BF I follow Barnsley

[royalp-we]

We certainly still need to start games better at home. I think everyone can agree it really wasn’t impressive up to Barnsley going down to 10.

If we persist with 1 up top at home, to actually create anything we NEED Swift, Olise and Ejaria to play closer together to create openings between them.

Olise and Ejaria were far too wide and too far from each other to create anything meaningful and it showed In the first half today. They simply are not wide players.

Two strikers at home with new wingers, or stick with our three best creative players behind the lone striker and work on things?

I guess it’s a good predicament to have for Pauno!

[royalp-we]

The only other thing I’ll add is that both Derby and Barnsley showed nothing up top, no presence at all.

Cardiff will be a real test for our defence next week with Kieffer Moore and with Watford the following week; there’s some far tougher games ahead.

[Zip]

The only other thing I’ll add is that both Derby and Barnsley showed nothing up top, no presence at all.

Cardiff will be a real test for our defence next week with Kieffer Moore and with Watford the following week; there’s some far tougher games ahead.

Yep Moore will be a handful.

[WestYorksRoyal]

The only other thing I’ll add is that both Derby and Barnsley showed nothing up top, no presence at all.

Cardiff will be a real test for our defence next week with Kieffer Moore and with Watford the following week; there’s some far tougher games ahead.

Yep Moore will be a handful.

Offsetting that, our best performances last year were underdog away performances and I feel we're naturally well set up to beat teams on the counter. Today was the sort of fixture which worries me more, and while we got 3 points I'm still not convinced about us at home and in game we're expected to win.

[Zip]

The only other thing I’ll add is that both Derby and Barnsley showed nothing up top, no presence at all.

Cardiff will be a real test for our defence next week with Kieffer Moore and with Watford the following week; there’s some far tougher games ahead.

Yep Moore will be a handful.

Offsetting that, our best performances last year were underdog away performances and I feel we're naturally well set up to beat teams on the counter. Today was the sort of fixture which worries me more, and while we got 3 points I'm still not convinced about us at home and in game we're expected to win.

Agreed.

[Chameleon]

I'm not convinced that Meite is very good technically at football. He doesn't have an outstanding touch, shooting can be streaky, and he doesn't link up amazingly with teammates. What he does do very well is showing up when we need him, and he absolutely cares an awful lot about doing well (for this club). When we're struggling to get a breakthrough he'll get himself into a position to score. Not since ALFie and the Big Bad Wolf have we had a player who while technically nothing special will work their heart out to score that breakthrough goal (and do it more often than not)

[Chameleon]

The only other thing I’ll add is that both Derby and Barnsley showed nothing up top, no presence at all.

Cardiff will be a real test for our defence next week with Kieffer Moore and with Watford the following week; there’s some far tougher games ahead.

Yep Moore will be a handful.

Offsetting that, our best performances last year were underdog away performances and I feel we're naturally well set up to beat teams on the counter. Today was the sort of fixture which worries me more, and while we got 3 points I'm still not convinced about us at home and in game we're expected to win.

Definitely, our team is built extremely well to make the most of rare opportunities and to counter quickly. Funnily enough we sort of did that well today. There were three clear opportunities (Swift marginally offside 3', Ejaria clipped by last defender on halfway for a yellow, Joao held back by last defender for a red) where had the whistle not been blown we would have more likely than not scored. Them deciding to take the cards disguised our good performance in this area.

[Old Man Andrews]

I'm not convinced that Meite is very good technically at football. He doesn't have an outstanding touch, shooting can be streaky, and he doesn't link up amazingly with teammates. What he does do very well is showing up when we need him, and he absolutely cares an awful lot about doing well (for this club). When we're struggling to get a breakthrough he'll get himself into a position to score. Not since ALFie and the Big Bad Wolf have we had a player who while technically nothing special will work their heart out to score that breakthrough goal (and do it more often than not)

Awful team board opinion.

[leon]

I'm not convinced that Meite is very good technically at football. He doesn't have an outstanding touch, shooting can be streaky, and he doesn't link up amazingly with teammates. What he does do very well is showing up when we need him, and he absolutely cares an awful lot about doing well (for this club). When we're struggling to get a breakthrough he'll get himself into a position to score. Not since ALFie and the Big Bad Wolf have we had a player who while technically nothing special will work their heart out to score that breakthrough goal (and do it more often than not)

Awful team board opinion.

