Why we lost to Colchester...

[a1canary 0]

It shouldn''t be so much of a surprise given the squad Grant has to work with and the team he eventually chose. Progress from the level where Grant started is always going to involve 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Yet when that one step back occurs out comes Smudger declaring how we''re headed for division 2 football yawn yawn yawn. And before you start, no i''m not happy we''ve lost to Colchester, it''s embarrasing but anyone should know just by looking the table this far in to the season that they''re a decent team and we''ve no automatic right to beat them. Their home GD is +24 - the best in the league.The fact is we had key components missing from the squad. Whatever you say about Dickson Etuhu, few teams are going to walk through our midfield when he''s there - his absence showed that - and him and Safri are an imposing partnership in this division.Then there was no Drury - even at the top of his game he has his work cut out playing with Huckerby in front of him so to leave the less defensively sound Lappin out there on the left with Huckerby was a bizarre decision by Grant. Compounded by the resultant separation of the Huckerby Martin partnership. Chadwick can play both wings - why on earth couldn''t we have Chadders and Croft running the wings?Grant does make some strange decisions at times. And i find it odd how, when Huckerby has been on fire he goes on about how "i''ve never asked Darren Huckerby to defend" - why tell us that? No-one asked! And if this is the case, why does he then stick him on the left in front of a part time full back? And the Colin situation is just too ridiculous for there not to be

something we don''t know about going on. Presumably that he''s off in the

summer, esp given the interest being shown in Ostemobor.But overall, I do think there is light at the end of the tunnel, he has shown that he can get his preferred team to beat the best in the division, and i like most of what he does and says (esp in PFA/Martin saga). It''s when he has to move players around and cover injuries that he keeps being found wanting. If he can build the squad he wants, that shouldn''t have to happen too often.

[Cantiaci Canary 556]

"Whatever you say about Dickson Etuhu, few teams are going to walk through our midfield when he''s there"

 

No,  A1C, I can''t allow this.

10% of the time DE shows aggression, confidence, box-to-box ambition, ball-winning hunger in the middle of the park and can even be a goal threat just outside the opposition''s area but 90% of the time DE does EXACTLY the opposite of what your quote above claims.

DE will drift, dangle half-hearted legs and prance around the middle of the pitch spraying poor passes and displaying poor awareness and control. If DE had been playing on Saturday our back line would have had even more pressure on them and people would be pointing the finger at him yet again.

Does a player who only hits his potential 10% of the time over two seasons deserve to stay here earning wages in one of the most crucial positions on the park? I think not. We would miss nothing if he left in the summer.

 

OTBC

[FUEL ROX 0]

according to the league official stats dickson is our second placed midfielder, with hucks as top. he takes more stick than he deserves and works really hard for the team often unrecognized, he certainly covers more ground than safri. If he could, ala francis style, time his runs into the box better he would get 10 goals a season in my opinion, we certainly would have a weeker squqd if he left. mark fothringham on the otjher hand looks like a fish out of water at the moment.

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

"if he could run in the box"  Well he doesn''t.

He does not cover more ground than Safri.

However he has improved in recent weeks, lets hope he keeps this form up for more than the 1 decent month he managed earlier in the season. [:S]

[chicken 0]

To add to that wasn''t he 18th on the list of midfielders?

If he was then you would have to ask yourself that if that includes wingers most teams have four in their starting line up every week. And considering there are 24 teams in this league it doesn''t take much to realise that his quality goes unseen by most fans.

As I have said before he reminds me of Kenton in that on the pitch he always looked as if he had another gear to go yet when he is not there you realise that he isn''t being lazy he just doesn''t look as if he is working hard - and believe me there is a difference.

[Green and Yellow 0]

Because they are a bunch of piss poor t***** who have reach 50 points and relegation will not happen. So they are busy looking at their summer holiday schedule and checking with their agent that their contact is up to date. Bunch of w*****.  

[Rossi 0]

[quote user="a1canary"]

The fact is we had key components missing from the squad. Whatever you say about Dickson Etuhu, few teams are going to walk through our midfield when he''s there - his absence showed that - and him and Safri are an imposing partnership in this division.

[/quote]

Ahem!

I think we missed Etuhu yesterday, but I think we actually missed his role as opposed to the player. Etuhu is a combative player with the ability to run box to box - note the usage of the word ability. Fotheringham isnt the sort of player to be able to break the play up, he''s just too light weight and it isnt his game. If we had another player in the squad that had Etuhu''s attributes then I dont think we would have missed him as much as we did. Besides how many times this season has our midfield been over-run with Etuhu playing!

[nutty nigel 7,513]

Good post a1. I agree with just about everything here. It would have been a difficult game whatever team we picked but the changes made and the poor attitude and performance of the players picked made it impossible.

I stated elsewhere that I thought something else was wrong yesterday. Right from the warm up there seemed no team spirit. Hughes appeared isolated in the warm up and had an absolute mare. I honestly believe that having got to 50 points Grant spent the international break finalising his plans for which players he intends to keep next season. Having told the players the uncertainty probably caused a performance of similar quality as those last two games under Worthington.

Grant has to make big changes and it''s obvious players will be leaving, and it really maybe not just the obvious ones. Somehow he has to make less money go further and it''s an unenviable task. Worthington showed loyalty to a smaller group of players and they let him down. Grant won''t wait for them to let him down too.

