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Reply | Cooky Monster
at 15:59 1 Feb 2026
Saw Teddy Sheringham explaining Gyokeres role & value to the Arsenal team the other day, even though he's missing chances and scoring very few goals,
Not being a smart arse but it was word for word what I saw Dykes role being for us, as Clarke saw his role for Scotland,
It was'nt a blind obsession, it was a fear that without that type of player in a bottom 8 Championship Squad of players we would get relegated, I think we were fortunate not to when we ended up with Frey & Sinclair leading our line,
Defended Dunne to the hilt when the consensus of many on this forum was he could'nt play Centre Half, I mean, who could with Dozzell as your CDM,
Said at the time Dunne is a player we should build our Squad around as 100% committed and a great club man, watch Cook's reaction yesterday when we conceded, I'm not sure it did Walsh & Bennie's confidence much good. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 13:42 1 Feb 2026
Agree, a horrible cross to try to defend, especially against a Centre Forward as physical & strong as Kone
Defender actually closed the space well but great improvising from Kone and a superb finish,
Other Kone highlights yesterday were:
1) 96th minute defensive run across the pitch to pressure left back who shanked the ball out rather than play a dangerous hail mary diagonal into our box; Kone knew that was his and their last effort and dug deep for the team
2) Pressing, not natural to him like Burrell, but him & Vale were first line of defence yesterday and never let Coventry's defenders step up & break the line
3) Actually quicker than I thought, unless their Centre Half was Rob Dickie'esque, but after first 5 yards, once he's get going, he's not as slow as I thought |
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Reply | Madsen
at 12:32 1 Feb 2026
Fair play to Kone for saying that, it was a cross fired in so gave him something to attack, which is what all Centre Forwards want as gives him something to attack,
If you watch it Kone still had so much to do and I re-watched it as I could'nt work out live how Kone converted it,
What he did was so good as ball was bobbling (on our pitch its bound to!) but Kone used that to his advantage and jumped off his his left foot and flicked it with his right, probably only option he had and a brilliant finish. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 12:28 1 Feb 2026
If he can consistently put together 90 minutes like the 1st Half 45 minutes against Wrexham that will transform us into a proper top half side and he'll have justified his fee and some,
And even those still not totally won over, like myself, will be proved wrong and gladly so. |
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Reply | Cooky Monster
at 12:24 1 Feb 2026
I have called Cook out on this from Day 1, it is not behaviour becoming of a Captain, especially in a team likely to be at the wrong end of the table,
I expect a senior pro & Captain to take responsibility, motivate & show leadership to the lesser able & younger players,
I've seen Dunne tell him to fxxk-off before but how did Walsh & Bennie feel yesterday after getting that reaction?
Cook is a decent player, no doubt a model pro, came here for a payday and has covered his wages,
From the early days of his hospital balls to Kakay, not showing for a return pass, passing to Dunne to step-up with the ball rather than do so himself, and particularly always looking to blame others for his mistakes, I see a player who plays for himself and not a leader of our club.
Just a different opinion. |
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Reply | Cooky Monster
at 11:44 1 Feb 2026
A video I saw on Twitter taken from the Coventry end yesterday explains why an opinion I have long held is that Cook should not be our Captain and Dunne is an excellent candidate,
We conceded a goal yesterday to a worldie of a cross, should Walsh have come? was it Edwards man? was it Bennie's man? in reality it was just quality piece of play and no-one was at fault,
Cook as his way, immediately starts looking for a scape-goat, throwing his arms up in the air, angrily gesticulating at others, something he's done since Day 1 at our club, be it his mistake or Ossie Kakay's, who-ever, Cook always plays the blame game,
Dunne by comparison is a team player and a QPR man in a way Cook is not, hence getting Madsen & other overseas players out for coffee & / or a few beers in Chiswick regularly, something crucial in helping us get the best out of these players,
Cook's playing well for sure, Dunne is a better Captain. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 11:36 1 Feb 2026
I been very critical of Madsen due to the price we paid & his abysmal 1st season, which but for Morgan stepping up and a very weak division could have seen us relegated, as we spent maybe half our meagre budget on his fee and he didnt merit a starting place in a very average championship squad,
I believe, rightly or wrongly, some on this Forum are going way over board as I'm yet to see him 'run or dominate a full 90 minutes', as opposed to have good 15 minute spells or an excellent whole half as he did in 1st Half Half v Wrexham,
Either they are seeing something I am not, or the bar was set so low in that first season the transition is generating the hyperbole,
Madsen played much better in the 1st Half versus Wrexham that yesterday but we lost, however, the whole team were excellent yesterday, we won and he did two things which I see as real positives and maybe those hyping him could be proved right:
1) Assist: - decent pacy cross but left it all to do for Kone as ball was bobbling & Kone came up with a bit of magic, but Madsen's movement was good as he was attacking the space and inter-changing well with Vale
2) Goal :- even I wanted to see that ball drop to Madsen (or Vale) but the fact Madsen was attacking from the edge of the box was a real positive and something we have not done for so long.
