FC Köln 25/07/25

[James and his giant peach]

Is no one else really worried after watching that? What is essentially a half decent championship level team beat us easily and could have had more goals? I tell you now if the likes of Vestergaard, Coady, Skipp are still stinking out the side on day one then it will be a long season. Get Nelson in, get as many of the overpaid tripe out ASAP the team and whole place stinks. 

[Pliskin]

34 minutes ago, James and his giant peach said:

Is no one else really worried after watching that? What is essentially a half decent championship level team beat us easily and could have had more goals? I tell you now if the likes of Vestergaard, Coady, Skipp are still stinking out the side on day one then it will be a long season. Get Nelson in, get as many of the overpaid tripe out ASAP the team and whole place stinks. 

No. Marti needed to see something like that to help him wittle his team down. 
 

It does however highlight we have no midfield…. Not one that has players who are actually interested in being here. 

[honeybradger]

1 hour ago, James and his giant peach said:

Is no one else really worried after watching that? What is essentially a half decent championship level team beat us easily and could have had more goals? I tell you now if the likes of Vestergaard, Coady, Skipp are still stinking out the side on day one then it will be a long season. Get Nelson in, get as many of the overpaid tripe out ASAP the team and whole place stinks. 

They are a bundesliga side, they will be competing against the likes of Dortmund, Bayern, Leverkusen etc next season. 

 

They're better than most we will face in the championship. Think of a team around Everton's level.

[Jazzy_Jeff]

5 hours ago, Pliskin said:

No. Marti needed to see something like that to help him wittle his team down. 
 

It does however highlight we have no midfield…. Not one that has players who are actually interested in being here. 

I would sell them all apart from Page and start again.

 

I think that pre season has shown us that we have enough depth and quality throughout the squad apart from two areas - centre midfield and centre forward.

 

The rest of the window should be spent trying to get rid of those we don’t need and sign quality in those two areas. With the moves premier league clubs are making there might be some good loan opportunities coming up. 

[CrazyKopCorner]

It's going to be a good test for Marti because he doesn't strike me as someone who will suffer fools so Coady, Vesty, Soumare etc are in big trouble as they are complete at utter charlatans in taking big wages and providing so little to the team / squad. 

 

He needed to see it with us own eyes - Lets hope he's a cut above twiddle dim and twiddle dimmer 

[CrazyKopCorner]

17 minutes ago, Jazzy_Jeff said:

I would sell them all apart from Page and start again.

 

I think that pre season has shown us that we have enough depth and quality throughout the squad apart from two areas - centre midfield and centre forward.

 

The rest of the window should be spent trying to get rid of those we don’t need and sign quality in those two areas. With the moves premier league clubs are making there might be some good loan opportunities coming up. 

Spot on - we're desperate for a new midfield and a proper number 9. 

 

Strangely after struggling for wingers for years we've now got 2 absolute beauties and another couple who can do a job at this level. 

[LVFox]

Worrying how open we looked in midfield. Found Winks’ positioning really odd where he appeared too high on many occasions. I actually think, penalty aside, Skipp had a decent match and showed the energy needed for his role.

 

Vestegaard was horrific, as he always is and always has been.

 

Encouraged by Cifuentes early doors though, players look fit and engaged with his methods. Though McAteer showed all of his qualities off the ball and a tidy finish too. I think Jordan Ayew is showing some real quality over pre-season and I’m more than happy for him to play a decent role this year.

 

We really need to shift a few out this week, and look at bringing a couple in, but think we are getting very close to seeing our starting 11 for opening day (Ricardo and Mavididi injuries being the main question marks)

[Dahnsouff]

18 minutes ago, LVFox said:

Worrying how open we looked in midfield. Found Winks’ positioning really odd where he appeared too high on many occasions. I actually think, penalty aside, Skipp had a decent match and showed the energy needed for his role.

 

Vestegaard was horrific, as he always is and always has been.

 

Encouraged by Cifuentes early doors though, players look fit and engaged with his methods. Though McAteer showed all of his qualities off the ball and a tidy finish too. I think Jordan Ayew is showing some real quality over pre-season and I’m more than happy for him to play a decent role this year.

