*official lappinitup match thread v QPR*

[Ulfotto 637]

Some thoughts 

Thought it was Gibson best game in a long time

I think there is a player in Sara but it seems we don’t know how to use him yet.

We still struggle to play through central midfield.

Hayden still only looks half fit

 

[Capt. Pants 4,250]

Nothing special that performance really. When your keeper is MOM in a 0-0 draw at home against  very ordinary team.

Lots of sideways passing. Just don't see how we are moving forward with this manager. Cannot wait for him to leave. 

[repman 635]

2 minutes ago, Ulfotto said:

Some thoughts 

Thought it was Gibson best game in a long time

I think there is a player in Sara but it seems we don’t know how to use him yet.

We still struggle to play through central midfield.

Hayden still only looks half fit

 

Sara is everything as advertised in my opinion, not the most technically gifted player but handy enough and a physical presence who carries a good goal threat. Him out on the right tonight was in a way similar to how Bradley Johnson would play in our 14/15 promotion season.

[hogesar 9,690]

24 minutes ago, Petriix said:

There are some massive positives from that performance. It's easy to see the shortcomings but the fine margins went against us otherwise we would have won comfortably.

The Cantwell incident is a red card every time. Minimal contact but a clear foul. Cantwell was goal-side so there's no legitimate contact at all. 

We had arguably 4 great chances. Pukki should have passed a couple of times for a tap-in. Hernandez should have scored.

The substitutions were a little incoherent: Kenny on at left back when Hayden was clearly shot? Cantwell off but Ramsey stays on?

But the overall shape was sound. Just a lack of movement and creativity in the middle of the park and a lack of cutting edge up front in the end. A better ref and we'd have won by a decent margin. 

Good post, agree with the above.

One note on McLean for McCallum - I think Sam was feeling something, kept touching his thigh and did speak to the sideline. I was at the game not watching on TV so maybe someone can confirm.. 

[KeiranShikari 1,422]

I think Sara is really interesting. Clearly not a wide player but has really good instinct when it comes to drifting in the box. Misplaced a lot of passes tonight but I think we can put that down to him not being up to speed with the Championship.

[littleyellowbirdie 2,553]

27 minutes ago, Nuff Said said:

That is possibly the story of our season right there. Not Dowell specifically, but the fact that many players have had good spells but few of them have consistently performed well. Nunez looked so good to start with, then tailed right off. Even Teemu has had off games.

Is that down to coaching, confidence, lack of motivation, or is it just what you get for what we can afford to pay? (I don’t believe it’s the last one). 🤷‍♂️

It has been pointed out that the rapid-fire nature of the games this season has meant they haven't really had much time to train properly; they've had to suss stuff out in the thick of it. 

I'm really interested to see what we look like after the World Cup. 

[repman 635]

1 minute ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

It has been pointed out that the rapid-fire nature of the games this season has meant they haven't really had much time to train properly; they've had to suss stuff out in the thick of it. 

I'm really interested to see what we look like after the World Cup. 

They had a month of pre-season to coach attacking patterns and they didn't do so, not sure why we should expect that to change now.

[Capt. Pants 4,250]

2 minutes ago, KeiranShikari said:

I think Sara is really interesting. Clearly not a wide player but has really good instinct when it comes to drifting in the box. Misplaced a lot of passes tonight but I think we can put that down to him not being up to speed with the Championship.

I think that was probably his worst game for us tonight. He didn't seem entirely clear what his role was and some of his passing was awful.

[percy varco 199]

1 hour ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Point against the team in 4th and you want him sacked. Christ sake, the state of some our fans. Feel you lot wont be happy unless we win every match 7-0. I get the frustrations due to missed chances but get some perspective.

Its not about tonights game. Its about the overall. 
I prefer to be honest with myself than follow because we may have been better than other performances. 
Smith out! Even if we win the next game 7-0😃

[littleyellowbirdie 2,553]

Just now, repman said:

They had a month of pre-season to coach attacking patterns and they didn't do so, not sure why we should expect that to change now.

Fair number of changes over the summer and it was a shorter than normal pre-season on account of the compression caused by Covid. As has been pointed out, nobody's really running away with this league yet, which is probably a sign that everybody has been short of proper training time to get things together. 

[Monty13 2,235]

13 minutes ago, repman said:

Sara is everything as advertised in my opinion, not the most technically gifted player but handy enough and a physical presence who carries a good goal threat. Him out on the right tonight was in a way similar to how Bradley Johnson would play in our 14/15 promotion season.

I really like the look of Sara, but I also can’t shake the feeling we’ve wasted a lot of money on a vanity signing given his reported cost.

[repman 635]

1 minute ago, Monty13 said:

I really like the look of Sara, but I also can’t shake the feeling we’ve wasted a lot of money on a vanity signing given his reported cost.

I think technically he is fine, it's just he seems to sometimes make the wrong decision with his passing. This is the case with quite a few of our players under Smith though so I don't think it's a coincidence that that's the case.

