Colchester FC (H) match thread

[liverpoolann]

Rubbish, held the ball up well and linked play up. He’s not going to score without service, don’t judge him on goals, I thought his all round play was very good

Then we disagree. He hasn't put a shift in for months and his time here will be, and should be, seen as a disappointment.

I thought he had a much better game today as well tho I agree he has been under whelming on most earlier appearances.

[bluessupporter]

Good question. When we had a bad result under Mark Cooper he'd generally mention the fact it was windy etc. Pete Wild would generally just refer to bumps in the road. Stephen Clemence generally makes good points about what went wrong and today was no exception. I hope that means he can sort it but it doesn't always follow.

Agree full marks to Stephen Clemence he always calls the match as it was, unlike some of our previous Managers.

He may call it right after the game but that's too late. What is he doing to change things.
? is he capable of changing things? And why have we had so many injuries? Some are explainable but it's sometimes a case that poor coaching can cause players to be injured.

[Wintergreen]

Rubbish, held the ball up well and linked play up. He’s not going to score without service, don’t judge him on goals, I thought his all round play was very good

Dom did all of the above without doubt but l think it's generally accepted that strikers are judged on goal scoring. A look at Dom's stats show 5 goals in 40 appearances - not good enough to justify any place in the squad in my opinion. A lack of goals continues to be our main problem and it didn't gladden the heart to see Spence hit a decent chance over the Holker End roof and Popov smash another just over the cross bar - and l mean the building not the frame of the goal!I

In mitigation, it did look like a foul to me on goal machine Vassell at the end there but yet again that elusive second goal would have made all the difference for us. Semper sursum.

[mickycarrol]

Some attention needs to be made to recruitment some of the signings have been absolute bobbins but away we go and give Iain Wood more responsibilities and no doubt a pay rise to suit. He’s found a couple of decent ones but for every Dean Cambell there’s an Andy Dallas, for every Kean Spence there’s a Popov, Telford…..he’s made a fair few crap signings that’s clear to see, our strength in depth is next to zero at times at this level.

[BAFC1901]

Said it weeks ago and I’ll say it again Clemence is slowly getting found out.

See how we are looking in January before any rash decisions are made couple of new additions might be just what we need.

However at this stage I just can’t see an improvement on last year mid table at best this year if we are lucky.

[Jim]

Is it the head coaches tactics or the players?Ypu decide.

A bit of both IMO. I have said before that I wonder if the frequent changes in formation and players do contribute to the problem. Add to that the substitutions which, unless due to injury, don't seem always to improve the team.

Then the players. Watching the highlights this morning, I could see several instances when players made mistakes. Spence leaning back and firing over from a good poisiton, which he also did a coupel of weeks ago, players shooting weakly when they could pass to someone in a better position, Popov shooting in stoppage time when (as commentator said) he should have kept possession (Dallas was free to his left), then the failure of Vassell that allowed the runner free.

For what it is worth, my opinion is that Clemence should stick with that team and play 4-3-3 again next Saturday. Then only make subs if chasing the game.

[Jonty]

Morning after perspective. …We are four lousy stoppage time goals from being joint top of the league with a team we beat 4-0 earlier in the season.
There’s not a long wrong with what we are doing and we’ve suffered with some key players out and some questionable decisions. The players will make mistakes but who doesn’t. Confident we can get back on track and there are no runaway leaders in the league. UTFB!

[Bingo]

Too slow when we get the ball a few times we broke away but just [SwearFilter] around with it.

[blue nige]

Blues supporter mentions injuries, I agree player's appear to be getting injured in training because when I watch the game nobody seems injured then later in the week it's mentioned they get a knock?
I've watched the highlights can't see a foul on Vassell and it's pretty obvious if he had of been he would have gone bezerk but all he did was put his hands on his head!
Someone on here said we should have shut up shop, we effectively did because of the possession we allowed them in the second half!
Clemence on the twitter interview also said we're not set up to "shut up shop".I couldn't believe what I was hearing this is league 2 if things aren't going right for team's they're going to come at you, on the bench yesterday it highlighted this ,3 defender's 1 striker 2 wide men!
We need to recruit 1 striker 2 midfielders if we want to change things, Dean Campbell needs a rest he's hardly missed a minute this will take it's toll on him, but because of our recruitment/ managers philosophy we can't!
This is all so frustrating because we're not far off being a really good team!

[Jim]

Well, it isn't only us:

IMG_2260.JPG (59.28 KiB) Viewed 6698 times

[jeff1966]

People dressing it up as 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, we play 4-5-1 with the aim of getting the wide men forward. It doesn’t happen enough and when it does they are still wingers so the lone striker is isolated. To play like that you need a decent target man, Aqua is injured but hasn’t proved he’s that man and none of the others are target men. Then after an hour you can see how much everyone sh!Ts themselves and the inevitable happens. Frustrating thing is the front foot approach we were promised maybe happens 30mins a game, that’s being kind. Our average shots on target per game in the last 7 must be under 2

[russell_anderson]

As I've been saying for a very long time, unless we get a striker of even average ability in January, we'll finish nearer the bottom of the league than the top and it could be much nearer the bottom! Nothing wrong with our defence and not too much wrong with our midfield although a creative attacking midfielder would make it stronger but even with the best defensive record in the league we won't win many games with the current group of attacking players.
IMO, the person or persons responsible for this is whoever did the recruitment and I don't know how much input the manager had in that process, if any. I also don't know if the high pressing which works well at the start of the game but then disappears in a strategy, is a nervousness from the players or is a lack of fitness but it's costing us match after match.

[McMark]

Pretty fair reflection on the game. The mentality has to change and that can only be instilled into the players by our coaching staff.
https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/247 ... two-clash/

[behind the goals]

What are supporters wanting in the magical January transfer window, the Club to spend big on strikers or go far a couple of loans from EPL/EFL Clubs or National Leagues, and would supporters like to see Dallas & Popov loans to end, can't make my mind up about Mahoney yet who is on contract till 2026 and kirk who probably needs more minutes and should play on Tuesday.

[Sonofsam]

Whats bayliss up to these days