19/20 - Cheltenham (A) Match Thread

Laffy wrote: Marginally better second half but we have no cutting edge-Thomas has been found out, just show him the outside.

We aren’t good enough to play out from the back-disaster waiting to happen.Midfield are lightweight.

Jones flatters to deceive-ok playing in his own half but nothing over the halfway line and clearly can’t pass under pressure.

Hope-show him the door.He looks unfit and overweight to me.

Sorensen must think he’s upset Pressley to not get on tonight.Why?

Piggie-I challenge you to find positives tonight mate.

We won’t go down but we aren’t going anywhere fast either

To be fair to Hope the one thing he isn't is overweight. Won our preseason fitness tests / runs and if anything has probably been in to gym too much and could do with losing some muscle to gain some speed / agility.

Laffy wrote: Marginally better second half but we have no cutting edge-Thomas has been found out, just show him the outside.

We aren’t good enough to play out from the back-disaster waiting to happen.Midfield are lightweight.

Jones flatters to deceive-ok playing in his own half but nothing over the halfway line and clearly can’t pass under pressure.

Hope-show him the door.He looks unfit and overweight to me.

Sorensen must think he’s upset Pressley to not get on tonight.Why?

Piggie-I challenge you to find positives tonight mate.

We won’t go down but we aren’t going anywhere fast either

If there’s no changes manager/playing side this side will finish in the bottom two, they are just clueless. That was really really bad.

There maybe won’t go down due to Bury/Bolton situation. Another reprieve for Jenkins. But survival in this league isn’t any success and the crowds will quickly drift away.

The problem of the last 10+ years of when we had a good side is replacing players with even worse ones. Last seasons weren’t good enough and the season before and we,vet rightly changed. But we’ve now got donkeys and cast offs that are not good enough.

I'm in the same thought as laffy here.... Dont get the love in for Jones. Gets alot of the ball which probably makes people think he's showing to be one of better players. He's alot of the trouble why midfields light. He doesn't occupy it or help out as playing too deep and just about as an 3rd CB, which leaves us short. It's either sideways or backwards with him and more often than not looses ball when pressed not to mention slows play down to snail pace. They're was a reason he was just about shown the door last season. Unfortunately no one else was stupid enough to take him. He was decent when he came but has gone majorly backwards.

Jones doesn't give the ball away and he can make space when he is being tightly marked.

Some simply unacceptable performances out there tonight. The entire back 4. Mckirdy did nothing. Everyone is on lofts back but his a 6ft 5 target man. Why play the ball to feet when Cheltenham have 3 men on him.

The team had no idea what they were supposed to be doing when in possession and when defending. No leadership, no organisation, no tactical ability

We are down to 20th now. Scunthorpe are bottom and our loanee from there is our best player!

Maybe I'm in the minority here but I though Jones was excellent tonight, he was continually trying to cover for those two at the back who both had very poor games, but one thing I do agree with though is neither of those two centre backs are used to playing out from the back, both looked unsure and devoid of ideas.
Thought the two full backs were OK without being fantastic, Scougal (despite some of the criticism on here) was fairly decent, always looking for the ball and trying to make things happen, and has obviously got a great engine. Bridge was OK but nowt special. Loft was awful, but he had a decent game at Barnsley and was pretty decent when he came on against Crawley, (so I'm not going to blame Pressley for picking him). Mc Kirdy was poor tonight but I've seen enough of him to suggest that there is a real player in there somewhere. And Thomas is simply that 'Thomas', sometimes brilliant and sometimes not at the races, tonight he was somewhere between the two.
Not hiding the fact it wasn't a great night, however I honestly think there is enough quality in this squad to be OK this season.
Over to you Mr Pressley.

My concerns are 8 goals conceded in 4 games.

1 win in 11 away games under Pressley.

The same problems as we had last season with too many small physically weak attacking players in midfield. Teams getting on top of us in that area. It’s alright to have 1 but the other 2 need to be able to do the other side of the game. Carroll’s suspension is now over so I’d like to see him start a match.

