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Post by halftimet on Nov 12, 2022 21:08:37 GMT
Agree that the summer signings have not been up to the mark. Matt realises this and leaves any substitutions until very late as the bench is weak. It might be worth leaving Donovan on longer and replacing one striker. You never know Wilson and Faduhansi or Wilson and Kendall may hit it off.
When we change both forwards we can only assess their effectiveness as a pair.
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Post by sufc1898 on Nov 12, 2022 22:26:38 GMT
Just seen the goals on YouTube
First goal clearly offside but our defenders hardly put up an argument when it was given. The crowd reacted more than they did.
Second goal - would Lewis (being taller) kept it out?
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Post by sufc18 on Nov 12, 2022 22:51:54 GMT
[/quote]He is not good enough. He was not good enough when he was with us before and that was at Conference level. Did we actually watch him before signing him? [/quote]
Who?
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Post by Andy K on Nov 12, 2022 23:03:01 GMT
He is not good enough. He was not good enough when he was with us before and that was at Conference level. Did we actually watch him before signing him? [/quote] Who? [/quote] He's talking about Kwame. One of the 5 strikers that played today and didn't score.
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Post by Amber Aleman on Nov 12, 2022 23:51:26 GMT
As against Farnborough a week ago, we couldn't convert first half pressure into goals. I can't fault the effort of the front two, but they needed slices of luck that never came. By contrast, there were elements of fortune about both the visitors' goals, the first following a deflection, the spectacular second a long-range shot that could easily have been off-target but happened to drop inside the far post. Some guys have all the luck!
We didn't look two far away. But until some of the six injured players are back we're going to be riding our luck. Still 17th
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kpinwp
1st team Player
Posts: 1,245
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Post by kpinwp on Nov 13, 2022 0:05:24 GMT
As against Farnborough a week ago, we couldn't convert first half pressure into goals. I can't fault the effort of the front two, but they needed slices of luck that never came. By contrast, there were elements of fortune about both the visitors' goals, the first following a deflection, the spectacular second a long-range shot that could easily have been off-target but happened to drop inside the far post. Some guys have all the luck! We didn't look two far away. But until some of the six injured players are back we're going to be riding our luck. Still 17th I think that's a little grudging about their second goal. Looked like a class strike of the ball to me.
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Post by Amber Aleman on Nov 13, 2022 8:56:44 GMT
There's a debate to be had about their second goal. I've seen a suggestion that it was meant as a cross rather than a shot. But it did look impressive on TV!
I omitted to mention earlier that Bradford, though efficient, were also quite a dirty side, and the ref let several fouls go unpunished.
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Post by davep on Nov 13, 2022 9:18:39 GMT
There's a debate to be had about their second goal. I've seen a suggestion that it was meant as a cross rather than a shot. But it did look impressive on TV! I omitted to mention earlier that Bradford, though efficient, were also quite a dirty side, and the ref let several fouls go unpunished. I don't know whether they are correct or not, but I've seen a set of stats that shows that we have committed the (joint) third most fouls in EFL Division 2 this season. Our neighbours up the road are out in front by some way. Omar has committed more fouls than any other Sutton player.
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Post by paz on Nov 13, 2022 13:49:31 GMT
Our injuries have, of course, hindered us. But this is when the squad depth kicks in. Or not… I think we have gone beyond depth. Our midfield has needed a loanie called back from Dartford as we only had one fit centre midfielder and we are down to one fit centre back in the entire squad. While those being called in have not desgraced themselves, it has means too many players playing out of possition..
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kpinwp
1st team Player
Posts: 1,245
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Post by kpinwp on Nov 13, 2022 14:45:53 GMT
While I wouldn't want to claim that all of our summer signings have brought us the hoped for strength it's interesting that some people have got off of Donny's back now they have other players to wag a finger at. Yet Donny (who I rate) is still demonstrating the same set of pluses and minuses as before.
