Chepstow Owl

I personally think we should try and keep Famewo too. He's been much improved this season in a very unsettled back four. Is a left footed centre back which are notoriously difficult to find. Good age for a centre back at 26. Offers some flexibilty to play a back 3 or back 4. And, most importantly, the last area we want to be getting rid of too many players is centre back - especially with Ihiekwe and Palmer likely to leave (and Iorfa unlikely to play many minutes over a season; arguabley same with Max Lowe if you count him as a centre half). Not saying I definitely want him as a starting centre back next season as we definitely need to strengthen in that area. But on the balance would offer him a new contract.

Think we only need one out of Armstrong or Windass next season

Don't need both Stuart Armstrong and Josh Windass in the same squad. Two big-earners fulfilling a largely similar role who have already peaked and won't improve. I know who my money is on to still be here next season. Need to invest the money saved on wages in to more young players in the Gassama/Musaba ilk.

What impressed me most was how genuinely two-footed he is. I noticed it in the warm up when he seemed to mostly be using his right foot in the passing drills so much so I questioned whether he actually is left footed. But then in the match his ability to shift the ball to either side, change the angle, and still be comfortable making a range of passes further highlighted how 1-dimensional and slow a defender like Ihiekwe is at playing out from the back and beating the press. Exactly the sort of player we need to progress forward playing the style of footbal Röhl wants to play and I can see why Danny is excited to work with him further.

Cissoko and Hatsuse for Johnson and Windass for me. More of the same perfoemance and we can win this still

Thanks for that. Think it was Jack Phillips like you say. Anyone know why he was included in the matchday warm up? Not heard anything about him before. Has his development come on significantly in recent weeks?

anyone know where to find info on who the u18s keepers are? @malek maybe?

Anyone know who he was? I know we took Jack Hall to QPR but he's blonde/ginger. Today the keeper looked similar to Beadle but a little shorter. Not Hamer or Killian Barrett either from what I could see.

This is absolutely the sort of game he should be excelling in. A game full of sh*thousery against a group of thugs with some of the lowest level of technical ability in the league. And yet he still looked poor. Admittedly first half the whole team was poor. Don't think we'll see much more of Paterson in a Wednesday shirt now. This was a great chance for him to stake a claim. Armstrong and Cissoko will both be ahead of him in the pecking order now.

I'm not here to ******** on everyone's parade. I get that "Pato" is a popular player and I'll admit he probably has been underused this season. I think there are certain games and scenarios which suit his attributes. But let's not rewrite history. He did not put great balls in from the right channel - he had a pass accuracy below 50% and 0 out of 3 of his crosses were accurate. Nor did he win any headers today - in fact, he again won 0 out of 3. Everyone claiming he had a man of the match performance is getting carried away in my opinion. I think he certainly has done enough to justify more playing time and maybe even a start in the next game. But he was far from our best player out there today.

Huddersfield Town won promotion to the Premier League in 2017 despite finishing 5th in the Championship with a negative goal difference... It can be done. Time and time again this season (and beyond) we have proven the Wednesday way is to do things the hard way

Frustrating. Can't do the simple things right. Need to sign some defenders in January...

What changed the game was chaos. That was largey down to Ingessons energy. And it's why Paterson is sometimes an effective option too. Once the game settled down again after the 60th minute Inglesson and Chalobah (nor Valentin) didn't show anything to suggest they need to be starting matches. Ingelsson and Chalobah are both decent players and I'm glad they are in the squad. But I'm not convinced they are better than anybody who usually starts ahead of them.

There's been plenty of times we've started well or okay but it was the first 15 mins of the second half that were letting us down or we would concede cheap goals earlier in the season.

Might go under the radar with other's good performances. But thought it was one of Gassama's best games for us. Looked more physical and better decision making. If that contiues he'll be some player.

imagine missing that Bannan handball. Truly incompetent!

Funny old game. Beadle affirming himself as a future England number one. What a performance.

Doesn't fit the narrative that they want. "Paterson should play up front because he runs around a lot and tries hard".

