Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00pm

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Fri Sep 18, 2020 8:54 pm

As the game draws closer, I’m increasingly thinking Evatt’s quick fix will be inverting his midfield triangle - instead of having a “No.10” in front of two midfielders, he’ll have more of a holder - possibly Tutte - with two in front of him, probably Sarce and Crawford. We seemed to get stuck in the halfway line with Gordon, White, Comley and Jones struggling to find someone a few yards further forward to bounce off in an attempt to get up the pitch.

Dunno if it’ll happen. Dunno if it’ll work if it does. But it’s a forum, so..,

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by officer_dibble » Fri Sep 18, 2020 9:36 pm

Who knows. He is a hard man to predict so far. Stumped up me £10 now. Approaching with trepidation...

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by LeverEnd » Fri Sep 18, 2020 9:38 pm

officer_dibble wrote:
Fri Sep 18, 2020 9:36 pm
Who knows. He is a hard man to predict so far. Stumped up me £10 now. Approaching with trepidation...
I'm.having a weekend of wall painting instead. Know nothing about the opposition so will just cross fingers and get on with it.
...

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Dujon » Sat Sep 19, 2020 3:30 am

Just a thank you to DSb and and Ghost for responding to my earlier question Ta, lads!

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by The_Gun » Sat Sep 19, 2020 9:10 am

Last week has certainly tempered my enthusiasm for this one, but I’ll still stump up my tenner in the hope that it can’t get much worse.

If Crawford starts at 10 and Evatt ditches the White-Comley axis I’ll go for a 1-1 draw.

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Worthy4England » Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:45 am

Well, we had a couple of chances last week, Greenidge's header was probably his best defensive work. Had he got that on target, might have been different. With a bit of luck, we'll be more second half v Crewe than second half v FGR for 90 minutes.

Onwards!

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by brommers95 » Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:47 am

Have I missed something here? Haven’t see anything this week about Delaney and Delfouneso being doubtful

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:50 am

Dujon wrote:
Sat Sep 19, 2020 3:30 am
Just a thank you to DSb and and Ghost for responding to my earlier question Ta, lads!
You're welcome (whatever it was!) - it's a forum for themed chat, always happy to help.
brommers95 wrote:
Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:47 am
Have I missed something here? Haven’t see anything this week about Delaney and Delfouneso being doubtful
Iles wrote on Thursday: https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/1 ... two-clash/
The Wanderers head coach has reported “one or two” of his key players are nursing injuries and are now major doubts to face the U’s.

Evatt also confirmed that, in one case, a first team player would be side-lined for “three to four weeks”.

Shaun Miller could come back into the equation for Wanderers after sitting out last weekend and there could also be a first league appearance of the season for midfielder, Ronan Darcy.
The appearance of Miller could be a coded clue as to Delfouneso, but by the same token I make Darcy sixth choice for the midfield trio.

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Worthy4England » Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:55 am

Fonz has been one of our better players so far for me, but I'm interested to see Miller too - he looked like he knows where the onion bag is from that goal against Crewe...

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by brommers95 » Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:57 am

Thanks DSB. I read that article but didn’t put two and two together regarding the Shaun Miller quote. I’ve been impressed with Delfouneso so far - by no means perfect but has linked up midfield and attack well and always works hard to try and carve out an opening so slightly concerned he may be out for a few weeks.

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Sep 19, 2020 11:19 am

Brommers - I didn't read it as a nudge-wink, but if that tweet is right and Fonz is out, maybe it is. Or maybe Ilesy was just noting that Miller, surprisingly unavailable last time, is back in the shakeup. I noted on Twitter that Iles was asked by a reader who was out and replied "Evatt didn't want to name them." You can take that as Iles knowing or not. A lot of journalism is based on trust, and while it might sate our inquisitiveness to know who's available, it also helps the oppo.

All being well (literally), I think there's a place in the 14 for both Fonz and Miller: Fonz does the hard running for an hour, stretching and hitting the channels between their defenders, trying to get in behind; then Miller replaces him and asks different questions by dropping into the holes between their midfield and attack, popping the ball around as he did v Crewe - a bit like a lower-league Mark Davies, I guess. And as Worthy says, that was not the finish of an unconfident striker - but then neither was Sarce's v Bradford. We have good players; they're just finding their way into the formation and groove.

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Worthy4England » Sat Sep 19, 2020 11:25 am

Not that it'll mean much, but looking at Colchester's stats they're typically playing with about 40% of the possession (in the two games Auntie has stats for) with 11/12 shots on goal per game and 2/3 of those on target. That was for games v Bradford last week 0-0 and Reading in one of the cups (where they got beat 3-1).

