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sgncfc

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Posts posted by sgncfc

  1. Posted

    As so many times before, last night's capitulation was solely down to limited tactical awareness from our coaching team. Can't recall how many times it's happened, at least a dozen over the season, but at 2-0 up when we again went backwards 20 yards with no "out"" forward ball after 60 minutes, the loss of 2 points was pretty inevitable - in the end, we were lucky we didn't lose all 3.

    I don't mind losing when it is deserved, but time after time after time we do the hard part, get into winning positions and then simply invite the opposition to take over the initiative. It's like we hand out a surrender notice and we contrive to draw or lose games we have already won. This manager is tactically out of his depth and proves it game after game. I genuinely wouldn't have him coaching the under 8s. He just doesn't learn. There is one way of playing and if that doesn't work we collapse - it doesn't matter whether we are winning or losing, his approach is the same. The only times it works is if one or more of our players does something individually outstanding. As a team ,we are hopeless tactically. 5 away wins all season is poor - especially when it should have been 9 or 10 with some pretty basic awareness.

    People on here saying he's done well to turn it around need to at least acknowledge that he took the team with 3rd highest wageroll in this league to 17th position and a potential relegation fight - the bar for improvement is very low, on that basis. The home form has improved, but it was hard for it to get worse than Blackburn; the away form is still atrocious.

    I'm sure he's a lovely man and is doing his best etc. but it simply isn't good enough and if Knapper has anything at all about him Wagner has to go at the end of this season, whatever happens. God help us if we were to get promoted and keep him in charge.

     

    • Like 2

  2. Posted

    9 hours ago, Robert N. LiM said:

    Wednesday on Tuesday is a tougher game than it might otherwise have been. Going to take a massive effort to get the boys up for that after the derby, especially as Wagner (absolutely rightly) didn't really make any subs yesterday. Wouldn't be too unhappy with a point from that game.

    Not over yet by a long chalk, but the run-in does look pretty favourable to us. OTBC

    Apart from Gibbs for Barnes which, tactically, was the best substitution he's made in a year......

  3. Posted

    1 hour ago, hogesar said:

    I really promise you, yet again, it's OK to be wrong about Wagner.

    And I'll point out to you, yet again, that I haven't been wrong. When he's got it right I've acknowledged that; when he's got it wrong (most of his tenure to date) I've acknowledged that too. For every Ipswich at home we've had a Leicester away.

    And I still don't think he's yet proved he's the right man to deliver the kind of football we want to see as supporters of NCFC. Yesterday was a great day and he deserves all the plaudits he's getting. But it wasn't champagne football, was it? We competed with an Ipswich side who were nowhere near their best - unlike under Lambert and Farke when we destroyed them with front foot football.

    But if you're happy with that........

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Let's not go overboard. Yesterday Wagner did everything right for the first time since he has been here - which included doing what he should have done last week against Leicester - putting on Gibbs to replace Barnes and getting Sara and our back four further up the pitch to stop Ipswich having so much possession and time on the ball. He responded to that brief period of Ipswich dominance and it worked - why he didn't do that against Leicester is still beyond me, but yesterday was Wagner's' day and he was, finally, brilliant. He has previously thrown away points in almost every other game when he didn't respond to that same situation when we hand the initiative to the opposition.

    Now he needs to keep going and be brave. I really hope he can be the manager we want and need.

    Ipswich were shockingly bad - but that was partly because we didn't let them play. I don't think they completed a pass over 10 yards until the 70th minute, which was also their first shot on target. We are definitely in their heads.

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    24 minutes ago, RobJames said:

    irstly there is not too much Wagner can do once the players are in the pitch.

    You see, as long as we have supporters who believe this we can't really have any kind of an educated debate. 

    Can I point out -again- what has been pointed out many, many times before. Wagner sets his teams up to defend narrowly, forcing the opposition to go wide. Given we have useless centrebacks and fullbacks which he pushes high at the same time, and who can't tackle and have no pace, why he does this is a reasonable question to ask. What it does is negate the quality we have in midfield and up front and show the opposition how to beat us by forcing them to play against our weaker players - how is that in any way sensible????? We have quality players - Sara, Saintz, Sargent and Maclean would all get in Leicester's team - but his tactics don't allow the team to play to their strengths. They barely played a forward pass between them today.

    Having seen it is not working, he could have changed it at half time. Any tactically aware coach would have done. He chose not to and we duly lost without raising any kind of objection. Away you go, Leicester, help yourself to the points (for Leicester, insert Middlesbro, Swansea, and several other teams this season and last).

    This is not management or coaching at the highest level - it's simply refusing to adapt your system to the players we have available and to the opposition we were playing. The only reason we are in the position we are in and pushing for 6th is because some of our quality players have produced in some games, despite the tactics. Oh, and because Gunn has made some extremely crucial saves - he's another who would get in Leicester's team.

    Clearly we are not getting rid of him this season but trust me, he has to go; the bloke is clueless. 

    A last thought - if Maresca was in charge of our squad, it would be us winning the league.

     

     

    • Like 8

  7. Posted

    2 hours ago, Segura said:

    I think the first option would have left us pretty exposed - their wingers were excellent and always a threat in behind. In fairness, the idea of switching Kenny to centre back did flash through my mind at one point, but I think he would get targeted against better teams.

    I just think Leicester were better than us all over the park and there's not much Wagner could have done to change things.

    Tactically, we set up to be compact and narrow. We forced Leicester to go wide, presumably because we knew we could defend then crosses and our fullbacks could keep them quiet. So, that worked well........

    They were only better than us because we let them be - which is Wagnerball. That is his tactic. It was Middlesbrough all over again but with 11 men. Equally compliant and equally complacent. No b***s, no guts, no one caring enough to get in their faces at any point.

