So, the Cup is put to bed for another year, we do after all have greater priorities – and haven’t yet stopped laughing about Palace. We can claim that we lasted longer in the Cup this season than anyone else in South London, everyone it seemed had a good night out under the lights, I managed to watch the game with a beIN Sports subscription for a month (which has exposed my partner Suzanne to more football over the next few weeks than she bargained for), Leaburn added to his tally for the season, and the club made some useful money.
We have to hope the fresh concern over the fitness of Bell proves unwarranted, that TC’s injury was nothing serious, and that the absence of Godden from the squad, after expectations had been raised, was just sensible precaution. Otherwise, I’d say we did OK, but not more than that. When you set out to frustrate your opponents – as we did to reasonably good effect for almost all the first half, without giving the impression that a clean sheet was likely – and end up shipping five goals, and your goalkeeper was probably your man of the match, we can’t say we did we especially well defensively. Sure, two of the five were in stoppage time and left a scoreline giving the impression of a hiding that was harsh on us.
My only real disappointments were that having pulled it back to 1-2 we didn’t have a longer period when Chelsea might have got a little edgy, conceding the their third only five minutes later, and that due to the injured list we weren’t able to put out a full-strength team to really test ourselves, whatever team they put out. No matter, it’s all over and done, now attention can return to the transfer window and our chances of staving off relegation.
The old joke about two guys running from a bear and one stops to put on trainers keeps running through my head. (In case anyone doesn’t know it the other guy says it will make no difference as they can’t outrun the bear, to which his companion says I don’t have to outrun the bear, I have to outrun you.) Obviously Sheff Wed take one of the three relegation places. On recent form and having seen them against us, I’ve been inclined to assume that Oxford will take another, although nothing is cut and dried for them at this stage, with a new manager and having just strengthened with the signing of a Brentford midfielder. On that basis, we just need to outrun one other.
The bookies have both Portsmouth and Norwich on shorter odds than us to go down, despite both of them having recently beaten us. We can have no complaints about the Norwich loss; we played poorly and deserved nothing from the game. Like Sheff Utd and Southampton before them, most people will be surprised that Norwich are in the relegation mix; but I’d guess that like the other two they have enough quality to pull themselves up the table. Perhaps that won’t happen, like for Luton last season. But the other two still below us, Blackburn and Portsmouth, are I think a different matter. The three points we dropped – and handed over to them - against them really do rankle.
If we had held for 30 seconds more against Portsmouth and retained the lead to beat Blackburn, we’d be sitting alongside Southampton and Sheff Utd with a nine-point cushion above the third relegation place – instead of now just five. We’d be looking at the January transfer window in a very different light and contemplate signings in the context of what we might need with next season in mind. As it is, having taken only six points from the six-game ‘mini-series’ (preceded by a five-game losing streak), we are in the relegation mix and have to think in those terms.
In both defence and attack we need to either strengthen or adjust. I’d no idea when any of Ramsay, Burke, Bell and Edwards are going to be available again. Jones and his team need to make that assessment (of course I assume they already have). To say we need a left-side wing-back is obvious (as the Roussillon option has for whatever reason just not happened and Hernandez returning is not an option), and a right-side one if Bree is recalled by Southampton (with no sign of Asiimwe being recalled). If say two of Ramsay, Burke and Bell can be relied on to play effectively the rest of the season, fine. But I’d suggest that if that’s too big a risk, either another centre-back is brought in (it’s asking too much of Gough at this stage to be a regular and there’s no indication of Zac Mitchell being recalled) or we change formation.
The 5-3-2/3/5/2 set-up has served us well over the past (very successful) 12 months. But it isn’t written in stone and has disadvantages as well as advantages, like any formation. If we switched to a flat back four we would have the option of playing both Campbell and Arter as outright wingers. Think what a difference that would make to our style of play and the supply to the forwards. As things stand, Campbell is being asked to do his best as a wing-back and Arter is restricted to occasional cameos from the bench. Such a change would restrict the use of Carey/Knibbs/Berry of course, probably Fullah too.
Up front, we just have to wait and see if Dykes ends up with us rather than others. We do need a more physical option to lead the line at times. If we don’t buy Dykes, or someone similar, Jones presumably has to look to recall one or more of Kanu, Mbick, or even Ahadme. Strangely enough I could see the logic for recalling Ahadme. I know he was a big disappointment for us last season, and he isn’t pulling up any trees at Stevenage (one goal, in his first start, in 13 appearances and often not making the squad). But there has to be a footballer in there, we must have seen something we liked to have spent the money on him. Imagine him being called back to play in the Championship, at least on the bench. Surely – if he has anything at all in his locker – he would see that as a massive and probably undeserved opportunity, one to do everything possible to make it a success. May just be wishful thinking on my part of course, but he could add to our options at little or no cost.
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