Ok I’ll bite.

Why?

And you better make it good.

[Libertine]

Just popped in to say in my 50+ years of following sport I have yet to see a good loss or a bad win...that is all.

[Old Man Andrews]

I'm not convinced that Meite is very good technically at football. He doesn't have an outstanding touch, shooting can be streaky, and he doesn't link up amazingly with teammates. What he does do very well is showing up when we need him, and he absolutely cares an awful lot about doing well (for this club). When we're struggling to get a breakthrough he'll get himself into a position to score. Not since ALFie and the Big Bad Wolf have we had a player who while technically nothing special will work their heart out to score that breakthrough goal (and do it more often than not)

Awful team board opinion.

Ok I’ll bite.

Why?

And you better make it good.

You can't label someone playing in the second tier of English football who is on about 20k a week and who was spotted by PSG at a young age as not being good technically. I think there is truth in the fact his touch is sometimes poor and heavy but it is a bit ridiculous to suggest there is a massive issue with his overall technique.

Watch his performance in the Luton away game last season. If that isn't demonstrating decent enough technique I don't know what is. I think the poster may have used the wrong word in relation to Meite. "Raw" would have been a better adjective imo.

[Snowball]

Just popped in to say in my 50+ years of following sport I have yet to see a good loss or a bad win...that is all.

Agreed.

Arsenal yesterday were badly off-colour, and West Ham were often
all over them. But two class goals by the home team and Arsenal won 2-1

It's a cliche that good teams win when playing badly, but in the end
it's TAKING goals, that extra bit of class, that usually wins out.

When the results are "remember at the beginning of the season" the Almanacs
won't say reading or Arsenal were lucky. They will say they won, though.

[Snowflake Royal]

We certainly still need to start games better at home. I think everyone can agree it really wasn’t impressive up to Barnsley going down to 10.

If we persist with 1 up top at home, to actually create anything we NEED Swift, Olise and Ejaria to play closer together to create openings between them.

Olise and Ejaria were far too wide and too far from each other to create anything meaningful and it showed In the first half today. They simply are not wide players.

Two strikers at home with new wingers, or stick with our three best creative players behind the lone striker and work on things?

I guess it’s a good predicament to have for Pauno!

I thought we spent vast swathes of the first half playing into Barnsley's hand by playing extremely narrow and allowing them to squeeze the space and hunt in packs. Mick made several comments about being able to throw a blanket over the whole team. Olise spent half his time in the middle or even over on the left rather than out wide right.


The rule in football has always been the attacking team tries to spread play, stretch the opposition and make the pitch big whilst the defending team try to compact everything and make the pitch small.

We've been pretty poor at both of those for years. So often have our defensive shape spread and players pressing in ones or twos, defenders isolated or standing off. Whilst our attackers are often close together and marked by two or three opposition at once.

We needed to play out quicker and use the full width of the pitch better.

[Snowflake Royal]

Just popped in to say in my 50+ years of following sport I have yet to see a good loss or a bad win...that is all.

Agreed.

Arsenal yesterday were badly off-colour, and West Ham were often
all over them. But two class goals by the home team and Arsenal won 2-1

It's a cliche that good teams win when playing badly, but in the end
it's TAKING goals, that extra bit of class, that usually wins out.

When the results are "remember at the beginning of the season" the Almanacs
won't say reading or Arsenal were lucky. They will say they won, though.

Plymouth in 2005 being an obvious example of a good loss. Played well, got a bit unlucky against a good performance and could tell we looked like we'd have a good year. Went on to have an amazing year and I left the game happy.

You can't win em all, so losing is only really a big deal if you're doing it too often or it's a poor performance. Always being upset at losing just seems greedy to me. My take anyway.

[Nameless]

Absolutely, which is why I don't think you'll find me saying we wouldn't have won without the reds, but that we were somewhat lucky to get the reds and took advantage of them.