I still think we will be fine this season and will come good... too much doom and gloom on here. We have a new team, still trying to gel, with a manager who I still think we need to have faith in. Not great tonight I agree, bu there is enough to say that we will be mid table and maybe challenging for the play-offs. We are good enough here....have faith. Salford is a crucial game now... as 4 defeats really does set a trend. I just hope Presley has enough courage to change things... and probably start Sorenson

Stats show we had most of the possession.

pacirv wrote: Stats show we had most of the possession.

If defenders are playing it out from the back, into midfield, then wide, then back to a defender to start the cycle over again, then it's likely that we will have more possession.

But it is ineffective possession. If the ball is lost in those areas, which seemed to happen a lot this evening, then the consequence is the conceding of possession, chances and goals.

Jones is nothing special, but he hasn't needed to be to stand out in our worst performances so far this season. We're better with him than without him, at the bottom of my concerns tbh

Jones is our best player this season -but the benchmark is pretty low.He is playing way too deep but given we don’t look comfortable playing around at the back, it’s probably intentional.

We look good when the midfield are playing from deep-woeful when they have to win the second ball from long balls from the back.

The attack is almost non existent and Thomas is way too predictable-why not try him on the left and get some crosses in rather than him cutting in an trying to score every time he gets the ball.

To remind all, we are 20th in a poor league

Bluedazblue wrote:

pacirv wrote: Stats show we had most of the possession.

If defenders are playing it out from the back, into midfield, then wide, then back to a defender to start the cycle over again, then it's likely that we will have more possession.

But it is ineffective possession. If the ball is lost in those areas, which seemed to happen a lot this evening, then the consequence is the conceding of possession, chances and goals.

Aye 68% possession on Saturday and 61% last night and no goals. As I said previously we're going to lose a lot of games with this defence and midfield.

Why Sorensen wasn't brought on at half time was a mystery.

Why wouldn't Pressley play his '20 a season' guy? Why won't he drop Scougall or move him? Baffling.

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Sorensen was not the 20 goal guy, he became available again after initial enquiry at the start of the summer. 20 goal lad must have said no, or because we got Sorensen we moved on.

Elvis needs to pull his socks up

Points after 4 league games:

2003/04 Collins : 0
2013/14 Abbott: 1
2014/15 Kav: 2
2019/20 Elvis: 3

Elvis does have a league cup win, but so did Greg, anyways, the first three were sacked after another 1 or 2 defeats each....

As it stands, this team with this manager will occupy the bottom six.
Webster has flattered and deceived so far, Knight-Percival cannot pass more than 10 yards to his own team. Jones was the standout player but too deep. Scougall ran around like a two year old in the first half, did way better when Olo came on, who should always start. I counted Bridge touched the ball 3 times in the first half, lightweight that disappears. Loft, adds absolutely nothing to the play, he was a bit whiny throughout last night. McKirdy poor tonight.
A team is built through its spine, we don’t have one.
Come to think of it not a lot of balls either. Watched too many back off challenges last night.
Do we have any player that can put a dead ball over the first defender? Nope

Bluedazblue wrote:

pacirv wrote: Stats show we had most of the possession.

If defenders are playing it out from the back, into midfield, then wide, then back to a defender to start the cycle over again, then it's likely that we will have more possession.

But it is ineffective possession. If the ball is lost in those areas, which seemed to happen a lot this evening, then the consequence is the conceding of possession, chances and goals.

Somebody has tricked an awful lot of people in football that this is now what is classed as "attractive football", and that this is what fans want.

I do prefer it to old fashioned hoofball but the aim should be get the ball to your ball playing midfielders and let them create something, rather than let the back 4 and goalkeeper pass it round for a bit and then smash it away because they're under pressure.

SHOTS.
ON.
TARGET.

Very good little stat orfc. Another defeat on Saturday puts the pressure on massively I think. Could be a big game on Saturday but I think we need to give it at least til the end of next month.

Spot on Merseysideblue.
Agree 100%, From what I have seen Bridge gives nothing to the team and please take the dead ball kicks off him. Woeful

We have to take points from the next 2 games, with the likes of Exeter, Bradford and Forest Green coming up after that.

