OTHER FOOTBALL

Ladygargar

Fox in the Box
Staff member
Just watching Birmingham v Middlesboro - stadium barely half full; charlton was hardly packed out Wednesday night - something is going to have to change or these clubs will struggle to sustain their commitments much less progress; only time you see the liberty so empty is for non-league or the unders; having said that our attendance has been down too just over 16,000 last home game; they should be and need to be packing them in or going bust......
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Attendance actually was 19,703. I was impressed with Brum and was hoping for a draw but that last minute winner put paid to my hopes. Brum look useful. They are physical, competitive and they pressed Boro' to death. Look the sort of team to cause us problems if I'm honest because we don't deal easily with that sort of team: and they can play a bit of football too, with some useful individuals in there.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Attendance actually was 19,703. I was impressed with Brum and was hoping for a draw but that last minute winner put paid to my hopes. Brum look useful. They are physical, competitive and they pressed Boro' to death. Look the sort of team to cause us problems if I'm honest because we don't deal easily with that sort of team: and they can play a bit of football too, with some useful individuals in there.
Didn't we beat them 3:0 at the Liberty? Comfortably?
 

Behindthegoal

Key Player
Charlton are having quite a week.
First they beat Leeds to depose them from top spot, next they lose to promote the Swans to that selfsame spot.
Today they are at Craven Cottage and able to deny Fulham a place in the sun (even if that wereonly for a few hours).
Come on you Latics!
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Didn't we beat them 3:0 at the Liberty? Comfortably?
My point is that they seem to have come on at pace. They had about 26 shots at goal and should have won by 3 or 4. They played really well and wouldn't be my choice of team to go up against right now. Some sides take a while to get going and I wonder if Brum are starting to do that. Mind you, they just might have had one of those good nights.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
So far this season Ethan Ampadu has zilch minutes for Red Bull Leipzig and it's obvious that neither he nor Frank Lampard will be happy with this state of affairs. Consequently it makes sense to me that we should contact Frankie boy, who does have fond memories of his time with us, to sound him out about Ethan coming to us. No doubt Cardiff would be interested in him but surely, in terms of football, he would be better served coming to us; and Ethan also has links to us via his dad Kwame who played for us including getting a winner's medal in the Autoglass final.

We could certainly do with a player of his intelligence and footballing ability in our midfield, not forgetting that he is so versatile he could almost play anywhere at the back. Okay, I get that he won't be cheap in terms of loan fee and wages. But here's the thing - if our owners have the least semblance of ambition for us to regain our Premier League status then surely now is the time to stump up some backing cash to help us get there. So far they have invested sod all of their own money but perhaps they just might take the view that the next window is the time to speculate to accumulate.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Cooper can't play properly with the toys he has .... would he be lost with more.
I'm afraid you are right. We are not playing the same free-flowing football we used to play last season under Potter. Pitty, we have an excellent goalkeeper and a good squad.

We suffer because we play with two deep lying DMs who have to help our full-backs when opposition attacks down the flanks. Our wingers have to run back as well.

We have never played with two deep lying defensive midfielders. We have had Britton, Canas, Cork... as DMs, but Allen, DeGuzman, Shelvey and Ki were central midfielders who all contributed in defence AND in attack. When you think about Gylfi (under Rodgers), Michu (under Laudrup) and Gylfi again in post-Laudrup era, as our attacking midfielders, and Cooper playing Celina on the left wing, then it's clear what's missing.

Coopers' setup gives us a good defence against attacks down the flanks, but it sucks when WE have to attack. The result of the defensive burden is that our wingers get too tired to play three games in a week, and there is a missing link in the central midfield. You all remember the triangles played between Rangel - Allen - Dyer - Gylfi and Rangel - DeGuzman - Dyer - Michu on the right flank. The same triangles were played on the left side. Our central and attacking midfielders used to be heavily involved in the link-up play with our full-backs and wingers. And now? Grimes passes the ball to either Bidwell or Celina and then these two try to do something. The same on the right flank.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Swansea lads did well against Slovakia last night with ex Swan Dan James supplying an excellent cross for our goal. Roberts played really well and repeatedly got down his flank to help the attack. As for Joe Rodon, I thought he was great. Apart from a sound display in defence, he had a goal-bound header deflected over the bar and was hugely unlucky to see a superb overhead kick go narrowly wide. Never seen you threaten so much for the Swans, Joe, and I'd like to see more of it from you.

And now a word about Ampadu. What a great display from him when you consider he's had zero minutes of competitive football this season. Understandably he was hooked in the second half as he was tiring but showed tremendous talent and class before that. I say again, what a job he could do for us!
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
A decent 1-1 draw for Wales against an excellent team equally as good at the dark arts as they are at playing football. Suffice to say that that old pal of @Yankee_Jack 's and mine, the notorious Ducks, would have LOVED to play in that game. For sure some of the Croatian team would have been carried off and Ducks, most definitely, would have been sent off. :oops: Have to say that Joe Rodon had another great game and is looking more assured each time he dons the Welsh colours. His value must be rocketing by the game because he comfortably dealt with some pretty tasty strikers last night without first choice Mepham alongside him. If Stones went for £50 million I reckon young Joe must be worth at least £20 million now.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
If you value Roden at 20 and Roberts at 20 also then with McB and James, there's 80 million +/- of value that the U23 operation has generated from raw talent. Awesome performance. Layer Grimes and Fulton on top of that ...
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
If you value Roden at 20 and Roberts at 20 also then with McB and James, there's 80 million +/- of value that the U23 operation has generated from raw talent. Awesome performance. Layer Grimes and Fulton on top of that ...
Layer Grimes? I thought his name was Matt! ;)
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
I see that Cardiff are playing Sheffield Wednesday tonight: Monk's team. It's not possible for them both to lose, which would be my ideal but what result do you guys want? My own preference would be 0-0 as I couldn't stand either to win. :)
 
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