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Post by baboonfish on Nov 13, 2022 15:23:32 GMT
Tough times. Injuries, poor officiating and bad luck besides, we have some MAJOR issues. A)Prone to defensive lapses at the back. All season long we have made big errors leading to goals or clear cut chances. Yesterday case in point - poor communication led to two players leaving a bradford throw in which created the (offside) goal. Soon after, a poor touch in the box nearly made it 0-2 except for Milsom's heroics. I believe this is mostly down to Ben G not being present. The other CBs are good players but BG is a defensive ORGANISER. The others aren't natural talkers. Arguably, Louis is a better all-round player but he is no leader. With BG present, I think we'd have conceded less. We need to improve our defensive concentration and cut out the errors. Managed it against AFCW so we CAN do it. B) No creativity. We do not have a creative central midfielder. Case in point, Easty had 3 or 4 chances to play a telling through ball yesterday and muffed all. It's not fair to be hard on him. He had a poor game but looks exhausted and is playing every minute. Limping around yesterday but still kept on. Besides, he's not that sort of player who will create many chances. Our only creative player in any form is Will Randall, but without a central threat, we are too easy to play against. We play side to side looking for the width and it makes us highly predictable. Randall has been quality when fit, but there is only so much one winger can contribute. I'd like to see us try him either as a left-sided attacker in a 3-man attack, or behind the striker/strikers in a 4-3-1-2 or 4-5-1. THis would get him on the ball more and give the opponents a tactical challenge they don't expect. We seriously need an extra midfielder, ideally creative, in Jan to give us options of 3 in the middle. Ship out Gambin, he's too frail for L2. C) Strikers cannot score. This isn't a problem when our midfielders are scoring and our defenders are getting on the end of set pieces. But they are not. It's now inarguable that DW and OB are not our best pairing, but neither are more than a 10-goal-a-season striker. DW is great at turning his man, getting in behind and creating chances, but he struggles to hit the target himself and his link up play is poor. The ball bounces off him. However, he is much more of a handful than our other strikers. Kouassi has an eye for goal and good physical presence, but is too slow and inexperienced to be a real threat. His anticipation needs much work. Thomas doesn't suit our system. Kendall is quick but seems on a different wavelength (see above - missing creative central player to hit thru-balls). Tope has some great qualities but the jury is still out at this level. I think we need to get Thomas out in Jan, keep Kouassi/Tope as impact subs and try a new option. 1st goal yesterday WAS offside if anyone is wondering. BUt it was much tigher than it looked so you can perhaps understand why it was given. 2nd goal looked like a deep cross to me. Some of the officiating was hilariously bad. Hopefully our luck will return soon.
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Post by ganderpoke on Nov 13, 2022 16:27:47 GMT
Definately agree about the lack of creativity in the midfield. Easty is great ball winner but some of his passing can be too hurried and looks wayward. If we could control the middle of the park a bit more we might see a bit less of the long ball stuff which (like yesterday) lead to nothing. Kouassi barely won a header from the multitude of throw ins directed at him but then is that really his strength or would he better with the ball played to feet?
Ali Smith was beginning to look like the player we needed to fill the hole but needs a run of games free from injury to prove he is the man for the job.
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Post by pinewalker on Nov 13, 2022 17:04:06 GMT
Just seen the goals on YouTube First goal clearly offside but our defenders hardly put up an argument when it was given. The crowd reacted more than they did. Second goal - would Lewis (being taller) kept it out? First goal was not offside. My instinct based on 20 years as a linesman was 'offside' but the ref's assessor sitting next to me also made your point - our defenders did not protest. After looking at the highlights I realise my instinct stemmed from the time of the deflection, by which time their #9 was behind John. To see the moment the shot was taken pause the highlights at 0.32, then tap the start & stop tab rapidly, you should get 3 different stills within the 0.33 seconds. In one of them you can see the ball has moved off the foot by about 4 feet and the #9 half onside and half level with John - so onside.
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Post by halftimet on Nov 13, 2022 19:27:28 GMT
I don’t criticise individuals and that includes Donovan. Although it is rife on this forum.
Donovan’s suspension revealed how much we miss him when he doesn’t play.