Our stats were 62% possession v Bradford, but they clearly did more with their 38% than we did with our 62. We had 8 shots, 4 on target. Bradford had 9 shots with 5 on target - v Colchester they had 17 and 5.

What does all this mean for today's scoreline? Probably fcuk all.

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Sep 19, 2020 11:42 am

Worthy4England wrote:
Sat Sep 19, 2020 11:25 am
Not that it'll mean much, but looking at Colchester's stats they're typically playing with about 40% of the possession (in the two games Auntie has stats for) with 11/12 shots on goal per game and 2/3 of those on target. That was for games v Bradford last week 0-0 and Reading in one of the cups (where they got beat 3-1).

Our stats were 62% possession v Bradford, but they clearly did more with their 38% than we did with our 62. We had 8 shots, 4 on target. Bradford had 9 shots with 5 on target - v Colchester they had 17 and 5.

What does all this mean for today's scoreline? Probably fcuk all.
Ooh numbers! :mrgreen:

Lower possession numbers (and pass accuracy) generally mean longer-ball football, or simply that the oppo is better than you at keeping the thing. Then again it also depends on the situation. I wouldn't dream of offending Bradfordians who worship at the altar of McCalldiola against the excommunicated Parkinson, but while they weren't exactly hoof-and-hope they certainly took a lot less time than us to go from defence to attack. (They also spent 35-40 minutes in the lead, much of it watching us pootle about in midfield.)

I didn't see Colchester last season but I guess I got the impression they kept it tidy because Comley had division-leading stats - it's entirely possible, though, that he was the midfield ferret who recycled for others to hoof...

Note that Colchester replaced longterm manager John McGreal (whom older readers may remember defending for Tranmere) this summer and elevated his assistant. That rarely screams of a change in style but new men can have their own ideas.

What does all this mean for today's scoreline? Probably fcuk all, but this season's a journey of discovery for me. I'd have loved to have been there today (driven past CUFC a few times without ever going in) but here we are, and I relish the chance to watch us vs the world. Not least as I'm working today, from home, don't tell the gaffer but I might have an extra screen on the go... :mrgreen:

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Worthy4England » Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:08 pm

I had a peek at Whoscored to see what they reckon were strengths and weaknesses of both teams....

Us
Strengths
Stealing balls from opposition (not sure I saw much of that)
Aerial Duels

Weaknesses:
Finishing scoring chances
Defending set pieces
Avoiding offside
Stopping oppos creating chances
Avoiding fouling in dangerous areas

Style of play
Short passes
Attack through the middle
Attack down the left
Play with width
Possession football
Playing in own half
Aggressive

Them
Strengths:
Creating long shot oppos
Stealing ball from opposition

Weaknesses
Finishing scoring chances
Aerial duels
Keeping possession

Style of play
Attack down right
Taking long shots
Long balls
Play with width
Take a lot of shots
Aggressive
Playing in their own half.

We can deduce from that, both teams are going to play in their own half aggressively. We'll knock it around the back four lots, they'll lump it up to us with lots of shots from half-way.

All shots will miss.

0-0.

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Sep 19, 2020 1:15 pm

Ha! I admire WhoScored's dedication to collecting stats, but I'm much less enamoured with their efforts at qualitative analysis...

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Sep 19, 2020 1:59 pm

TEAM NEWS Hickman in but Jones also plays
Greenidge out
Crawford in for Sarce
Back four? Or Jones in the back three?

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Worthy4England » Sat Sep 19, 2020 2:04 pm

Hmmm...a bit like I was hoping, but not quite what I expected...like you not sure how Jones and Hickman fit in...

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by LeverEnd » Sat Sep 19, 2020 2:05 pm

My first thought was Jones as one of the 3. But Iles reckons it's a back 4.
...

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by officer_dibble » Sat Sep 19, 2020 2:08 pm

We will find out but I wondered if Jones might work on the right hand side of the three. Taft will be pissed of. No Miller or Amoateng on the bench as well.

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Re: Can we be-a-tad little shellfish and make this the U-turn of the season? Colchester United Away 19th Sep 2020 15:00p

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Sep 19, 2020 2:10 pm

Iles: "We understand Antoni Sarcevic will be out for a month. Exact nature of his injury yet to be determined."
"Greenidge also injured, it would seem. One hopes it isn't the hamstring issue that Evatt was keen to avoid last week."

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