  |
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| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 21:50 - Dec 31 with 1375 views | ManinBlack |
The report is very accurate we were garbage but I have always believed us to be a soft touch. This club always struggles when there are no leaders on the pitch. These kind of performances come up every season at some point.
Everything is too comfortable and stagnant while others pass us by. Brentford were never really wealthy, like Luton, but they always seemed up for it playing us and beating us with consumate ease winning all the battles on the park. Luton did the same against us twice this season. These clubs seem to have no problems finding strikers despite financial limitations.
Managers can lose six on the bounce with us and stay in the job, they can even lose 6-0 at home and not be sacked the following morning. Then you see Norwich in the top 6 sacking their manager because the fans don't like the style of football. Other clubs have higher standards it seems. We appear to accept mediocrity now whether FFP has affected the mindset who knows?
Most London clubs are now above us in the Premier league with just Charlton and Orient below us and even then both took us to penalties in the League Cup recently. For fossils like me the decline has been soul destroying to the point I can't bear watching us on Sky this season. Friends who have watched us have felt pity towards me rather than laughing about it we have been so bad in the three games just televised.
If this club does not get investment then I see no hope for it. Thinking about the 66-67 team that scored over 100 goals with Marsh bagging 44 and now I have to witness this pitiful team who can barely score let alone entertain. God do we need another team like that but as money dictates who sit at the top of leagues we are stuffed.
We have two sides at the top on parachute money pulling away but a big reason why it is so tight throughout the rest of the league with everyone beating each other, is because most of the teams are financially constrained. So if you have a division of cash strapped clubs you get a lack of quality and wild inconsistency.
The championship looks like the SPL with the two biggest earners from Glasgow at the top and the bang average teams below scrapping for points beating each other and struggling to win two on the bounce as they are stuck in the rut of poverty. That is how the championship looks this season.In my view the quality is going to dip every decade if only a select few clubs has all the money. In many ways it reflects our everyday lives with the minority loaded with cash and the majority trying to save a few pennies cutting the cloth. Football does reflect real life when it comes down to finances. |  | | |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 18:47 - Jan 1 with 1194 views | Benny_the_Ball |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 21:06 - Dec 31 by Northernr |
I thought the sun always shines there? |
A-ha, I see what you did there!
P.S. Happy new year! Keep up the good work. [Post edited 1 Jan 2023 19:40]
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| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 22:49 - Jan 1 with 1024 views | PunteR |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 01:11 - Dec 31 by Antti_Heinola |
Personally can't believe the stick Tim gets. Utterly, utterly baffling. 19 yo kid who has been good all season makes some poor decisions, makes some mistakes. He's 19. Got to say I didn't seem him pull out of any challenges, but maybe I'm not seeing what others do.
Our bias against loan players has reached insane proportions and if a player has a bad game it's immediately 'they want to go back.' So much extrapolation and guesswork passed off as fact. Most if not all teams in this league rely on a few loans. Birmingham battered us a few weeks back - mainly due to their loan signings.
I think Tim has been tremendous for us. And, unlike a lot of the 'players we own', manages to be fit to play every week. Against Luton he's asked to play a different role as a more defensive player in a two, and people go mad at his errors. Find it really depressing. |
He's a great ĺittle player, but he's only 19 and he isn't Jude Bellingham. He's made some absolute howlers, committed fouls in wrong areas, made the wrong pass countless times. He's now getting into the firing line of criticism when he's just a developer or an improver as we call them on site.
I've no doubt he will go on to be a great player but he isn't the finished article and if criticism is going his way and he cant deal with it then the management need to protect him and manage his progress.
Basically your point of trying to coat off our fans again is null and void. [Post edited 1 Jan 2023 22:56]
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| Occasional providers of half decent House music. |
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| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 09:56 - Jan 2 with 880 views | kernowhoop |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 21:29 - Dec 30 by ozranger |
I think this may be the first time I have posted here on a match report, but there is something that I feel almost everyone is missing and I just can't let it go by. Someone stated on another thread, why not have Armstrong playing as his speed will unlock defences? Or do we need another striker? Or why is Willock not playing well or, most importantly, why are Laird and Paal not attacking forward? Does anyone else notice that I and, well everyone else, has not mentioned what I believe is the core of our real problems?
The two centre backs and, I am sad to say, Dickie. I totally disagree that either should have been given a 5. Why? They slow the game down completely every time they get the ball. They pass it between themselves and, what's more, they do it with slow rolling passes as opposed to a crisp, speedy movement of the ball. Both centre backs show a total lack of any real willingness to make a decision of playing the ball forward quickly and thus launching an attack quickly - like for example what Luton was doing a lot last night. When this happens, the two fullbacks have to stay at home as they will be outlets as, except for Dieng, they appear the only options for the defenders. That means that there is a lack of extra players in the midfield, and thus a lack of the ability of the midfielders to work properly together and also to be in support with the lone striker, as has been mentioned on too many threads and explained in the match report. I am not saying we should play longball as quick balls to midfielders who should immediately pull into the holes is just as good.
What was the big difference between Preston and the past two games? Speed of getting the ball forward and what happens then. What else was the difference? Clarke-Salter, for Dickie, a player who will move the ball much quicker up the field.
