LCFCJohn

I do think people are a bit carried away about Southampton at the moment. They have been on a similar points return to the rest of us but have just won their last couple of games. Bare in mind even we beat Preston 3-0 at home and they scraped past Watford 3-2 at home, a fixture we won comfortably. They are being feared as they have two 6 pointers against us and Leeds. If they win out the rest including those, they will get promoted and absolutely fair play to them if they do as they will deserve it. They have not done too well against us, Leeds and Ipswich with 1 win and 3 defeats in those 4 head to heads so far so let’s see if they have improved to the point they will turn up in these two games.

So what Ipswich call Saturday 4.50-4.55pm then?

If we have to worry about Southampton given the points buffer we still have on them, then we haven’t done our job anyway and don’t deserve to go up. Good point about Preston being out of the mix when we play them so tempting for a Southampton win on that basis. The point of them having something to play for against Leeds is moot really given we play them first.

I did defend him a lot and that was mainly because I felt he was too harshly judged being played sporadically and only have played under Rodgers as things deteriorated. But, I’m disappointed he hasn’t kicked on since being brought back into the side. He’s been given a good run in the side and at a lower level. The sort of chances he misses are the type that a striker at any level should score and he must have been putting away for fun in Austria. I suspect he will probably do well if he does go elsewhere as often seems to be the case. Would really love for him to get a couple of key goals in these final games though. Just looks like his confidence is non-existent.

Well I didn’t realise suggesting he wasn’t elite in every area would be such a controversial view! I didn’t suggest he was crap or anything, maybe I worded my thoughts wrong but basically I feel his strength is with his feet and when it comes to shot stopping he is more ‘part of the pack’ in terms of not being head and shoulders ahead (which with his feet he probably is). Recency bias comes in as well but I don’t recall anything game winning or point saving for some time. It’s not like there’s any examples coming to mind where you think he should have saved them, but more he saves what he should, no mistakes. But not gone the other way either. But yeah, it’s a long season and I’m sure when the team were playing well and keeping clean sheets there would have been examples.

Of course we could. We have been in relegation form for the last 10 games or so with this squad. Take the genuine quality out, add a points deduction and the sides coming up from League 1 you’d expect to do well, the likes of Portsmouth and Derby. None of them look like a ‘Rotherham’. If we stay down with a points deduction, it should hardly be a surprise to anyone if we went down to League 1 next year.

Depends. Look how hard Rodgers tried to get sacked and the worst he did the more Top lapped it up! If that becomes a theme, possibly even due to finances, it might take so long to get to that point, for someone who has some integrity, they might decide it’s not worth it. But yeah, I agree with the principle of your point. That’s why I think those saying he’ll be gone if we go up are wrong. We won’t sack him regardless of if we go up or stay down. He won’t walk. So unless we go up and somebody comes in for him.

I think it’s just the fact that these managers, be it Enzo, Rodgers and many more, moan about fixtures and tiredness etc and don’t use their squad. It’s hardly just an Enzo thing. If you want to only trust the same 13/14 players and not involve the rest of your squad, ok, that’s your prerogative as manager. Just don’t complain about the fixtures and tiredness.

He doesn’t. I barely remember him making any saves that you wouldn’t expect from a competent keeper or to win us points all season. People get sucked in by his ability on the ball and yes, that has been a beneficial element for us and he’s clearly excellent in that sense. But in terms of what a goalkeeper is primarily there to do, shot stopping, he’s very much average in that area. Same with Faes in defence. Not that our fans getter sucked in but Enzo clearly does, by his ability to carry the ball out. But in his case, that is nowhere near worth the detriment of his actually defending and the sheer volume of goals being given away as a direct result of him.

Should probably have an end of the season option on this. There’s not point making a change at this stage in the season, but I do not want to see him in charge come the start of next. But it’s Top we are talking about. He will no doubt wait until we are staring relegation to League 1 in the face next Spring (quite likely with point deductions to come) before making the change far too late again.

It’s a good job he isn’t managing Truro City. Imagine what his thoughts in scheduling would be…. 1 Apr Chippenham Town 0 - 0 4 Apr Hemel Hempstead Town 0 - 2 6 Apr Aveley 1 - 1 8 Apr Torquay United 1 - 2 10 Apr Eastbourne Borough 0 - 0 11 Apr Yeovil Town 0 - 2 13 Apr Maidstone United 3pm 16 Apr Dover Athletic 7.45pm 18 Apr Weymouth 7.45pm 20 Apr Dartford 3pm

He wouldn’t probably be interested now and cost too much but last summer I (and some others) were suggesting Mark Robins as it was obvious we needed a rebuilding job (even though the extent of the finances were not apparent then) and he had picked up Coventry at a low point in league two and had year on year improvement with them. I and those others were laughed at as clearly he wasn’t a fancy enough name but he’s having another top year with them lot and I think he’d have been a very good shout to navigate us through this time.

