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Aren't we all delighted?

Stelios

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So if he is doing all what you reckon in the first line how is he offering a goal threat when he always at least twenty yards away from the goal? Yesterday there were at least two if not three balls that went flying across the box in the first 15 minutes that had missed out Bowman attacking the near post where we should have had somebody coming in at the back post but Lee Martin was nowhere to be seen. It's simply where he should have been and if we had a proper striker playing that's where they would have been. We would have been two or three up inside 15 minutes and it would have been goodnight Vienna for Village Green Rovers. City can then relax and play some nice football instead of having to dig deep and play ugly and leave the opposition still in with a fighting chance. It's cost us against Crewe last week. It cost us against Newport. It cost us against Swindon. It cost us against Orient. Not putting teams to bed when we are dominating because we haven't got the bodies in the box because half of our strikeforce is playing twenty yards behind where he needs to be.
This is my interpretation of the situation too.

I'm not Martin bashing. I think he his tremendous but I do understand what you're getting at. We have to convert chances/dominance. But we can't do that if we don't have the players in to box to do so. If we fizz balls across and into the box but no one is there to get on the end of it then it's going to be a long season.

But, as mentioned. If Law had scored his chances I probably wouldn't have put any thought into it this morning.
 

grecIAN Harris

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Then we get back to the conundrum of fitting Ajose into the side and having to drop a midfielder. And if Atangana plays too we'd have to drop a 2nd midfielder. Show me your team with Ajose and Atangana in the team
There is so much that doesn't add up to Ed's suggestion. We play with three centre halves, two wing backs (as such). Three central midfielders. Lee Martin doing whatever he is doing in Ed's mind and Bowman up front. In effect, we've got six in midfield. Total overkill or Ed is very wrong and Martin is up front but twenty yards out of position all of the time.
To answer your question, the first part is very easy...… Ajose for Martin. In midfield I'd put Atangana in for Taylor simply because generally Collins is better on the ball than Taylor. However, I'd go further and drop Williams, who still doesn't deliver enough for my liking (he still kills 90% of any pace in attack by having to chop back on his left before crossing), for Richardson. The only way I'd play Williams is to put him on his natural left side
(where he could cross whilst maintaining the pace of the attack)
instead of Sparkes.
 

grecIAN Harris

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This is my interpretation of the situation too.

I'm not Martin bashing. I think he his tremendous but I do understand what you're getting at. We have to convert chances/dominance. But we can't do that if we don't have the players in to box to do so. If we fizz balls across and into the box but no one is there to get on the end of it then it's going to be a long season.

But, as mentioned. If Law had scored his chances I probably wouldn't have put any thought into it this morning.
I'm not Martin bashing, as I've said enough times in the right position I think he is really effective. I blame Taylor. He's the one picking the side. He's the one bemoaning the fact we aren't killing teams off and he's the one doing nothing to change it.
 

The Proper Chap

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But we can't do that if we don't have the players in to box to do so. If we fizz balls across and into the box but no one is there to get on the end of it then it's going to be a long season.
I've actually thought the opposite this season, I think we are getting plenty of players into the box with the likes of Bowman, Martin, Law, Williams and Taylor often attacking the penalty box, that is one of the aspects that has really pleased me this season.

We are creating plenty of chances, chances that players are in position to take, we just haven't been clinical enough.
 

IndoMike

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There is so much that doesn't add up to Ed's suggestion. We play with three centre halves, two wing backs (as such). Three central midfielders. Lee Martin doing whatever he is doing in Ed's mind and Bowman up front. In effect, we've got six in midfield. Total overkill or Ed is very wrong and Martin is up front but twenty yards out of position all of the time.
To answer your question, the first part is very easy...… Ajose for Martin. In midfield I'd put Atangana in for Taylor simply because generally Collins is better on the ball than Taylor. However, I'd go further and drop Williams, who still doesn't deliver enough for my liking (he still kills 90% of any pace in attack by having to chop back on his left before crossing), for Richardson. The only way I'd play Williams is to put him on his natural left side
(where he could cross whilst maintaining the pace of the attack)
instead of Sparkes.
Who's this Ed bloke to whom you keep referring?
 

The Proper Chap

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Here is a stat, if Bowman, Law and Lee Martin continue in the same vein they will end the season with the following number of league goals:

Bowman - 17 - 18

Lee Martin - 14

Law - 14

I don't think this will happen however that is the ratio they are currently on.

Pretty impressive isn't it.

Anyway that is it for me today, have a good Sunday.
 

IndoMike

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If Ajose plays Martin drops out, if Atangana plays Collins drops out, they would have to come in and perform well though, the formation is similar, the only difference is Ajose plays up with Bowman and not in the deeper free role Martin currently occupies.

Good competition for places.
I agree that those would probably be the changes that Taylor would make and I agree it's a nice problem to have.
 

malcolms

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My original post was a simple one...I'm happy that we now have a manager who I believe is working his hardest to make us better. No more agenda, no more unacceptable arrogance and the fact that we are top of the league makes it all the better. Is he perfect, of course not, could we makes more of our chances, of course we could. However, supporting the club is now a pleasure again rather than the sour experience it had become...
 

grecIAN Harris

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Who's this Ed bloke to whom you keep referring?
Edwin Price whose post I was replying to when you quoted me first.
 
Last edited:

edwin_price

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I actually think if Ed is actually correct, but I still don't think he is, then Matt really needs to look at what he doing before barking about not putting teams away and we all better get used to living on our fingernails and ruing dropped points in a manner as per those I mentioned earlier because that is exactly what will happen for the majority of the season if we continue playing the way we are. We'll get blips like we did against Grimsby and we'll get spikes like we did at Carlisle but in the main we'll be clinging on to victories and bemoaning dropped points all for the sake of one positional change that will have little effect on the overall solidity of the side.
As for the last line of your post, how can the overall result not be any better if we score more goals out of it? We've blitzed most every side in the same manner as we did in the first 15 minutes yesterday. If we're actually putting chances away instead of not having anybody there to put the chances away, how can it be worse?
Why not just play with 11 strikers? They'll be banging them in. It also won't effect how many we concede... They're up front, so nothing to do with the defence.
 
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