What exactly does Stuart Gray mean here ?

[Arthur Bach]

He can buy as many guns as possible, but if you haven't got the bullets to fire then it's pointless.

[33]

Semedo hating again.

 

Been our best CM this season without Hutch in the team.

Not saying he is our best player, but has been outperforming Lee of late.

To say he should be 6th choice is a joke.

 

He is not an attacking midfielder or playmaker.

I get that, but he has done more of that in the last three games than anyone else.

Suppose it just shows how poor we are at that role.

 

You are being unfair on the guy.

[Ronio]

Semedo hating again.

 

Been our best CM this season without Hutch in the team.

Not saying he is our best player, but has been outperforming Lee of late.

To say he should be 6th choice is a joke.

 

He is not an attacking midfielder or playmaker.

I get that, but he has done more of that in the last three games than anyone else.

Suppose it just shows how poor we are at that role.

 

You are being unfair on the guy.

agree 100% 33.  Of all our centre mids, Semedo is number 1 for me at the moment.

[Beholder]

Semedo hating again.

 

Been our best CM this season without Hutch in the team.

Not saying he is our best player, but has been outperforming Lee of late.

To say he should be 6th choice is a joke.

 

He is not an attacking midfielder or playmaker.

I get that, but he has done more of that in the last three games than anyone else.

Suppose it just shows how poor we are at that role.

 

You are being unfair on the guy.

Not suggesting he should be 6th choice.

 

I think he should understudy Lee with the other midfield spot being taken up by someone else.

[gurujuan]

agree 100% 33.  Of all our centre mids, Semedo is number 1 for me at the moment.

Me too, him and Lee sitting, and three attacking midfielders in front and I believe we'll get back to winning ways. A bit concerned that in an attempt to justify May's fee, there will be a re-shuffle of the resources in a, probably futile attempt to kick start his scoring.

[DuncOwl]

I agree to an extent.

As a defensive unit we are very good. We defend as a team from the front.

The same is not true the other way round.

We are slow at moving the ball around into attacking positions and then the choices are poor in the final 3rd.

The reason for this? A midfield that is made up of players who's primary strength is to press and defend.

Pressing and defending should be a prerequisite for all players. Instead we end up playing defensive 'specialists' like Semedo who gets rid of the ball like a hot potato as soon as he is in possession.

Receiving the ball under pressure and being able to redistribute it in a manner that puts the opposition on their back foot is what we need to be doing. It won't happen with Semedo next to Lee.

We need to play one of the more technically gifted midfielder we have at the club.

How do you explain being 0-0 at home with less than a minute left and we get a free kick; an opportunity to get a last gasp win. But no; Gray keeps the centre halves back and gets them to punt it into the channels to waste time. The players are capable, Gray isn't.

[33]

Lee is a shadow of last season.

 

Maghoma has been a waste of space out wide other than 30-35 mins vs Derby.

TBF to him he looked pretty decent when switched to CM against Birmingham, after being shiite for best part of an hour out wide.

He has to be more consistent.

 

Palmer has ability and we all love him, but he makes the wrong decision too often and cannot at the moment be released from RB duty without Buxton.

If he was in there then Semedo would have to play with him given that Hutch is out and Lee not playing well.

 

Coke is enigmatic in that like Maghoma is inconsistent imo.

Played really well early doors and then goes missing for games at a time.

 

Thought Maguire operating more centrally against Norwich was interesting and he is imo our most creative player.

Too lightweight to play as a proper CM, again imo, and would prombly be in the book every game but it looked like it could have legs.

Personally I'd think about him playing the proper No.10 role although I suspect GTF may be here to help with that.

 

Think it is unfair for people to keep calling Semedo though.

[trevdi9]

we cant find the strikers and until that bit is fathomed out we will struggle,no service no goals ,defending from the front is all well and good but only gets draws as your forwards are all over the place instead of being where they should be ,but then if they are there we can't locate them with decent balls

[Beholder]

Me too, him and Lee sitting, and three attacking midfielders in front and I believe we'll get back to winning ways. A bit concerned that in an attempt to justify May's fee, there will be a re-shuffle of the resources in a, probably futile attempt to kick start his scoring.

And how is this any different from what we have already been doing?

 

 

We have to attack as a team.

 

 

If there are too many defenders in the team we become impotent.

 

It has to be one of Lee/ semedo. Not both.

[gurujuan]

We had a system that worked well, and would have got better still once the players got used to it. Now they don't seem to know what they are supposed to be doing. It seems we will continue to chop and change in an attempt to find our goalscoring touch. Why? For me, it's clear why we don't score many goals, and seem better at defending than going forward. Simply, we have less quality in the final third, considerably less. All we are doing by tampering, is reducing our effectiveness as a unit. It's the old maxim, always play to your strengths.

[Ronio]

And how is this any different from what we have already been doing?

 

 

We have to attack as a team.

 

 

If there are too many defenders in the team we become impotent.

 

It has to be one of Lee/ semedo. Not both.

I agree with a few points here Beholder. 

 

Sometimes we look at our centre mids and say they are not creative enough, which they aren't.  For me the way we set up in a 442, our creativity has to come from the wings, i.e. Maghoma and Maguire.  

 

Maguire is nowhere near the form he showed last season.  Maghoma doesn't seem comfortable out on the left wing.  If these 2 players could start scoring more often, along with our defenders for that matter, then as a team we could end up as a more creative unit yet still defensive at the same time.

