[DevonInStripes]

We’ve changed everything in the team now bar the defensive 5 and Maja . Time to freshen up the defence now because they have to play their part in creating chances in front of goal .

[gazberg]

Mowatt having to collect the ball 2 yards from Bartley is utter madness, it leaves us short in midfield but if Bartley and Ajayi ain't capable of 15 yard passes to our own midfielders then
play players who can, neither McNair or Holgate have been given a chance.

Mowatt constantly being within 5 metres of the 2 CBs drives me up the wall.

If they can't pass a ball without the deeper midfielder being right by them give some of the other CBs a chance.

[The Black Pearl]

We’ve changed everything in the team now bar the defensive 5 and Maja . Time to freshen up the defence now because they have to play their part in creating chances in front of goal .

Great point well made.

[lewisant]

Everybody is saying about Holgate coming in but is that based on Holgate now or Holgate from 5 years ago? I’m not saying it’s a bad idea but unless anybody has followed his career since he left us and can point out all his successes then we really have no clue.

People want changes all over the pitch but we are 2 points of the automatics 20% into the season. We’ve stuttered but all in all our start is decent.

I find a lot of fan reactions so knee jerk. We weren’t title contenders before the season, then we suddenly are after a few results and now it’s comments like “wake up Carlos” etc. We’re in a good place.

[zippyandbungle]

Ditched Grant , who in my opinion was second only to Mowatt on Tuesday . Could'nt find a slot amongst the subs for Callum Styles, but found one for the again ineffective Racic ( is this bloke Chalobah in disguise ? ).
To top it all Jed Wallace with 2 minutes left.
If I was Mason Holgate I would be on my way back to Everton . 9 games and not one minute for this guy who was desperate to come back here and has actually played 127 games for Everton in the Prem.

Wake up Carlos you keep shuffling the pack in order to collect the ball from Semi and Bartley because  they are poor passers of the ball , when you have Holgate and Heggem both excellent passers who could speed our game up considerably. At times today Mowatt was playing behind them
Semi and Bartley have by and large defended well but our overall game has suffered greatly because of pedestrian playing out from the back.

If there was a post of the week award
You get my vote

[zippyandbungle]

Everybody is saying about Holgate coming in but is that based on Holgate now or Holgate from 5 years ago? I’m not saying it’s a bad idea but unless anybody has followed his career since he left us and can point out all his successes then we really have no clue.

People want changes all over the pitch but we are 2 points of the automatics 20% into the season. We’ve stuttered but all in all our start is decent.

I find a lot of fan reactions so knee jerk. We weren’t title contenders before the season, then we suddenly are after a few results and now it’s comments like “wake up Carlos” etc. We’re in a good place.

I’ll answer that
It’s based on Bartley Now

[FallOutBoy]

I said last season that he'd been impressive in turning us around from the bottom to the play-offs in 18 months. But that if the club was going to develop further then he had to develop as a manager / coach.

What we've seen so far doesn't indicate that he's reviewed where we fell short last season and improved upon it.

We started off very well, but we've seen in the last few games we're still falling for the same traps as last season. On Saturday, we faced a stubborn Millwall team and didn't have the creativity, ingenuity, or - ultimately - quality to break them down. And once it became obvious that plan A wasn't working, we still didn't deviate. You don't have to do a 180 and start launching long balls, Millwall would deal with them all day. But where we need to up the tempo we don't. Where we need to show more urgency, we don't.

The first few games we played with a real confidence and zip about our play - since Plymouth it's dropped off, and we've reverted to type. Which Albion does Carlos want to see?

[gazberg]

In his post match interview he said we need to be better in attack which is pleasing to read but it's not a matter of doing more attacking drills where we are not bold. He needs to work on the tempo and incisiveness of our play.

[boinging_along]

In his post match interview he said we need to be better in attack which is pleasing to read but it's not a matter of doing more attacking drills where we are not bold. He needs to work on the tempo and incisiveness of our play.

Exactly.  We're much too slow and it lets the opposition get into position and stay in position.  You're not going to pull them out of shape by taking 30 seconds to pass the ball across the pitch.

[gazberg]

Exactly.  We're much too slow and it lets the opposition get into position and stay in position.  You're not going to pull them out of shape by taking 30 seconds to pass the ball across the pitch.

