Utterly Sick of It 21:55 - Sep 17 with 35769 views | BrianMcCarthy | Our club competes for three competitions every year. We toss off two of them. In doing so, we disrespect those two competitions, our opponents, and ourselves. I will never, never understand it. | |
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Utterly Sick of It on 10:04 - Sep 18 with 2498 views | GaryHaddock |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:01 - Sep 18 by BrianMcCarthy | I don't get that logic at all, sorry Dave. We rested key players, we got bossed all over the pitch in the first half. We improved after the break once we strengthened the team. We came close to a draw. Obviously, we'll never know now, but it seems logical to me that our chances would have increased had we played our strongest team. Anyway, I think I'm in the minority on this one. I would've prioritised last night's knockout game and rotated/rested for the next game which is 1/46th of a competition. I've always felt like this, and I doubt I'll change my mind, so I'll stop bugging you all! :) |
For what it’s worth I agree Brian. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:09 - Sep 18 with 2476 views | Ned_Kennedys |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:01 - Sep 18 by BrianMcCarthy | I don't get that logic at all, sorry Dave. We rested key players, we got bossed all over the pitch in the first half. We improved after the break once we strengthened the team. We came close to a draw. Obviously, we'll never know now, but it seems logical to me that our chances would have increased had we played our strongest team. Anyway, I think I'm in the minority on this one. I would've prioritised last night's knockout game and rotated/rested for the next game which is 1/46th of a competition. I've always felt like this, and I doubt I'll change my mind, so I'll stop bugging you all! :) |
Totally agree with you Brian on this thread. We ran them quite close with a weakened team so logically if we’d started with our first team starters we logically could have won against a Palace team in poor form and low confidence. How anyone can think starting EDB ahead of Dembele didn’t weaken the team is very odd. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:16 - Sep 18 with 2433 views | TK1 |
Utterly Sick of It on 09:51 - Sep 18 by BrianMcCarthy | I'm sorry, TK1, but you don't think we'd have been more competitive with Nardi, Dunne, Dembelé and Frey in the team? |
More competitive than losing 1-2 with Lloyd almost scoring in the last minute? No. I think you may be massively overstating the powers of all those players. Did you see how we played against a much inferior team at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday with all those players? We looked like they'd all dropped half a valium before kick-off. Chair and JCS may have made a bit of a difference. But I think we will have to get used to not seeing Chair for quite a while. I did not leave disappointed by a lack of competitive intent. Neither did anyone I went with or spoke to in the pub after. What can I say? I'm not being contrary. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:16 - Sep 18 with 2436 views | daveB |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:01 - Sep 18 by BrianMcCarthy | I don't get that logic at all, sorry Dave. We rested key players, we got bossed all over the pitch in the first half. We improved after the break once we strengthened the team. We came close to a draw. Obviously, we'll never know now, but it seems logical to me that our chances would have increased had we played our strongest team. Anyway, I think I'm in the minority on this one. I would've prioritised last night's knockout game and rotated/rested for the next game which is 1/46th of a competition. I've always felt like this, and I doubt I'll change my mind, so I'll stop bugging you all! :) |
which key players were rested? Only really Nardi and Frey and apart from Luton away I'm not sure Frey has shown that much I just don't see a massive drop between that team last night and the one on Saturday, I thought we were a lot better last night than Saturday to be honest. The only one who didn't feature that could have made a difference imo was Colback but he's very hit and miss If we'd done a McClaren and put the under 21 team in I'm with you and pushing you out of the way with a flaming pitchfork to get near the front but that wasn't what we did. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:19 - Sep 18 with 2407 views | TheChef |
Utterly Sick of It on 08:53 - Sep 18 by BrianMcCarthy | That's fair enough, Connell. I thought that we failed to field our strongest team and that it showed for most of the game. We played better when we brought better players on. |
Fine margins to be honest. First goal goes straight through Walsh's legs, second goal takes a big deflection otherwise the shot is straight at Walsh. Lloyd's shot at the end goes the right side of the post, then who knows? That's football. | |
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Utterly Sick of It on 10:24 - Sep 18 with 2390 views | bosh67 |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:19 - Sep 18 by TheChef | Fine margins to be honest. First goal goes straight through Walsh's legs, second goal takes a big deflection otherwise the shot is straight at Walsh. Lloyd's shot at the end goes the right side of the post, then who knows? That's football. |
This. | |
