Lord Duckhunter

On the train on the way to the game I listened to Graham Souness & his criticism of Declan Rice. Piers Morgan was trying to claim he’s “world class”, Souness was saying he wasn’t, he was good, but kept playing too deep, going back into the back 4 and making simple passes, he said Rodri doesn’t do that anywhere near as much, his simple passing and ticking over is done further up the pitch. Told a story of one game where he kept coming deep, getting the ball between Phil Neal & Phil Thompson, then knocking 5 yard passes, getting it back, basically ticking over. He said Bob Paisley, Ronnie Moran & Joe Fagan were going nuts on the bench, and he wandered who with. He thought “it can’t be me because I’m making passes, keeping the ball etc”. At half time they went for him, pointing at Phil Neal said “he plays for fucking England, don’t you think he can pass the ball 5 yards, get into midfield”. Remained me a bit of Clough “get in there, that’s what I pay you for”. With this in mind I found myself noticing the number of times Prowse was as deep as the centre halves & playing simple passes and it was a lot. Souness’ called out Rice saying he “empties midfield”, & that’s what was happening to us. I realise this is tactical & emptying midfield may give Azaz some extra room, but it also leaves us light in there if it’s given away. It did make me think this maybe why his career has stalled. Perhaps Nuno thinks like Souness, midfielders shouldn’t be doing this and as it comes naturally to Prowse he couldn’t help himself from reverting to it during games, particularly when under pressure of being dropped & lack of confidence. There’s no right or wrong, just different approaches and tactics. Tonda wants him to play this way, whereas Nuno probably didn’t.

Exactly. Another game, we won’t win it back and will have given it away again. 3 or 4 times, we minced around , got caught and in another day may get punished. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with knocking it long once in a while to relieve the pressure. As for the hipsters criticism of people happy we knocked it long just after just taking a 3-1 lead., that was exactly the right call. Fuck me, the last thing you want to do is the Wood/Bree chuckle brothers act a minute after taking a 2 goal lead. Arsenal would have knocked it long then, we knocked it long just before half time, we knock it long from kick offs, nothing wrong with it at all. Even if they win it back, you’re all set defensively and they’ve got to get up the pitch. Bit easier to defend than giving it away on the edge of the box. We over did it yesterday, were sloppy with our passing from goal kicks, but got away with it, another day we won’t. I’d have said the tactics worked yesterday, not because our execution of it was excellent, but because Swansea, for all their pretty build up play, were pretty toothless when we gave it away in our defensive third and didnt capitalise.

“Good pedigree”, he must be talking about his fucking dog…..

Bollocks, the centre half is….

That’s better. Although Swansea’s style suited us, that was easily our best performance of the season. Leo & Azaz had their best games & centre half pairing was good. I still think we mince around with it a bit too much at the back, last season we mixed it up a bit more going long on more occasions. When Larin is up there I don’t see the harm in banging it up there a bit more than we are. Maybe we will when Jander is back as Prowse & Downes play a bit deeper & aren’t really the type to get up and around Larkin from a long ball. Didn’t have The Tonda spreadsheet substitutions this time, so it’ll be interesting to see the fitness levels when we go again Saturday.

Lego’s record since promotion. Certainly looks like he’s been let down by recruitment at Leicester & Rangers,as well as Saints, you just can’t penny pinch at those levels when you’re up against the spending power of sides like St Mirren, livingstone & Burton Albion.

In some ways his strength is also his weakness. He seems to manage minutes by numbers, to a set plan. It worked on the run last season, with everyone, apart from Bree, kept fresh. But he never seems to deviate from that,somebody could be absolutely monstering their back 4, but if it’s predetermined he’s coming off between x and y minute, he’s coming off. I guess the fitness levels throughout the season will determine if that approach is ultimately the right one.

Only 1 howler. If Baz is the alternative , only one howler a game makes you pretty much undroppable

The big difference is Jones has done a decent job post Saints. Got Charlton up, and keep them up. Lego head has royally fucked up at Rangers & Leicester in league one ffs. The other difference is clowns & “experts” criticism is always “he doesn’t have the players to play that way”. As if he’s on the right track, tactically clever but wrong in applying it at that level, whereas Jones is just a “shit manager”. The fact is, Lego is a shit manager with good PR. Whereas Jones is a decent championship manager with shit PR.

No, it’s the right thread. Remember there were nods telling us it wasn’t Lego’s fault, no team could stay in the premier league, particularly those that came up via play offs. Every single year, other sides show us that those 12 points were absolutely pathetic and Lego head set this club back far more than Nathan Jones, Ivan or the other assorted numpties which followed him.

Some of the players are well below the standards they set the last half of previous season. Bree, the keeper, Jack, Manning. Some have had good spells, but ultimately haven’t looked any better, Azaz, Leo, Larin, Matsuki. Only one has really kicked on & got better and that’s Downes.

Wonder if Jug Ears still feels the same…..

I'm disappointed we don't win,because we deserved to. It was the best performance we've had. The only thing we're missing is 5 goals and if we scored 5 , I think everyone goes away thinking it's an amazingperformance.

If Larin was never doing 90, In some ways we’d of been better off starting with Mubama & bringing Larin on. We didn’t particularly need an outlet or someone to hold it up in the first 60 mins, but did in the last quarter. Latin didn’t exactly do much, so chances are we’d have been 1 up anyway (especially after Prowse magical assist for Wellington’s tap in). We’ve got a bloke who can not hold the ball up, & doesn’t seem to have the physicality to battle away alone, and chuck him on to play that role. Look at the goal he did score, Azaz plays him in with a cute ball, he shows decent movement & bang, it’s in the net. Fuck me, we’re playing him in a role totally unsuited for him, and then the supply lines come from Dobbin, and fucking Edozy. How would Dom Ballard or others on the forum wish list have played in those circumstances….Horses for courses, surely we don’t need a big man up top to relieve pressure and get us up the pitch as we hang in against fucking Lincoln. We should have passed them to death & kept the ball that way, or left Larkin on.

Course we can. You have to want to though. Working hard & standing up to the physical battle is a skill, sadly some of our “stars” don’t possess it. They’d rather fall over and hope a foul is given, then stand up and compete.