Millwall didn't even look they had been in a battle at all considering we had over 80 percent possession. They loved the way he set us up. Barely broke a sweat.

Things have to change

[caravanc58]

That was a blueprint for any visiting team still to come to the Hawthornes this season, Millwall didn't bother to press us they just shut down our wingers knowing that was our only threat. For all of Grady's effort yesterday I doubt he got in the oppositions box more than 3 times. We need to have an alternative plan if plan A doesn't work, just changing personnel hasn't improved  us but a change in shape and tactics might but Corberan is so rigid on his formation plan B never materialises. It bothers me that we didn't have another striker in the squad yesterday to maybe throw on at the death but more importantly what it Maja got injured. So no other striker but we have 2 centre backs in Holgate and McNair sitting on the bench both not getting any game time.
Can't see any other championship team naming a 20 man matchday squad with only 1 centre forward.

[Albionic]

controversy warning
I am starting to think parallels with Valerian Ishmael, ie 1 dimensional and perhaps too dogmatic.
Agree with all the above comments that we are too predictable and hence easy to plan for, I do appreciate that the squad has limitations but so does every championship side.
Do we focus on opposition weaknesses / strengths and adapt accordingly??? Thats (in my view) is what distinguishes good managers from the average.
I hope CC can do more than simply slot alternatives into a pre-defined structure.
Hopefully CC and the the staff recognise the reality quickly and react accordingly before we lose impetus.

Maybe Shilen can keep away as well, he is becoming a jonah !

[mulliganstired]

The players must be under instructions not to shoot from outside the box, no-one even looked they were considering it (except Grant in the last few seconds).  We are definitely looking in overcoached territory these days.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Agree with the others posters - he has to recognise that the ball needs to be moved quicker against stubborn opposition. We never looked like breaking them down because the ball from Palmer, Ajayi and Bartley into midfield or the wide areas is far too slow.

Did we really need Mowatt dropping that far deep to collect the ball? You could have chucked a blanket over our defence and midfield whilst Millwall were camped on their six yard box.

Our substitutes are also looking frantic. Against Plymouth we saw Diakite make an appearance. He is now in the bomb squad after his first half against Wednesday and never seen again. Styles made an appearance against Swansea and was then in the bomb squad until Boro having been replaced by Frabotta. The latter made an appearance against Sheff Wed and has now been replaced by Styes. Devante Cole makes the bench once in a game where we were toothless and is then immediately dropped.

It’s not contributing to our recent run but it’s a very scattergun approach.

[Hull Baggie]

The players must be under instructions not to shoot from outside the box, no-one even looked they were considering it (except Grant in the last few seconds).  We are definitely looking in overcoached territory these days.

I very much doubt that they are, it wouldn't make any sense....and we've scored from outside the box this season anyway.
It is frustrating that players like Swift (by far the biggest culprit) gets into a good shooting position on the edge of the box and passes to a player in a worse position. Both Johnston and Fellows shot from outside the box against Millwall but both shots were blocked.

I think Swifts lack of shooting is maybe down to confidence. If his effort against Plymouth had gone in, rather than hitting the post, maybe in the games against Wednesday and Boro he'd have been more inclined to shoot instead of passing the ball (and responsibility) on to someone else?

We need to make more of our height from corners and maybe don't have Bartley, Ajayi and Heggem all within hand holding distance of each other, as ZippyandBungle (I think) said why not have Bartley at the front post, Ajayi in the middle and Heggem at the back ?
Also let's start leaving a player near the halfway line when we are defending a corner. He would then occupy two opposing players meaning we would have a man advantage defending the corner. Never really understood why managers don't do it.

[gazberg]

controversy warning
I am starting to think parallels with Valerian Ishmael, ie 1 dimensional and perhaps too dogmatic.
Agree with all the above comments that we are too predictable and hence easy to plan for, I do appreciate that the squad has limitations but so does every championship side.
Do we focus on opposition weaknesses / strengths and adapt accordingly??? Thats (in my view) is what distinguishes good managers from the average.
I hope CC can do more than simply slot alternatives into a pre-defined structure.
Hopefully CC and the the staff recognise the reality quickly and react accordingly before we lose impetus.

Maybe Shilen can keep away as well, he is becoming a jonah !

Agree with the above. 

