A few thoughts.... 00:02 - Aug 7 with 6450 views | nix | Swansea. Middlesbrough, Norwich, WBA and Huddersfield have all got one point or fewer. Can't see most of those fighting for relegation at the end of the season. A reminder that it's a very, very long season and we're bound to have ups and downs. The comms team team did a fantastic job in creating a good atmosphere with Chloe, Martin Rowlands, Mark Prince and the Bowles family. It's a b*gger to lose: Richards until October; Armstrong unknown; Clarke-Salter unknown. Roberts apparently in contention for Tuesday, which is good. I'd particularly of liked to see more of Richards as he looked quite promising last week. There were signs that the team spirit and belief was starting to seep back. Goals are a huge part of that. We only scored 16 goals in 18 games from the beginning of Feb to the end of the season (if I've counted right) - 0.89 per game. We scored three today, which is bound to lift the crowd and the players. [Post edited 7 Aug 2022 0:02]
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A few thoughts.... on 00:23 - Aug 7 with 5251 views | CliveWilsonSaid | Similar to the Blackburn game I didn't really learn much from today. | |
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A few thoughts.... on 00:57 - Aug 7 with 5139 views | Myke | I agree Nix, a long,long way to go with many twists along the way.Absolutely goals lift the crowd and that has to be good for the players confidence. Even more so when they come early, especially coming off the back of the Blackburn game when it looked like we would never score again. I actually think it was a really important win Beale today (yesterday). Even though it was ridiculously early,there was a massive amount of negativity around after the Blackburn defeat. Clive - as always - articulately outlined the many factors behind this sense of doom and gloom. I think we all agreed that Beale talked a good game, but we were anxious to see if he could 'walk the walk ' as the boss for the first time. I think the Boro game proved he can,which is a massive relief to all of us who want him to succeed. It wasn't perfect by any means, but he masterminded a stunning start and then had enough tactical nous about him (just!) to implement changes that slowly but surely wrestled control back from Boro in the closing 10 (+7) minutes.It was a niggling criticism I had of Warburton, that he did not seem to be able to arrest our slide last season, which was surely his job. Losing Richard's for so long is a huge blow and there seems to be niggly injuries to Salter and Sinclair too. I just hope it will not be a repeat of last season injury wise. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 02:12 - Aug 7 with 5056 views | Boston |
A few thoughts.... on 00:23 - Aug 7 by CliveWilsonSaid | Similar to the Blackburn game I didn't really learn much from today. |
You learned we can score goals. | |
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A few thoughts.... on 05:30 - Aug 7 with 4961 views | nix | Yes Myke. I agree with you about all of that and especially about Beale. His post match interview showed how important that win was, he looked the most relaxed I've seen him since he joined us. He's under a ton of pressure to succeed in his first job as the gaffer. If I were him I'd be wrapping Chris Willock up in a massive roll of bubble wrap. I was a big fan of Warbs as everyone knows and what he did for us after the debacle of Maclaren. But I wholeheartedly agree that he failed in a big way to arrest the slide last season. Not just in individual matches, but over several months. He looked like a rabbit in headlights at the end, and that must have communicated itself to the players. I think that's why he took a job as a number two this season. In general, unless you're very tough, it's a young person's game, managing a football club. You need resilience and a bit of a youthful sense of impervious self belief. Unless you're a wily old fox like Ferguson or Robson, with a ton of charisma and an impeccable back history, you can end up like Maclaren, Pulis, Redknapp, Big fat Sam etc just dialling it in and playing safe with the old formula. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 06:48 - Aug 7 with 4835 views | PlanetHonneywood | "...I'd be wrapping Chris Willock up in a massive roll of bubble wrap..." Given how good CW is, and how he's again put in a performance against a club who've just trousered a few mill, I suspect MB's biggest problem is what does he do if say, a Boro came in with £10m offer? | |
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A few thoughts.... on 07:19 - Aug 7 with 4769 views | DWQPR |
A few thoughts.... on 06:48 - Aug 7 by PlanetHonneywood | "...I'd be wrapping Chris Willock up in a massive roll of bubble wrap..." Given how good CW is, and how he's again put in a performance against a club who've just trousered a few mill, I suspect MB's biggest problem is what does he do if say, a Boro came in with £10m offer? |
I suspect that if Willock goes it won’t be to another championship side and certainly not for £10million. One club with their style of play that he would suit, and have now trousered over 385million in sales this summer is Brighton. They play some great football but struggle at times with goals. CW would be a great buy for them. Certainly another Eze level transfer fee, and given that if reports are correct about an obligation to buy Richards next summer are true, with Richards being a similar player, and Roberts for that matter then (Leeds could also be an option given they also have received over £100million in sales and Newcastle have an interest in Harrison), maybe this could be part of the jigsaw. Surplus funds then could see us get in that striker we need and return to Millwall for McNamara. | |