Ironic Frank Lampard made a career doing what Madsen did for that 2nd goal yesterday. |
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Reply | Frey
at 11:41 27 Jan 2026
I never rated Michi Frey and really think we got away with one when relying on him to lead the line & keep us up, somehow we stayed up in the seasons of the Rotherham's & Barnsley's where we just had to be the 4th worse team,
For a guy who's not short, he just could'nt seem to jump & win headers with his back to goal, which is a must for a Championship level target man,
Ridiculously slow and just could'nt lead an effective press, did'nt rate his physicality either, always reminded me of a WWE Wrestler, all bulk and no real strength,
However...chipped in with a few key goals and did his best with his very limited skill-set, so wish him all the best,
£ 500k heh? does Christian Nourry write for West London Sport under the Dave Mc pseudonym, as would definitely explain some of his post match ratings. |
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Reply | Four minutes of madness – Report
at 11:06 26 Jan 2026
Excellent report, learnt a few things I did'nt see at the game, including:
1) Dunne having the sense to call for a late time-out with Walsh but somehow we even managed to fxxk that up,
2) Field dropping in as a 3rd Centre Back rather than in that advanced CDM role which made sense if we had defensive minded midfielders on the on the pitch, but we only had Hadyn,
For the first time this season? we started with our 'ballers' without a recognised defensive Midfielder, the result being an excellent 1st Half performance, then we ran out of gas at Half Time,
Injury time debacle was an extreme example of what we saw in the 45 minutes before, the mix between 'ballers' and 'grafters' was all wrong, Stephens need to get the balance right and this is where his substitutions are key & keeping players on it for 90 minutes. |
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Reply | Four minutes of injury time
at 18:42 25 Jan 2026
Haha, all good, yes it was too soon as we're all a bit raw still,
Plenty of positives yesterday & with so many injuries & limited options on the bench, we were excellent in the 1st Half, hopefully we put two good halves together for our next game...checks fixtures (omg) |
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Reply | Four minutes of injury time
at 15:36 25 Jan 2026
Fair points well made,
I tend to be biased towards players who give their all for the team, hence staunch defender of both Dykes & Dunne who at times were the scape-goats for our support,
I tend to be critical (overly) of players who seem to play within themselves, hence giving up on Andre Dozzell in that Qtr Back role following a pre-season game at Wimbledon,
That 'quarter-back' role is pivotal in modern football, hence championing Chair to drop into the middle to be our Barry Bannan,
Madsen proved he can play that role very well in the 1st Half yesterday,
Lots of things went awry in that 2nd Half yesterday, including Wrexham's change of shape, our inability to freshen it up soon enough (eg Vale likewise seemed to disappear) etc
But that complete dis-connect between our defence and offence really stood out between the 45th & 80th minute,
Like the last 4 minutes, our Senior Players on the pitch have enough experience to see whats going wrong, speak to each other & fix it. |
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Reply | Four minutes of injury time
at 15:05 25 Jan 2026
I am giving Madsen credit for our excellent 1st Half performance, where we should have been 2-0 up,
I am blaming the collective head-loss of our senior players on conceding 2 goals in 2 minutes for the loss,
Our 2nd Half performance was very very poor yesterday and at 1-1 there only looked like one winner, Wrexham,
The root cause of this was our defenders being forced to go long to our lone striker who, good as he is, is not a centre forward to boot it long too, these types of Centre Forwards are very important to mid-table championship sides & with Frey under-performing, we do not have that option,
I could clearly see why we were forced to go long & why it was'nt working, could you? |
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Reply | Four minutes of injury time
at 14:03 25 Jan 2026
I thought we would bring on Edwards earlier as at Half Time with Mbengue on a Yellow we were talking about how he was likely to get a 2nd Yellow with his habit of jumping into challenges,
A separate point but Madsen was very good in the 1st Half and the team functioned well,
Through fatigue or whatever Madsen disappeared in the 2nd Half and the team malfunctioned completely, booting it long, losing possession and we were forced to watch Wrexham build their attacks,
I get some will say it was a great assist for the corner (dreadful marking, great header) and a brilliant run forward (it was) to shoot wide, but Madsen should have been showing for that ball off the Centre Halves and Walsh for the whole of the 2nd Half and just was'nt,
We or Madsen need to fix this if our season is'nt going to spiral downwards,
You mentioned glimpses before, I'd rather see a 6/10 1st Half and 6/10 2nd Half than a 7/10 1st Half and a 3/10 2nd Half, this role is pivotal in modern football and we cannot be so inconsistent in this key position.
