MATCHWATCH : Blackpool (a)

[Vision]

FYI @Hound - Whoscored had Ejaria as our joint second best player today on the ratings. No chance. That's why I don't rate those ratings.

Pretty much the only opportunity we actually created was when he, for once, went outside his man and put a good ball across the box which Meite and then Hoilett failed to convert.

He was dreadful for the first 25 minutes or so but after that I can totally see how he would feature as one of our better players.

I also can’t help but think that if Ejaria had delivered the consistently poor final balls that Hoilett and Ince did in the second half he’d be getting pelters on here because when it comes down to it all 3 are incredibly inconsistent in that department .

[Snowflake Royal]

Did Yiadom not play RWB? His heat map suggests he did..

He played RCB but second half you could maybe argue we reverted to 4 at the back with him RB. He certainly led the charge a lot.

I couldn't figure out the formation at all. For a while I thought it was a 4-4-2 with Ince as a second striker who just wasn't playing as a striker. Anyway. Let's move on quickly.

That's because it's a disorganised dysfunctional mess.

[Vision]

Second half we were the ones pushing. We absolutely 100% could have taken off a defender or a midfielder for Long with 20 / 30 minutes to go. We could have given Scott a go on the wing over Ejaria. Or freshened up midfield with Leavy.

Minimum expectation there is a substitution by 75 minutes at the latest and at least one more around 80.

It's a very odd habit that both Paunovic and Ince seem to have, very strange not to go hell for leather with 10 minutes left. I understand that we have a young bench but sometimes you have to put your trust in them and hope for the best.

Yeah I suppose you could argue that we were playing ok so Ince didn’t want to break up the small amount of momentum we’d built up but I can’t shake the feeling that Ince ( and also Bowen ) is not a manager that particularly trusts young players . I get that Long probably only had 10-15 minutes in him but to completely ignore the rest of the bench on the opening day of the season in trying conditions suggests he has zero faith in them .

[Jagermesiter1871]

No need to panic yet, let's judge it after a month. Think Loum and Sarr will make a difference.

Not really sure how Sarr will make much difference, Holmes and McIntyre both played pretty well. NGW looked ok. At best it frees up Yiadom to play RWB, but that means dropping Hoilett probably. Not really much of a plus for me.

Loum presumably for Fornah could be handy. But it wasn't really any of the cogs that were the problem for me, it was the way they were put together.

I thought NGW looked awful; another day and he solely could have cost us 3 goals.

[Snowflake Royal]

FYI @Hound - Whoscored had Ejaria as our joint second best player today on the ratings. No chance. That's why I don't rate those ratings.

Pretty much the only opportunity we actually created was when he, for once, went outside his man and put a good ball across the box which Meite and then Hoilett failed to convert.

He was dreadful for the first 25 minutes or so but after that I can totally see how he would feature as one of our better players.

I also can’t help but think that if Ejaria had delivered the consistently poor final balls that Hoilett and Ince did in the second half he’d be getting pelters on here because when it comes down to it all 3 are incredibly inconsistent in that department .

They at least consistently attempt to deliver balls in, and both play at the right tempo.

Absolutely stunning ball across the goal by Meite that Ejaria watched whistle through rather than be in position to tuck away.

[Hound]

Second half we were the ones pushing. We absolutely 100% could have taken off a defender or a midfielder for Long with 20 / 30 minutes to go. We could have given Scott a go on the wing over Ejaria. Or freshened up midfield with Leavy.

Minimum expectation there is a substitution by 75 minutes at the latest and at least one more around 80.

It's a very odd habit that both Paunovic and Ince seem to have, very strange not to go hell for leather with 10 minutes left. I understand that we have a young bench but sometimes you have to put your trust in them and hope for the best.

Yeah I suppose you could argue that we were playing ok so Ince didn’t want to break up the small amount of momentum we’d built up but I can’t shake the feeling that Ince ( and also Bowen ) is not a manager that particularly trusts young players . I get that Long probably only had 10-15 minutes in him but to completely ignore the rest of the bench on the opening day of the season in trying conditions suggests he has zero faith in them .

Yep get that feeling as well. Also not sure how much he rates Fornah

[Snowflake Royal]

It's a very odd habit that both Paunovic and Ince seem to have, very strange not to go hell for leather with 10 minutes left. I understand that we have a young bench but sometimes you have to put your trust in them and hope for the best.

Yeah I suppose you could argue that we were playing ok so Ince didn’t want to break up the small amount of momentum we’d built up but I can’t shake the feeling that Ince ( and also Bowen ) is not a manager that particularly trusts young players . I get that Long probably only had 10-15 minutes in him but to completely ignore the rest of the bench on the opening day of the season in trying conditions suggests he has zero faith in them .

Yep get that feeling as well. Also not sure how much he rates Fornah

Given he signed him, hopefully quite highly. Or not sure he should have bothered.

[Hound]

Could have been a Bowen call

[Snowflake Royal]

Could have been a Bowen call

That would be worryingly dysfunctional if our DoF is signing players the manager doesn’t rate.

[Vision]

Yeah I suppose you could argue that we were playing ok so Ince didn’t want to break up the small amount of momentum we’d built up but I can’t shake the feeling that Ince ( and also Bowen ) is not a manager that particularly trusts young players . I get that Long probably only had 10-15 minutes in him but to completely ignore the rest of the bench on the opening day of the season in trying conditions suggests he has zero faith in them .

Yep get that feeling as well. Also not sure how much he rates Fornah

Given he signed him, hopefully quite highly. Or not sure he should have bothered.

