Davefevs

Francis Lee - hold my beer.

Great thread title….the full stop spoils it imho ???

It’s funny really, because you ask most Centre-Half’s who they like to mark, and they’ll say a big un….they don’t like pace, nor the niggly little ones who are a pest. Someone like David Speedie was all three, decent in the air for a little one, sharp, and a right pest.

Can we sing this one quietly please.

My formative football education that led me to the view that you don’t have to play a target man….and I stand by it today. And that’s being a massive Mick Harford fan before those two came along. Movement, hard work - can make up for lack of inches (ooh-err missus). Tony and Anthony Rougier.

Alex Scott, superstar Not the one on telly who wears a bra (I’ll get me coat)

Followed by the 10 game losing one ???

Both Simmo and Keith intimated (more than once) that they did not have specific forward or defensive roles, and just did what was needed on a day to day basis by the head coach. Natural to assume that the flair player in his day (Simmo) would do the attacking stuff and the steady-Eddie midfielder in his day (Keith) woukd coach the defensive stuff, but I never saw that in the videos. Keith always doing the striker work….in fact I’d say Keith much more involved in the training video stuff than Simmo. I was told at 09:24 this morning Simmo had been sacked. I asked person if it was health related and he replied nope. The person is not Paul Binning / Exiled Robin in case you wondered, but someone who is close to someone at the club with loose lips!! Yep, the view that England age group head-coach roles beneath u21 level is a high paid job is very unlikely to be the case, hence why we have had the likes of Kevin Betsy involved at this level. Far better paid in the Championship is my guess. I’d question whether the FA would attract the best for our kids if they paid more. No disrespect to Keith or Simmo who achieved success with England, nor can I comment on their performance at City either, I’m sure most of the time they were under instruction from Holden or Pearson. I would love to know how much input Holden had. Simmo was his manager at Shrewsbury, but I never quite heard an interview where Deano really said it was his choice. He admitted he only knew of Keith from seeing him at St Georges, not that he’d struck up a relationship with him.

Nope, I’ve done that to death ???

Ah nuts… @ray savinonot you, same difference, sounds similar! ??? Basically be a bit frugal to control when you sell, not have to sell.

Because I took one season. Why? It was The season we received the most transfer income (not net per se). It was This season that included sales of players he signed. It was the season that as a worst case shows scattergun recruitment, clubs in the bag approach of quantity over quality….and why I don’t like the LJ sympathy card.

I hadn’t seen this when I posted elsewhere that we’d played 9 of top 12 and 4 of bottom 12. @ExiledAjaxyou won’t be surprised to find out I track position of opposition at time we played them. If I ignore the first two league games, one because there is no table pre-GW1 and GW2 will be biased to those who played at home in GW1, and therefore average pre-GW3 to pre-GW13, the average is 12th. But it’s not an exact science. If it’s post-match that average is 11. Probably better to do it for the final 23 games not the first 13.

I’m a great believer in partnerships (as you say can be more than 2 too) being at the heart of individual performances. I often think - if player x was crap today, how did his teammate player y or player x influence that. Especially pertinent for full-backs in their relationship with their wide midfielder, the centre-back on their side and the midfielder on their inside…and finally centre forward as a passing option.

One game at a time. ?

For info, Pring was a winger initially, then a WB.