I am not as confident about next season as I was a few days ago. It''s not the result that changed my mind, more the realisation of how big the changes are likely to be. Your comments about taking two steps forward and one back ring true to me. I think we will continue to take two forward and one back throughout next season too. But we could build the platform for a push in 07/08. It must be said that this is an improvement on the one step forward and two back that we seemed to take between relegation and January this year.

In the words of MWJ just before our promtion season:-

"Of course, there are exceptions and I''m generalising hugely, but for me a manager spends his first year getting rid of the players he inherited from the last one, the second year trying to get hold of the players that he wants and the third year trying to gel them into a team that''s in your own image."

 

[a1canary 0]

Quite right FR. As the stats and the actim index show, he gets lots of tackles and passes in, and you would have thought his absence against Colchester might have shown a few what he does for us in there.

[AP16 0]

[quote user="Konstantin Pobedonostsev"]

"Whatever you say about Dickson Etuhu, few teams are going to walk through our midfield when he''s there"

 

No,  A1C, I can''t allow this.

10% of the time DE shows aggression, confidence, box-to-box ambition, ball-winning hunger in the middle of the park and can even be a goal threat just outside the opposition''s area but 90% of the time DE does EXACTLY the opposite of what your quote above claims.

DE will drift, dangle half-hearted legs and prance around the middle of the pitch spraying poor passes and displaying poor awareness and control. If DE had been playing on Saturday our back line would have had even more pressure on them and people would be pointing the finger at him yet again.

Does a player who only hits his potential 10% of the time over two seasons deserve to stay here earning wages in one of the most crucial positions on the park? I think not. We would miss nothing if he left in the summer.

 

OTBC

[/quote]

 

Agreed. I''ve said many times here that he has the ability to be a top player for us, but does not apply it often enough.

[Cluck 0]

[quote user="Grumpy "]Because they are a bunch of piss poor t***** who have reach 50 points and relegation will not happen. So they are busy looking at their summer holiday schedule and checking with their agent that their contact is up to date. Bunch of w*****.  [/quote]

Good honest summary Grumpy.....and as near to the truth as you could possibly get.         [Y]

[JC 0]

What amazes me is that Grant HAS told Huckerby to defend - he strongly criticised him for not defending shortly after he arrived.  Then suddenly when Hucks wins us two games,it is suddenly because Grant told him not to worry about defending!  Grant I am afraid does not yet convince me as the way forward.

[quote user="a1canary"]It shouldn''t be so much of a surprise given the squad Grant has to work with and the team he eventually chose. Progress from the level where Grant started is always going to involve 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Yet when that one step back occurs out comes Smudger declaring how we''re headed for division 2 football yawn yawn yawn. And before you start, no i''m not happy we''ve lost to Colchester, it''s embarrasing but anyone should know just by looking the table this far in to the season that they''re a decent team and we''ve no automatic right to beat them. Their home GD is +24 - the best in the league.

The fact is we had key components missing from the squad. Whatever you say about Dickson Etuhu, few teams are going to walk through our midfield when he''s there - his absence showed that - and him and Safri are an imposing partnership in this division.

Then there was no Drury - even at the top of his game he has his work cut out playing with Huckerby in front of him so to leave the less defensively sound Lappin out there on the left with Huckerby was a bizarre decision by Grant. Compounded by the resultant separation of the Huckerby Martin partnership. Chadwick can play both wings - why on earth couldn''t we have Chadders and Croft running the wings?

Grant does make some strange decisions at times. And i find it odd how, when Huckerby has been on fire he goes on about how "i''ve never asked Darren Huckerby to defend" - why tell us that? No-one asked! And if this is the case, why does he then stick him on the left in front of a part time full back? And the Colin situation is just too ridiculous for there not to be something we don''t know about going on. Presumably that he''s off in the summer, esp given the interest being shown in Ostemobor.

But overall, I do think there is light at the end of the tunnel, he has shown that he can get his preferred team to beat the best in the division, and i like most of what he does and says (esp in PFA/Martin saga). It''s when he has to move players around and cover injuries that he keeps being found wanting. If he can build the squad he wants, that shouldn''t have to happen too often.
[/quote]

[percyvarco 0]

[quote user="Cluck "]

[quote user="Grumpy "]Because they are a bunch of piss poor t***** who have reach 50 points and relegation will not happen. So they are busy looking at their summer holiday schedule and checking with their agent that their contact is up to date. Bunch of w*****.  [/quote]

Good honest summary Grumpy.....and as near to the truth as you could possibly get.         [Y]

[/quote]

Lets hope that they are up for it against Ipswich and not got thier holiday heads on again. Shocking.

[Smudger 0]

[quote user="Cluck "]

[quote user="Grumpy "]Because they are a bunch of piss poor t***** who have reach 50 points and relegation will not happen. So they are busy looking at their summer holiday schedule and checking with their agent that their contact is up to date. Bunch of w*****.  [/quote]

Good honest summary Grumpy.....and as near to the truth as you could possibly get.         [Y]

[/quote]

Even closer to the truth I feel is just the simple fact that they are a bunch of pi$$ poor tossers FULL STOP!!!