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Utterly Sick of It on 10:27 - Sep 18 with 2380 views | _tf_ | I agree with you Brian. It wasn't the strongest team we could have put out and the first 45 were so supine. Spent much of half time explaining to my bemused son what the old phrase 'you might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb' means. We should have gone after Palace from the word go with everything we had. It probably wouldnt have changed the outcome but I would rather be sitting here thinking well, at least we gave it a go... | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:29 - Sep 18 with 2367 views | TK1 | The main thing about this thread that I find incredible is that I do not understand how anyone can look at how the team played at Sheffield Wednesday and say, yes, that's our best team. We were appalling. And in fact, all season we have only really played well for half an hour of any game at most. The uncomfortable fact is neither we nor the coaching staff really know at this stage what the strongest team is. Our most expensive signings for some time all started last night. They *have* to work. And to work, they must play sometimes. Varane looks like he may have benefited from this. But the only two players we know are top quality - Chair and JCS - are injured. Without those two to hold it together, we are a whole new group trying to rub along. Also, the idea already stated thread that "we will neither go up nor down this season" is mental. How could anyone look at the last three seasons and think that? We've been circling the drain. It's mid-September. We could easily go down. There's a lot to sort out with this squad | | | | Login to get fewer ads
Utterly Sick of It on 10:33 - Sep 18 with 2338 views | daveB |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:29 - Sep 18 by TK1 | The main thing about this thread that I find incredible is that I do not understand how anyone can look at how the team played at Sheffield Wednesday and say, yes, that's our best team. We were appalling. And in fact, all season we have only really played well for half an hour of any game at most. The uncomfortable fact is neither we nor the coaching staff really know at this stage what the strongest team is. Our most expensive signings for some time all started last night. They *have* to work. And to work, they must play sometimes. Varane looks like he may have benefited from this. But the only two players we know are top quality - Chair and JCS - are injured. Without those two to hold it together, we are a whole new group trying to rub along. Also, the idea already stated thread that "we will neither go up nor down this season" is mental. How could anyone look at the last three seasons and think that? We've been circling the drain. It's mid-September. We could easily go down. There's a lot to sort out with this squad |
it's not been said yet either but that Palace team on paper and on the pitch were miles better than us, not a single player at our club gets in that Palace team or on the bench The gap between us and them is depressingly big | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:43 - Sep 18 with 2271 views | Paddyhoops | To put things in perspective. Palace have never won a major trophy. Geuhi and Eze alone are worth a 120 million . All things considered we ran them pretty close . Sorry for being defeatist but we’re along way behind even a bottom half premier League team . At the same time I do think we could have started with a stronger side and possibly gone for a bit . | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:54 - Sep 18 with 2157 views | Wegerles_Stairs | I found the first half pretty depressing. We stood off them so much it was like a training session for them. I kept thinking how disastrous Tune Group were, considering our respective positions when they took over. However, much better after the break and felt optimistic about the people running the club these days. Who knows, we may even catch up the likes of Palace and Brentford some day. I do agree with Brian that you should play your strongest team in a match like this, else what's the point? [Post edited 18 Sep 10:55]
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Utterly Sick of It on 10:58 - Sep 18 with 2148 views | Superhoops2808 | Am shocked as are many by this thread tbh I think that with what MC had at his disposal we did good. Lets start with Nardi. So many saying he should play last night, but after the Luton cup game many were saying Walsh should start the next league game and be first choice etc. Dunne next. So, he really is not a CB and again 6 months ago people would not have been disappointed if he left. But MC moved him to RB and we have a different player. As someone pointed out, had he taken a knock the outrage that we risked him. Frey next, not 100% fit so we have to get Celar some minutes. Gets one goal and it could open the floodgates but he has to play to get that one goal. And if Frey is not fully fit why risk him Dembele next, this was the only one I agree that we should have started with. He is a real handful and whilst much doesn't pay off it causes the opposition issues. So that's the majority of the players that were available to MC and perhaps could have started. The rest of the side have been in or around the 1st team this season. So sorry Brian, but as many have said, respect a lot of your posts because normally they are sensible and level headed but cannot agree with you on this one | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 11:27 - Sep 18 with 2052 views | Ned_Kennedys |