Comments above. Good post though. Secondary question - why did he have to sell his best players? One part of the answer is because “he” (the collective involved in recruitment, not just LJ) wasted a shedload on fees and wages, etc on players. You can bring in circa £22m net in 19/20 selling Webster, Pack and Brownhill (best players) but he still spent circa £25 (inferior players) replacing them: I don’t buy the LJ sob story. Sell 3 or 4 players, buy / loan 17 players….fees alone were greater than he netted, plus 17 players wages are astronomically greater than the outgoing players. Im sure you’ve seen the various accounts posts / excel pics I’ve put up. If he sold Webster, Pack and Brownhill and just replaced 1 for 1 with say Kalas, Massengo and Nagy, I’d say he deserved time to transition those two midfielders in (Kalas already acclimatised via loan). One of my mates, formerly ITK, and LJ’s most ardent fans (and Ashton hater) surprised me when he eluded to which players he thought we LJ signings and which ones weren’t. I was surprised. Palmer was an LJ signing according to him. ?? My usual caveat is; recruitment was a collective. I hold fault in the collective. That does not mean Ashton is the devil incarnate, but it doesn’t absolve LJ either. It pisses me off when I see “LJ had to sell his best players”. Karl Robinson at MKD used to moan at Cotts for having an expensive squad. However Cotts kept costs down (to an extent, we were still one of the bigger spenders I’m not denying that) by having a small squad. Robinson ran with a squad of 30+ players. He wasted funds that way. Agree. See above. As per a post to @Silvio Dante last night - if you don’t want to be forced to sell your best players, don’t buy crap, and loads of it. Don’t hedge your bets on 2 or 3 players, do your due diligence on one. Agree with much of the sentiment of this. My pre-game Cardiff analysis was - don’t let the side CBs and WBs pump passes from just inside their half forward with pressure on the passer. If they have time to pick a target and get it in the right area with runners, we will be onto a hiding. If we can pressure the passer we pick up balls with them out of position, over-committed. We did that pretty well v Cardiff. Therefore I question Wells’s ability to do that on his own. Depends how other help him. A front 2 of him and Weimann could run around like looneys in the press and would stop a lot of danger. The second benefit is to latch onto our passes in behind them / channels, which is where I totally agree with you. I’m not sold either, although I see the benefits of 3 of our better performers (Kalas, Baker and Atkinson) being in the eleven. Tomorrow, having thought a bit more since Forever BC podcast, there’s a part of me that says back 4 (even Baker at LB), so we can have 6 other players pressing the direct passer. We will see tomorrow at 14:00. In that respect would I mind? Bentley Tanner | Kalas | Atkinson | Baker Massengo | Vyner | James | Pring Scott (Weimann) | Wells Nope, but I doubt very much that will be the team.

And…if it was health reasons, they’d (OS) have said so. I really don’t see why some posters think it’s anything other that Pearson not wanting him. That’s not trying to be ITK, but reality of the situation, hence mutual termination. Good luck to Simmo btw.

Here you go

Indeed Indeed

Slight hope that both Mowatt and Livermore are out. @1960maaani like your side. Against a very high line WBA and true sweeper keeper, we have to play in behind their WBs. That suits Wells and Weimann. Han, Matty and probably Scott get the midfield for me. However Martin probably gets the gig because of defending set pieces. In which case It’s a toss up between Weimann and Scott in the midfield 3.

Basically there is no right answer!! In an ideal world, Nige gets Bents and Kalas to sign new contracts, and continues to save money elsewhere to make selling a choice not a necessity. That’s where the strategy should be aiming for! Keepers are hard to get right. A 28 year old Niki Maenpaa is what we want….on a free and low wage!!! Max is a dilemma for me. Perfect no2, young, homegrown, low wage. Happy (I assume) to know if Bentley gets injured / drops form Nige will play him, as has happened last season. I have reservations about his command of his 12 yards (but I have that with Bents too), but also his kicking. However I do think that is more about playing regularly, getting up to match speed. Championship centre-forwards are quick in their thoughts as well as their legs, and he’s had a few hairy moments in the past, but not stuffed up. He’s a very good shot-stopper (I wish I could find a better term, aren’t most keepers?) so, why do I feel uneasy if he were our no1? Probably just the unknown I guess….yet he’s never let us down.

I thought leading up to Millwall where he rolled his ankle blocking a cross and had to come off, he was looking like getting back to his best form.

Can’t be arsed to do the match, but from memory their scoring rates were pretty similar, Fam might’ve been 0.1 better or something like that. Wells assist rate better. But ultimately different types of striker.

One is running flat out in one direction (Spence), the other is on the half turn because of what’s happening in front and just behind (Dasilva). He’s exposed because of multiple things. He doesn’t do well himself (agreed), but it’s a combination of factors….it is not solely Dasilva’s “pathetic defending”.