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

3 minutes ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

It has been pointed out that the rapid-fire nature of the games this season has meant they haven't really had much time to train properly; they've had to suss stuff out in the thick of it. 

I'm really interested to see what we look like after the World Cup. 

Think the bigger problem is that the team's going to have to change considerably now arguably the cornerstones of Smith's intended reshuffle, Hayden and Sara, are hopefully a bit fitter and closer to their physical peaks. If, in the relative absence of said Hayden and Sara, full-backs have been coached to stay back more often than not to try to be more solid, they're now going to have to switch around if a fully-fit Hayden's around as a shield as in theory he should be able to free them up.

Freeing up the full-backs should provide a bit more space for more creatively-minded players - the Cantwells and Dowells. At the moment it still seems a bit fractious, and accuracy has to be at a premium to get chances to stick.

The other obvious thing for me is that Smith's having to do this without arguably the two outstanding players of the previous Champ-winning season in Skipp and Buendia. After all, we were all nervous enough playing most teams in the Champs last time around if Buendia was not around due to suspension, minor knocks or indeed having a sprog, which was why he missed the Luton match IIRC.

[Barham Blitz 653]

1 hour ago, repman said:

They had a month of pre-season to coach attacking patterns and they didn't do so, not sure why we should expect that to change now.

The fact that Hugill was out standout player in pre-season probably indicates how useful that was from developing an attacking pattern perspective  ...

Edited November 3, 2022 by Barham Blitz

[Barham Blitz 653]

1 hour ago, TheGunnShow said:

The other obvious thing for me is that Smith's having to do this without arguably the two outstanding players of the previous Champ-winning season in Skipp and Buendia. After all, we were all nervous enough playing most teams in the Champs last time around if Buendia was not around due to suspension, minor knocks or indeed having a sprog, which was why he missed the Luton match IIRC.

To be fair, as a mostly-decided Smith outer who never thought that we should have sacked Farke, the latter's record without Buendia does undermine his legacy somewhat.  It would have been interesting to see how he did post-Emi because the stats really weren't suggesting that it would have gone well.  The loss of Skipp should and could have been compensated for differently but wasn't insurmountable, excellent player though he was.  Selling Buendia was a real sliding doors moment though.

[Barham Blitz 653]

1 hour ago, repman said:

Sara is everything as advertised in my opinion, not the most technically gifted player but handy enough and a physical presence who carries a good goal threat. Him out on the right tonight was in a way similar to how Bradley Johnson would play in our 14/15 promotion season.

I don't have anything against Sara and agree he is decent but I'm struggling to see the marquee signing value.  For that sort of money I can't help but cast envious glances at Coventry's Hamer who I think is a player who would have been great for us.  

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

7 hours ago, Barham Blitz said:

To be fair, as a mostly-decided Smith outer who never thought that we should have sacked Farke, the latter's record without Buendia does undermine his legacy somewhat.  It would have been interesting to see how he did post-Emi because the stats really weren't suggesting that it would have gone well.  The loss of Skipp should and could have been compensated for differently but wasn't insurmountable, excellent player though he was.  Selling Buendia was a real sliding doors moment though.

I don't think we should have sacked Farke either and was probably one of his staunchest defenders on here, but I can understand why it was done. The overriding weakness with Farkeball was also its biggest strength - it needed specific players very well fused in and a creative powerhouse as its hub. Buendia was the hub.

[Robert N. LiM 4,392]

9 hours ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

nobody's really running away with this league yet

Burnley are. Only lost once. Beginning to open up a gap - and miles ahead of us.

[hogesar 9,690]

9 hours ago, TheGunnShow said:

The other obvious thing for me is that Smith's having to do this without arguably the two outstanding players of the previous Champ-winning season in Skipp and Buendia. After all, we were all nervous enough playing most teams in the Champs last time around if Buendia was not around due to suspension, minor knocks or indeed having a sprog, which was why he missed the Luton match IIRC.

Buendia being a big one. Put Buendia into that performance last night and on top of what we already created, we probably create another one or two big chances for Pukki with the possession we had.

[chicken 2,627]

11 hours ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

You say that... but QPR had more shots, and more shots on target over the course of the 90.

I suppose we had that urgency in the last 5 mins or so when QPR were scared to commit men forward, plus that little run of corners (which we hardly ever come close to scoring from).

But last 10 minutes of the first half and first 25 minutes of the second half I thought QPR looked like the home team.

Not massively, not enough to say they were clearly better. Remember, Pukki's and Hanley's shots that found the post will not be included as shots on target.

 

[Jim Smith 2,322]

10 hours ago, sgncfc said:

It was Dowell who changed it when he came on - you know, that player no one rates.....

I do rate Dowell but I can also see he has a tendency to play well one week then poorly the next. I think if given a run in that central position he will create chances for us but that would involve Smith dropping Ramsey which ain’t going to happen.