    I don't want to watch this garbage.

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    6 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

    What should he have done then? I can see a lot of howling and growling on here without anyone offering a solution

    Pushed our midfield and back four 10-15 yards upfield before their "set". Brought on Gibbs for Duffy, put Maclean at CB and told Sainz to cover his winger and give MacCallum more support. Push Sara up and brought on Fassnacht for Barnes.

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    Excellent first 20 minutes. Just needed to get on their backs in midfield but we stopped playing. Sara, Maclean and Nunez all very poor. Should have sorted it out at half time but didn't. Back to earlier season tactical ineptitude from the coaching team I'm afraid.

    A chance missed. Our players are as good as theirs but ours were terrified and worryingly nowhere near as fit.

  13. Posted

    We don't tend to close down crosses - Wagner's method is to defend them on the edge and in the box. It's led to some goals conceded, but it leads to more being scored from us obtaining possession and breaking fast. The fault yesterday was midfield not cutting out the pass and then Sorensen not making the header.

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    I'm still not completely onboard with Wagner, though of course can only support the improvement he has made since he plumbed the depths.

    Since the Blackburn game when he most definitely should have gone, we had the Watford debacle, two 1-0 defeats at West Brom and Millwall, (points simply thrown away by inept decisions) and the dreadful Southampton performance.

    Recent performances and results are helping, but he still makes some bizarre changes even if he finally seems to have realised that putting players in their best position gets them playing better; and he's definitely not certain to be in charge next season regardless of what league we are in.

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    48 minutes ago, dylanisabaddog said:

    But it's not their fault that some extremely dubious people bought some small clubs and destroyed them. 

    Well, I think it probably is their fault, but that's a different argument.

    I'm just reading that Manchester City, among others, have received a report from someone (their accountants maybe?) about whether they should stop selling season tickets entirely and treat each game for ticketing purposes as a separate event, like a concert. Given that online systems could easily manage this now, this is another real threat to the supporter. Only corporates and the very wealthy get to see every game, most of us save up for one or two games a season - is that a vision of the future of the EPL?

  17. Posted

    Do we know they don't have the resources? Every chance that McKenna will get a couple of loans and spend his £50m a lot better than Stuart Webber did. I suspect they'll make a decent fist of it - the way they play relies very heavily on a mobile 9. Hopefully they won't come after Sargent.

  19. Posted

    2 hours ago, dylanisabaddog said:

    I know I'm biased but I'm baffled by the likes of Matos and Aboh leaving the club. We have a long history of blooding young players and moving them on to big clubs where they earn huge amounts. 

    But they listen to their agents and sign for clubs like Chelsea. They'll spend the next 3 years living in hotels in the outskirts of the likes of Walsall and Doncaster. Why on earth don't they look at the history of young players at clubs like that? 

    Would it be because Chelsea will pay them £30k a week to stay in a hotel in Huddersfield (or similar)?

  21. Posted

    Howson was a great player for us. Why would anyone expect him to do other than what he did to try to ensure his current team wins? Very few footballers have any true affection for the clubs they play for, and the nature of his departure should tell you that Howson doesn't. 

  22. Posted

    Surely every club from the under 10s upwards trains with 10 men occasionally? But as someone pointed out you need a structure, and this coaching team have none.

    However good the excuse was about going down a man, the nature of the goals wasn't relatable to that; it was just bad defending. What the red card did was make Middlesbro more adventurous and it was that we couldn't cope with. If they'd played like that from the start we'd have lost comfortably with 11 men.

    I know it's fun and relevant that we still have a chance of finishing 6th but honestly, does anyone see this team getting promoted? Still, it's a bit of a laugh. I hope that if we do scrape 6th that isn't enough to save Wagner's job though - that would be a complete disaster.

  23. Posted

    41 minutes ago, sonyc said:

    Well, after an hour of thinking back on this, it's ruined an evening and I feel cheated. Cheated by Madley and cheated by Howson.

    Bobby Madley joins Keith Stroud and Simon Hooper on the list of s*** referees who've cost us. Forgetting Ilderton of old too. Who's the worst? Stroud is perhaps the least worst and that's saying something.

    I think Madley may well have cost us the play offs if the appeal is unsuccessful. Sainz looked dangerous every time he had the ball and he is just the proper 'Emi' type weapon we need. We can't afford to miss him for 4 matches.

    As for Howson's lunge on Borja! How the hell is that not a foul? Let alone worthy of escaping punishment? The ref was 5 yards away watching.

     

    Cheated. 

    One refereeing decision won't cost us the playoffs. Our completely inept reaction to being down to 10 men might, as will our excuse for a coaching team who did nothing to assist in terms of tactics or formation or substitutions. Just imagine if we'd stopped whining and come through that type of adversity by playing with some intelligence and guts instead of totally capitulating - but that would require leadership and we don't have any of that.

  25. Posted

    Our biggest mistake in our last two attempts at the PL was hugely overpaying our players. By all means reward success but laying out 80% of the TV money on wages was and will always be ridiculous - all it does is underline the enormous quality gap and leave clubs in trouble.

    If survival and another £100m is truly our only aim we need to establish why that is the case. Just so we can give it to the players yet again?

    In every other walk of life you get paid more by being better at your job; by taking more responsibility; by doing things more efficiently. But our players just got increases for being the same. Very few of them improved - even Buendia struggled at PL level with us.

    If, and it's a huge if, we manage to scrape up this season, I'd really like us to just pay the promotion bonuses and keep salaries at a more modest level. Players and agents who don't like it can move on for the right fee and we can play some kids and others who want to be here - let's be honest, our results will be no worse.

    The playoff system is fun but expecting a team finishing 6th in the Championship to have any chance of survival in the EPL is nonsensical.

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