MATCHWATCH : Burton Albion (a)

[Brogue]

This transfer window can’t be helping player mentality, pretty much every player has been linked to be off somewhere. Contracts up for everyone in the squad. Agents probably in the players ears. The focus isn’t there. Get this transfer window out the way and concentrate on the next 4 months. Playoffs are now gone. We need to regroup and focus on the remaining games of the season and getting these 9 points on the board. Why we have given hunt 3 years I just don’t know. And that’s nothing against hunt per se, I’d be equally bamboozled giving any manager a 3 year contract in this day and age.

[Royal Ginger]

That might have some bearing but it feels like it’s much more to do with Hunt not having a clue how to organise a defence.

[ILoveMoonPig]

To be fair to Hunt, anyone in his job right now has absolutely nowhere to hide. There's no hiding behind some expensive transfers, no yearly refresh of players, there's no blaming the previous coach. It's purely down to tactics, training and man management. He's still inexperienced at first team management, so it's a baptism of fire. I do think he'll come good, given time. He needs to see what areas he's less strong at in order to improve those areas.

[Snowflake Royal]

And there’s the one we all expected.

evening Ian

Blast and drat him.

I was playing the odds. I lost.

Well done, called it right.

[Snowflake Royal]

Garcia looking out of his depth again

However the team generally is not getting much luck (just waiting for the next “no penalty” decision to happen now).

Think it’s at least better than both the pathetic recent showings though.

Increasingly, I'm of the opinion Garcia has had too much hype and exposure too soon.

He's to weak and small physically to defend, and too inexperienced to make up for that with nous, and he's got no idea when to pass, or shoot or cross to be an attacker.

He looks technically good, but woefully out of his depth. Having good ball control and being quick isn't enough. Kanu, obviously much more limited as a player, and still makes a lot of mistakes, but better able to defend.

We have to start using our one fit non-teen actual fullback. Abrefa has to start, whether RB or LB.

[Snowflake Royal]

To be fair to Hunt, anyone in his job right now has absolutely nowhere to hide. There's no hiding behind some expensive transfers, no yearly refresh of players, there's no blaming the previous coach. It's purely down to tactics, training and man management. He's still inexperienced at first team management, so it's a baptism of fire. I do think he'll come good, given time. He needs to see what areas he's less strong at in order to improve those areas.

To be fair to Hunt.
P10, W3, D2, L5
Selles first 10:
W3, D1, L6

And Selles went on to get 1 point from his next 6 games.

Report card after 10 games, certainly improvement needed. But it's still over a point a game. Which would see us safe with a points deduction.

[katweslowski]

I watched on TV with BBCRB commentary.

I heard this exchange around the 85th minute:

Tim: Savage hasn't stopped running. Amazing. He must have covered 9-10km

Glenn Little: I remember when I was playing, I'd run about 10... Not km, the other one

Tim: miles?

Glenn: maybe, it may be miles. Yea I ran 10 miles in a game ... Or is it miles?

Tim: could it be furlongs?

[katweslowski]

I only saw glimpses tonight but did Wing have a bad game again?!

That's several now on the bounce. Basics just not happening like missed passes, trying to be clever, wasted free kicks.

I'm sick to oxf*rd death of playing from the back. It's infuriating that every single time (and all teams and leagues now) the keeper roles it our and we're faced with a boring 1-2 minutes of passing around the back.

[Royal_jimmy]

To be fair to Hunt, anyone in his job right now has absolutely nowhere to hide. There's no hiding behind some expensive transfers, no yearly refresh of players, there's no blaming the previous coach. It's purely down to tactics, training and man management. He's still inexperienced at first team management, so it's a baptism of fire. I do think he'll come good, given time. He needs to see what areas he's less strong at in order to improve those areas.

To be fair to Hunt.
P10, W3, D2, L5
Selles first 10:
W3, D1, L6

And Selles went on to get 1 point from his next 6 games.

Report card after 10 games, certainly improvement needed. But it's still over a point a game. Which would see us safe with a points deduction.

Selles had a much tougher hand than Hunt has had. Not fair to compare like for like really. Selles had to deal with a complete turnover of players and settling them in. Also relegation is always a psychological hangover. Whereas Hunt took over a fairly settled squad where most of us could name our strongest 11

[Royal_jimmy]

Very disappointed to lose that. 2-2 after a 2-0 deficit wouldn't have been amazing but it'd have given Hunt a result to take to Saturdays game. He needs a result soon before he gets proper stick from fans.

I see a few issues here including the player future uncertainty.

I was at that game and to be honest we didn't deserve to lose it, based on the balance of play they took most of their chances and we dominated much of the match. We lost because we've forgotten how to defend. 8 goals conceded in 3 games isn't great. You can do all the hard work but if you don't get basic defending right you're not going to win many games let alone draw them.

Need Mbengue back ASAP and we need Yiadom back. Not only that but Hunt needs to identify what's changed as we look so fragile defensively now. The defenders have no system, no prep for how to deal with attacks and we continue to let in similar goals time and again.

Wing is currently playing too deep. Opposition are exploiting that as they know when he's in our half there's very little he can do to influence the game creatively or as a goal threat. Could maybe give some opposition credit here but Hunt should change it up, be unpredictable and give them something to think about. Easier said than done with a paper thin squad though.

Hunt needs to learn quickly and get the defence addressed.

When was the last time we scored a stoppage time winner. Infuriating to see us concede plenty of late goals without ever scoring them.

[stealthpapes]

I watched on TV with BBCRB commentary.

I heard this exchange around the 85th minute:

Tim: Savage hasn't stopped running. Amazing. He must have covered 9-10km

Glenn Little: I remember when I was playing, I'd run about 10... Not km, the other one

Tim: miles?