 

We really need to shift a few out this week, and look at bringing a couple in, but think we are getting very close to seeing our starting 11 for opening day (Ricardo and Mavididi injuries being the main question marks)

Agree with most of this.

Vestergaard did have one season when he was decent, that being under Maresca in the Championship, although I do think a repeat is now beyond him and he is done, and sad to say that looking at the horror show that is Vestergaard and Coady, and if he is willing Faes likely stays (as the lesser of three evils)

Winks. What was that?

Agree with Skipp, should be ok.

Ayew has lots of baggage after last season and since signing  but he will be fine.

Assume Wilf is gone.

Looking at our midfield, at least the defensive aspect of it, it is just as a big an issue as defence.

 

[lcfc sheff]

Marti needed that to see who’s worth keeping around

[LVFox]

5 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Agree with most of this.

Vestergaard did have one season when he was decent, that being under Maresca in the Championship, although I do think a repeat is now beyond him and he is done, and sad to say that looking at the horror show that is Vestergaard and Coady, and if he is willing Faes likely stays (as the lesser of three evils)

Winks. What was that?

Agree with Skipp, should be ok.

Ayew has lots of baggage after last season and since signing  but he will be fine.

Assume Wilf is gone.

Looking at our midfield, at least the defensive aspect of it, it is just as a big an issue as defence.

 

Even Vestegaards decent season under Enzo, was decent because he could start the tempo of the play from the back, his defensive performances were still largely worrying.

 

I can see Nelson and Coady working as a partnership, although will be interesting to know Marti’s thoughts on Souttar. Centre back partnership still up in the air that’s for sure 

 

 

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, LVFox said:

Even Vestegaards decent season under Enzo, was decent because he could start the tempo of the play from the back, his defensive performances were still largely worrying.

 

I can see Nelson and Coady working as a partnership, although will be interesting to know Marti’s thoughts on Souttar. Centre back partnership still up in the air that’s for sure 

Yes, defensively Jannik has always been a bomb scare, just under Enzo, he was able to offset the risk by sitting and pinging balls, defensively was still a liability.

 

Souttar is an interesting one I agree.

[Claudio Fannieri]

All I hope is that this trip away has given Marti sufficient opportunity to identify who he wants to keep and to also have spoken with everyone to clearly understand who is in and who wants out and from today Rudkin is busy shifting out the deadwood to create space for new players to come in and strengthen where required. 
 

Next weeks squad vs Fiorentina will be interesting as I would imagine it will be pretty much the squad expected for the opening league match. 

[Pliskin]

CB isn’t necessarily a problem, I would be starting with Okoli and Nelson. But to be fair, even Faes looked okay in his performances…. But I don’t know what kind of attitude he’s displaying behind the scenes. Vesty, Coady, Winks, Soumare all need to be binned. The CM is an issue, what the hell do we do there? I’m inclined to suggest Ndidi and Page? Or will Marti go for an inversion with Hamza? 
 

Certainly food for thought going forward. The spine of the team is still very much up in the air…. 

[Jazzy_Jeff]

For anyone who’s not heard the Pod, Mavididi had a tight groin and Ricardo a tight hamstring. Both precautionary.

 

Marti said same for VK but didn’t buy it! (Hopefully someone else will 👀)

[davieG]

One slow CB, one CB who doesn't have his heart in it, two slow DMs it's no wonder we get caught on the break. At one point they had 4 players counter attacking and in our PB we had one player and one just arriving both FBs.

[coolhandfox]

5 minutes ago, davieG said:

One slow CB, one CB who doesn't have his heart in it, two slow DMs it's no wonder we get caught on the break. At one point they had 4 players counter attacking and in our PB we had one player and one just arriving both FBs.

Hopefully Marti knows that not going to work as a combo.

[kingfox]

3 hours ago, LVFox said:

Worrying how open we looked in midfield. Found Winks’ positioning really odd where he appeared too high on many occasions. I actually think, penalty aside, Skipp had a decent match and showed the energy needed for his role.

It’s exactly why you can’t play Skipp and Winks as a combo. 
 

