v Southampton (h) - 25/10/25

[Dreams of 1995]

1 hour ago, joey_big_nose said:

A few positives on reflection...

1) Toth is very very good. 

2) Really liked the look of Montgomery. A bit confused why we havent used him more tbh. Has the energy the team needs and a bit of quality. We are flogging Tronstad and TGH senseless, so very welcome to have someone who looks like they can play a part (unlike Tavares or Baradji)

3) Henrickson is physically imposing, and I can see him giving us legs and restoring the press in the final third of games. This is a big issue due to how we fatigued. He and Montgomery made a big difference to our energy levels.

4) I know they have had their cards marked by many, but De Neve and then Hedges coming on both look like they will generate a lot of opportunities down the left. Alebiouso we know will do that down the right. Also De Neve and Alebiouso have real recovery pace, which massively helps our 3 quite slow cbs. Both can catch wingers 5 yards behind them.

That said a few major areas of concern

1) Strikers are really blunt. Ive no issue with Ohashi whose work rate is stunning and makes some great runs. But his partner needs to offer more whoever it is. Glad Andri got a goal and hope he kicks on. But as it stands I dont think we have a striker on our books who any defender would really worry about.

2) Because our threat and finishing up top is so poor we commit more and more players forward to get a goal and leave ourselves very exposed. We were lucky Armstrong couldn't finish as we would have been dead and buried at 2-0 imo.

3) Defensively we look like we have loads of individual errors in us. Eustace ironed that out of us, but its come back massively. I guess losing Baath and Hyam has had a big impact. Individually I like Miller, Wharton, McCloughlin - all physical, committed, can come out of defence into midfield reasonably well. But as a unit its hard to imagine them not making three or four mistakes a game between them. And to compound that they lack the pace to recover from mistakes.

Ultimately if we had one genuinely good striker at this level we would be in a much better position imo as we wouldnt commit so much forward. But we dont...

I agree with most of this. I do think Gudjohnsen is getting a bit of disservice at present. The service to our strikers has not been the best. The chances we have are good, but usually that final ball is less than perfect, which has meant we have missed out

[Polky]

 

[DE.]

You see the difference in Gudjohnsen when he gains confidence during a match - it's like a switch flicks and he's a different player. Hopefully as he becomes more settled at the club we'll see that consistently across matches as opposed to short bursts.

Whilst as it stands I still I don't consider De Neve to be up to standard, I will say that he has the footballing intelligence that a player like Kargbo lacks. He generally understands when to run and what position to be in to receive dangerous passes. That will cause some problems for the opposition, even though much of it will be squandered for numerous reasons. Hedges has had years to show he's anything above average and has never come close to doing so outside of the occasional match here and there. Don't think that's a case of 'card marked' as much as the reality of what he's capable of on a regular basis.

[rigger]

25 minutes ago, Polky said:

 

The people in charge at the Rovers, will not know what you mean.

[joey_big_nose]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Hedges has had years to show he's anything above average and has never come close to doing so outside of the occasional match here and there. Don't think that's a case of 'card marked' as much as the reality of what he's capable of on a regular basis.

On Hedges I would say is we are quite a radically different system now where he is playing a very different role (as a wing back with two strikers up top) so not sure how useful referring back to previous seasons performances is really.

I quite like Hedges offensively in the new system, it suits him. He's better combining with players than trying to beat someone on his own, and the way we are setup hes got a lot to work with.

But defensively we do need the wing backs to get back quickly when we lose possession which De Neve and Alebiouso are brilliant at. Hedges i dont think really has the engine for it. 

[Dreams of 1995]

Our entire game plan is very dependant on players having marathon engines. We are left so exposed out wide that unless they have legs like Alebiouso they are sitting ducks

The manager has form for this. During his time at Baggies he came unstuck because he often just circumvents the need for a midfield. Some of the games, particularly during the later moments, become tennis like. I don't think he will ever get to the solid state Eustace had us; mainly because he doesn't look like he has a clue on how to restrict teams. We can be passed through with ease. We can be countered even easier. Ismael's defensive coaching seems to be to rely on the ability of the defenders to simply defend. I very much doubt there is a plan in place on how to not leave Wharton, McLoughlin or Miller as exposed as we have seen them this season