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Post by 8two on Jan 28, 2023 17:12:47 GMT
Well, what do you think of that? Take the first half and true to say that the only show stopper was the sprinkler system.
On the positive side Clark played well, Pelly's passing was superb and Doughty was a constant threat. I thought Horvath could have made at least at effort for both goals, especially the second one where, as is the way of today's keepers, he went with his legs. Keepers of the past would have saved that with their arms and body. Campbell was extremely poor and I can't recall one good pass or tackle. Much too light weight for lower league football in my mind.
I've got a theory. Luton play a style of football not familiar to other Championship teams and have been successful. Against a team used to that style of play, you see what I'm getting at?
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Post by rutlandhatter on Jan 29, 2023 16:58:50 GMT
It was disappointing to say the least. Clarke did deserve MoM and we did miss Bree but something needs to be done about defence (Burke?) as Potts in the middle of defence doesn't work. I prefer Shea to Horvath and I'm wondering if Istead might do a better job?
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Post by flathatter on Jan 29, 2023 17:09:03 GMT
The whole place seemed a bit flat. The team and the crowd. I think the uncertainty of who will be here for the rest of the season is affecting everyone. RE on 3cr promised that we will be in a better place after the window closes.
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Post by proudhattersince74 on Jan 30, 2023 14:58:04 GMT
We do seem to have been more threatening under RE and I put that down to our MF playing 10-15 yards further up the pitch, especially at home
The downside to this is that it highlights just how much our back line and GK needs help when faced with either a classy opposition MF (WBA) or a direct team whose long, high diagonal balls simply miss out our MF (Grimsby). As the MF is slightly further away from our defence, second balls were not being picked up by our MF on the occasions that the defence did actually manage to get a head on the ball. Grimsby simply had far too much room in MF and yet, ironically, they weren't usually feeding that department, themselves, from their own defence and playing through us - it was our own inability to clear the lines far enough to involve our own MF.
As has been intimated above, our workrate and endeavours against technically better teams worked for us last season in exactly the same way that Grimsby's method flummoxed us. That hasn't been so effective this season and RE seems to prefer more pass and move to NJ's "launch it to Eli" method of last season.
Given that Grimsby's style and personnel are clearly built for aerial battles, it does strike me as being very odd that Burke didn't start, let alone being brought on. His height would have been massive plus for the back line to cope with well hit, well weighted and well directed balls. The fact that Lockyer struggled all game to cope with Orsi summed up the day ... although I have to give credit to Orsi for his ability to play with his back to goal, pull a ball out of the sky and hold/shield it until support arrived was quite impressive (probably better at doing that then Adebayo).
Frustratingly, Doughty was patently the best technician on show yet we often ignored his availability in the second half when hanging wide on the right and tried the left flank. Given how much Doughty appeared to have their LB on toast, I felt we should have kept pressure on him until a foul and yellow resulted. Apart from anything else, Doughty was far more likely to make something happen (eg his precision pass to Clark for our second goal).
One other oddity (IMO) was, yet again, RE trying to deploy Woodrow as a midfielder. His involvement and contributions were few and far between in that department - IF Cornick goes then Woodrow should, at least, be first choice to play off the shoulder of Adebayo or Morris. But that smacks of him landing that gig by default rather than being the preferred selection.
With regard to our defence, as individuals some need to be far more decisive. Osho, Potts and Bell were all guilty of dithering and managed to lose balls that they were 60-40 favourites to win. The one that Osho hesitated on led to the save by Horvath that went for the corner from which they scored. The Grimsby player simply wanted it more than Osho and it broke away for a volley that was destined for the top corner - Osho should have won the first ball and the rest wouldn't have happened thereafter.
Bell, moreso than the others, tends to wait for the ball to arrive at the place he is standing rather than being positive/pro-active and stepping in before the opposition. The game at Boro (where he was red carded) was a prime example of that and he got caught out a number of times by Grimsby players being quicker and more determined than he was.
All of that noted, we had far too many players who had bad games at the same time. Campbell was invisible but that may have been because the game was happening mostly above his head and was chasing shadows from one end of the pitch to the other to remind him what the ball looked like. Hopefully, we won't have as many strugglers at their place for the replay.
COYH
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Post by starhootsman on Jan 30, 2023 22:21:01 GMT
We clearly need to make a statement in the next 2 home games. Looking for our new manager to get the boys up for both to get us into a strong league position before tougher games arrive.
Southampton match a real bonus if we can see off Grimsby.
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