The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

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Dave Sutton's barnet
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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Nov 28, 2020 6:10 pm


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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by sonicthewhite » Sat Nov 28, 2020 6:15 pm

Anyway, MoTM goes to my kettle :lol:
Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill!

And the key to a result is a good :kettle:

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Nov 28, 2020 6:53 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 6:10 pm
Yeah, I'm pleased. I think it was workmanlike more than anything else. These are always banana skins: everyone expects us to win, everyone in the country expects us to win, so it's always difficult – and credit to them, they're a good side. I've said that they haven't got the points they deserve, that they try and play the right way. [It's] great to see young managers come with a philosophy and stick to it, especially in tough times. And I hope he gets the opportunity to carry on and improve the club because it's been rough and with everything that's been going on. But I'm pleased for us, five wins is great. Lots to work on. Lots to build on. Still a long way to go.

If we score early, it probably makes it easier for us to draw them out because they went into a bit of a low block first half and we have to be patient, to move the ball quicker. Sarce has a chance that really should go in early on, and then, as I said, they have to come out and probably pick them off on the counterattack. But the goal just before half-time helps us. At 0-0 Matt made a great save, that's what he's there for, it's great that your goalkeeper can bail you out of trouble when you get into it. And second half we were clinical with our opportunities, we moved the ball quicker. The third goal, Alex Baptiste joining in, rotation, excellent passing move that we work on in training. So yeah. Good. Very happy.

[On timing of goals]
As I said, we had the opportunities early on to take it and make it easy for ourselves, but we just didn't move the ball quick enough. And sometimes when you're unopposed and they're allowing you freedom to build attacks, it's hard to speed yourself up when you're not being pressed. So we needed to move the ball quicker. and we did that second half.

[On goals from strikers]
That's what they're in the team to do. Those are natural goalscorers. Nathan's header was brilliant, great ball from Alex –  two great balls from Alex and two very good finishes. Look, we need to keep them in one piece because Shaun's [Miller] gone down injured on Thursday, which he's going to be out for a while with – it's the nature of the beast with this pandemic and players breaking down. But we have to keep adapting and overcome.

[On Baptiste]
Alex has been great. Obviously, you know, we've all had criticism at some point this season, and all it does is inspire you to prove people wrong and it adds fuel to your fire. And Alex is certainly doing that at the moment. As I said, we're not getting carried away. We're pleased. We're satisfied, but we're not happy. We want more. We have to keep improving.

[Players look high on confidence]
They should be. They should be high on confidence. But as I said, they know themselves that we're not letting up on them. We're going to keep working hard. We're going to keep trying to improve. It's great that we've got a free week this week to to get some more content into them on the training pitch, so they'll rest, recover and we'll go again next week.

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by TonyDomingos » Sat Nov 28, 2020 7:41 pm

nicholaldo wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:21 pm
I think it's three clean sheets from four now.

That's more than Lever End has managed :lol:
Às armas, às armas!
Sobre a terra, sobre o mar,
Às armas, às armas!
Pela Pátria lutar!
Contra os canhões marchar, marchar!

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by nicholaldo » Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:00 pm

TonyDomingos wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 7:41 pm
nicholaldo wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:21 pm
I think it's three clean sheets from four now.

That's more than Lever End has managed :lol:

:D

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by Prufrock » Sat Nov 28, 2020 9:15 pm

:lol:
In a world that has decided
That it's going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind.

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by LeverEnd » Sat Nov 28, 2020 10:31 pm

💩😂
...

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by Worthy4England » Sat Nov 28, 2020 11:52 pm

:lol: :laugh:

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by DJBlu » Sun Nov 29, 2020 11:38 am

Alex Baptiste,

The 3rd goal really was the cherry on the cake. Pass inside, run on and an outstanding cross for a Doyle tap in.

We didn't get out of 2nd gear yesterday and we still scored 3.

Doyle,

If you can find it look at his body language when he gets the chance of a hat trick. Relentless.

Love it.

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by officer_dibble » Sun Nov 29, 2020 12:43 pm

Loss of Tutte is a big blow. Any idea how long he is out for?

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by TANGODANCER » Sun Nov 29, 2020 1:57 pm

If we get too good and draw attention to the players , do we stand losing some to other keen and prospective promotion chasers? Be a shame if so, since we appear to be bonding well as a squad. Our recent form can't have gone without notice. Just a thought.
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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sun Nov 29, 2020 4:06 pm

Interesting game yesterday.

The modern game is divided fairly cleanly into the low block and the high press; Southend bravely tried a bit of both. Predictably enough, as I feared earlier in the week, the low block took a while to break down, as low blocks do. Football tactics are about utlising players and space, and when Southend retreated into a 4-4-1-1 the space was in front of our spare players, the outside centre-backs.