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A few thoughts.... on 07:54 - Aug 7 with 4672 views | stevec | My thoughts around 2.30 were I hope we won’t be needing that bench. Talk about bare bones, we’ve got an eleven if Dykes and Kakay put in a performance which they did yesterday but we are no more than 2 or 3 injuries away from catastrophe. It’s a great shame as our best side can compete with anyone in this league. We are having too ask far too much from far too few. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 08:23 - Aug 7 with 4560 views | nix | 'It’s a great shame as our best side can compete with anyone in this league. We are having too ask far too much from too few' It's a conundrum Steve, definitely, because we need to keep the squad fairly lean to save money because we just can't do a Forest or a Bournemouth with a cast of thousands. It means we've got some wriggle room to pay decent money to our better players. But it also means we need a phenomenal amount of luck to get through the season without a few injuries. Selling Willock for even £10 million would help a lot with the finances but requires Richards to really step up, and that's if we can get him off the treatment table. | | | | Login to get fewer ads
A few thoughts.... on 08:24 - Aug 7 with 4556 views | dmm | Just to go back to Warburton for a moment, I think we see in the style and patterns we're now playing that his foundations remain in place. Beale is more progressive but many of the basics are the same. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 09:13 - Aug 7 with 4343 views | Wegerles_Stairs | Nice to see us scoring two goals from set pieces too, even if the defending was poor on both. Hopefully we'll step this aspect up this season - when you think how many corners and free-kicks near the opposition box you get during a season, we have been missing out over the last few years. Obviously if Barbet was still here we wouldn't have scored our winner and a Boro fan in the Upper School End would be nursing a sore face this morning. [Post edited 7 Aug 2022 9:14]
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A few thoughts.... on 09:21 - Aug 7 with 4309 views | davman | The win was most needed. We need to stay well away from 'trouble' this season. All well and good building an identity and a style of play, but that's no good if we get drawn into a relegation battle. | |
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A few thoughts.... on 09:29 - Aug 7 with 4274 views | terryb | I think that Swansea & Huddersfield could easily figure in the relegation battle. Otherwise, we already knew that we have 7/8 players that most Championship clubs would love to have, but we are a little thin in quality above 15 or so. As most seasons we are capable of beating every side in the division, but every team could beat us if we don't perform. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 09:41 - Aug 7 with 4229 views | ed_83 | Completely agree: It's a long season, and we're a young, developing team working within challenging financial constraints. People saying we're going to piss the league off the back of a narrow home win are as deluded as the people saying we should sack Les off the back of a narrow away loss. Biggest thing for me about yesterday is the mentality of the team - we were ambitious going forward, and then had to really dig in against a really good team, and came out on top with both of those. Thought MB's post-match quote about telling Lyndon that "if you put the effort in, it's always worth it" was really interesting - that confidence and self belief to keep plugging away, even if it's tough, because you know it's going to happen for you eventually is going to be absolutely key for us. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 10:16 - Aug 7 with 4131 views | nix |
A few thoughts.... on 09:41 - Aug 7 by ed_83 | Completely agree: It's a long season, and we're a young, developing team working within challenging financial constraints. People saying we're going to piss the league off the back of a narrow home win are as deluded as the people saying we should sack Les off the back of a narrow away loss. Biggest thing for me about yesterday is the mentality of the team - we were ambitious going forward, and then had to really dig in against a really good team, and came out on top with both of those. Thought MB's post-match quote about telling Lyndon that "if you put the effort in, it's always worth it" was really interesting - that confidence and self belief to keep plugging away, even if it's tough, because you know it's going to happen for you eventually is going to be absolutely key for us. |
Interesting that he also said about Dykes that he needs to get decent crosses into the box and to have people like Amos, Willock and Chair into the box to support him. Incidentally did anyone see the Wilder press conference? He really whinged about the ref (terrible reffing decisions). He even moaned about Jones getting booted up in the air, whereas I thought he'd done a couple of dodgy tackles that could have led to a booking before he got booked. Plus moaning about time wasting going unpunished where Uncs actually did get booked for it. And he didn't seem to have spotted the total dives that Middlesbrough players were making to get free kicks around our penalty area which increased the pressure that led to their second goal. Also did anyone see the incident he was complaining about when our left back (presumably Paal) allegedly hand balled it and he was arguing it should have been a pen? When was that and did he have a point? | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 10:23 - Aug 7 with 4105 views | PinnerPaul | Well....clearly Willock is worth £50M, Dykes is going to score 20 goals this season, Mick is going to be next England manager and Sir Les should become er...Sir Les! More seriously funny how the team we 'couldn't even beat', the 'poor' Blackburn are the only team to have won both games and they haven't conceded a goal yet! More pertinently/seriously not sure after that and the start most teams in this div have had (Only 2 teams without a point) how anyone can take good or bad long term trends from anything at the moment. 1st 10 was even, we were then unplayable for 30, stopped playing for another 25/30 before grinding out the win. All 7/10 for me except Willock, 8 for the goal alone and 6 for Sam Field who I thought was strangely quiet today. Not seen it back yet but not sure what Wilder's gripes with the referee are about, thought he missed a certain yellow for their number 2 2nd half, apart from that pretty consistent I thought. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 10:25 - Aug 7 with 4074 views | dmm |
