BFiFollow - Colchester

[Millsy]

João 10

Well Hallelujah, someone else not afraid to dish out 10s

I gave João a 10 the first time I saw him play for us not just for the performance but what he brought to the team. Was very excited to see him gel in. I've not seen a 10 since for any player since, including from me.

Good to see I'm not alone and he's the sort of player who clearly really dazzles when he can. Let's hope he can stay both fit and consistent, two known issues with him sadly.

Anyway... Anyone have any idea if halftime chat/subs/ethos was in any way Pauno?

Initial selection and performance night have been rubbish but the sign of a good manager for me is reacting to a game. If that was O'Shea and the other chap then that's our next manager right there.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

He’ll get a club, there is still ages to go before the deadline and even after that he can still sign. He may only get a short contract, he may not be at the level he hopes and he may find mortgage payments remain tight . I’d not be averse to us offering him some kind of deal. Worst case we could invite him to train with us and put a short term deal on the table if we think he’d add cover until January

My understanding was that he was on an unproved out of the Academy deal of £60k a year.In January he was offered half that;which was not enough to pay his mortgage.When he got into the team post lockdown and showed up well,he was offered his original deal.At his age he is going into his best years and wanted more.At that point Bowen dropped him.Not sure what the sort of wages a L1 or L2 would be on ? Probably around £60 K ?

Yeah about right for L2. L1 is better.

L1 wages better than L2?

[royalp-we]

João 10

Well Hallelujah, someone else not afraid to dish out 10s

I gave João a 10 the first time I saw him play for us not just for the performance but what he brought to the team. Was very excited to see him gel in. I've not seen a 10 since for any player since, including from me.

Good to see I'm not alone and he's the sort of player who clearly really dazzles when he can. Let's hope he can stay both fit and consistent, two known issues with him sadly.

Anyway... Anyone have any idea if halftime chat/subs/ethos was in any way Pauno?

Initial selection and performance night have been rubbish but the sign of a good manager for me is reacting to a game. If that was O'Shea and the other chap then that's our next manager right there.

The Colchester manager said they heard the Reading players getting a right bollocking at HT. Most likely from O’Shea.

I Highly doubt that Pauno would have picked the team and then had no input to changes throughout the game - although in quarantine he would have been in contact throughout issuing instructions. It’s kind of his job...

[SCIAG]

My understanding was that he was on an unproved out of the Academy deal of £60k a year.In January he was offered half that;which was not enough to pay his mortgage.When he got into the team post lockdown and showed up well,he was offered his original deal.At his age he is going into his best years and wanted more.At that point Bowen dropped him.Not sure what the sort of wages a L1 or L2 would be on ? Probably around £60 K ?

Yeah about right for L2. L1 is better.

L1 wages better than L2?

Yes, quite considerably. The average League One player will earn about double the average League Two player.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Yeah about right for L2. L1 is better.

L1 wages better than L2?

Yes, quite considerably. The average League One player will earn about double the average League Two player.

Amazing

[Notts Royal]

He gave fringe players a chance in a competition renowned as one where fringe players get a chance. Based on today for example, he will know not to perservre with McNulty but ship him off to Gillingham.

I don't think there should be any complaints about playing young or fringe players (except Aluko he can oxf*rd off for all eternity).

But.

McNulty RW and AMC?
Olise deep playmaker?
Richards RW?

Not sure that tells us a whole lot of anything about those players, other than if we play them we should play them in their actual position.

Surely best to use the formation you intend to use and get the fringe players to show they can fit into it. We shouldn't be shifting formation to accommodate McNulty. He needs to show the manager he can fit his plans.

Weren’t people moaning last season we didn’t see the best out of Olise & Ejaria because they weren’t played in their natural positions? Why should it be different for McNulty & Baldock?

[NewCorkSeth]

I don't think there should be any complaints about playing young or fringe players (except Aluko he can oxf*rd off for all eternity).

But.

McNulty RW and AMC?
Olise deep playmaker?
Richards RW?

Not sure that tells us a whole lot of anything about those players, other than if we play them we should play them in their actual position.

Surely best to use the formation you intend to use and get the fringe players to show they can fit into it. We shouldn't be shifting formation to accommodate McNulty. He needs to show the manager he can fit his plans.