Why has this happened to our favourite Dickie? Perhaps Bournemouth last season and the repercussions followed by the requirements instilled in him by Warburton after that game. Perhaps he is too ingrained with the idea of being safe as opposed to taking early risks.
If we go back to Armstrong, getting a ball to him almost immediately upon winning the ball in defence will create significant chances for him. Similarly, we watch Dykes make run after run wanting the ball behind the defence (and Nick London has complained about that problem before). Playing the ball around the back only allows the opposition to get into shape and only counters any opportunity, or certainly decreases the opportunity, to break open a defence.
We can have as much go at our attackers for missing chances, and they deserve that, the two full-backs not getting forward enough, the poor crossing, the lack of midfielders supporting the lone striker but to me the primary problem lies in the pair at the back. |
There is, of course, more to a successful pass than the thought and effort of the player making it. 50 per cent of a successful pass is about the player being available to receive the ball. If we have difficulty with that, is it part of the reason why our defenders spend so much time rolling the ball across the pitch? |  | | |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 11:38 - Jan 2 with 779 views | Damo1962 |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 21:50 - Dec 31 by ManinBlack |
The report is very accurate we were garbage but I have always believed us to be a soft touch. This club always struggles when there are no leaders on the pitch. These kind of performances come up every season at some point.
Everything is too comfortable and stagnant while others pass us by. Brentford were never really wealthy, like Luton, but they always seemed up for it playing us and beating us with consumate ease winning all the battles on the park. Luton did the same against us twice this season. These clubs seem to have no problems finding strikers despite financial limitations.
Managers can lose six on the bounce with us and stay in the job, they can even lose 6-0 at home and not be sacked the following morning. Then you see Norwich in the top 6 sacking their manager because the fans don't like the style of football. Other clubs have higher standards it seems. We appear to accept mediocrity now whether FFP has affected the mindset who knows?
Most London clubs are now above us in the Premier league with just Charlton and Orient below us and even then both took us to penalties in the League Cup recently. For fossils like me the decline has been soul destroying to the point I can't bear watching us on Sky this season. Friends who have watched us have felt pity towards me rather than laughing about it we have been so bad in the three games just televised.
If this club does not get investment then I see no hope for it. Thinking about the 66-67 team that scored over 100 goals with Marsh bagging 44 and now I have to witness this pitiful team who can barely score let alone entertain. God do we need another team like that but as money dictates who sit at the top of leagues we are stuffed.
We have two sides at the top on parachute money pulling away but a big reason why it is so tight throughout the rest of the league with everyone beating each other, is because most of the teams are financially constrained. So if you have a division of cash strapped clubs you get a lack of quality and wild inconsistency.
The championship looks like the SPL with the two biggest earners from Glasgow at the top and the bang average teams below scrapping for points beating each other and struggling to win two on the bounce as they are stuck in the rut of poverty. That is how the championship looks this season.In my view the quality is going to dip every decade if only a select few clubs has all the money. In many ways it reflects our everyday lives with the minority loaded with cash and the majority trying to save a few pennies cutting the cloth. Football does reflect real life when it comes down to finances. |
You have exactly put into words my feelings about our club and it's future.. Post of 2023...so far🙂 | | | |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 18:07 - Jan 2 with 662 views | TacticalR |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 19:44 - Dec 30 by Northernr |
The problem Critchley is going to have here, and I did say this when we appointed him, is he's obviously one of these guys who's not big on public speaking and being in front of a camera and the media. He's not Redknapp or Warnock or Beale who absolutely loves sitting there and telling all their great stories about where they get all their great ideas. He's pretty quiet, reserved, keeps his cards very close to his chest, doesn't say a lot in the interviews. Now, there was obviously a lot wrong with Mark Hughes apart from this, but he suffered here for that as well IMO. Actually, I think this could be quite a good thing for us after Beale's bullsht, but it doesn't play well here when things aren't going well.
We had Mark Warburton for three years, who overall did a pretty good job particularly given what he inherited. He was absolutely steadfastly professional in interviews, gave nothing away, protected his players, represented the club well. For that, you had a thread on here every week last season coating off his post match interview, sick of his cliches and repetition etc. |
I think there is a difference between managers who don't possess the gift of the gab, and a manager like Hughes, who was simply vacant. |  |
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| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 18:13 - Jan 2 with 655 views | Hunterhoop |
| Luton humbling highlights scale of Critchley’s task — Report on 22:49 - Jan 1 by PunteR |
He's a great ĺittle player, but he's only 19 and he isn't Jude Bellingham. He's made some absolute howlers, committed fouls in wrong areas, made the wrong pass countless times. He's now getting into the firing line of criticism when he's just a developer or an improver as we call them on site.
I've no doubt he will go on to be a great player but he isn't the finished article and if criticism is going his way and he cant deal with it then the management need to protect him and manage his progress.
Basically your point of trying to coat off our fans again is null and void. [Post edited 1 Jan 2023 22:56]
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Also, his development is not really our problem or concern; it’s Villa’s. Loanees are about the ‘here and now’ as far as we are concerned. If they aren’t working hard and playing well, why are we investing opex into someone else’s asset?
I understand the nuanced line of “well, if we develop other club’s young lads, we might get access to more of them.” But it is wishful thinking. Wages, and position of te club dictate where the best young players go on loan. |  | | |
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