HIGHLIGHTS: Colchester United 2-1 Leyton Orient

[Lovejoy]

[Adz]

More dodgy keeping for the second goal

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Great finish for ours

[Orient_Man_And_Boy]

Too painful to watch.
Back line is too slow, ball-watching and tactically poor.
Can’t see NT tolerating this much longer; he looked exasperated on the stream the other evening.

[daveh]

I have seen two goals recently where, as good a prospect Akinola is, he has seemed to stroll along whilst a goal was scored against us.
It happened in the recent game when our goalie made an awful clearance and the ball was kicked straight into goal. Akinola made no effort to stop the ball despite being close by. I saw a similar lack of reaction from him for their first goal yesterday. I think that he is a very good prospect but he seemed to switch off on both occasions.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

I have seen two goals recently where, as good a prospect Akinola is, he has seemed to stroll along whilst a goal was scored against us.
It happened in the recent game when our goalie made an awful clearance and the ball was kicked straight into goal. Akinola made no effort to stop the ball despite being close by. I saw a similar lack of reaction from him for their first goal yesterday. I think that he is a very good prospect but he seemed to switch off on both occasions.

I think he’s a very average prospect who probably thinks he’s better than he is and doesn’t want to be here. I agree with your observations about the goals and that a committed player would have done more in both instances.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

He’s the same age as Happe. I know who I’d rather have in my team.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

More dodgy keeping for the second goal

I’d question the defence letting that ball come in then Jobi putting in a pathetic block like that before I started on Vigaro.

[Thor]

Can someone who watched the game if we pressed them at all when they had the ball?

Cos those highlights seem to show we did not press them at all when they had the ball. Thats a worrying sign if that happened the whole game rather than in just selected parts for TV.

Also I think the ball hits wilko on the way in from that angle

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

No, we didn’t really press them. You need Clay playing to drive that.

We stopped them playing out from goal kicks but that’s not the same thing.

On the goal, Wilko definitely goes to claim it although no idea whether there’s contact or not.

[Thor]

So it seems we've moved from being a pressing team to one that doesn't. Is it deliberate or are the players going rogue?

[Adz]

More dodgy keeping for the second goal

I’d question the defence letting that ball come in then Jobi putting in a pathetic block like that before I started on Vigaro.

True it's soft defending, but if he does his job properly that's not a goal.

I'm not taking anything away from him, he's been a revelation this season, but like everyone else he needs to be held accountable for his mistakes

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

So it seems we've moved from being a pressing team to one that doesn't. Is it deliberate or are the players going rogue?

Who knows?

Maybe it’s just a personnel thing? You need clay and to a lesser extent DJ to play that game. It ain’t gonna work with Dennis and Wilko.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

More dodgy keeping for the second goal

I’d question the defence letting that ball come in then Jobi putting in a pathetic block like that before I started on Vigaro.

True it's soft defending, but if he does his job properly that's not a goal.

I'm not taking anything away from him, he's been a revelation this season, but like everyone else he needs to be held accountable for his mistakes

I think that’s overly harsh, given the fella is only 8 yards out and it basically goes through Jobi so he’s unsighted.

[Orient_Man_And_Boy]

Can someone who watched the game if we pressed them at all when they had the ball?

Cos those highlights seem to show we did not press them at all when they had the ball. Thats a worrying sign if that happened the whole game rather than in just selected parts for TV.

Also I think the ball hits wilko on the way in from that angle

I listened to BBC Essex who gave a balanced commentary, IMO.

There were a few times when we had the upper hand but, and I cannot quote exactly, we were too 'cautious and steady'. Hence we had a good % for possession and nothing really to show for it; it hints at lacking in ideas and game-plan, IMO.

Let's just be thankful that there are worse teams than us in L2 right now. But, be careful, Sarfend won yesterday ….

[EliotNes]

Back line is too slow, ball-watching and tactically poor.

This.

Repeatedly we are sooooo slowwww all across the park. No urgency in most of our players movements.

[Lovejoy]

In that two minutes plus clip they played the ball through our static square defence four times. One of the through balls led to the first goal, the others were saved by Vigouroux. Incredibly bad defending.

[Dohnut]

In that two minutes plus clip they played the ball through our static square defence four times. One of the through balls led to the first goal, the others were saved by Vigouroux. Incredibly bad defending.

Two minutes that tell a story. That’s not the players being Poor, that’s the system being not good enough or the players not understanding roles.

Each thinking it was someone else’s job,

Vigouroux saves us again. Like someone said, he is the difference between mid table and bottom 4. Star man.

[RedDwarf 1881]

I have seen two goals recently where, as good a prospect Akinola is, he has seemed to stroll along whilst a goal was scored against us.
It happened in the recent game when our goalie made an awful clearance and the ball was kicked straight into goal. Akinola made no effort to stop the ball despite being close by. I saw a similar lack of reaction from him for their first goal yesterday. I think that he is a very good prospect but he seemed to switch off on both occasions.

I think he’s a very average prospect who probably thinks he’s better than he is and doesn’t want to be here. I agree with your observations about the goals and that a committed player would have done more in both instances.

If he doesn’t want to be here we should send him back to West Ham and bring in somebody who does.

[RedDwarf 1881]

In that two minutes plus clip they played the ball through our static square defence four times. One of the through balls led to the first goal, the others were saved by Vigouroux. Incredibly bad defending.

Two minutes that tell a story. That’s not the players being Poor, that’s the system being not good enough or the players not understanding roles.

Each thinking it was someone else’s job,

Vigouroux saves us again. Like someone said, he is the difference between mid table and bottom 4. Star man.

Play 4-4-2 . Plain and straight forward that our players understand

[Thor]

Players can adapt to new systems and new tactics, but you need to work on them and from what is said we have had very little time on the training ground to drill the players in what is required. That's an issue.

[gshaw]

Players can adapt to new systems and new tactics, but you need to work on them and from what is said we have had very little time on the training ground to drill the players in what is required. That's an issue.

Then don't change from what worked against Bolton only a few weeks ago no?

[Thor]

Correct gshaw he should never have changed it, my guess is he was worried about something they were going to do rather than let them worry about what we were going to do.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

Players can adapt to new systems and new tactics, but you need to work on them and from what is said we have had very little time on the training ground to drill the players in what is required. That's an issue.

Why didn’t they have time?

They used it on Tuesday, so must have practiced it in training at the start of the week, then had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

[Thor]

Due to the schedule, rest days, warm down days etc.