Just back, or still there

Am i alone thinking Whitehouse been a bit off the boil for a few games barring last night?
I do like the look of Robson to be fair.

Think Hess at the moment is the only consistent mid we have, Clifton will come good but remember hes still a kid and learning.

Think our mid is and has been not great for a good while now and teams can at time pretty much cut through us like we have 2 Jamie Clarkes(remember him?) playing there.

Just won a tenner on the chelsea raffle too, checked my ticket and within 5 minutes the money was in my account! Very modern

To be perfectly honest,I'm not sure what Whitehouse brings to the team (this judgement not being based on last night). He's not particularly good on the ball and I think he's weak defensively. Beyong Hess, I think our midfield 3 is wesk as a defensive unit, most selections based on their ability to cover lots of ground as opposed intelligent defensive play. Considering this, we may as well play two better footballers in Cook and Gibson to try and get on the front foot in games.

I agree^ clifton has gone backwards and been woeful so far this season, whitehouse has had a year out and it shows. Play cook and robson

It's tough watching your team get stuffed. I'm watching England smash USA in the rugby world cup and thinking go on boys, crush em. Last night after 80 minutes I just wanted it to end, probably like the USA fans now.
My overriding impression is that we should count the money and be proud. The fans were incredible and the team did it's best. The fans  just got a mention on Talksport, still singing at 5-1 down and they sounded amazing on TV
Lets hope that the younger guys learnt from the experience and didn't incur any lasting psychological damage!

The one Town player that stood out for us was Max Wright, when he came on. Can't understand why he doesn't start when Clifton does. Max was the one player to run at the Chelsea defence and caused them problems.

Quoted from buckstown

Last night after 80 minutes I just wanted it to end, probably like the USA fans now.

I assume the USA fans got their wish

Quoted from forza ivano

but the idea is not simply man to man, it is based on us playing with a floating man at the back a 'mopper up' like we had with Rose at Palace, so that if our player gets beaten there is a spare man available to 'mop up' . this obviously leaves the opponents with 1 spare man; versus palace and Malmo MJ identifies the opponent with the least technical ability (usually the lumbering  centre half as we saw at Palace). Every other of the 9 remaining outfield players is man marked by 1 of our remaining 9 outfield players, so making them play the ball to the technically inept centre half.He is allowed to bring the ball forward, because on the balance of probabilities he is going to feck it up (as he repeatedly did at Palace). the problem last night is that Zouma may not be quite as good technically as Berekely or Hudson-odoi, but he is still bloody good! didn't help that we didn't have any pace or that Clifton was painfully shown up in terms of pace and ability

You are right there Forza. That is the theory. But if you put all your eggs in one basket and somebody drops it inside 5 minutes, you have got problems. In any case you need all your players to be capable of the pick up and stay with an opponent. At that level against kids who themselves have a lot to prove to their manager, it is a big ask. Our manager never gave his side a chance. Drop back and concede ground if you must but what do you do when you eventually get the ball and you have no ball carriers and no pace in the selection?

I am far from impressed with the manager’s tactical acumen to be honest and I think he needs to worry less about opponents, nail his colours to the mast ,  get a settled 11/12/13 players regularly playing in the same positions with the same basic tactics pressing opponents higher up the pitch to give his strikers some service. Otherwise by Christmas we will be wondering where all the goals have gone that Hanson & co. looked like scoring.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

You are right there Forza. That is the theory. But if you put all your eggs in one basket and somebody drops it inside 5 minutes, you have got problems. In any case you need all your players to be capable of the pick up and stay with an opponent. At that level against kids who themselves have a lot to prove to their manager, it is a big ask. Our manager never gave his side a chance. Drop back and concede ground if you must but what do you do when you eventually get the ball and you have no ball carriers and no pace in the selection?

I am far from impressed with the manager’s tactical acumen to be honest and I think he needs to worry less about opponents, nail his colours to the mast ,  get a settled 11/12/13 players regularly playing in the same positions with the same basic tactics pressing opponents higher up the pitch to give his strikers some service. Otherwise by Christmas we will be wondering where all the goals have gone that Hanson & co. looked like scoring.

personally i think if he'd done that and gone a bit more gung ho, then Chelsea would've got into double figures. it worked well against lincoln and palace last season, it's just several of last night's team were found wanting, plus we are very unlikely to meet a team with quite that level of quality

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

You are right there Forza. That is the theory. But if you put all your eggs in one basket and somebody drops it inside 5 minutes, you have got problems. In any case you need all your players to be capable of the pick up and stay with an opponent. At that level against kids who themselves have a lot to prove to their manager, it is a big ask. Our manager never gave his side a chance. Drop back and concede ground if you must but what do you do when you eventually get the ball and you have no ball carriers and no pace in the selection?

I am far from impressed with the manager’s tactical acumen to be honest and I think he needs to worry less about opponents, nail his colours to the mast ,  get a settled 11/12/13 players regularly playing in the same positions with the same basic tactics pressing opponents higher up the pitch to give his strikers some service. Otherwise by Christmas we will be wondering where all the goals have gone that Hanson & co. looked like scoring.

Hear hear.

We have got better players than last year, lets start using them properly.

It think his tinkering invariably back fires. We would have been hammered last night with whatever format/players he used because Chelsea were just too good. However, his team selection was giving up before we had kicked off.