And why no one suggested you did...
Not sure why luck was involved. First one Joao was tripped by the last defender with a clear run on goal, second one was handball when ona yellow....

Last defender is an irrelevance.

For me, Joao was never beating the keeper to the ball, which makes it not a clear goalscoring opportunity, which makes it not a red.

I think what tipped the ref into the red is that there had already been one challenge taking down a player (Olise) trying to break through on goal (but who had absolutely no chance of getting to the ball first), so given this was closer and he'd already got a hard time from us on the first one he took the slightly easier option.

Also think it's hard to say the second was an arm in an unnatural position, but the game was already done by that point.

Being the last defender is certainly not an irrelevance.
It’s not in itself a reason to give a red but the position of other defenders is very much a factor and therefore if you are the last defender you don’t have the mitigating factor of another defender being able to make a legitimAte challenge.
Whether the keeper would have got there first is a tough one, he was well out of his area and I reckon there would have been every chance the end result could have actually been worse for Barnsley - if the defender had not pulled Joao back it could easily have been the keeper committing the foul. When you have a deliberate foul stopping a 50:50 between a striker and the keeper you are always going to consider that a goalscoring opportunity
Interesting to note the ref indicates the card was not for trip but for holding Joao back, hard to get a good view of that from the camera angle

[Snowflake Royal]

And why no one suggested you did...
Not sure why luck was involved. First one Joao was tripped by the last defender with a clear run on goal, second one was handball when ona yellow....

Last defender is an irrelevance.

For me, Joao was never beating the keeper to the ball, which makes it not a clear goalscoring opportunity, which makes it not a red.

I think what tipped the ref into the red is that there had already been one challenge taking down a player (Olise) trying to break through on goal (but who had absolutely no chance of getting to the ball first), so given this was closer and he'd already got a hard time from us on the first one he took the slightly easier option.

Also think it's hard to say the second was an arm in an unnatural position, but the game was already done by that point.

Being the last defender is certainly not an irrelevance.
It’s not in itself a reason to give a red but the position of other defenders is very much a factor and therefore if you are the last defender you don’t have the mitigating factor of another defender being able to make a legitimAte challenge.
Whether the keeper would have got there first is a tough one, he was well out of his area and I reckon there would have been every chance the end result could have actually been worse for Barnsley - if the defender had not pulled Joao back it could easily have been the keeper committing the foul. When you have a deliberate foul stopping a 50:50 between a striker and the keeper you are always going to consider that a goalscoring opportunity
Interesting to note the ref indicates the card was not for trip but for holding Joao back, hard to get a good view of that from the camera angle

Definite pull back (which Joao made the most of - legitimately).

The key is whether it's a clear goalscoring opportunity, the number of defenders around is not referenced in the law and it's not really helpful to talk about 'last defender's because it leads to a lot of misunderstanding about what should be red.

Defender fouls him, so the only consideration after that is who is favourite to get the ball. Keeper or striker. Fair enough if you think it's a 50/50, that would just about getting there for the red, but has nothing to do with the defender. I don't think it was close to 50/50 and the keeper was always clearing the ball.

[Snowflake Royal]

Michael Olise's post match interview was a bit painful. Usual cliches, looked nervous and awkward, didn't say a lot. Oh well, I guess no one is perfect!

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Michael Olise's post match interview was a bit painful. Usual cliches, looked nervous and awkward, didn't say a lot. Oh well, I guess no one is perfect!

I agree, felt for him.

Plus I thought he was French, is that just a family thing or does he have stronger ties?

Anyone know?

[Snowflake Royal]

Michael Olise's post match interview was a bit painful. Usual cliches, looked nervous and awkward, didn't say a lot. Oh well, I guess no one is perfect!

I agree, felt for him.

Plus I thought he was French, is that just a family thing or does he have stronger ties?

Anyone know?

Family I think.

[yuomi]

Michael Olise's post match interview was a bit painful. Usual cliches, looked nervous and awkward, didn't say a lot. Oh well, I guess no one is perfect!

I agree, felt for him.

Plus I thought he was French, is that just a family thing or does he have stronger ties?

Anyone know?

Family thing. He was born in England, and was also eligible for England and Nigeria.

According to wiki, his brother has played for England youth.