Training this week

[ZENITH R]

We could do a lot worse than make the players watch MOTD from Saturday night.

Lots of players in the opposition box
Getting it in early
Running at defences
Dangerous crosses
decent set pieces.

MOTD had all of the above. Some of this from non-League Chesterfield!

The programme was a good advert for all of the above, and was in stark contrast to how we have been playing in recent weeks/ months.

I don't think it's hard to fix this. I don't think we need to break the bank for new signings. I do think we need to inject a lot more pace and speed of thought into our game, and think about how we can make it more likely that we score. Currently we amble about, pass it back and forth, - often in our own half before losing possession because our players are now heavily marked. Dickie passing to Dunne, who passes it to Dieng, who passes it back to Dunne, who passes it to Dickie ... that is not going to help us score goals.

[Giorgio]

Currently we amble about, pass it back and forth, - often in our own half before losing possession because our players are now heavily marked. Dickie passing to Dunne, who passes it to Dieng, who passes it back to Dunne, who passes it to Dickie ... that is not going to help us score goals.

...that's mainly because we are too slow in moving the ball ahead giving the oppositions' defense all the time to get in place and close all the spaces and mark our players. In order to avoid that we should need some fast movements, players running down the wings and cutting through, something that we have been missing. Add to to that the fact we are playing one striker - and not the most effective one - up front and we have an easy answer to why we have scored 3 goals in 10 matches...

[UxbridgeR]

We could do a lot worse than make the players watch MOTD from Saturday night.

Lots of players in the opposition box
Getting it in early
Running at defences
Dangerous crosses
decent set pieces.

MOTD had all of the above. Some of this from non-League Chesterfield!

The programme was a good advert for all of the above, and was in stark contrast to how we have been playing in recent weeks/ months.

I don't think it's hard to fix this. I don't think we need to break the bank for new signings. I do think we need to inject a lot more pace and speed of thought into our game, and think about how we can make it more likely that we score. Currently we amble about, pass it back and forth, - often in our own half before losing possession because our players are now heavily marked. Dickie passing to Dunne, who passes it to Dieng, who passes it back to Dunne, who passes it to Dickie ... that is not going to help us score goals.

MOTD is a highlights programme though. If you showed the best few minutes for our recent games, it wouldn't look too bad for the most part either.

Pretty much every team in the country passes the ball around at the back, so I don't really see that as a big issue either. You can maybe do it too much a la Swansea, but I think I prefer that to lumping it hopefully forward for Dykes to win flick-ons that nobody ever seems to read. Keeping the ball doesn't always help you score goals, but it can help you control and manage games, and I'd prefer we were a possession based team than a counter-attacking one, not least because we don't really have the players to be the latter. I'd agree we can play with more tempo, but we have very little genuine pace in the team, and no manager can just conjure that out of thin air.

We're obviously struggling at the moment, and I understand (and at times, share) the negativity to a degree, but the bulk of this squad have had us competing in or around the play-offs for most the last eighteen months. I think we need a spark to get us going again, which may come from some tinkering with the squad during the transfer window, or from NC having more time to work with the players.

[bigbobb]

I agree with this - so what has happened to the real UxR?

[UxbridgeR]

I'm as horrified as you are at this turn of events, but here we are