Glenn: maybe, it may be miles. Yea I ran 10 miles in a game ... Or is it miles?

Tim: could it be furlongs?

Glen Little didn't run 10 miles in his life.

[Sutekh]

I watched on TV with BBCRB commentary.

I heard this exchange around the 85th minute:

Tim: Savage hasn't stopped running. Amazing. He must have covered 9-10km

Glenn Little: I remember when I was playing, I'd run about 10... Not km, the other one

Tim: miles?

Glenn: maybe, it may be miles. Yea I ran 10 miles in a game ... Or is it miles?

Tim: could it be furlongs?

He meant 10 feet.

[leon]

To be fair to Hunt, anyone in his job right now has absolutely nowhere to hide. There's no hiding behind some expensive transfers, no yearly refresh of players, there's no blaming the previous coach. It's purely down to tactics, training and man management. He's still inexperienced at first team management, so it's a baptism of fire. I do think he'll come good, given time. He needs to see what areas he's less strong at in order to improve those areas.

To be fair to Hunt.
P10, W3, D2, L5
Selles first 10:
W3, D1, L6

And Selles went on to get 1 point from his next 6 games.

Report card after 10 games, certainly improvement needed. But it's still over a point a game. Which would see us safe with a points deduction.

Selles had a much tougher hand than Hunt has had. Not fair to compare like for like really. Selles had to deal with a complete turnover of players and settling them in. Also relegation is always a psychological hangover. Whereas Hunt took over a fairly settled squad where most of us could name our strongest 11

I’m no Selles fanboy but to compare equally the situations that he and Hunt inherited is laughable.

Selles had to bolt a side together and make it function. Hunt has taken a fairly settled side doing well and turned it into a something disfunctional.

The defence looks abysmal. Yes we’re missing Mbenge but we’re letting wide balls in every time. Every time.

Wing is utterly ineffectual at the base of midfield.

[blythspartan]

This transfer window can’t be helping player mentality, pretty much every player has been linked to be off somewhere. Contracts up for everyone in the squad. Agents probably in the players ears. The focus isn’t there. Get this transfer window out the way and concentrate on the next 4 months. Playoffs are now gone. We need to regroup and focus on the remaining games of the season and getting these 9 points on the board. Why we have given hunt 3 years I just don’t know. And that’s nothing against hunt per se, I’d be equally bamboozled giving any manager a 3 year contract in this day and age.

With regards to Hunt’s length of contract I suspect he didn’t really want the job, but maybe didn’t have much choice. He knows that if we ever get new owners he’s likely to lose his job, so he may have insisted on a 3 deal as added security. That’s what I’d have done if I was in his shoes.

[Stranded]

The only shit I can muster about current results is the energy it has taken me to write this.

Games are just window dressing at the moment - hopefully it turns around but a run like this was always likely, even if Selles stayed, and more likely because he left - add in the fact that a lot of players will have half an eye on getting out, then defeats were always on the cards.

Once the window shuts, it may improve again but until the club is secure, it just doesn't matter a jot.

[Hound]

The only shit I can muster about current results is the energy it has taken me to write this.

Games are just window dressing at the moment - hopefully it turns around but a run like this was always likely, even if Selles stayed, and more likely because he left - add in the fact that a lot of players will have half an eye on getting out, then defeats were always on the cards.

Once the window shuts, it may improve again but until the club is secure, it just doesn't matter a jot.

Yeah that pretty much. Dai has killed any real emotion about the games themselves. Just about surviving until he does one

Can’t even get excited about individuals coming through like Bindon etc as you know they’ll just leave now or in 6 months

[Hound]

On a slightly more positive note, we did seem to play some quite good stuff second half

I’m going to caveat this by saying I was watching on the phone whilst watching something else on TV, but we seemed to get the ball down and play much faster and more incisive. We actually looked pretty good going forward whilst still shaky at the back

Also, and again stand to be totally corrected as didn’t have sound on etc; but looked like we had a couple of clear pens not given again - that goalmouth scramble thing and Knibbs just before our second goal? Was there an adequate explanation as to why not given?

[windermereROYAL]

Absolutely astonishing all the Hunt out calls on the usual platform, and do what exactly?
Where have these brain dead baboons been for the last two years???

[URZZZZ]

Think people are really under estimating the impact losing Mbengue has had on us. This high line we’re playing with effectively no fullbacks in the squad was bailed out time and time again by Mbengue so trying to replicate that with Dean was always going to create problems

Which is naivety on Hunt’s part for not adjusting to that and dropping the line but for all the Hunt vs Selles comparisons, I’m not sure we’d be seeing a vast change in results with Selles still here as he wasn’t particularly renowned for being flexible himself

Thought we were better yesterday although Burton aren’t quite on the same level as Orient or Stockport. Camara a bit of an unsung hero, good cameo off the bench and we seem more controlled and incisive when he’s on the pitch as opposed to Ehibhatiomhan who flatters most weeks (aware he’s had an injury but zero goals/assists in his last 13 appearances isn’t good enough)

[katweslowski]

Absolutely astonishing all the Hunt out calls on the usual platform, and do what exactly?
Where have these brain dead baboons been for the last two years???

Agree and I don't read or access twitter anymore but I can just imagine.

It's also very stupid because we're incredibly lucky to have Hunt and Mikele Leigertwood here. Two players with a connection to the club and academy experience.

They're not two randoms we've found.

The reason for highlighting this is despite the crisis this club is still in, and has been for at least 3 years, we've got these people here at the club.

Imagine how much more shit it would be trying to find random people and then one day see a club announcement of "we've appointed David Franklin" who no one has ever heard of

Spoilt oxf*rd and he's barely started in his job