Again we’re assuming he has final say on all the players that arrive and I’m not sure that’s the case . By his own admission in the week we were desperate to cover central midfield so reckon he’d have taken pretty much anyone. FWIW I thought like most of the team he got better as the game went on .

[Hound]

Could have been a Bowen call

That would be worryingly dysfunctional if our DoF is signing players the manager doesn’t rate.

Not sure he’d necessarily have known much about him. He didn’t trial

Anyway just a feeling rather than basing it on anything more than a few quotes

[Hound]

Did we threaten from the corners

Suspect with Holmes, Sarr,McIntyre, Loum, Meite and Joao (if and when fit) will be big targets from them. Surely a big source of goals this season.

Need the delivery to be good of course

[Vision]

FYI @Hound - Whoscored had Ejaria as our joint second best player today on the ratings. No chance. That's why I don't rate those ratings.

Pretty much the only opportunity we actually created was when he, for once, went outside his man and put a good ball across the box which Meite and then Hoilett failed to convert.

He was dreadful for the first 25 minutes or so but after that I can totally see how he would feature as one of our better players.

I also can’t help but think that if Ejaria had delivered the consistently poor final balls that Hoilett and Ince did in the second half he’d be getting pelters on here because when it comes down to it all 3 are incredibly inconsistent in that department .

They at least consistently attempt to deliver balls in, and both play at the right tempo.

Absolutely stunning ball across the goal by Meite that Ejaria watched whistle through rather than be in position to tuck away.

You mean where Ejaria dropped for the pull back and it got delivered across the box . The same as he did when Hoilett got free and lobbed the ball tamely into the keepers hands.

It seems to happen a lot to us that supposedly good balls are delivered where nobody has made a run .

I mean we finally have someone who can take a reasonably long throw and basically rule 1 for that is it’s a near post flick for someone to come in at the far post . Near post flick was won and nobody was coming in on it .

Don’t know if it’s the players who are not clued up or the coaching staff but for some reason that infuriated me more than pretty much anything else in the game .

[Brogue]

Is it too early for an ince out poll

[NathStPaul]

Is it too early for an ince out poll

Poll Ince

[NewCorkSeth]

For several seasons now I have admired and defended Ejaria, perhaps excessively, but now I find myself realising we can't use him. A player who can only provide "on his day" and slows down play to his tempo in the attacking third just cabt be relied on for a team in the position we are in.

I know he'll play a lot because he's clearly got buckets of talent but honestly, I'd rather have another full back (lol, like we have one) play on that wing.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Just got back from the game, disappointing all around really. Not enough up front and our midfield was being bypassed yet again in the opening half. NGW struggled up against Bowler all afternoon who caused him issues and we didn't start quickly enough, poor goal to give away as well really.

There's a serious lack of creativity in the side really now and not one player ever looked like scoring. Poor decision making in and around the penalty box and a lack of a ruthless in front of goal. We probably should have drawn, but it was a pretty poor game in all honesty. Meite and Hoilett definitely should be doing better with those chances, at least one has to go away. Wasted the (generally little) that we created and it was a sloppy goal to give away. Nobody really stood out either for us. Fiorini was the best player on the pitch as well today, Bowler caused a lot of issues and Williams and Ekpiteta dealt with most things thrown at him, granted not much.

P.Ince takes some blame as well here. Had some impetuous in the game after about 60 minutes and, even though we didn't have much on the bench at all, Long had to come on sooner. He started warming up on about 73 minutes and it took us 10 minutes from that point and even when he did come on he came on the left. Should have switched it up to a 4-4-2 at that point and stretched the defence more. Hopefully Loum and Sarr can come in and give some more depth to the team and quality as well as Omari Hutchsinson (if we get him) to provide us with more creative quality.

[South Coast Royal]

Did we threaten from the corners

Suspect with Holmes, Sarr,McIntyre, Loum, Meite and Joao (if and when fit) will be big targets from them. Surely a big source of goals this season.

Need the delivery to be good of course

No, we didn't threaten from corners with Blackpool's 2 central defenders having a distinct advantage height wise.
We were very fortunate not to concede early in the second half and again towards the end.
In the second half we had a lot of possession without doing much with it and their keeper had very little to do all game.

I posted earlier that I had heard that Joao will be out for 8-10 weeks but hopefully that is not the case otherwise we might well struggle to score in these early games and if the rumour is correct about Joao that means him missing about a quarter of the season.

One piece of encouragement though was that we didn't suffer from lack of fitness so we can probably anticipate plenty of effort even if the quality isn't there.
Only 45 games to go.

[The Royal Forester]

Joint bottom.

We are not bottom. Stoke have conceded more goals than us. We are joint 20th. on goal difference/scored. at least we are above the dotted line.

[NewCorkSeth]

Did we threaten from the corners

Suspect with Holmes, Sarr,McIntyre, Loum, Meite and Joao (if and when fit) will be big targets from them. Surely a big source of goals this season.

Need the delivery to be good of course

No, we didn't threaten from corners with Blackpool's 2 central defenders having a distinct advantage height wise.
We were very fortunate not to concede early in the second half and again towards the end.
In the second half we had a lot of possession without doing much with it and their keeper had very little to do all game.

I posted earlier that I had heard that Joao will be out for 8-10 weeks but hopefully that is not the case otherwise we might well struggle to score in these early games and if the rumour is correct about Joao that means him missing about a quarter of the season.

One piece of encouragement though was that we didn't suffer from lack of fitness so we can probably anticipate plenty of effort even if the quality isn't there.
Only 45 games to go.

Our corners pretty much all went far post didn't they? Very far post. Too far post. Except for one in the second half that was played short. I missed it because they were showing the replay of the previous corner.