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Post by Andy K on Nov 13, 2022 20:07:08 GMT
Tough times. Injuries, poor officiating and bad luck besides, we have some MAJOR issues. A)Prone to defensive lapses at the back. All season long we have made big errors leading to goals or clear cut chances. Yesterday case in point - poor communication led to two players leaving a bradford throw in which created the (offside) goal. Soon after, a poor touch in the box nearly made it 0-2 except for Milsom's heroics. I believe this is mostly down to Ben G not being present. The other CBs are good players but BG is a defensive ORGANISER. The others aren't natural talkers. Arguably, Louis is a better all-round player but he is no leader. With BG present, I think we'd have conceded less. We need to improve our defensive concentration and cut out the errors. Managed it against AFCW so we CAN do it. B) No creativity. We do not have a creative central midfielder. Case in point, Easty had 3 or 4 chances to play a telling through ball yesterday and muffed all. It's not fair to be hard on him. He had a poor game but looks exhausted and is playing every minute. Limping around yesterday but still kept on. Besides, he's not that sort of player who will create many chances. Our only creative player in any form is Will Randall, but without a central threat, we are too easy to play against. We play side to side looking for the width and it makes us highly predictable. Randall has been quality when fit, but there is only so much one winger can contribute. I'd like to see us try him either as a left-sided attacker in a 3-man attack, or behind the striker/strikers in a 4-3-1-2 or 4-5-1. THis would get him on the ball more and give the opponents a tactical challenge they don't expect. We seriously need an extra midfielder, ideally creative, in Jan to give us options of 3 in the middle. Ship out Gambin, he's too frail for L2. C) Strikers cannot score. This isn't a problem when our midfielders are scoring and our defenders are getting on the end of set pieces. But they are not. It's now inarguable that DW and OB are not our best pairing, but neither are more than a 10-goal-a-season striker. DW is great at turning his man, getting in behind and creating chances, but he struggles to hit the target himself and his link up play is poor. The ball bounces off him. However, he is much more of a handful than our other strikers. Kouassi has an eye for goal and good physical presence, but is too slow and inexperienced to be a real threat. His anticipation needs much work. Thomas doesn't suit our system. Kendall is quick but seems on a different wavelength (see above - missing creative central player to hit thru-balls). Tope has some great qualities but the jury is still out at this level. I think we need to get Thomas out in Jan, keep Kouassi/Tope as impact subs and try a new option. 1st goal yesterday WAS offside if anyone is wondering. BUt it was much tigher than it looked so you can perhaps understand why it was given. 2nd goal looked like a deep cross to me. Some of the officiating was hilariously bad. Hopefully our luck will return soon. View AttachmentWhilst I don't disagree with a lot of what you say, it really boils down to the same point. Injuries. It's very obvious that without the injuries we had, Matt would have picked pretty much the same starting XI week in week out - Rose/Ward, Milsom, John, Goodliffe, Kizzi/Barden, Neufville, Eastmond, Beautyman/Smith, Randall, Wilson, Bugeil. Two of those positions are filled with players we didn't have last season and is virtually the same "first" squad as last season. Of course no season is injury free, and a significant number of those have had long term injuries. Including both our creative midfielders, our player of the year, in my opinion our most reliable right back and now the next best choices in some positions. You can plan for injuries of course and suspensions and that's where the squad depth comes in. But in my 35 year plus time in watching Sutton, I've never known us to have so many long term injuries at the same time. In fact anecdotally, Bruce has said the same thing and he's been watching the club longer than me. Until a couple of years ago, it wouldn't be so much of an issue as there was no transfer window. Now we're stuck, and no amount of planning could have made this work seamlessly. There are lots of talk about players coming in "not being good enough". Putting to one side that no one here will know this better than the manager, I don't think ant of us are in a strong position to make that assessment, regardless of how much we think we know. Especially with those players who have had very limited exposure. Maybe there is a conversation to be had about how inflexible our tactics are and how predictable the starting line up is or the predictability of the substitutions. But in terms of the players, you've made a very good point that maybe there are a couple who we won't see the best of as their style of play is less compatible with the way the side plays. We've had countless players who have played with us throughout the years who we thought were "not good enough" but go somewhere else and impress (Solomon Taiwo springs to mind. Utterly awful here at CS level but ended up playing regularly in the Championship for Cardiff). By the same token we've lost count of proven performers at the level we play at and end up being totally underwhelming with us. The bottom line is we're going to struggle with 4 out of 5 centre backs unable to play and no creative central midfielders. We're also not going to get superb player in January due to having the smallest budget in the league and with any available ones coming from lower leagues or loans. We literally have to ride this out until our players start coming back. We're very very unlucky to be in the position we are in but in no way can individual players be blamed for the predicament we're in.
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