SaintZamboni

Canada showing how you need depth in a squad. Too many players who don’t compete at a very high level vs Croatians who do. Also, Atiba Hutchinson, nearly 40 and by god does it show. That said, showing more fight and purpose in this second half.

4 points worse and 4 places. I don’t think that’s significantly worse. What’s worse is the ill feeling and pessimism of some of our ‘fans’

Saw saw a stat today saying that his Luton side have the most pressure in the opposition half in the league and also the lowest xg of chances for the opposition. If he can get us there we’ll be in a better place than we have been. Cautiously optimistic.

Yep. My bad! Ignore Armstrong behind the front two

From what I’ve read Jones ’success has come from a 3 at the back with wing back/wingers and a diamond. I think it could suit us as the holding midfielder doesn’t press and just sits. Less chance of getting torn through as we have done with Hassenhuttl. I’d anticipate we might see Bazunu ABK. DCC. Salisu KWP. Perraud Maitland Niles JWP. Lavia Armstrong Adams. Armstrong Dont know if these have been posted already but here they are just in case: https://totalfootballanalysis.com/team-analysis/luton-town-2021-22-nathan-jones-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics https://themastermindsite.com/2022/04/29/nathan-jones-luton-town-tactical-analysis/

This place is a touch ridiculous. Every match we get ‘wtf is this lineup’ ‘Walcott/Armstrong/Elyonoussi what have they done to get a start’ ‘sick of these line ups’. This is the squad we have. The transfer window is shut. Who the hell are you expecting him to pick? But does it even matter when you’ll complain either way? Pretty sure this is a 4222. Hope he’s going to emulate the game against them where Ralph ‘set traps’ for the press. St Maximan on the bench is a small blessing to start. 2-1

Was having a look at our xg for the season, to see if it was in any way enlightening ahead of tomorrow. The only attacking players performing at their xg are Aribo (barely at 0.03 over) and Armstrong (stu). Prowsey and Lavia are also both around their xg but they’re not really our attacking threat. Adams and Elyo both underperforming by a goal (0.95 and 1.2 under), interestingly ABK is too. Adam Armstrong is 0.03 under which is sod all. Didn’t tell me much I didn’t suspect. Adams due more goals than he scores, Elyo is a waste of attack and everyone else is bang average because we don’t create a ton. Enlightening post I know.

Maybe there’s a lesson in that

Bazunu KWP?/Lyanco. DCC. Salisu Perraud Lavia. AMN Aribo. JWP. SA/AA Adams Im not convinced he’ll risk Lavia from the off so could be a 343 with Elyo at right wing back, JWP instead of Lavia and the same front 3. We need to show up and play for the whole game. I don’t expect us to be attacking and dominating but at least don’t be so Jekyll and Hyde. 1-1

Our three centre backs are constantly spread so wide that when palace break we’re more open than when we used to play 4222. We’re too easy to play through

We need to start taking this niggle and turn it into something a bit more progressive. We’re not losing but we’re offering very little except tight marking and tough tackling.

I reckon we’ll see more of Edozie after the World Cup. Same with Mara. Ralph will want that time to go through the play book and pressing system so he knows he can trust them in the 4222.

Baz Lyanco - DCC - Salisu Elyo - SArmstrong - JWP - Diallo - Perraud Che - AA Happy for us not to lose this and to stay on an unbeaten run. 1-1

Absolutely woeful start to the game. Runners waltzing through with ease, shape is all wrong, sloppy passing all around and Elyo and Aribo pretty much absent. We’re going to get hammered

Tired? 541 in defence, 343 in attack and we’ll play more on the counter I suspect.

Bazunu DCC. Lyanco. Salisu. Djenepo Perraud JWP SArmstrong Diallo Adams AArmstrong

I was interested to see that the bbc says Marsch is now under pressure and being booed by his own fans. What do football fans expect of their teams? There seems to be a real lack of realism surrounding the premier league, in my opinion. Everyone expects wins, entertainment and to be ‘best of the rest’ or it’s a bust and the manager has to go. There’s only 6 teams who count, and maybe Newcastle will make that 7. Everton have shown that spending wildly doesn’t work but that seems to be part of the expectation too. Im sure Silva won’t get long at Fulham if things turn and maybe even Howe will be gone for a glamour name at some point.

Happy to see that we’re at least trying to play out more from the back, even if it’s a bit rusty. Have to do better than the west ham game and seem to be working on it. Bournemouth doing a lot of work off the ball which I hope bodes well for them collapsing second half. Im not confident but feeling slightly positive off the back of that.

--------Bazunu------- KWP-DCC-Salisu-Perraud -----JWP---AMN------- Walcott--Aribo---A.Armstrong --------Adams---------- I think we’ll line up like this. Have a feeling we won’t lose. The issue will be that I don’t want us to drop points nor do I want us to go behind. 2-0 Saints. Early goal from Che, another before half time. Hang on.

Thought I’d wait a while before posting. The first half was good. We used the ball well enough, although I feel as though we were still far, far too negative. Too many balls went backwards and slowed us down when trying a killer pass or adventurous ball looked on. With the ball we played a 4231 but without we looked 4141. I thought it was a good way to play. Adams was enjoying the half but, as always, couldn’t finish. Second half was just like the old days. Clearly desperate for a positive result and so got too deep and lost all purpose. Aribo was a passenger and needed replacing much earlier than he was. The proposed Lyanco change needed to happen sooner and 4 attacking subs, whilst positive and pleasant to see, did nothing to stem the tide. Che needed help up top to get us out, instead we took him off. I don’t understand why, when we’re winning, we can’t keep attacking and recycling the ball the way we do at 0-0 (or when losing). That’s down the coaches and manager. I’ve been Ralph in for so long but posted in the other thread that I’m done. Going 1-0 up, dominating the half, then bottling it and throwing away points isn’t good enough anymore. We’re sliding and look more panicked than ever for a result. I can only assume he’s got these three games because they’re in quick succession. If we don’t take 4 or 6 points from here he’s got to be done.

That, to me, looks like a team that’s out to start as 4222, pray they score, then 4231 and hang on

I didn’t realize until I looked, moments ago, that palace play Leicester and forest play wolves. With Everton away to Spurs this really has to be maximum points for us. Chance to move away from at least some of those behind us and gain on the ones slightly ahead. Suddenly tomorrow seems way, way more crucial than I had thought

Bazunu KWP ABK DCC Perraud JWP AMN Aribo Stu A Armstrong Adams As others have said, have to exploit the fact they’re playing Thursday. They can qualify with a win so I don’t think they’ll go fully lightweight. Press and attack with some vigor. I saw a match report (guardian?) saying that Ralph was upset with the sideways and backwards passing, hopefully he’s dealt with that during training. Relentlessly optimistic so going 2-0 Saints. Early goal and a late one.

Play 4231. Let S Armstrong play as an actual 10 instead of a Ralph 10, get two wide men alongside him and allow the full backs to overlap and overload, when sensible, instead of be our only width because the 10s are narrow. That way, should we get caught out, somebody is supporting the centre backs instead of us being wide open.

I posted a link in the new manager thread about his tactics. I thought it was an interesting insight. Made schalke hard to beat by using a low press in some games but a high press in others. Would hopefully only require some tweaking of the current tactics (I know we don’t really play the press at the moment) and his 3 at the back with wing backs may suit our squad better.