Match thread - AFC Wimbledon away (at Loftus Road) | Page 9 | Vital Football

Match thread - AFC Wimbledon away (at Loftus Road)

But why does it need the team to go a goal down and down to 9 men before they put a shift in and make an effort to show some urgency and get into the box? Even then they couldn't score
Another defeat to a poor side. I was thinking NC would be given to mid December, but more defeats like this in the next 3 matches and he may be gone before then.
 
bfcpete said:
But why does it need the team to go a goal down and down to 9 men before they put a shift in and make an effort to show some urgency and get into the box? Even then they couldn't score
Another defeat to a poor side. I was thinking NC would be given to mid December, but more defeats like this in the next 3 matches and he may be gone before then.
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I'm sticking to the magical 4 games Pete, and he has had 2 of them.
3pts out of the possible 6 and next up Burton, where we have never scored a goal and they drew 2-2 away at Posh last night.
It's not looking promising.
 
Stags just sacked their manager. Coughlan has the distinction of having the worst winning percentage of their managers in history. How does NC compare with Jose Riga ?
 
Bear1951 said:
Stags just sacked their manager. Coughlan has the distinction of having the worst winning percentage of their managers in history. How does NC compare with Jose Riga ?
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Riga 6.67% v Critchley 14.29%

At least NC was backed though... he needs results fast or he's a goner you have to think.
 
At least he hasn't lost the dressing room judging by the way the 9 men scrapped yesterday. I still think he will turn it around. Those who want him gone better behave or Big Fat Sam will return.
 
Bear1951 said:
At least he hasn't lost the dressing room judging by the way the 9 men scrapped yesterday. I still think he will turn it around. Those who want him gone better behave or Big Fat Sam will return.
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Yeah I don't think he's lost the dressing room either, but there is something fundamentally wrong and if he's going to turn it round he needs to do so quickly. He's lucky fans aren't in at the moment otherwise I think the majority would be calling for his head.

Like I said the other week, a big test for any manager is how you turn round a bad run and at the moment NC is really struggling to do that which is really concerning. We need a spark from somewhere.

I do think he's got it in him to be successful, but at the moment his (and the team's) weaknesses are substantially outweighing the positives in the one area that really matters - results.
 
I think the fight they showed with ten and then nine men might just be a natural reaction as professionals and human nature. Sense of injustice, something to fight for. Everything else gone out of the window. And obviously with the rate of red cards they'll be getting used to it.

Maybe a different story if you're 1-0 down and losing players again at, say, Peterborough away with a crowd in and when they're attacking you in waves and have the players to put the ball in the net and you fold like a pack of cards.

This set up to me since early in the summer when they started recruiting looks like it'd be better off finding a level in league two to me, along with the inexperienced coaches. But it looks an expensive set up at senior management level, which feels like where most of the money has gone into on all these job titles.
 
I'm old enough to remember us going 3-0 up in 12 minutes against Everton (August 22, 2020) And all of the starting XI that day (except Nottingham) are starters for us these days.
 
SaskPool said:
I'm old enough to remember us going 3-0 up in 12 minutes against Everton (August 22, 2020) And all of the starting XI that day (except Nottingham) are starters for us these days.
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Yeah we've definitely seen flashes mate - you can include leading a strong Liverpool at half time and keeping a clean sheet v Stoke as well.

The sobering thing for me is that after winning on Saturday we've then gone and shot ourselves in the foot big time just a few days later and undone anything good from the weekend. We just can't seem to string it together at the moment. I still think we're capable of stringing it together, but in the meantime the pressure is undoubtedly building from a decent proportion of the fanbase (rightly or wrongly).
 
AbelBFC said:
Yeah we've definitely seen flashes mate - you can include leading a strong Liverpool at half time and keeping a clean sheet v Stoke as well.

The sobering thing for me is that after winning on Saturday we've then gone and shot ourselves in the foot big time just a few days later and undone anything good from the weekend. We just can't seem to string it together at the moment. I still think we're capable of stringing it together, but in the meantime the pressure is undoubtedly building from a decent proportion of the fanbase (rightly or wrongly).
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I can't see us getting out of this division trying to play the Critchley way. He needs to give his head a wobble. It simply isn't working we are making the same mistakes over and over again. Iv lost count of the stray passes and the panic to regain the ball. We are over playing without progress most matches. I was proud of the performance last night though and I for one am looking forward to Saturday. I think if we play the way we left off, we will win.
 