Utterly Sick of It on 10:29 - Sep 18 by TK1 | The main thing about this thread that I find incredible is that I do not understand how anyone can look at how the team played at Sheffield Wednesday and say, yes, that's our best team. We were appalling. And in fact, all season we have only really played well for half an hour of any game at most. The uncomfortable fact is neither we nor the coaching staff really know at this stage what the strongest team is. Our most expensive signings for some time all started last night. They *have* to work. And to work, they must play sometimes. Varane looks like he may have benefited from this. But the only two players we know are top quality - Chair and JCS - are injured. Without those two to hold it together, we are a whole new group trying to rub along. Also, the idea already stated thread that "we will neither go up nor down this season" is mental. How could anyone look at the last three seasons and think that? We've been circling the drain. It's mid-September. We could easily go down. There's a lot to sort out with this squad |
“We’ve been circling the drain” What utter pessimistic nonsense. We haven’t lost a league game since day one, we’ve got great results away from home and had by our standards a good cup run. You decide to judge the regular first team players on one poor performance at Sheffield Wednesday where we didn’t actually lose and would’ve taken a point beforehand. I was talking about THIS season, not the last three seasons when we had different players and management. Disagree that only JCS and Chair are top quality players as well. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 11:32 - Sep 18 with 1970 views | Juzzie | The difference between us and Palace is there to see. This is not though down to Palace necessarily being a wonderfully brilliantly run club and us not. There's one thing and one thing only...... money. The gulf between the PL and the EFL is getting wider and wider and the PL is just becoming more like a closed shop as each season passes. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 12:01 - Sep 18 with 1835 views | TK1 |
Utterly Sick of It on 11:27 - Sep 18 by Ned_Kennedys | “We’ve been circling the drain” What utter pessimistic nonsense. We haven’t lost a league game since day one, we’ve got great results away from home and had by our standards a good cup run. You decide to judge the regular first team players on one poor performance at Sheffield Wednesday where we didn’t actually lose and would’ve taken a point beforehand. I was talking about THIS season, not the last three seasons when we had different players and management. Disagree that only JCS and Chair are top quality players as well. |
I clearly meant that over the last three seasons we've been circling the drain for long periods over each season and that it is therefore too soon in SEPTEMBER to start saying we won't go down. There are no guarantees. Anything from play-offs to a relegation battle is still available to all. I am not pessimistic at all. I'm not pessimistic because we have an excellent and pragmatic coach. I am optimistic because of him and I trust him to pick and instruct the players above people who do not take training or look at data. But I don't think MC knows his best team yet, and I don't anyone on this board does either. Because we haven't seen any of them play together enough. We lost 1-2, had a last minute chance almost equalise. I do not think that Dunne or Frey makes any difference to that outcome. In fact, let's see who we think are our first eleven is in April: may well be Celar at 9 and Ashby or Heverton at RB once they bed in. Nobody knows. They've been brought in for those roles though. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 12:08 - Sep 18 with 1773 views | thehat | Personally I was happy with the starting 11 and our performance overall. We contained Palace in the first half yes we could of stepped onto them a bit more but at the risk of them picking us off early and the game being over by half time. We only conceded by switching off at a set piece. Second half we did up the tempo and the tactical change with Dembele coming on made a differance. We scored but then conceded (via a deflection) during a good spell from us. I also thought we finished the game well and came within a whisker of taking the game to penalties. No complaints from me the squad is coming together nicely with everyone playing for the badge. Look where we were 12 months ago. Still a big work in progress but giving an established Premier League team a bloody good game and a scare is no mean feat and all part of the process. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 12:25 - Sep 18 with 1686 views | francisbowles | We can't afford anymore injuries by overloading players. It's been in modern terms, more or less, minimum recovery after Saturday, when there was a game in which we had to do a lot of chasing as well as the travelling involved. We have invested a considerable amount of our budget on new recruits. Some have played numerous minutes, Nardi, Dembele; Others rather less, Ashby, Saito, Santos, Varane, Madsen. Celar probably somewhere in between It is important that we give these players 'minutes'. We will have several more occasions of three game weeks which, as Clive has regularly reminded us, have been an 'achilles heel' for us over previous seasons. We need to be more competitive in all these games and try and pick up more points, which could make a huge difference to staying out of a relegation battle or maybe even pushing us into the playoff picture. Our players are humans. They are also professional sportsman and some of them will have the wear and tear of several years and will need managing. Frey and Anderson may be two examples. We also, as fans, have short memories. We have suffered major injuries in cup competitions in the past. Akos at Man U and Jamie at Blackburn; Ale as well, I think, but I can't remember the match. It's logical to think that the players who were rested will be better for it on Saturday. They will need to be as Millwall have had a week of training too and without the focus of the club shifting to a different challenge. There are no guarantees but I hope we do win, otherwise there will be a big f*** off response of 'I told you so on here', which by the second reading of the classified football results will have gone to five pages.