TOPIC: Today

Went in east stand...que for tickets was fine. Was a que for a pint at the bar which was not moving very quickly (serving one person at a time) so I went to the food que and got a can of fosters straight out of the fridge very quickly....bit pricy though, £3.50 for a can I think.

Exciting match, can see what we are trying to do in inviting the opposition to press our back 3 high up and then exploit the midfield with our 5 if we can get it into them when under pressure.! Cambridge got some success by pressing our back 3 but as we settle into it, I wonder what the plan will be when teams sit in and let us have it at the back. Hopefully we won't go long with it as it was nice to see us trying to play ala the McDonald days.

Lots of encouraging things, pace, passing ability, hold up play and finishing. Every team in L2 needs an Ibere and lucky for us he ain't just a target man, he can run the channels, get in behind, finish and defend from the front in fact in the final mins he sprinted back into the LB position. I suspect Curles pre season methods is getting something out of Jabbo that not all of his clubs have seen before. A perfect CF for this level, we just need to respect that he is 31 I think so he will need to be rested for the odd game and may find it harder on a freezing, windy dark afternoon in Carlisle mid season.

I felt Thompson was not switched on when defending goal kicks which meant that Miller had to attack the ball too high up in midfield so when he lost his header we were exposed in the traditional right back position. Miller looked good by the way, just felt he had little protection. thompson has been through the mill so expect him to settle with some games behind him.

A lot of pluses today ..getting ibehre will I think be massive for us but that back line is nowhere near good enough even at our level.
Brough might get away with left back all be it not a very good one , but as a left wing , forget it .
Massive mistake curl not playing troy today.And if either ohalloran or livery had been available would have made a big difference.

Chilledsilly wrote:
livery got sent off today - straight Red

Jurys out on Raynes I have to say

Entertaining game but our defence seems very small and the playing the ball out of defence needs to stop we were caught out to many times whne the ball should have been played forward instead of side to side or backwards .
As for Brough he aint good enough to be anywhere near the first team apart from a couple of headless runs forward a complete waste of time

zoney wrote:
yeah should have kept Thirwell for that type of midfield play seriously they have to know when to just get rid..............thought Cambridge played the long ball a bit, but would far rather have the game KC is trying to get them playing, but if needs must hoof it!!

Chilledsilly wrote:
So having defenders from a conference and conference north team would be the answer ? Give it a break pal

Ohalloran is better than anything I've seen at cb so far .and not playing troy unless injured was a mistake.

Stephen O'Halloran only played one, maybe two games for us. Why are people still going on about him?

The only change from last season in the first half today was that instead of lumping it forward in one hoof we'd mess about with it in our own area and then hoof it forward. At least this season we have someone up there who can win a few headers.

It definitely stopped second half though, people are just going to be have to be patient as they are playing to the managers instructions.

Chilledsilly wrote:
Take it you all mean Sean O`Hanlon

The one thing I think KC deserves is a bit of patience from the fans.

Fans having a go at the likes of Thompson need to realise fitness and form, you just can't turn on like a switch.

Give the players at least half a dozen games before judging them individually and the team 10 to 12 games to gauge how things are.

In my opinion we have got positive results against 2 decent teams so far.

But why play Thompson ahead of McQueen who in my opinion played well against Chesterfield

I believe if curle had started today's match with the 11 that finished Tuesday's game we would have had. the game won by half time .utb

The midfield was excellent against Chesterfield. I've no idea why Curle changed it for the Cambridge game. The midfield tinkering cost us two points today.

Bluedazblue wrote:
He went with the exact same midfield that played well in the last league game.

Had he kept the Chesterfield midfield people would complain that he shouldn't have dropped the players that did well at Mansfield.

It's one of those situations where it's easy to look back in hindsight. And remember all 3 midfielders played 120 minutes midweek. Maybe Curle wanted some freshness in there to compete with Keane/Berry etc

We seem to have a pretty strong squad so don't see the problem.

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The problem is players will struggle to find any form if they are constantly in and out of the side. How are all these players supposed to get used to one anothers tendencies and become a cohesive unit with the amount of chopping and changing that goes on game to game?

