Tank_Owl2,0

1 hour ago, Reesh said:

Fuck helping Derby out in any way, shape or form.

And the same goes for fecking Mansfield.

I’m assuming Poveda won’t be able to play against L**ds?

But they got a new striker from the US so they’ll be ok, oh wait 

1 hour ago, holmesfield_owl said:

Go on, I'll say it. Well done and many thanks for yet another winning match thread Holmesfield. You're welcome 😁

Or was it the new shirt sponsor! 😃

2 hours ago, Reesh said:

Good call....

BTC and Gassama did very little for me tonight, although to be fair to Bailey he got absolutely no service.
Ugbo was good and made some good runs and took up some good positions, he was unlucky not to get 3 goals. The tacticians will know if it’s better to have Ugbo as the centre forward instead of playing down the right of a 3 but maybe.

I’d have Poveda playing behind Ugbo and then either Musaba or Gassam as the other striker because of their pace and trickery. Mussaba wasn’t on long but was better of the two tonight.

My team for the Foxes would be
Beadle

Pol Bernard Famewo Johnson

Vaulks

Diaby Bannan

Poveda

Ugbo Mussaba

56 minutes ago, Bob Petrie said:

January transfer window paying off - solid performances from Ugbo, Poveda and Beadle. 

But the Chairman has chosen all the January signings, so they can’t be any good, right?!
 

Good performances by the majority of players, but I thought Gassama wasn’t as good as he has been and left MJ too exposed, which was how they got in quite a bit in the 1st half.

Fair dos to Beadle much more confident looking tonight. I like the look of Poveda but he’s clearly lacking some fitness, but he could definitely be an asset once we get him fully fit. I feel for Ugbo not to get MoM, we don’t get many players scoring 2 in a game these days, so not to get MoM.

I hope I’ll be eating humble pie later, but there’s no guile in that top 4. Yes lots of running and energy but poor decision making is what is limiting our goal scoring.

Isn’t the rumour that MJ and JW are “injured” cos they have got the monk on for not getting their moves away?

Grim reading MK.
 

If DR is going to get us out of this which was always going to be a huge challenge he need to get the player believing it. I'll bet not many of them think it’s possible right now after last weekend. 

Caught a few minutes of FB last night when I was in the car (I know I’ve only myself to blame) but they were whipping things up about how the club should be explaining the approach to paying for the early bird season tickets. Talk about needy, even if it a bit of a pain.

Would it be wrong to turn up at the next meeting to hand out leaflets protesting at their protest?

I want us to win every game but if effectively forfeiting tonight’s games win means we win Friday I’d snap your hand off.

Unfortunately we know football doesn’t work like that. Invariably it kicks you in the balls when you are down.

If nothing else playing those that haven’t featured could demonstrate why. Bear in mind Cov lost at the weekend, away to Norwich which is no disgrace but I suspet they’ll want a reaction so could and most probably will be a long night for whoever plays.

On 04/02/2024 at 09:04, mkowl said:

It's the first test of his Wednesday career really. Post Munez then it was a free hit, he had to get us organised, get the players and the fans as well to believe, pick up points and narrow the gap.

Tick job done 

However he is still working with a poor squad of players. Then the transfer window comes, represents both an opportunity and a threat.

The threat is players seek to leave or are told could leave.

The fans expectations increase

The players you know should make a difference don't cross the line to sign

This is not in anyway a suggestion he isn't good enough. But it's a big moment for him. There was the picture of him looking forlorn at the end. You can interpret that to suit your agenda, but for me it was a bit of self critical reflection. 

There is zero certainty in football and there are many valid arguments against my next point. But if there was a guarantee Rohl stays, if there was a guarantee that Chansiri would stick with him and funding then I would take a drop to League 1 and start the planning process now.

I think we would return a whole lot stronger and better prepared for the Championship if we did

It’ll be interesting to see how he handles the Birmingham game, ie does he change much in how he approaches it because as you say it’s a big knock to the expectations that we were closing in on a place above the relegation zone. In other words will he keep the Bannan / Palmer midfield duo and the young lads either side.

If Birmingham score first it’s possible the fans in the stadium could start to turn, knowing what a class act we have in some areas.

13 hours ago, Tylluan said:

Personally I don't think Rohl or Beadle were expecting such a quick transition into the starting 11 but Dawson's injury has forced that. You look at his performances for Oxford (where he could still win their young player of the year award) and you see a confident and commanding keeper. 

But he'd had time with Oxford's fairly settled defence and they set up differently to us so he has to get used to the tempo of the Championship and our style of defence.

I thought he marshalled his defence well against Watford without having much to do and I'm not going to start picking his performance apart yesterday where the 10 players in front of him more or less capitulated after the first goal went in. 

He also had to deal with a complete change around in his back 4. Only Pol was in the same position as Wednesday night. Bernard was moved left to make way for Ihiekwe and Pederson was brand new. Goes back to the earlier point about Oxford's more settled defence. 

He might not be any better than Dawson but Dawson's not available and Charles wouldn't have done any better. I'll not pass judgement on him after one game with very little to do and another picking the ball out of the net 4 times where he's possibly only at fault for one. 