In terms of actual effect, I don't really see what they're trying to do with the players retained and recruited so far if I'm honest. If I could, it would make it a bit easier.

It set off in pre-season as a Liverpool copy 4-1-2-3 'let them worry about us' type of thing. But that looked naive as it was with only one proper midfielder and two sort of right winger types in front. A false 9-ish, but with a player who hasn't even mastered becoming a proper 9 yet in order to become a false one through the middle, and two wide wingers rather than strikers playing out wide.

Lots of one man in behind the striker types brought in, but they haven't been playing that way until the last two games with the switch to the 4-2-3-1. Which was more obvious last night at the start than on Saturday as it was with two proper sitting midfielders for the first time. But is that just a reaction to an opposition five man midfield and now they'll revert back? At which point why will they have up to five players in Antwi/Dougall/Robson/Virtue/Williams (and seemingly throw Ward into the mix too) competing for one role?

The attempt at a quick passing high press game in the early matches seems to have rendered them bolloxed by half time/60 mins and unable put two halves together so it's gradually become slow and rigid. But it's still making the likes of Ekpiteta look like a horse trying to jump on a beachball when in possession.

Some of the unfit signings grabbed at the towards end of the window that haven't got a sniff yet but now might just be thrown into it anyway with the red card count rising. Unless they bring back Husband at left centre half just to end up getting targeted on the ball over the top/high line and sent off again.

Lots of little things really and none of it looks good for finding a way forward yet. Best chance could end up being if there's a clear the air in the dressing room and the players start laying the law down? Sometimes it can help.

It must be a tough gig for everyone involved in football with no crowds and no end in sight to that, but they're going to have to find their own motivation and spark from somewhere.
 
AbelBFC said:
Riga 6.67% v Critchley 14.29%

At least NC was backed though... he needs results fast or he's a goner you have to think.
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I think Riga got away scott free from the fans because of KOKO.
For him to put us in the position of being unable to fill the team sheet for the opening game was down to him being some part of the problem.
 
AbelBFC said:
Riga 6.67% v Critchley 14.29%

At least NC was backed though... he needs results fast or he's a goner you have to think.
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let’s hope we lose the next couple then to give us half a chance this season
 
tangerinetomo said:
let’s hope we lose the next couple then to give us half a chance this season
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poolfc said:
I think the fight they showed with ten and then nine men might just be a natural reaction as professionals and human nature. Sense of injustice, something to fight for. Everything else gone out of the window. And obviously with the rate of red cards they'll be getting used to it.

Maybe a different story if you're 1-0 down and losing players again at, say, Peterborough away with a crowd in and when they're attacking you in waves and have the players to put the ball in the net and you fold like a pack of cards.

This set up to me since early in the summer when they started recruiting looks like it'd be better off finding a level in league two to me, along with the inexperienced coaches. But it looks an expensive set up at senior management level, which feels like where most of the money has gone into on all these job titles.
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Koko will be laughing is head off.
 
I think NC is trying to adapt there were far more long balls in the last couple of games as an example. I think that Yates will find the back of the goal and things will improve. I am not convinced the system suits the players and he needs to remember they are 3/4 div players not the riches of drilled Prem players in waiting. We have two full backs or any combination of full backs that can't defend, what has happened to Turton. The only way I can see the problems at the back improving is to play three plus wing backs but then we make problems elsewhere

The defence will be all change again, I assume the Viking will now play Saturday how many games have we played the same defence?
 
Hastings said:
I think NC is trying to adapt there were far more long balls in the last couple of games as an example. I think that Yates will find the back of the goal and things will improve. I am not convinced the system suits the players and he needs to remember they are 3/4 div players not the riches of drilled Prem players in waiting. We have two full backs or any combination of full backs that can't defend, what has happened to Turton. The only way I can see the problems at the back improving is to play three plus wing backs but then we make problems elsewhere

The defence will be all change again, I assume the Viking will now play Saturday how many games have we played the same defence?
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Crazy amount of changes. Instability all round Hasty.
 
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