Weren’t people moaning last season we didn’t see the best out of Olise & Ejaria because they weren’t played in their natural positions? Why should it be different for McNulty & Baldock?

Do we know Olises best position yet? Seems to have been fairly decent everywhere. Certainly showed in this game he can sit in the hole between midfield and attack quite well. Think he would do a great job in Swifts DLP role too though.

Anyway I agree with the above: he played that formation either with future signings in mind (with Baldock and McNulty filling in) or too see certain players in certain positions in a throw away game.

[Notts Royal]

Surely best to use the formation you intend to use and get the fringe players to show they can fit into it. We shouldn't be shifting formation to accommodate McNulty. He needs to show the manager he can fit his plans.

Weren’t people moaning last season we didn’t see the best out of Olise & Ejaria because they weren’t played in their natural positions? Why should it be different for McNulty & Baldock?

Do we know Olises best position yet? Seems to have been fairly decent everywhere. Certainly showed in this game he can sit in the hole between midfield and attack quite well. Think he would do a great job in Swifts DLP role too though.

Anyway I agree with the above: he played that formation either with future signings in mind (with Baldock and McNulty filling in) or too see certain players in certain positions in a throw away game.

I agree about Olise... he is decent everywhere. But it’s certainly been a (valid) argument on this forum about playing players out of position...and those 2, Ejaria especially have been used in that argument.

So just because fans don’t like Baldock or McNulty, doesn’t mean they should be treated any differently. I personally don’t rate McNulty, but you we all agree Grabban was pony for us because he was played out of position

[NewCorkSeth]

Weren’t people moaning last season we didn’t see the best out of Olise & Ejaria because they weren’t played in their natural positions? Why should it be different for McNulty & Baldock?

Do we know Olises best position yet? Seems to have been fairly decent everywhere. Certainly showed in this game he can sit in the hole between midfield and attack quite well. Think he would do a great job in Swifts DLP role too though.

Anyway I agree with the above: he played that formation either with future signings in mind (with Baldock and McNulty filling in) or too see certain players in certain positions in a throw away game.

I agree about Olise... he is decent everywhere. But it’s certainly been a (value) argument on this forum about playing players out of position...and those 2, Ejaria especially have been used in that argument.

So just because fans don’t like Baldock or McNulty, doesn’t mean they should be treated any differently. I personally don’t rate McNulty, but you we all agree Grabban was pony for us because he was played out of position

Yeah the Ejaria debate was rampant but that was a symtom of his form tailing off quite badly. Despite the fact that I thought the best football we saw from him, in terms of team play, was the brief time spent on the left with Balckett and Swift close to him and overlapping he is not suited to traditional wide play.

I think the fans are a bit harsh on McNulty considering his chances have been fairly limited. I was a bit harsh about his fitness when we first signed him. But with the njmber of strikers we have on the books I dont see why he would get a chance. Joao, Puscas and Meite are all ahead of him for that 1 position and Meite isn't even likely to start up there despite his goal scoring record.

Baldock is a good grafter and obviously a decent player who we should never have signed unless we wanted to play 2 up front. Honestly, he should want to move. He should know he's not going to get the football he deserves here.
My understanding is it was an expensive deal with lots of clauses too which can't help right now.

[Stranded]

I don't think there should be any complaints about playing young or fringe players (except Aluko he can oxf*rd off for all eternity).

But.

McNulty RW and AMC?
Olise deep playmaker?
Richards RW?

Not sure that tells us a whole lot of anything about those players, other than if we play them we should play them in their actual position.

Surely best to use the formation you intend to use and get the fringe players to show they can fit into it. We shouldn't be shifting formation to accommodate McNulty. He needs to show the manager he can fit his plans.

Weren’t people moaning last season we didn’t see the best out of Olise & Ejaria because they weren’t played in their natural positions? Why should it be different for McNulty & Baldock?

Difference is multiple there - the first two are seen as key members of the team not the squad and we had a manager who was not set on a formation, so sticking those two in positions that weren't their best made little sense to most. Now we have a manager, who partly seems to have been employed because he favours a style that fits the majority of our squad. However, we are top heavy in the striker department - Baldock and McNulty are realisitcally 4th and 5th choice for a striking role - we only play 1 striker.

