Luton Away

How many goals are we going to concede tomorrow?

  • 1

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 3 60.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 2 40.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    5
  • Poll closed .

KVetch

Key Player
What happened at the end with Martin getting carded? We had our chances, not many but came close to a point.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Tell tale situation: piroe and Cullen, both had a goal scoring opportunity, both called offside. Piroe hoofed it over from four yards out. Cullen finished with aplomb. Say it all.

On second look, Cullen was perhaps a tad onside.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Our recent record is disgraceful. Surely Martin can't survive this! He should have been dismissed a good few games and many points ago but I'm hoping with every fibre of my being that he doesn't last another week.

Tell tale situation: piroe and Cullen, both had a goal scoring opportunity, both called offside. Piroe hoofed it over from four yards out. Cullen finished with aplomb. Say it all.

On second look, Cullen was perhaps a tad onside.
Piroe can be a good finisher but Cullen is better - comes more naturally. Problem is that Martin has never given him a long enough run to prove it. It's a major fault with our manager. He has his favourites and shoe-horns them in at any cost. One-eyed, tunnel visioned, blinkered? He's all of those, not only with his players but also with his tactics and it's why we are where we are in the table.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Watching Wrexham's Poul Mullin attacking crosses. He's just scored from a header. Some of the Wrexham players could walk into the Swans squad.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
General impression is that while not pretty, a change in approach was taken (points for trying), and was for the most part pretty effective. It eliminated the ridiculous press traps we suffered at the hands of Rotherham. We played most of our passes further up the field. We played long balls out from Fisher in particular - amen. There is still a crushing resistance to crossing the ball; opportunities to cross are squandered in favor of the backwards pass. Oh well, one step at a time.

Allen and Fulton were an effective combination - Allen again a busy player, full of class. Did we miss Grimes? I don't think so. It seemed to me that Allen/Fulton were more on the front foot, being more direct with the ball.

The two "offside" situations - Piroe and Cullen - illustrated clearly the focus and finishing ability of each player. Cullen finished with aplomb. Piroe converted it over the bar from 4 yards out .... takes some doing that. Cullen starting on the bench is a nonsense. From the limited angle of the tv cameras, Cullen looked onside the moment the pass into him was played. He may have recovered from an offside position, which may have confused the linesman, but when it mattered most he was onside. Martin has to stop playing either / or with Whitaker and Cullen. It's Cullen #1, Whitaker #2, and Piroe #3 ... I'm even less impressed by Piroe the more I see of him, and a #8 he is not. All that comes to mind is that Piroe plays against Darling in training and comes across as a world beater, where in fact he's just beating somebody that shouldn't be in our squad.

Not Cooper's best game, but he's ours, he's got talent, he's got a turn of speed, he's willing to work his balls off ... persevere.

I'm more convinced than ever that Martin reads this forum. But even if he doesn't, he had to try something different, more of the same was just going to advance the spiral down.

Next season is now one game old. None of us rated a positive result before the match, see the poll above. It could have been ugly, but it wasn't, and a better decision here and a tad more quality there and the result could have gone the other way. Not pretty football, but pretty effective. We lost but there are tangible positives to be taken, perhaps we've reached our bottom and starting to turn the corner and trending up. Will Martin persevere with the adjustments? Tune-in for next week's thrilling episode.
 
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CroJack

Key Player
The cross is deflected, the ball has a strange spin, the pitch is poor, so the ball bounces just before Fisher catches it... 😂😂😂😂

 
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Yankee_Jack

Key Player
He makes the cardinal keeper sins of going for the ball: 1) hands open; 2) no hand behind the ball; 3) not putting body behind the ball. His go to should have been hand on top; hand behind; pull into body, using the ground as the third hand. He's also preparing by having his hands down by his sides instead of out in front of him. Surely in practice he deals with a ball that is pitching in front of him, he has to be saving tens / hundreds of those in practice per day certainly during a week ... no?

Fisher is a flapper and a spiller and a keeper that parries first, catches second, and uses his body third. The ball can never go through the body.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Fisher should've caught the ball, but watch Sorinola, who was too late to block the cross, and Lati and Manning who lost Morris allowing him to make a simple tap-in.
That was a collective defensive 💩💩💩.
 

KVetch

Key Player
It was only 1 goal conceded, we should have scored at least 1. There will be lots of gaps in the squad to fill next season. We have a chance to improve and get some new players in because our owners won't have a choice. Can't ignore the coming departures.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Even if we fall into a relegation fight?
I don't see that happening. We can limp towards the end at a point a game and be safe. We should be safe already at 43 points, but 48 is the ceiling to aim for. Martin's adjustments for the Luton game indicate that he's sobering up. I expect more adjustments for the next match ... to the extent that the last two year's of programming can be modified and the players can take the adjustments on board.

If we suffer sustained injuries to key players ... Fulton, Allen, Grimes, Cooper ... and we have to rely on Darling and Fisher on the field for every game then it could descend into a total shit show. But, let's cross fingers and hope for the best. Piroe is on 4 yellows, so with any luck we will have Cullen and Whitaker both starting a game sooner than later. And, you never know we might yet see the new keeper in action.

Let's assume CT was not just paying us a social visit. Let's assume that he was there to assess and report. He's a smart guy, perhaps he was there assessing for his own purposes, with the expectation of what might come to pass. Anyway, CT's report to ownership is going to take the month of March to be completed, transmitted and assimilated - especially if there are other games to be watched and Academy action to study. Another couple of weeks for Q&A and internal discussions. We're hitting the end of April. No point in pulling the trigger now, spend money needlessly, it can all happen, but happen sharp after the last match; i.e. the day after.

Ownership took on a project with Martin. They have to determine whether it's run its course. Whether the outcome was as good as could be expected or under achieved, and so on. And, they have to determine what's next. Essentially, they have to ask themselves the age old question: if we spend another season with Martin, how are we going to feel and where are we going to be at the end of it. There's a lot locked up in that question. But if the answer is negative, then why wait 12 months to be in a negative situation, pull the trigger now.
 
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