Having slept on the performance I’ll add a bit more to my views, FWIW.When I saw the side it was no great surprise to me given the number of injuries we have, especially looking at the subs bench. I saw the speculation in the early part of the thread about Bishop playing as a No9 & thought ‘surely not’. I was amazed when he actually started playing in that position. The whole team structure looked completely unbalanced & I seriously expected a total walloping. It was more like a pre-season game for the first half hour. Bridcutt was all over the place trying to fill too many gaps and as a result failed to protect the back four like he normally does. The midfield was totally over-run. The whole balance of the team looked wrong and the players looked as though they lacked confidence in each other and didn’t know each other. At least MA got them sorted a little bit and we went in at HT still in the game, score-wise. Second half we had a much better structure with Adelukan playing the No9 role and, more importantly, Bishop back in midfield where he belonged. I’m sure Oxford eased off a little, but still, at least we caused them some problems and looked genuinely threatening at times. Fiorini looks about ready for a start in place of McGrandles, who, although a little better, just still isn’t up to last season’s level of performance. Always going to be a tough game and we got what we deserved.
Now, the wider picture is something I feel strongly about. It was brilliant to get to the PO Final but I have held the view from the early days of the POs that they are unnecessary and put a strain on the clubs, especially those that reach the final. Not only because of extending the season for the players, not helping the injury situation by reducing their break time and potential time for operations, recovery, etc, but for the clubs’ recruitment process. Those not involved in the POs get a headstart on recruitment while the PO Final teams (& potential players to be signed) have to pause because they don’t know what league the club are going to be in with all the ramifications of that - level of player, wages, etc). LCFC’s close season was severely affected by being one of those finalists for those reasons. It hasn’t helped that several of the players we‘ve signed are below fitness levels or recovering from injury. As a result we’ve had a severely disrupted pre-season and are still nowhere near where we should be in terms of squad readiness for the season. MA’s health situation didn’t help (& thank goodness he’s come through it OK
).
I hope that all those who are already doubting our season will take a step back having read this and put it all into context. Yes, we’ve had a poor start to the season but I for one fully expected a slow and disjointed start. I am not expecting us to start playing well and picking up results until at least mid to late September, possibly even a little later depending on the fitness of some players. In the meantime it is important that we stick behind the team through tough times and be patient. It will come good in a month or so, in my opinion. Up the Imps