On Saturday, the decision was made to start Joao, probably because he is our #1 striker but also as he has barely played since March, so good to get minutes in. Given that the other 2 are so far down the list for that spot, it makes absolute sense to see if they can be impactful from wider positions against a team that is weaker than those we will face week in, week out. This was giving them a chance to show enough to the coaching staff that they can fill that spot and maybe allow us to focus time and money on improving elsewhere. If you can think of a better competitive environment for that to take place in, I'd love to hear it.

[SCIAG]

If Baldock and McNulty are going to have a future with us then it looks much more likely to be as supporting players. Baldock is suited to that role. McNulty isn’t, so we probably won’t see much more of him.

[kwik-silva]

Yes definitely concerning that Pauno picked that side...hopefully he’s not another manager who likes to play players out of position but it’s not a great start. It’s going to take him a while to learn about his players and how to deploy them, which isn’t really ideal so close to the start of the league season.

Just as well we have enough quality to not be dragged into a relegation fight. We will see

While I'm not too concerned about this match - hopefully he was just looking at players, this is exactly what he was known for at Chicago.

[Millsy]

João 10

Well Hallelujah, someone else not afraid to dish out 10s

I gave João a 10 the first time I saw him play for us not just for the performance but what he brought to the team. Was very excited to see him gel in. I've not seen a 10 since for any player since, including from me.

Good to see I'm not alone and he's the sort of player who clearly really dazzles when he can. Let's hope he can stay both fit and consistent, two known issues with him sadly.

Anyway... Anyone have any idea if halftime chat/subs/ethos was in any way Pauno?

Initial selection and performance night have been rubbish but the sign of a good manager for me is reacting to a game. If that was O'Shea and the other chap then that's our next manager right there.

The Colchester manager said they heard the Reading players getting a right bollocking at HT. Most likely from O’Shea.

I Highly doubt that Pauno would have picked the team and then had no input to changes throughout the game - although in quarantine he would have been in contact throughout issuing instructions. It’s kind of his job...

Well exactly you’d have thought so. He’d be watching live and would easily be able to zoom/teams/skype in to the dressing room at half time as needed.

So unless I hear otherwise I’m assuming most agree this was Paunos first game fully in charge, so credit where it’s due, he did pretty good to turn it around.

[Snowball]

100% win record


But we conceded!

[Millsy]

Just saw highlights now. Much as we like to knock Aluko he had some nice touches and it was his tenacity that lead to the third.

[Hound]

Just saw highlights now. Much as we like to knock Aluko he had some nice touches and it was his tenacity that lead to the third.

only just watched them. Great goals for Joao. Some nice crosses and touches from Araruna (though ColU goal not great from his POV)

Who is that guy screaming his head off on the third goal? Couldn't work out if it was some ColU coach shouting at the ref or someone on our bench giving Araruna an earful for taking a quick free kick. Quite funny either way

[NewCorkSeth]

Just saw highlights now. Much as we like to knock Aluko he had some nice touches and it was his tenacity that lead to the third.

only just watched them. Great goals for Joao. Some nice crosses and touches from Araruna (though ColU goal not great from his POV)

Who is that guy screaming his head off on the third goal? Couldn't work out if it was some ColU coach shouting at the ref or someone on our bench giving Araruna an earful for taking a quick free kick. Quite funny either way

Colchester number 8. Watch him again. Screams and swears at the ref, think its about the position the free kick was taken.

[Snowball]

Just saw highlights now. Much as we like to knock Aluko he had some nice touches and it was his tenacity that lead to the third.

only just watched them. Great goals for Joao. Some nice crosses and touches from Araruna (though ColU goal not great from his POV)

I can't remember it in real time, but on the highlights he looked like
he had been too far forward and had too much ground to make up

Colchester exploded our FBs being in advanced positions

BTW other than that Araruna did some good defensive work

[Snowflake Royal]

Olise is absolutely best in the attacking central midfield role. Can play anywhere across that front behind the striker.

Later in his career maybe as a playmaker but he's not suited now.

[SCIAG]

My concern with Olise is end product. He got an assist in the last match but that’s as many as he got all last season. Danny Loader got a lot of criticism for not taking his chances and they play in similar positions.

Extent to which Olise is a more creative player and therefore depends on the forwards taking their chances, but I would like to see more of him in the final third. He’s clearly got a lot of class but let’s see that turn into goals and assists.

Edit: also stamina but that shouldn’t be too hard to solve