Not saying you won’t be right necessarily about the outcome but West Brom and Southampton are at home. Only Plymouth and Preston left away.

8 subs in the second half is 4 minutes and of course there’ll have been a minute elsewhere without even looking at the game. I don’t think that one needs overthinking to be fair!

Oh yeah all those last minute wins! They must be referring to that very narrow 4-0 late win against Swansea. Or that 2-0 win over Sunderland… Or Leicester 1-0 Southampton (38th min) or Palace 0-1 Leicester (34th minute) or was it the wins over Newcastle and Watford (25th min and 56th min) Literally had one late winner in that run of months against Norwich!

If Southampton won every game they would likely go up as they’ll have taken points off us and Leeds. As someone said above, if they won their games in hand and Leeds, they are level with them. Winning their games in hand would also put them 4 points behind us and I’d be surprised if we don’t throw at least 4 points away from our other games so I’d be certain they’d go up if they won all their games. But they won’t so moot point really!

Middlesbrough to play Ipswich and Leeds is an interesting one based on their form…..

The two wins have kept us in not just in contention but still the driving seat. So we haven’t f***ed it yet but we are sure trying our best (the same could be said for Leeds currently). If we fail from here, it is because we have simply lost too many games and are too easily beaten. 9 games (and counting) is far too much for a side with our targets. We only lost 6 all season last time we came up and Burnley only lost 3 last season (Luton only lost 8 themselves). When a team falls short, you can look and see that it is down to too many defeats or too many draws that weren’t turned into wins. We have definitely won enough games. You can’t win every game but what Enzo and this squad seem incapable of doing is when having a bad day, if you can’t win, at least don’t lose mentality. Even if we turned 3/4 of those 9 defeats into draws, we’d be looking excellent right now. You look at the other end of the table and Huddersfield have won a lot less than those around them but lost a lot less but loads of draws so if they go down, they’ll be bemoaning not turning draws into wins. Ironically the games we have thrown away late points have been the draws (Ipswich x2 and Wednesday away). This also shows we have been quite easily beaten in our defeats (by which I mean not having lost late on).

It’s not. Any other season maybe but Burnley and Sheff Utd are absolutely dire! They are wasting space in that league. It does increase the chance one of them may go down if Luton can scrap away and pick up a few more points!

This isn’t advocating either Enzo going or bringing in Cooper but would you rather go up and have a season like Forest last season or Burnley this where they are trying to play the ‘Pep way’ under Kompany and not laying a glove on anyone and getting beaten each week? Also, signing the amount of players they did, for me, hindered Cooper and didn’t help him. Their style in the season they came up was much easier on the eye. Had they signed up their loanees and made a small number of additional, sensible signings, I think (sadly) they’d have done even better than they did.

Oh yes I agree there. Although Ndidi was out for a while and those we had in his place weren’t really making that run/option. I agree also about him shooting. This is my point really, mix it up. You don’t want him cutting in and shooting everything time, or cutting in and crossing. Same as even if the number 8 is making the run to the byline every time, you don’t want him to always play that ball either. Mix it up and a healthy unpredictability is what we need.

It was earlier in the season. I remember loads of opportunities coming as a result. It also kills momentum if your winger is always cutting inside and putting crosses in to nobody because they haven’t got another option. As I say, it works when implemented correctly and when there are options arriving in the box.

I don’t think he needs to stop that. I see that as a key feature of the set up with the number 8 running behind. I suppose it replaces the overlapping full back in a more conventional set up. When Ndidi was out, I also thought we missed the outlet. Passing it out of play is the quality of implementation not the idea. Someone said on another thread that he should sometimes use the Ndidi outlet to then cut inside. I agree with that. It’s about not being predictable and not doing the same thing. Either use the outlet or use as a decoy.

Relief more than anything! Excellent results all round and vital we took advantage. It would have been very deflating to only draw with the other losing. 95% of me is completely delighted with that as it is just about winning at this stage. There are no expectations from me to be rolling teams by 3 and 4. I just need them to show effort, fight and a stronger mentality than they have until recently. Getting the winner last minute is sweet given Ipswich and Leeds of late! The remaining 5% still wants to have the confidence you had in sides like 2016 to grind results out. There is still a feeling of fragility which is maybe caused by the way in which we still give goals away. That said, the last two games have shown a lot more character, to come from behind to win and to win today late on!

Right now do our own bloody job!