Opening Home Game vs Cambridge United Aug 3rd

Did he? Must have missed that but if so, still odd he didn't mention how he is progressing when he talked about Paudie and McCarten.

 

The whole annoying thing for me was the lack of chances created when they were down to 10 men.
No need to put Gibson out wide, he was doing fine in the middle.
Would have gone 3-1-4-2 once their man was sent off. Devine holding, back 3 of Mellor, Richards Everton and o Connor.
Scannell right, Longridge left with Gibson and Palmer pushed right up behind Vaughan and The Don.
We were all over the place. 5 players in a straight line sometimes.
Positives were we looked solid at the back
There's a few players who need more minutes but we will get there with a few more signings.
Reminded me of the other season under Stuart when we played Port Vale and drew 0-0.
Everyone was deflated then but after 3 or 4 games we cracked on.
I said to my mate a clean sheet and don't lose and I would be happy
Onwards and upwards

 

Is Akpan injured - not read anything?

 

Back spasm apparently - had it all week.

 

I like this post. A lot.

 

Palmer has confirmed in the T&A today that Ismail has a knock alongside POC, SM and Akpan

 

I thought we looked decent at the back and held the ball well in midfield when in possession and chased it down when without.
Doyle looked lost in his role, and despite one excellent flick on, didn’t do much.
Vaughn and Donaldson look a threat. They’ll get plenty of yellow cards between them.
Palmers corners were woeful.
The Team is lacking pace. I really think we need a pacy left winger so we can play a 442 formation without Doyle.
One other thing. We didn’t have a striker on the bench. Can’t remember the last time that happened.
Bowyer needs to go shopping if we’re to go up at the first attempt.

 

With DVD all starting and Mccarten injured, the only other option for the bench would have been Patrick and if he'd been sat on it, we still wouldn't have had a striker on there.

 

Spot on mate, several times you could hear the groans when he ignored the obvious pass down the line or the opportunity to take on the man and just cut inside.

 

Word for word in agreement with this

 

Sorry folks, not the right thread, but can someone advise why I can't access tickets for the cup game against Preston via the ticket-purchase site? Might go along earlier than initially planned if it's dirt cheap.

 

Bob on that man

 

Super Billy

 

I thought we were very comfortable on Saturday, without ever really excelling. we wouldn't have conceded had we played another hour, but we probably wouldn't have scored either.

I'm not entirely sure the 433 worked as GB intended, but not ready to throw it out just yet.
I'm also not gonna chuck Doyle under the bus yet, I'm still relatively confident he can bag a few if he keeps getting games.

I thought Vaughan and The Don were good. Richards Everton at the back was solid.
if we can improve our chance creation then we'll be fine.

plenty to build on. its early days. we'll get better.

 

Spot on. Totally agree.

 

It’s just pay on the day mate, unless it’s a big derby or one of the later rounds we won’t sell home cup tickets in advance.

 

he set pieces taker or the lack of one is frustrating - more so when we are at home. As we know most teams come to sit back and then try to score by hitting us on the break or from a free kick. Having a decent free kick, corner taken helps us to score, get the first goal and then the opposition have to open up to assist our cause to score again and hopefully get the 3 points. Teams who identify that we have a dangerous read ball taker are also frightened to make tackles/ commit fouls in dangerous areas helping us to be able to retain possession and pass to open their defence up.
I thought a dead ball taker would have been identified as a priority when recruiting - unless Mr Bowyer sees Palmer or Mccarten as the answer. If so, they need to practice based on Saturdays corners/ free kicks from Palmer and Mccartens first season with us

 

These stats are from the EFL Stats Twitter page and were posted on one of the City groups on Facebook the other day.....but in case anyone missed them....

In the opening fixtures on Saturday, City ranked.....

4th of 24 in the league for completed passes (373) - Forest Green were top (413)
2nd of 24 in the league for aerial success (62 %) - Salford were top (67 %)
3rd of 24 in the league for passing accuracy (79 %) - Crewe were top (82 %)

Yes, we played 30 mins against 10 men but a pleasing start compared to last season, when we fared pathetically bad on most KPIs.

 

Just out of interest, where did we finish in the list for shot accuracy?