If team, squad, strong enough player's should be able to adapt and play when needed.
Understand what your saying, but modern football is different to how football has been over the year's, faster, more physical, football has changed, it's more a squad game now.

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A squad game it may be more of now, but the best teams have solid spines around which they're built...

CCU wrote:
I think that's maybe the reason he's trying not to rely on Troy, rather than thinking he's not good enough.

I know he didn't miss as many last season as in previous seasons, but from what Lumsdon said on radio he can't train as often, he very rarely can play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday and they don't know until the day of the game whether he's fit to start. Hardly ideal preparations.

Apart from Atkinson which I assume was down to injury, the back 3 has been kept consistent and not tinkered with. Not saying I agree with all the personnel, but I think that's probably Curle's thinking behind sticking with it.

I think having a competitive squad is so refreshing. Literally! Everyone has been crying out for back up in every position for the past few seasons. Now we have it. And it means we can play 120 minutes midweek and compete with the very early pacesetters in the league the following Saturday. Compare that to York for example who by all accounts wilted second half this weekend.

Wukkie wrote:
I would have always thought the same as you wukkie, but Curle is between a rock and a hard place now coz he`s brought in a raft of new players AND still has 5 players still on contract who don`t HAVE to go anywhere, what does he do.?

He can leave them out of the squad altogether, and they sit idle picking up a wage - or he can play them as and when, and put them in the shop window at the same time. He just has too many options so by playing a rotation squad most are kept happy and a few can benefit from having a rest every other game say, keeping them fresh at the same time.

CCU wrote: For example?

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TopDog74 wrote:
Man City are an example in the premier league.

The spine is Hart, Kompany, Yaya, Silva, Aguero.

They always play when fit. They rotate other positions but they are the constants.

crunchblue wrote: 2 user names ccu?

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Gillespie, Raynes, Kennedy, Ibhere?
That not a spine?
(actually not sure they have started all matches)

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TopDog74 wrote:

First time I've seen them this season and there were lot's of positives and negatives:

Positives:
- Exciting game with lot's of goals
- It looks like KC has signed quite a few decent technical players.
- We have more creativity and pace than last season.
- The forwards were absolutely clinical and looked a constant threat.
- Much better crowd atmosphere
- Decent sized crowd given the off the field shambles over ownership

Negatices:
- Very risky gung-ho tactics. Basically playing two full backs and one central defender, with 5 in midfield and two strikers
- We took stupid risks at the back as the players had clearly been ordered not to clear their lines first half. It was more common sense approach 2nd half.
- Awful marking and defensive errors.
- Wingers (wing-backs) offered very little
- The substitutions did not address the issues we were expperiencing in the match
- The lucky dip ticket allocation in the East stand
- The food, beer and service in the east stand.
- They still haven't fixed the TV's under the East stand after about 3 seasons

All in all, a very enjoyable game but also massively frustrating at times. For me KC went with the wrong tactics and the game plan was flawed. Some of the defenders were appalling, although the system did leave them very exposed at times. The strikers were superb and dug us out of a massive hole with four great goals. After seeing them I am reassured that we have a better squad than last year, with more pace and creativity. We are going to ship a hell of a lot of goals and take some heavy beatings if we employ those tactics all season though. It was a bit like watching Ossie Ardiles' Spurs team at times. We need to look at a formation/tactic that is a bit less adventurous, and cut out the pointless risky passes at the back and we should be pretty confortable this season.

Northumbrian wrote:
I don't think KC has told them to play from the back at all costs, did he not say after the match that they need to pick their moments to do so, and when to go more direct. Sounds more like players getting used to a new formation and style of play than them being told to play from the back whatever. Once they've played like this more often I reckon you'll see a reduction in the errors made like Saturday... although the first was simply bad marking.

chesterviabothel wrote: It looked like a team directive to me CVB . ... it also looked like that directive was relaxed for a more common sense approach second half....I wouldn't place much stock on his interviews to be fair, he contadicts himself all the time.... and yes it was appalling marking on the first.