A few thoughts.... on 10:16 - Aug 7 by nix | Interesting that he also said about Dykes that he needs to get decent crosses into the box and to have people like Amos, Willock and Chair into the box to support him. Incidentally did anyone see the Wilder press conference? He really whinged about the ref (terrible reffing decisions). He even moaned about Jones getting booted up in the air, whereas I thought he'd done a couple of dodgy tackles that could have led to a booking before he got booked. Plus moaning about time wasting going unpunished where Uncs actually did get booked for it. And he didn't seem to have spotted the total dives that Middlesbrough players were making to get free kicks around our penalty area which increased the pressure that led to their second goal. Also did anyone see the incident he was complaining about when our left back (presumably Paal) allegedly hand balled it and he was arguing it should have been a pen? When was that and did he have a point? |
Just seen some of Wilder's post match press conference. What a horrible man he is. An aggressive, moany, one eyed individual who much be a nightmare for players to play under. Made me feel extra grateful we have Beale. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 11:41 - Aug 7 with 3940 views | DavieQPR | Must admit my opinion of Wilder went down after that press conference. Has he been out drinking with Nathan Jones? | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 12:07 - Aug 7 with 3888 views | Snipper |
A few thoughts.... on 11:41 - Aug 7 by DavieQPR | Must admit my opinion of Wilder went down after that press conference. Has he been out drinking with Nathan Jones? |
What did he say? | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 14:29 - Aug 7 with 3713 views | PlanetHonneywood |
A few thoughts.... on 12:07 - Aug 7 by Snipper | What did he say? |
He called you allsorts and wasn't complimentary about you at all. | |
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A few thoughts.... on 14:47 - Aug 7 with 3649 views | denhamhoop2 |
A few thoughts.... on 00:23 - Aug 7 by CliveWilsonSaid | Similar to the Blackburn game I didn't really learn much from today. |
Probably learned we are better team with our best player back in it | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 14:50 - Aug 7 with 3629 views | BrianMcCarthy |
A few thoughts.... on 10:23 - Aug 7 by PinnerPaul | Well....clearly Willock is worth £50M, Dykes is going to score 20 goals this season, Mick is going to be next England manager and Sir Les should become er...Sir Les! More seriously funny how the team we 'couldn't even beat', the 'poor' Blackburn are the only team to have won both games and they haven't conceded a goal yet! More pertinently/seriously not sure after that and the start most teams in this div have had (Only 2 teams without a point) how anyone can take good or bad long term trends from anything at the moment. 1st 10 was even, we were then unplayable for 30, stopped playing for another 25/30 before grinding out the win. All 7/10 for me except Willock, 8 for the goal alone and 6 for Sam Field who I thought was strangely quiet today. Not seen it back yet but not sure what Wilder's gripes with the referee are about, thought he missed a certain yellow for their number 2 2nd half, apart from that pretty consistent I thought. |
Paul, Should Kakay have got a peno for the shirt-pull in the area? | |
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A few thoughts.... on 15:18 - Aug 7 with 3551 views | dm97 |
A few thoughts.... on 08:24 - Aug 7 by dmm | Just to go back to Warburton for a moment, I think we see in the style and patterns we're now playing that his foundations remain in place. Beale is more progressive but many of the basics are the same. |
Yeah we were noticeably quicker in moving the ball forwards and not being scared to hit Dykes early, but the fundamentals of Warbs here to stay long after he's gone | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 15:34 - Aug 7 with 3501 views | charmr | Enjoyed the game immensely. What I like about Wilders teams is how they move the ball around and players running off the ball. The amount of times they got into good areas or behind us with good possession. Very creative in the final 3rd. Goals we scored last year were noticeably from set pieces or one bit of magic from a player. I think team goals are missing from us and I’m absolutely sure MB is aware of that and after watching the inside training videos seems he is working on it. [Post edited 7 Aug 2022 15:37]
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A few thoughts.... on 15:39 - Aug 7 with 3471 views | Toast_R |
A few thoughts.... on 00:23 - Aug 7 by CliveWilsonSaid | Similar to the Blackburn game I didn't really learn much from today. |
I learnt that Middlesbrough's defending from set pieces is as rank as ours. | | | |
A few thoughts.... on 16:07 - Aug 7 with 3388 views | Antti_Heinola |
A few thoughts.... on 15:39 - Aug 7 by Toast_R | I learnt that Middlesbrough's defending from set pieces is as rank as ours. |
I thought we defended well from set plays. The one they scored was a superb ball in and a great header. Fans often want it both ways: be able to defend every single set play of the season, as they see every single set play conceded as preventable (technically true, but also unrealistic); but to score plenty of goals from set plays, because they are great opportunities to score. Truth somewhere in the middle on both. | |
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