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DJ getting it right at last?


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I thought our best players on Friday were Barkley and Bothroyd

Both players unfairly written off by a large percentage of Owlstalkers.

Is Barkley still with us - not see anything on here or official website. Maybe it happens today but Moyes was at the match on Friday. Must have heard how good the pies were..

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Liera, in my humble opinion, was not anything like the villain that he was painted to be by the TV coverage.

Essentially this boiled down to two events, both in the first half:

- The Michael Brown event was one where Liera could have got into trouble, but if he had suffered any worse trouble than Brown it would have been a travesty. Brown didn't fancy tracking the big centre half and potentially having to deal with an aerial ball where he would have come off worse so when Liera started his run Brown grabbed him to stop the run. Then repeat previous action. At the third attempt when Brown did this again Liera became frustrated and pushed out - which resulted in his arm coming into contact with Brown's face. He didn't elbow him, or give him a forearm smash, but he did raise his hands and that was a mistake - but Brown was clearly the aggressor in the confrontation and Liera's mistake was in allowing him to wind him up enough to take a risk. Then Brown went to ground like a sack of ... wait a minute I don't want to misuse a cliche (you get my point)

- The Becchio event was a forward losing the ball, falling forward and a defender lifting his arms to protect himself from any impact from Beccio's fall. I was amazed that anyone on TV - much less an ex-pro like Beagrie (he wouldn't have any axe to grind here, would he?) - would make any issue of this. It happens all the time in Sunday football, where over-reactions are not exactly unknown, and passes by without incident because both parties understand what has happened is nothing sinister.

I agree that Liera and COG were very impressive. My only worry with COG is that we need more goal threat alongside him - his contribution is mainly in other vital areas, particularly in enabling us to keep hold of the ball at times when we need time for support to arrive, and in a 4-5-1 formation we need to get others up and around him who can score more than the team on Friday seem capable of doing. I also worry about hasty, panicky clearances: but on the whole a great performance and one I thoroughly enjoyed (from what I observed of the players on the pitch).

very accurate assessment, i think some of the panicky clearances were from l**ds shutting us down high up the field (as you'd expect from a warnock side, and one up against a side whose confidence is low)...

one thing that i've seen clearly in this division from both bolton and l**ds is when the ball is in the air, the opposition player physically makes a strong contact with our player, and remains in contact until the ball arrives (without actually trying himself to head the ball), it puts off OUR man, who the 90% of the time miscues his headed clearance, and it appears to me the refs at this level allow this...

we need to wise up, and get a 'lil cuter...

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How did it compare to Brum and Miwaaw? I missed those 2 games.

We were better against Leeds than we were against Milwall thats for sure, funny old game though, against Milwall we won a game that we should have drawn/lost, and against Leeds we drew a game we should have won.

2 points dropped in my opinion, but the performance was very encouraging.

Edited by leea8331
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Well done to Dave, he really got it right, but in all honesty this same set up was touted out on here, on Owlstalk weeks ago.

Yeah anyone suggesting such a thing was accused of hankering for a return to the dark days of long ball ("hoofball") or the classic "it's not football manager" all for suggesting an extra man in midfield (which seemed reasonable considering we were conceding 2/3 goals per game and given the players currently at our disposal).

It's good to see that DJ is showing he can be a flexible manager and not just stuck to one method of play. I still think we can play a 4-4-2 but maybe we don't have the right personnel at the mo. Last year with Treacy on the left we looked much more balanced but without him we have been going in with two out and out (and right footed) wingers (JJ, Antonio) in what could be described as more of a 4-2-4 leaving us unbalanced and exposed down the flanks when we don't have the ball. Also Barkley seems more suited operating in a 3 man central midfield rather than as part of a two.

I also liked the way the two wide players Antonio, Bothroyd and CF, COG, we able to interchange positions. If Antonio had made one of his lung busting forward runs, COG would then drop into the wide position giving Antonio a bit of a breather up front and at the same time covering left midfield. Having said all that, regardless of the formation, the players have still got to play well and they certainly did on Friday night.

Edited by York_Owl
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It's good to see that DJ is showing he can be a flexible manager and not just stuck to one method of play. I still think we can play a 4-4-2 but maybe we don't have the right personnel at the mo. Last year with Treacy on the left we looked much more balanced but without him we have been going in with two out and out (and right footed) wingers (JJ, Antonio) in what could be described as more of a 4-2-4 leaving us unbalanced and exposed down the flanks when we don't have the ball. Also Barkley seems more suited operating in a 3 man central midfield rather than as part of a two.

I also liked the way the two wide players Antonio, Bothroyd and CF, COG, we able to interchange positions. If Antonio had made one of his lung busting forward runs, COG would then drop into the wide position giving Antonio a bit of a breather up front and at the same time covering left midfield. Having said all that, regardless of the formation, the players have still got to play well and they certainly did on Friday night.

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that's better mate :biggrin:

I thought we have been nursing this lad for his first few games but now there were flashes that the Barkley experiment might pay off in a big way, it's a time, confidence & commitment equation

Time - will he be allowed to stay - I month at a time was far from ideal but that's the term of such deals

Confidence - Can an18yr old start to impose his talent on game he has so much expectation from both sides of the Pennines it must be hard.

Commitment - Does he buy into this himself and can he do it on a wet windy away game when Moyes & Sky aren't there

i suppose it's my thoughts on the loan thing I'm not sure whether in the long run it's a good thing, (unless of course he becomes amazing and propels us to promotion) As there is absolutely no chance we can keep him it will end up in a vacuum when he leaves Corry and McCabe are our real future

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Guest arobert

Pretty much everyone would I think agree that Friday was a far better performance but to bring some objectivity to it we still only have 9 points from 11 games.

Defeats at Blackburn and Ipswich would leave us in an untenable position of 9 points from 13 games.

We also have the huge handicap this season of some very poor summer purchases.

Three forward players in Rodri, Pecnic and McGuire will be with us for the season yet have only contributed a single Championship goal to date.

If only we could send the three back and bring in a goalscorer, e.g. Frazier Campbell on loan instead.

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friday was a night of eleven hero's all played their part in what should have beena victory ,if we perform like this with the same side with 1 change only in bringing Reda in we will win more than we lose if we can keep the tempo up ,

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Guest alwaysaowl

yes we played well on friday and it was far our best performance this season.unlucky not to have won that game but we still have players out of postion every week and have the worse record in the div.we will go back to our dull ways again unless dj gets is settled side and players in there proper postions.

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Guest stozzbozdarryll

The quality of football i witnessed against leeds was excellent, a total team effort,well done to bothroyd,Now watch him fly, I was a bit perturbed about blackburn away,but after that i am convinced we can come away with all 3 points,the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger, There is absolutely no reason we cannot beat any team in this division,DJ is a top quality manager and he will prove it, Optimism is returning in a big way

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yes we played well on friday and it was far our best performance this season.unlucky not to have won that game but we still have players out of postion every week and have the worse record in the div.we will go back to our dull ways again unless dj gets is settled side and players in there proper postions.

who are these players who played out of position on friday?

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Guest arobert

I do agree about the optimism returning.

But we only got 1 point on Friday.

We need at least 50 in total, possibly 52/53 in some seasons to survive in the Championship.

I looked at the Championship's top scorer list yesterday and we are nowhere near having a name in it.

Hence my suggestion to re-visit the Rodri deal - is there anyway we can get out of it, how much is the penalty clause if any?

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