🙄😁 | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 12:35 - Sep 18 with 1602 views | DavieQPR | Doesn't seem to matter what team we put out but we are constantly let down by poor first half performances. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 12:35 - Sep 18 with 1596 views | Ned_Kennedys | Reading some of the posts on here we might as well bin off all Cup games at the first opportunity so we avoid extra pesky midweek games and the players are not ‘overloaded’ and by doing so we will avoid injuries as these only occur during these inconvenient Cup games. Then we can concentrate on reaching 16th place and play our very best for the really big league games of the season like Millwall at home and Preston away. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 12:37 - Sep 18 with 1586 views | joe90 |
Utterly Sick of It on 09:45 - Sep 18 by TK1 | But...there were loads of tackles. The biggest cheer from the R Block apart from the goal was when Varane cleared out Munoz with a massive tackle. Smyth could've got a red for a tackle and we got four yellows, all for fouls...there were tackles! But also, tackling Lerma and Eze is hard because they are very good at keeping the ball. I mean, I really didn't see a lack of effort or intent. With Madsen I saw someone who doesn't know how to tackle, really, but like it or not he's our first choice number 8 now. He is full strength. it was really close. A couple of inches to the right from Lloyd and it's pens. And I don't think we have a team that would've guaranteed a more competitive outcome than that against Palace at the moment. That's a bigger but different problem . I don't imagine anyone in the coaching staff believe they are choosing which games they'd rather win - I think it's closer to crisis than that. They're trying to remain competitive when we are still miles off. |
Madsen is from the same school of lethargy as Dozzell. They dream of being the Championships answer to Ozil and would love to pioneer the 'false 10' in the EFL. You will see the occasional flash of brilliance (never consistently) , but it will never be against Palace in the cup. Never. [Post edited 18 Sep 12:39]
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Utterly Sick of It on 13:07 - Sep 18 with 1406 views | loftus77 |
Utterly Sick of It on 12:35 - Sep 18 by Ned_Kennedys | Reading some of the posts on here we might as well bin off all Cup games at the first opportunity so we avoid extra pesky midweek games and the players are not ‘overloaded’ and by doing so we will avoid injuries as these only occur during these inconvenient Cup games. Then we can concentrate on reaching 16th place and play our very best for the really big league games of the season like Millwall at home and Preston away. |
Agree with the sentiment of this - and also, remember that this week follows a break of 2 weeks (plus one day) for most of our non-international exhausted heroes. In fact, there have been international breaks in Sep, Oct and Nov for many years now. That's SIX weeks away from competitive football for the majority of players between Aug 31 and Dec 1. Room for most clubs to consider the grinding inconvenience of a potentially lucrative Cup run I'd have thought. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 13:09 - Sep 18 with 1392 views | Superhoops2808 |
Utterly Sick of It on 12:37 - Sep 18 by joe90 | Madsen is from the same school of lethargy as Dozzell. They dream of being the Championships answer to Ozil and would love to pioneer the 'false 10' in the EFL. You will see the occasional flash of brilliance (never consistently) , but it will never be against Palace in the cup. Never. [Post edited 18 Sep 12:39]
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Madsen is head and shoulders above Dozzell mate come on | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 13:15 - Sep 18 with 1336 views | francisbowles |
Utterly Sick of It on 13:07 - Sep 18 by loftus77 | Agree with the sentiment of this - and also, remember that this week follows a break of 2 weeks (plus one day) for most of our non-international exhausted heroes. In fact, there have been international breaks in Sep, Oct and Nov for many years now. That's SIX weeks away from competitive football for the majority of players between Aug 31 and Dec 1. Room for most clubs to consider the grinding inconvenience of a potentially lucrative Cup run I'd have thought. |
International breaks may ease cumulative fatigue but they are little or no help with the length of recovery from the previous match, which varies by player. Some players need more than others, due to carrying knocks, age or historical injuries. We simply don't have the details to form an objective opinion. | | | |
Utterly Sick of It on 13:26 - Sep 18 with 1299 views | joe90 |
Utterly Sick of It on 13:09 - Sep 18 by Superhoops2808 | Madsen is head and shoulders above Dozzell mate come on |
My point is more about the role they play than their individual merits. The level we're at and the quality of players we have means we can't afford to carry players who will go missing in games. My fear is Dozzell has returned to Loftus Road in disguise. To be fair though, Dozzell has set the bar incredibly low. Madsen only has 84 games to score 2 goals in order to beat Dozzell's contribution. He better hurry up! [Post edited 18 Sep 13:28]
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Utterly Sick of It on 13:42 - Sep 18 with 1216 views | hubble |
Utterly Sick of It on 13:09 - Sep 18 by Superhoops2808 | Madsen is head and shoulders above Dozzell mate come on |
Correct: Dozzell: 1.78 m Madsen: 1.94 m | |
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