MerseysideBlue wrote:
Must be watching a different Bridge to me - five appearances in and I still have no idea what he actually does well. Certainly not his gash set pieces .

Set pieces were awful, totally agree. I just thought I saw glimpses of potential, but I guess glimpses isn’t enough unless he starts being more productive with it.

Was the first game I’ve seen to be fair, so if you’ve seen all the other games then I believe you have a more informed opinion.

Meanwhile Bennett for Port Vale does something last night in 4 mins that our whole team hasn't done in over 180 mins

Knowing us Bennett will grab 15 before January and be off to Scotland for £1m

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Interesting that we are all seeing very similar things. My post on a facebook group after the game read as below. I don't think many are in huge disagrement about. Its nice to see the message board actually looking at the tactics rather than just "hes shit" attitude.

after two games in a row I've managed to attend I'm going to try and write some thoughts without being knee jerk. Both games were poor and the results inevitable.

Webster seems to be left to distribute the ball from the back at most times. His distribution is poor, and he tends to go very sideways ( Often it comes back to him and he then rakes one long cross field ball to McKirdy which failed most times over the last two games)

KP doesn't seem to want to distribute. I like him at the back, but surely he need to take more responsibility and Collins needs to force him to do this.

Elliot. Not for me. Poor going forward doesn't force the opposition back.

Scougall and Brifge hold position excellently, but at the total expense of the midfield. We had no control over the last two games and needed these players to take turns in coming in tot the middle to help Jones.

Jones himself was forced deeper and deeper to help with distribution from the back leaving the middle of the field completely devoid of any CUFC players.

Thomas, stop cutting back and shooting near post. Cross the ball.

McKirdy. Head up lad. Runs into blind allies(although usually due to the fact he has no options)

Loft. Hasn't had any opportunity to show me what he is. Would like to see him in the box more often.

Olomoba made the difference in both games. Played behind the front line almost as a 10. Ran his socks off and made great touches turns and movements. A vital part of the jigsaw if this system is to work.

The system just didnt work in either of the last two games

We are far to close in terms of defence to front line but with massive gaps in the middle. At times it looked like a back 5 with 2 wingers and a front three. I'm hugely disappointed in what to me looks like a strong team.

I'd go 442 or even 532 with these players. If we play as we are the wide men have to fill out the middle and allow the team to get some foothold in the game.

We could net a cool 600k out of this if he goes for 2m and the 'substantial' amount is only a 30% sell on.

If we did get that there'd be FA put back into the team that's for sure

WimborneBlue wrote: ..I'd go 442 or even 532 with these players...

That's at least three of us - three of us! - who agree on the same thing. Surely this is a majority and we can take it to Pressley?

Waltero wrote: If we did get that there'd be FA put back into the team that's for sure

At first I thought FA was alluding to Nixon's role at the club with the FA - then realised [censored] All ( which does also describe Nixon's use to the Club)

Can [censored] All for [censored] All be censored?

[censored] All

WimborneBlue wrote: Interesting that we are all seeing very similar things. My post on a facebook group after the game read as below. I don't think many are in huge disagrement about. Its nice to see the message board actually looking at the tactics rather than just "hes shit" attitude.

after two games in a row I've managed to attend I'm going to try and write some thoughts without being knee jerk. Both games were poor and the results inevitable.

Webster seems to be left to distribute the ball from the back at most times. His distribution is poor, and he tends to go very sideways ( Often it comes back to him and he then rakes one long cross field ball to McKirdy which failed most times over the last two games)

KP doesn't seem to want to distribute. I like him at the back, but surely he need to take more responsibility and Collins needs to force him to do this.

Elliot. Not for me. Poor going forward doesn't force the opposition back.

Scougall and Brifge hold position excellently, but at the total expense of the midfield. We had no control over the last two games and needed these players to take turns in coming in tot the middle to help Jones.

Jones himself was forced deeper and deeper to help with distribution from the back leaving the middle of the field completely devoid of any CUFC players.

Thomas, stop cutting back and shooting near post. Cross the ball.

McKirdy. Head up lad. Runs into blind allies(although usually due to the fact he has no options)

He runs into the lad that Mullen takes?

Apologies in advance Mullen