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IIRC people were booing Potts not long ago.
Is Lowe evolving?
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Woodburn has ability but for whatever reason is incapable of making an impact at this level. Compare him with someone like Sedgwick who, whilst probably less gifted and certainly very limited, at least offered something worthwhile some of the time. Woodburn just floats through games like a puff of smoke and there’s no evidence that he has it in him to make a difference or even that he understands anything about how he could.
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1 goal & 2 assists in 1380 minutes of league football for us.
Mads 3 goals & 2 assists in 700 minutes of league football for us.
I think the Lowe comment about Woodburn is quite interesting. I mean, I've not seen him produce consistently or even in a handful of appearances for us, but he's clearly doing something behind the scenes that the manager likes.
I personally thought Wednesday was the best we've played this season under Lowe for the 90 minutes, along with the first 59 mins vs Leicester. Tactically disciplined, good game plan and on the whole got a lot right with the change of shape and a heavier press that for large parts of his tenure to date we simply haven't seen. And you've got to look at the opposition in Southampton too, they made space for us to play in that comes as a natural fault in their design, and utilising the pace of Millar and Osmajic second half alongside the engines of Browne/Potts.
Our problem is (and will continue to be) when teams come here and sit in a mid/low block and let us have the ball. Similar to his predecessor, Lowe's Preston are often better without the ball and then working opportunities by nicking the ball and playing with the space left behind. When teams let us have the ball and sit deep, we're not the most creative team and anyone with half a tactical brain would play deep against us and look to play on the counter with pace (which we're not blessed with especially on the left side of our defence)
That said, I think we've still got a fairly decent squad but the concern at LB/LWB without Hughes remains, apart from that, I think we've actually got a good team if he sticks to the 4231.
Play Offs? Still a pipedream for me at this stage and not forgetting, we're winless in the last 6.
Need to pick up wins before the end of this batch of games but I'm more optimistic by some of Lowe's tactical tweaks this campaign which just didn't happen last year.
McCann does look much better than Ledson, ( and is ) - but they both look Ever So Bad when they play together - and simply shouldn't - especially from the Counter - Attacking viewpoint as the ball simply goes back or sideways.
There's a trendy name for this idea of them both in the centre & this theory might work in other teams , with other players - but it doesn't work in this Team with both of them playing at the same time.
There's a trendy name for this idea of them both in the centre & this theory might work in other teams , with other players - but it doesn't work in this Team with both of them playing at the same time.
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Playing 2 deep midfielders can work. (Is double pivot the trendy name you wanted?) But you need outlets, or we end up just passing it between the back 7, because none of them can beat a man or get ahead of their man with pace for a pass.
Gallagher and Pearson, for instance, did very well in that role. For it to work for us, you need, at the very least, Millar to make runs into space, rather than Brady or Best who don't have that quickness.
Preferably, you need someone who can actually carry the ball deep in the middle too, Browne or Holmes for us. Ledson and Whiteman are both pretty static, and McCann, whilst more mobile, isn't really attack minded.
I think you’ve missed the point I’m making about Woodburn and I’m not comparing him to Mads at all
I was making the point that if he’s skied the shot Mads did in the first half or scored an own goal he would have gotten loads of shit on here.
People have been guilty of criticising players-( Lindsay as an example as HMS) , Potts etc and sometimes it’s way over the top and not justified.
I agree a better performance Wednesday but 3 points out of 18 is relegation form so we need to get this moving in the right direction very quickly. As good as Wednesday was having 32% possession isn’t going to work and when we play similar teams to us we just seem to struggle.
Very rarely will we play teams that keep the ball like Southampton, they have all the possession but do nothing with it, them and Swansea seem like the only two teams in the division that play that way, it won't be a regular occurrence.
Willing to give Woodburn a chance on Lowe's word, but we need to see regular performances like the one he pulled out against Rovers.
I'm sure many on here would be happy with a Pottsesque revival of Woodburn but there will also be many who would stay quiet mumbling angrily into their flat can of Carling rather than lose face.
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And neither should any fecker else.
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You really do make a habit of voicing reasonable observations and then making a complete idiot of yourself with comments like that.... Kindly give us all a weekend off from your fishing. Fanx. 🙂
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ONE fucking game in a season and a quarter, FFS he is utter shite, a shirker and stealing a living off PNE all thanks to his scouse mucker who through those terrible cameo appearances "earned" a new 2 year contract, he is worse than Bayliss.
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His Uncle Ryan doesn't think so..... Apparently Woody is outstanding in training and almost came on at half time on Wednesday but Lowe had an epiphany the other night and he went two up front instead.... 🤣
You think oh he's done well tonight our Ryan even though started 1 up top and left 3 forwards including the record signing on the bench. Then you hear his post match comments and he says was bringing Woody on instead of going 2 up top and you think ffs Ryan, just do the obvious and pretend you know what you're doing
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Good point but I'm trying to be fair H.... My biggest beef is not on this thread , it's that he doesn't seem to recognise how Mads can be utilised....
Wednesday was a vast improvement. Lets just wait and see if he can recognise why.
I know that you are telling me off and I've no problem with that. And no I haven't decided he's not talking bollocks, he's not the second coming and yes I still have serious doubts. But if we are to stiff him for shit performances then we should also applaud the decent ones. Even if it might have been an accident.
Time will tell .Ask me again at Christmas.
PS.... I suspect you'll be correct. 😉
A stopped clock is right two times a day!
Unless it’s a 24 hour clock, in which case it’s right once a day.
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If he puts a player on the front post and back post on corners like i have said before we would have had three points, not in the FA manual? always the case on playing Sunday league and LA league for 15 years or has the game moved on and not the cool thing to do and just crowd the keeper out with extra players in front of him rather than behind him covering his goal 😱
Agreed. All that-
"But it makes all their forwards onside"
.... is a rubbish argument.
Yes of course it does, but it's such a crowded place in that time-frame anyway, that it's simply so much more important to guard the post 'areas' than worry about whether or not the defence is putting the forwards on, or not.
"But it makes all their forwards onside"
.... is a rubbish argument.
Yes of course it does, but it's such a crowded place in that time-frame anyway, that it's simply so much more important to guard the post 'areas' than worry about whether or not the defence is putting the forwards on, or not.
‘Football is a simple game made complicated by those who should know better’.