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Thanks, as ever, for the report, grim read that it is.
I do wonder if the decisions about substitutions are not made by JS alone. Perhaps Williams has a big say in them.
I also believe that as a club, we are developing a morbid fear of the obvious, to wit: - We lack quality central midfielders. The much coveted Edwards can play there, but he is yet to feature at all. - We're not exactly awash with quality strikers at the moment. Then, we sign Obikwu. Why not put him on the bench and give him 20 minutes or so?
Putting away chances is a basic skill in this game, especially when, like us, you rarely create a hatful of chances. For years, we have been profligate in front of goal and have been punished by more clinical teams time and time again. Cardiff three shots, QPR twenty, we lose 3-0, for example. When, if ever, is this going to be addressed? Or is it beneath our coaches and players?
We seem to be constantly overthinking things and neglecting the basics. Why? Grrrr
Going in which direction? We continue to bob around in roughly the same position, so simple maths dictates that for every club which rises above us, another sinks below. Reading, Wigan and Blackpool all currently sit in the lower half of League One and recent Prem teams Bolton, Huddersfield, Luton and Cardiff are also in that division right now.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not satisfied with where we are, we need to get promoted, but no one gets promoted in January, not even Hollywood FC.
The endless succession of false dawns is utterly exhausting.
I think we are making a little progress but sometimes let ourselves lose sight of the basics and become bewitched by trendy new methodologies and structures.
Barring a Warnock/Taarabt style alignment of the planets, progress is likely to be slow, so we're going to need to continue to be patient for a good while longer I fear, sadly.
We're far from being the only club in this position, though, and there are three clubs in the bottom half of League One who were recently in the Prem and who would kill to be where we are at the moment.
I do always think that what coaches and managers say to interviewers is very different to what they say to their players behind closed doors, but who knows?
Look, that was a disaster today but the season is far from over. No one's getting promoted in January.
Also, if we're bobbing around in more or less the same position every season, for every team which "hurtles past" us, there must be another passing us in the opposite direction.
I didn't recognise one of the subs - d'oh - so for anyone as clueless as me, here is some background.
Key takeaway for me: "Isak is a player identified by our recruitment department as having great potential as a ball-playing #6, with good close control and strong defensive anticipation".
I think you really do need to acknowledge that we don't have the strength in depth of a team like, say, Arsenal.
That means that the loss of our best striker and two of our most creative players is going to significantly affect us.
I don't think there's a lack of effort at the moment, it's a lack of quality, especially from an attacking perspective. Luckily, the team has partially counterbalanced that by tightening up defensively. That's a positive.
Finnish instrumental space rock. Every album is excellent, in my humble opinion:
Who knew that you could mix metal and ambient and it would actually work? This Swiss outfit did and delivered it without using any real guitars. This blew my mind when I first heard it and I still think it's a groundbreaking piece.
Heavy psych band Elder and doom metallers Kadavar made an album together and the album spawned this epic rock song, complete with a powerful and moving video:
Here's the receive stance of current world number one, Lin Shidong. You'd normally receive serve front on to the table, crouching and positioned centrally, as Lin is.
You do occasionally see the pros use behind the back shots, and some players - see below - can execute them reliably - but they are such high risk that a standard forehand or backhand shot is usually more sensible.
"Flew in for it all the way from Cleveland OH. Overnight flights Monday, train up to Oxford, sat in Oxford end, stayed overnight in Oxford including a miserable wait in the rain for the bus back".
Wow! Respect to you .
* * * * Does anyone have an inside contact within the club? If they do, they should ask them to print off the extract above and either pin it to the changing room door or give it to JS to read to the players.
The level of commitment to do all that travelling - the time, the effort, the cost - is both astonishing and inspirational.
I fully accept that the last two games have been grim from a quality perspective, but at least there has been no lack of effort.
I do think we should put them in context, though: - Our best striker, Burrell, who is key to our press and who gives us pace up front, is out - The only two players we have who can dribble a football successfully on a regular basis, Chair and Saito, are also out.
This, understandably, makes us a bit toothless and undermines our creativity. It's frustrating but there are no easy solutions to it.
Thankfully, in a surprising break with tradition, the team has got its act together defensively and - jinx alert - managed to ride out this period of limited attacking and creative options without racking up a string of defeats. I wonder how many points we'll have deducted for this sorcery.
Burrell, Saito and Chair can't come back soon enough, though [pray].
Can you print off 16,000 copies of point 4 and put them on the home fans' seats in time for Saturday's game, please?
Spot on. If every player is treated as a commodity for trading at a profit in short order, we'll lose the connection between the players and the fans, as well as the soul of the club.
We need some experienced, older players who not only make strong contributions but who also care deeply and like being here, who want to achieve something in their careers with us, not elsewhere.