This exposed something of a new challenge to Evatt's Bolton, but not to Evatt himself. When he arrived, he sought out centre-backs who could carry the ball forward on either side: Taft and Greenidge for the left, Santos and to some extent Baptiste for the right. It hasn't been explicitly enunciated but I believe the initial idea was to have these two providing overloads by echoing the famous Sheffield United "overlapping centre-backs", one on each side of a rather more stay-at-home "central" defender - perhaps Delaney, whose skillset leaned more toward the traditional head-it-and-block-the-bugger defensive style.

That changed after a bad first month exposed defensive frailties, individually and collectively. Seeking a tighter ship, Evatt settled on the trio of Delaney-Santos-Baptiste: two relatively solid "sitters" either side of Santos, whose initial horror shows on the right of the three were quickly forgiven as he moved centrally and became a Lancastrian libero, using his speed and pace to mop up behind his mates but also at liberty to thunder forward with the ball when the occasion suited.

Along with other tweaks, this helped our balance and made us more solid in defence while the patterns of play started to bear fruit further forward.

Then came Southend, and in the first half particularly, we lacked penetration. Delaney in particular seemed unwilling or unable to get forward with the ball at his feet; to give the fella credit, he has often overlapped or underlapped intelligently after playing a forward ball, helping create the overloads that force opponents out of position, but against Southend he too frequently lacked attacking intent.

At half-time, Evatt told them to move the ball quicker and get on the front foot, and Baptiste certainly did so. It's not the first time the auld fella has joined in the jamboree up front - he should have scored in a recent home game after continuing an underlapping run and finding himself unmarked on the penalty spot (whence he blazed over and was flagged offside anyway) - but in first-half injury time, when he might have been coasting toward a warming cocoa, he made a crucially correct Evattball decision.

As Peter Kioso harried Southend's on-loan Arsenal loanee James Olyainka down by the corner flag, forcing him to turn inside and attempt a right-footed clearance, Baptiste had pushed on to the inside-right channel around 30 yards out. It wasn't an entirely risk-free decision – on the footage you can see Southend No10 Goodship float into the space behind him, and had Olayinka's clearance arced over his head then Goodship could turn and run, although that's where spare man Santos comes in. In the event, Olayinka's attempted through-ball was intercepted and chested down by Baptiste, and four seconds later was in the back of the net via a very good cross and a very competent header thanks to Delfouneso peeling off his man.

In the second half, Baptiste did more of the same, obeying the gaffer and pushing on into the space. Turns out he thoroughly enjoyed it. And so did we.

That all sounds like a lot of detail for a simple idea - push your spare men on. And maybe it is, but it's the next thing that Delaney in particular has to work on. It's a side of the game that would come more naturally to the expansive Taft, but he appears to have dropped behind Greenidge in the pecking order (Greenidge has been sub for 11 of the 12 "first-team" games since Harrogate, Taft has been benched three times and sat the other nine out).

It's also a side of the game we might have to work on generally. One side-effect of our poor start is that teams weren't afraid of us and had a go, but as momentum builds we might encounter the low block more. Evatt will be used to that and he has the tools at his disposal. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by Worthy4England » Sun Nov 29, 2020 4:39 pm

Grand read, DSB. We were fairly noticeably lacking on the left yesterday. Not much attacking came through Delaney/Jones. But, I'd also suggest both Crawford and Sarce (part from the one he might've scored) were pretty quiet too. Not really a grumble in a decent 3-0 win, but it did rather feel like if they were able to close down the right better, we'd have been a bit snookered.

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Re: The only way is up!!! Down the Southend of things.

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sun Nov 29, 2020 5:02 pm

Worthy4England wrote:
Sun Nov 29, 2020 4:39 pm
Grand read, DSB. We were fairly noticeably lacking on the left yesterday. Not much attacking came through Delaney/Jones. But, I'd also suggest both Crawford and Sarce (part from the one he might've scored) were pretty quiet too. Not really a grumble in a decent 3-0 win, but it did rather feel like if they were able to close down the right better, we'd have been a bit snookered.
Yep, although I hate to carp we're triply lumbered down the left compared to the right.
• Jones, while trying hard and doing well on his 'wrong' side, doesn't offer the penetration of Kioso
• Delaney is more cautious than Baptiste (gwan the auld fella)
• Sarcevic is more reliably available on the right of central midfield than the more floating Crawford is on the left.

None of that is insurmountable, or criticisms of the blokes involved. But it's all workable on - and as I say (and as Evatt noted in his post-match) the free midweek gives us more training time to fine-tune and concoct alternative plans.

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