carthesis
Member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2012
- Messages
- 492
- Reaction score
- 879
My thoughts and general thinking/findings (in no particular order - stream of consciousness stylee):
- iFollow works, and seems to work well - decent stream with no real faffing about.
- The iFollow season ticket at £110 is decent value if you plan on watching all the away games, as it works out at less than £5/game. Not clear if you can watch the home games - if you can it's even better value if you happen to be off on your holibobs mid-season.
- This "tracks your location / remembers your IP address" thing is bollocks. I literally signed up tonight on my VPN, waited for the payment to process, started the stream, then decided to simply switch wireless networks off my VPN WLAN to my normal, UK-based, no-clever-shenanigans, the-wireless-my-missus-uses-on-her-phone wifi. Worked fine. No cutting out; no complaining i was in the UK.
- In footy terms, we started alright, but no more than that. We appeared to be holding Cardiff off fine for the most part.
- However, the defence is a bit suspect at the moment. They seem to be making trivial mistakes - last year they either weren't making them, or the quality differential was such we were rarely punished for them. Hopefully this is just "learning curve".
- The midfield looks alright - Coutts especially looked comfortable against Cardiff. For me, Fleck was only alright in fits and starts. Don't know whether he's not used to the power of the opposing players, or just the lack of time, or what, but he was uncharacteristically poor and gave the ball away a lot. He then seemed - as he has in the other games - to find his way a bit in the 2nd half. He needs to start finding his way a bit earlier.
- Carruthers i have a question mark over. I think i'd be tempted to keep him for games where we have more licence to attack teams - against the "bigger" teams in this league, i'm not sure he offers enough, but i'm willing to hold judgement. Against Boro we certainly looked better with Duffy in that role. For me, Duffy's experience showed.
- Freeman and Stevens are having to track back and defend a bit more than they're (especially Kieron) used to. Because the opposition is better quality, they can't get away with neglecting the defensive duties as much, so seem to be being held back, either through instruction or necessity. This is causing us to lack a bit of width in midfield. I think i'd play Lafferty on the left, again especially in the big games to capitalise on his experience. He's also more solid defending.
- Up front, I have serious concerns - admittedly early days, but other than Brentford, Sharp hasn't offered much. Against Boro he may as well have not been playing, and he was only marginally better against Cardiff. Mostly this is down to better quality players, and as we all know, it normally takes him a fthing in the air all night against that big, bald, black centrebackew games to get going. Clarke is working harder than I saw him last year, but again isn't offering much, although his hold-up play is more successful than Sharp's.
- Again, against the bigger teams, away from home, i'd be tempted to play a 4-5-1, but we don't really have wingers, unless we use Freeman and Stevens as wingers, and Lafferty and Basham/Baldock/brayford as fullbacks.
- As much as i kind of hate saying it, Evans has looked ok when he's come on. he's certainly looked lively, strong, and offers a bit of pace up front, despite not being lightning quick himself (which probably says more about the other forwards than him). Given decent service and support, he might turn out to be an acceptable signing, although if he is a game-changer in the sense that some hope i'll be very surprised.
- The Mendez-Laing goal (Cardiff's 2nd), was a good strike. Curse of the ex-(loan)-player strikes again.
- We didn't win a bloody thing all night in the air against that big, bald, black centre-back whose name I don't know and CBA to look up.
- Coutts was our biggest threat for me. Hit a couple of decent shots from mid-range, but perhaps a bit close to the keeper or a bit slow. Either way, the keeper didn't seem to struggle too much.
- Blackman is a decent backup keeper, and has done well considering, but i'll be happier when Moore is back.
- Jake Wright did ok when he came on.
- Brooks looks a talent, but i worry this might be a step too far, too early for him. If we could find a good footballing L1 team for him to have a half-season loan with I think it'd help him, but i'll obviously defer to Tufty's superior knowledge of the lad.
- We generally need to toughen up - we bullied a lot of teams last year while playing decent football. We seem to be getting knocked off the ball a bit more so far this year. Again, hopefully learning curve, three games in, etc.
- We need to go for it against Barnsley. 6pts from 4 games, having had two very tough away games at teams that have spent a lot of money is a decent return. Then we can start focusing on some "easier" games and accruing some points.