Cultured football

Yeah, but I do wonder if we might have the same problem with Windass and Lowe on the pitch together as we do with Musaba and Gassama where they are just too similar to each other. I'd like to think Lowe and Windass are clever enough to compliment each other

Completely agree. Bannan is chipping in with goals from the edge of the box this season and Windass has been steady as expected when he is fit and playing. Clearly Smith is our inform striker at the minute and Ugbo needs something to click. But we could definitely do with Musaba, Gassama, Kobacki or even Inglesson finding some goal scoring form and their price tag would begin to increase.

Yes, which is why it is practised ahead of time so that you can begin your movement at the right cue to give the opposition as little time to react. This should all be possible with one touch passing without much practise at all and is set up to keep your body between the ball and the defender allowing very little chance for the opposition to disrupt it.

One of the most frustrating things from our recent performances for me has been the seeming lack of even the most basic tactics of the sytem we play. With the shape we set up in our bread and butter for playing out from the back should be this: 1) The wide CB plays it through the lines to the number 10 who is dropping in to the half space from high up the pitch. 2) Playing the way he is facing the number 10 touches it back to the central midfielder. 3) The midfielder can now play the way they are facing and slide a through ball for the wing back to run on to. 4) The wing back can cross it or pull it back etc. There are several variations on this and at every instance there should be at least one other passsing option for the player on the ball or even the chance to beat their man with a clever first touch and carry it forwards. But this is something that no doubt the coaches will have practised with the team on the training ground enough times that everybody is aware of where the next pass will go and where to run to before it is even played. However, we are lucky to see us try something like this once per game. Or anything that resembles something that has been worked on ahead of time and is now being executed in a match setting. One of the problems we have had with trying to play this way before is our lack of ball-playing defenders. Iorfa, Ihiekwe, and until recently Famewo have all lacked confidence and ability to play passes through the lines with Bernard being our only genuine modern day CB. Moving Valery and Max Lowe to the wide centre back positions should help with this (while perhaps comprimising some defensive attributes, but most teams look for cut backs not crosses or long balls forwards now, so a no-nonsense CB is less required in the championship and higher levels than it once was) as both are more confident passers of the ball. However, this creates a vacuum of talent at wingback in our current squad - a crucial position in this system. Pol Valentin and Marvin Johnson both do certain things really well (running with the ball and crossing, respectively) but neither have the footballing IQ to take us to the next level. Johnson is always on his heels and too slow to break forwards, especially when we are building out from the back down the left hand side. He does an okay job at being available for the switch of play most of the time. And Pol too often lacks end product (which can be said for a lot of our players) but is improving and looks to be receptive to coaching. For me there are two options for us in January, both of which we should be able to find through the loan market from talented premier league prospects: 1) We look to recruit specialist wingbacks who understand these sytems of play or can be coached quickly. 2) We find ball playing centre backs who can break the lines with their passes freeing up Valery and Lowe to play wing back (as I think they were probably originally recruited to do)

For a bit of balance I would say that while Ugbo on the ball has been poor this season he understands the role of a modern day centre forward better than anyone else at our club and this is why Röhl will keep sticking with him. A good comparison player is Solanke at Spurs who has not been prolific this season but leads the press and links the play so that Spurs look a lot better when he is playing well. Ugbo's patterns of play and understanding of the rotations with other players (both in and out of possession) are a step above. This is why in the recent games we have started Ugbo as the centre forward we have put in a good team performance (Norwich, Blunts, Hull) as he creates space and links up with Windass, Gassama and our full backs. In the games where Ugbo hasn't played or has been played out wide (Watford, Cardiff, Derby, Preston) the rest of the team look poor - especially in possession - as we are unable to play through the lines in the same way. Even today I thought he occupied the Preston defenders well when we were in possession but Johnson seemed reluctant to ever venture past the half way line in the first half and exploit the huge spaces created by Ugbo. Admittedly somehting is missing from his game from last season - he seems a yard slower closing players down and wants an extra touch or extra second before pulling the trigger - maybe this is just confidence. Hopefully one goal is all it takes to re-find the form we know he is capable of.