Lots of positives in that 1st Half yesterday tho. |
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Reply | Four minutes of injury time
at 13:24 25 Jan 2026
This 100%
We had experienced defensive midfielders in Field & Hadyn on at this point,
I was screaming at them to push out & press from the 90th minute,
All 9 outfield players seem to retreat almost to our 6 yard box, it was like a shooting alley those last 4 minutes,
Walsh seemingly has to do better for the 3rd but there was so many of our own players in the area maybe he did'nt get a clear sight of that shot,
We disappeared as a team in the 2nd Half as gave up the Midfield, re-appeared between the 80th to 89th minute and then just completely lost our minds in the last 4 minutes,
1st Half performance was superb and there was a glaring reason why we disappeared in the 2nd Half, but its still a bit to raw & that's for another post.
Cook, Dunne, Hadyn & Field should have marshalled those last 4 minutes but all seemingly lost their composure. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 20:14 21 Jan 2026
I think it's a mentality thing and why he struggled in his first season,
Morgan came on in a recent home game recently and nothing came off for him & he got alot of criticism,
But I really admired everything he tried to do as he took personal risks to benefit the team and try to win the game, the complete opposite of how Madsen plays the game. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 19:26 21 Jan 2026
De Bruyne opened up defences, Madsen very very rarely does.
Still a long way from justifying his price tag imo.
Decent assist for Burrell other week, decent cross for Varane's headed goal and that's all I can recall, has a long long way to go.
Might be easy on the eye but he's not hurting poor opposition teams as evidenced in last month. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 18:24 21 Jan 2026
When Madsen was shall we say acclimatising on the bench in his first season Mirgan manned up & was excellent until he ran out of gas.
Dembele is another option in that CAM role as is Chair.
This team is going nowhere playing nice neat 15 yard passes. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 17:32 21 Jan 2026
Northern nailed in one of his Match Reports a few games back in one sentence and the key word I recall was 'glimpses'
Madsen has an occasional good few minutes but I'm yet to see someone who wants to run games, dominate games and be that man who really wants to take risks and open up defences,
I'd prefer Morgan starting in front of Varane & Field (or Hadyn) as I believe Morgan is the ambitious passer of the ball to open up defences this team needs,
We don't have a defender who steps up with ball, a Midfielder who can beat a man & we are not creating chances
Madsen is one of the root causes of our lack of cutting edge imo.
The pass to see Burrells excellent run at a recent home game we should be seeing 2 or 3 times a game, not 1 game in 10. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 16:39 21 Jan 2026
I disagree,
Would we get our money back on him?
Is his cautious passing opening teams up?
A couple of goals, a penalty & maybe a couple of genuine assists?
There's an argument the Wingers & Forwards are struggling because Madsen is just not creating.
Lots will likely disagree, and he has improved, albeit he had to, but I think he's vastly over-rated by many on this board, time may prove me wrong. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 23:21 20 Jan 2026
No creativity you say,
Just waiting for West London Sport to give Madsen his customary 7/10,
This team needs Chair & Varane back asap. |
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