Against the Hungarian side last week, it was Winks playing deeper, while Skipp played more higher. In this game of course it was the other way around. But Winks’s best form for us came under Enzo as a midfield dictating “6”. Skipp’s best form came for Norwich as a midfield dictating “6”. 
 

I slightly worry more about Winks in a Marti setup than I do Skipp. If you play Winks, as I pointed out in this thread after the game, you must get in an N’golo Kante type midfielder to go alongside him. 
 

This game told Marti quite a lot, one of the main things being that a Winks-Skipp combo is a big no-no. 

[Spanner73]

Same old same old, nothing changes. 
Stale team, stale individuals that most clubs would have moved on long ago but that would involve some work wouldn’t it and that appears to be too much effort for Dumb and Dumber upstairs. 
Combinations that don’t work all over the pitch. 
Feel very sorry for season ticket holders who are going to spend hard earned money to watch more of the same. 
Hopefully 1 day this disastrous regime will come to an end. 
 

[FoxFossil]

Koln obviously did their homework as will every team in Championship. Break half hearted press, run at Vesty, Coady with pace. Skipp and Winks won't catch you. Florentina match now very interesting to see how Marti reacts. Begovitch in midfield?

[filthyfox]

13 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

Missed it. How did we play?

Doesn't really matter.  Lost 3-1 to a team we should have been closer to or better than.

[Suzie the Fox]

30 minutes ago, Spanner73 said:

Same old same old, nothing changes. 
Stale team, stale individuals that most clubs would have moved on long ago but that would involve some work wouldn’t it and that appears to be too much effort for Dumb and Dumber upstairs. 
Combinations that don’t work all over the pitch. 
Feel very sorry for season ticket holders who are going to spend hard earned money to watch more of the same. 
Hopefully 1 day this disastrous regime will come to an end. 
 

TBF Marti has only been here 2 weeks, he's hardly going to move mountains in that short time. At least he IS trying a different approach and thats *should* make it less stale with the same players. 

 

At least we have the starts to an identity again, which certainly couldnt be said with either of the last 2 managers.  

[Sol thewall Bamba]

2 hours ago, Pliskin said:

CB isn’t necessarily a problem, I would be starting with Okoli and Nelson. But to be fair, even Faes looked okay in his performances…. But I don’t know what kind of attitude he’s displaying behind the scenes. Vesty, Coady, Winks, Soumare all need to be binned. The CM is an issue, what the hell do we do there? I’m inclined to suggest Ndidi and Page? Or will Marti go for an inversion with Hamza? 
 

Certainly food for thought going forward. The spine of the team is still very much up in the air…. 

The biggest issue we have is that the players that don't want to be here take up the most important positions. 4/5 CBs have been linked away over the last year or two, most of the centre midfielders are actively trying to leave or like Winks are just downing tools. Then there's the "striker" options. 

 

It's a mess really.

[Spanner73]

4 minutes ago, Suzie the Fox said:

TBF Marti has only been here 2 weeks, he's hardly going to move mountains in that short time. At least he IS trying a different approach and thats *should* make it less stale with the same players. 

 

At least we have the starts to an identity again, which certainly couldnt be said with either of the last 2 managers.  

Totally agree but like I’ve said before guy is on the back foot the day he took the job because he got it too late, as usual everything is too late and too slow and now he’s going to realise what he needs, nothing changes, It’s Cooper all over again, getting Dumb and Dumber to complete transfers is like pushing a double decker up a mountain. 

[Ian Nacho]

Whilst it wasn't the best of performances I don't think you can read too much into it especially with there being a mix of senior and youth players. 

[jmono84]

JV can’t play this season. Their first goal he just gave up, couldn’t be arsed to chase the runner and decided to stop, maybe trying to block the pass but he wasn’t anywhere near it.

 Same for the second, he needed to go out to that free player who scored but he wasn’t switched on, even when he got the ball he should have done a lot more to try and close down the shot. Just a complete lack of desire on two occasions, we have way too many players like this in our team! Let’s hope the new manager sees this too and boots out the likes of JV and Soumare!