Fair comments. Let’s see how he develops and hopefully improves, given the changes in the defence etc won’t be helping.

My main question is his kicking and ability on the ball and yes it’s early days but so far he doesn’t seem to be much different to Dawson. As you point out it’s academic, if Dawson is injured as to whether he would have been thrown in straight away.

Ty what’s your impressions of Beadle so far, I’m intrigued as to whether what you have seen suggests he’s better than what we have let go, particularly what he gives us tactically playing out from the back.

I know the lads had a difficult start but he doesn’t strike me as being any better with his feet (he’s kicked the ball out of play at least as much as Dawson) and his positioning seems a little but questionable. I’m not particularly criticising him for the goals conceded except for the 4th yesterday.

 

5 hours ago, mkowl said:

It's the first test of his Wednesday career really. Post Munez then it was a free hit, he had to get us organised, get the players and the fans as well to believe, pick up points and narrow the gap.

Tick job done 

However he is still working with a poor squad of players. Then the transfer window comes, represents both an opportunity and a threat.

The threat is players seek to leave or are told could leave.

The fans expectations increase

The players you know should make a difference don't cross the line to sign

This is not in anyway a suggestion he isn't good enough. But it's a big moment for him. There was the picture of him looking forlorn at the end. You can interpret that to suit your agenda, but for me it was a bit of self critical reflection. 

There is zero certainty in football and there are many valid arguments against my next point. But if there was a guarantee Rohl stays, if there was a guarantee that Chansiri would stick with him and funding then I would take a drop to League 1 and start the planning process now.

I think we would return a whole lot stronger and better prepared for the Championship if we did

I agree with your sentiments MK. My concern is that as we all know and I’m sure Pompey, Ipswich etc fans will also confess, there are no guarantees of a quick return from L1, which I know you were saying. Its a league we’ve spent far too many seasons in during my time watching Wednesday, so I’m always concerned at thinking we should ever be /go there.

Given our lack of goals another try with Gregory up front has got to be worth a go, or even just as an impact player for the last 20mins, ie to match the energy of the opposition.

Whilst Smith can score a goal, he just looks like a cart horse lumbering about against any decent Championship defenders.

BTC and the other young lads look promising but have yet to get any sustained confidence in front of goal but do offer the penetration and pace that defences don’t like.

Fletcher, no comment. He’s just not at the races.

As others have said, DR is being positive and trying to win games, which is hard to knock but without a regular goal scorer the plan is going to struggle. Whilst Gregory hasn’t ever been prolific he does have that calmness to take chances, which fortunately we are creating. Worth another go, but I just can’t see DR trying it.

Lucas Joao is an interesting idea, but it would massively depend on his fitness and desire. He seemed to enjoy his time here, but how much would he be up for the fight.

Gayle is past his sell by date from what I saw the last time I saw him on TV, which is probably why Stoke have let him go.

Tough to take today, knowing what was hanging on it.

And there’s the thing, it’s not just losing, it’s the belief will be massively knocked. BB after Watford made that clear and you can’t deny it’s not only the players but the supporters belief will be rock bottom.

Its hard to see a way back from this, with the number of games left to play and the way our form has dipped.

As for the game, we were in it but our goal scoring is woeful and will be the reason we get relegated. I think DR is over compensating by playing too many flair players like Gassama and Musaba at once. I realise it’s hard when Windass is pant fit and Smith isn’t good enough but we are way too “open” in the middle when the both play and Palmer with Bannan isn’t the answer. I thought Vaulks was one our better players in the recent games when he played.

We are saying it every week now but a win in the next game is essential 

Yeah I know, I was just saying anyone having to travel that distance shouldn’t be paying £30 or whatever it’s going to be. I’d be suggest the same should true if we were going there. 
The EFL just don’t give a flying fuck about supporter having to travel hundreds of miles in the week, and even less if it’s not on a route you can get public transport.

And before any pedants say it’s not the EFL that set the ticket prices, I know but they should be trying to get clubs to have more consideration of the costs when travelling those distances during a tough time for many people 

You could always try and get in the home areas, I’m sure there will be plenty of spare seats.

T**ts.

To be fair those Plymouth fans that make that trip now should be let in for £5, it’s a hell of a trip in the week.

5 hours ago, Malcolm Darling said:

Just glad it's not the lovely Rebecca again

There’s still time😂

4 hours ago, holmesfield_owl said:

Going to be some really grim reading around 2030 onwards 🤣

On our present gradual declining trajectory you mean?

The analysis heartening but the unknown is who Huddersfield appoint.
Maybe so re getting better and addressing the shortfalls but we also just seemed to lose energy/ urgency in the 2nd half. Although that’s maybe down to Watford closing doors, but others will have taken note. We should also not lose sight that Watford are on their own decent-ish run. So, It was interesting to see how they seemed to want to shut up shop in the last 15mins.

Gassama is going to be important to us in the remaining games if he keeps improving like he is. To me he has overtaken BTC and Mussaba as the first name on the team sheet from an attacking perspective. I’m sure we’d all be happier if we had someone that was regularly scoring but Ugbonhas started to show promise.