[33]

Agree on that Steve, just the one.

 

at the moment I would say Semedo is playing better than Lee.

 

The attack as a team mantra is bob-on, but how many times do you see a break with a wide player and only one foooker in the box.

it is soul destroying.

 

We miss a certain energy in those situations often combined with a wring decision.

 

We have to find a way to play through the middle and stop relying on a break from wide positions that we can't support or humping it to someone that can't jump very high.

 

For me the Maguire/GTF/even Maghoma or Nuhiu between midfield/defence is the way forward, but stop lumping it up to them.

This is where Lee or Palmer could be of more benefit with good one-two play, but then you have another promble in that both of them can't finish, so then you are back to Coke.

 

poor old Stuart...!

[Arthur Bach]

So he plans to change the system around as we head in to an away game and Rotherham at home?

 

I fear the worst.

[DuncOwl]

because Gray hasnt got a tactical brain he has to rely on consistent performers like maguire, May, Nuhiu and semedo. You know exactly what they are going to do and he has to rely on that. He can't change anything because it's a guess. He doesn't have the faith to rely on his tactics, hence when he does change things, he soon reverts to type - run around like mad to prevent them from scoring. It's amateur and transparent and every manager has worked this out. We are incredibly easy to defend against and easy to pick off, and when our luck runs out, we get hammered; Watford springs to mind. With Kirkland in net against Norwich it could easily have been 4/5-0.

Fortunately Charlton have taken a dip in form, but I bet ten to a dozen that we don't attempt to capitalise on this and that we go there to prevent them from scoring. It's irvine all over again, but at least Irvine managed through tactics rather than sheer effort.

[Ronio]

because Gray hasnt got a tactical brain he has to rely on consistent performers like maguire, May, Nuhiu and semedo. You know exactly what they are going to do and he has to rely on that. He can't change anything because it's a guess. He doesn't have the faith to rely on his tactics, hence when he does change things, he soon reverts to type - run around like mad to prevent them from scoring. It's amateur and transparent and every manager has worked this out. We are incredibly easy to defend against and easy to pick off, and when our luck runs out, we get hammered; Watford springs to mind. With Kirkland in net against Norwich it could easily have been 4/5-0.

Fortunately Charlton have taken a dip in form, but I bet ten to a dozen that we don't attempt to capitalise on this and that we go there to prevent them from scoring. It's irvine all over again, but at least Irvine managed through tactics rather than sheer effort.

I disagree that Gray hasn't got a tactical brain.  

 

If Gray was clueless, I can bet you that we wouldn't have the best defensive record in the championship.  That is some achievement considering we were bottom of the league this time last year and constantly shipping in goals.  

 

Gray is the best manager we've had in while.

[DuncOwl]

So he plans to change the system around as we head in to an away game and Rotherham at home?

I fear the worst.

So do I. We won't win tomorrow, we'll get easily beaten on Tuesday, then the baby-blunts will play on the Hillsborough fear factor and it could be embarrassing.

[DuncOwl]

I disagree that Gray hasn't got a tactical brain.

If Gray was clueless, I can bet you that we wouldn't have the best defensive record in the championship. That is some achievement considering we were bottom of the league this time last year and constantly shipping in goals.

Gray is the best manager we've had in while.

He's the best coach we've had. He has one idea of how to play, but when it gets found out he doesn't know what to do. We lived off this last season and he saved us. This season we started well, but we've been found out and he has nothing to counter it.

It is easy to defend when you put 11 men behind the ball. If it wasn't for Westwood our defensive record wouldn't be the best in the league, and that isn't down to tactical brilliance, it's down to individual brilliance.

[Ronio]

He's the best coach we've had. He has one idea of how to play, but when it gets found out he doesn't know what to do. We lived off this last season and he saved us. This season we started well, but we've been found out and he has nothing to counter it.

It is easy to defend when you put 11 men behind the ball. If it wasn't for Westwood our defensive record wouldn't be the best in the league, and that isn't down to tactical brilliance, it's down to individual brilliance.

ye but defending from the front as a team surely comes from Gray's tactics.   Westwood is the last line of defense though.  We defend as a unit.  If Nuhiu didn't put in the extra graft up front, I'm sure we would have conceded more.  Take Semedo out of midfield, and we would have conceded more. Take Tom Lees out of defense and we would have conceded more.  We defend as a unit.  

 

Don't get me wrong, Westwood has been immense this season, without him we would probably be lower down the table.  But to state that other players have no impact on our defense is a bit ludicrous, surely?

[DuncOwl]

But because he doesn't know how to change things, he has to rely on nuhiu, semedo et al working their bits off, and then hope that Westwood has a stormer. Someone with some tactical nous would have some idea of how to mix it up, but Gray doesn't. If we don't get a lucky goal, then we won't win.

In all fairness, for the first 10 mins against Norwich I thought; hold on, I've been harsh on Gray, he's changed it and it's working. Then he panicked for no reason and went back to what was comfortable.

It almost appears that we will go for it for 10 minutes and then hope we can defend for the rest, ala Ipswich and milwall, but for 70 minutes against Norwich it was the most frustrating game time I've been to in a while. Why; because Gray played for a 0-0 draw. Anyone who says he didn't, wasn't there for the freekick in the last minute that was hit into the channels to waste time when we should've sent at least one centre half up and gone for a winner.

[Arctic Owl]

I've heard he's going to put all the squad numbers in a hat and get the tea lady to draw them out to fill random positions.