For me, CC main problem is also his main strength, he is pragmatic and stubborn, which is a pro in terms of organisation, shape etc but, on the flipside, he is also extremely predictable.

Start of season we were a bit more free flowing, like he had finally taken the brakes off however once things start not to go his way he reverts to his default setting of 'caution first' and we start to struggle then.

I think he believes in his system more than what he sees with his own 2 eyes basically.

[SmethDan]

Agree with the above. 

For me, CC main problem is also his main strength, he is pragmatic and stubborn, which is a pro in terms of organisation, shape etc but, on the flipside, he is also extremely predictable.

Start of season we were a bit more free flowing, like he had finally taken the brakes off however once things start not to go his way he reverts to his default setting of 'caution first' and we start to struggle then.

I think he believes in his system more than what he sees with his own 2 eyes basically.

Think he's been trying to iron out the sloppy mistakes which led to the chances QPR, Stoke and Plymouth weren't good enough/fortunate enough to exploit. On the whole he's succeeded in this regard. Unfortunately we've been far too ponderous as a result. Hopefully we strike a better balance on transitions in particular sooner rather than later. COYB  .

[boinging_along]

Millwall didn't even look they had been in a battle at all considering we had over 80 percent possession. They loved the way he set us up. Barely broke a sweat.

Things have to change

I think, if anything, we began to tire more in the  2nd half than they did.  It was noticeable that they'd started to put more of a press on in the last 20 minutes but we were too slow to work around it.

[gazberg]

I think, if anything, we began to tire more in the  2nd half than they did.  It was noticeable that they'd started to put more of a press on in the last 20 minutes but we were too slow to work around it.

Yes, was absurd! We needed to go quicker, not slower.

Think he's been trying to iron out the sloppy mistakes which led to the chances QPR, Stoke and Plymouth weren't good enough/fortunate enough to exploit. On the whole he's succeeded in this regard. Unfortunately we've been far too ponderous as a result. Hopefully we strike a better balance on transitions in particular sooner rather than later. COYB  .

I'll wins with sloppiness over losses with or without sloppiness. As you say he should be able to find the balance and sort it, 2 weeks break now, perfect timing.

[MarkW]

You could make an argument to say we were somewhat fortunate to stay unbeaten as long as we did, and that we were slightly unfortunate to lose to Sheffield Wednesday.

Carlos said in his post match comments from Millwall that if we had converted that draw into a win that's 19 points from 9 games and he would be pleased with that. The fact we were two shy means we have more work to do but football is a chaotic sport where unpredictable events occur that a manager can't control

[NJS]

You could make an argument to say we were somewhat fortunate to stay unbeaten as long as we did, and that we were slightly unfortunate to lose to Sheffield Wednesday.

....

My view entirely.

I also think we should leave one player up the field at corners and have a couple of players on the edge of the box.  We do give away goals against midfielders coming in from deep (cf Middlesbrough).
 Sometimes too many forwards pressed into service as makeshift defenders get in the way of the true defenders.

It's very difficult to beat a team that sets up like Millwall.  That can be seen by the toils that Man City had against 10-man Arsenal even with all their star attackers. 

[zippyandbungle]

Yes, was absurd! We needed to go quicker, not slower.


I'll wins with sloppiness over losses with or without sloppiness. As you say he should be able to find the balance and sort it, 2 weeks break now, perfect timing.

Regardless of any opinion on Carlos, I think most agree that he is a thinker and perhaps over thinker
2 weeks without a game might not be a good thing?

[gazberg]

Regardless of any opinion on Carlos, I think most agree that he is a thinker and perhaps over thinker
2 weeks without a game might not be a good thing?

I think this time around it's a good thing. We are not exactly in full flow so good timing for me.

[robnewbold]

We have lost momentum and the break will do us the world of good IMHO.

 I think CC over-thinks and tries to be a perfectionist, in his attempt to eradicate mishaps and errors he abandons creativity for caution.

Still think he is a superb Manager at this level and loves our Club and all it stands for.

Does he make mistakes, yes he does, but those who don't make mistakes, don't make anything.

[luke.jones1234]

On corberan again !ridiclous same  substitutions again  ,why always take fellows off and bring his mate on Wallace who offers absolutely nothing ,why not if you take maja off have cole on the bench to bring on.