Independent Leyton Orient Forum

Yesterday it was said we were boys against men. Every team we play seems to be massive. Why do we always seem to have a physically weak squad? We are losing battles of strength, particularly in the air.

If we weighed both sides from yesterday, i bet the difference would be a man or more.

In answer to the title of the thread, apart from big Phil - yes

Long slender neck wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 7:51 am Yesterday it was said we were boys against men. Every team we play seems to be massive. Why do we always seem to have a physically weak squad? We are losing battles of strength, particularly in the air.

If we weighed both sides from yesterday, i bet the difference would be a man or more.

Kabia looked to be outnumbered and outmuscled up front on his own and was ineffective against their ‘big lumps’ at the back.

Cheshunto wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 9:56 am

Long slender neck wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 7:51 am Yesterday it was said we were boys against men. Every team we play seems to be massive. Why do we always seem to have a physically weak squad? We are losing battles of strength, particularly in the air.

If we weighed both sides from yesterday, i bet the difference would be a man or more.

Kabia looked to be outnumbered and outmuscled up front on his own and was ineffective against their ‘big lumps’ at the back.

“… on his own …”. That is indeed part of the problem.

Kabia does still need to get stronger, for sure. But his biggest problem is he has no one around him. WJ1 has to drop into right back to pick the ball up when he should be linking with him.

Hoover Attack wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 10:08 am Kabia does still need to get stronger, for sure. But his biggest problem is he has no one around him. WJ1 has to drop into right back to pick the ball up when he should be linking with him.

Is Kabia actually a striker? We are trying to get him to do a Ballard role but I’m starting to think he’s better out wide. Sticking him in a position where he’s going to get bullied by two big CB lumps every week isn’t going to bring the best out of him.

The boy is living on scraps .

Leger Ritson wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 10:30 am The boy is living on scraps .

We said the same about Ballard in a lot of games last season. Difference is (a) he knew how to use his body (b) made better runs (c) is a better finisher.

I was going to make a similar thread.
It seems, every team that plays us, have huge strong centre backs, 6feet+, 14+stone, a real problem for strikers to play through, & all our centre backs, except Phil, are under 6 feet ball playing defenders.
That's ok in the premier league, but in league 1 you need powerful strong big defenders.
Richie is too much of a football purist. We didn't bring in a single CB this summer that was over 6 feet tall
We so need Richie gone, he's making me sick, he's so terrible now

Cheshunto wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 9:56 am

Long slender neck wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 7:51 am Yesterday it was said we were boys against men. Every team we play seems to be massive. Why do we always seem to have a physically weak squad? We are losing battles of strength, particularly in the air.

If we weighed both sides from yesterday, i bet the difference would be a man or more.

Kabia looked to be outnumbered and outmuscled up front on his own and was ineffective against their ‘big lumps’ at the back.

Ah, we’re back to ‘he’s not cut out to play in league 1’.

Qin wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 11:05 am I was going to make a similar thread.
It seems, every team that plays us, have huge strong centre backs, 6feet+, 14+stone, a real problem for strikers to play through, & all our centre backs, except Phil, are under 6 feet ball playing defenders.
That's ok in the premier league, but in league 1 you need powerful strong big defenders.
Richie is too much of a football purist. We didn't bring in a single CB this summer that was over 6 feet tall
We so need Richie gone, he's making me sick, he's so terrible now

Except its not even OK in the Premier League anymore. Big, physical defenders are back.

BiggsyMalone wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 11:06 am

Cheshunto wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 9:56 am

Long slender neck wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 7:51 am Yesterday it was said we were boys against men. Every team we play seems to be massive. Why do we always seem to have a physically weak squad? We are losing battles of strength, particularly in the air.

If we weighed both sides from yesterday, i bet the difference would be a man or more.

Kabia looked to be outnumbered and outmuscled up front on his own and was ineffective against their ‘big lumps’ at the back.

Ah, we’re back to ‘he’s not cut out to play in league 1’.

I think he can play In League 1 but give him a chance with a second striker alongside him, whether it be Scarlett or Oyekunle’s………It will mean sacrificing one of the wide players but the current formation isn’t exactly working well, is it ??

Pretty much always have been as always go for the finesse type player. Only real exceptions I can think of straight away is Dawson, Vincelot and Hicks.

Evident pretty early yesterday that Mitchell
had our front line in his back pocket for
90 mins ..
How with the ball at our feet we didn’t
run at him was boarding on embarrassing
as the game went on he become more and
more confident of his ability to keep our frontline
at bay for 90 mins at one point chest
pumping to the away end that they probably
had the game covered ..

Need a Steve Castle or Bill Roffey in
that line up to show the others
we have a backbone..

Expect Chinedu, do we have a player that weighs more than 11 stone?

The Reverend wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 10:20 am

Hoover Attack wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 10:08 am Kabia does still need to get stronger, for sure. But his biggest problem is he has no one around him. WJ1 has to drop into right back to pick the ball up when he should be linking with him.

Is Kabia actually a striker? We are trying to get him to do a Ballard role but I’m starting to think he’s better out wide. Sticking him in a position where he’s going to get bullied by two big CB lumps every week isn’t going to bring the best out of him.

Grimsby fans thought it was odd we signed him to replace Ballard. More of a fox in the box than lone striker they said on the socials.

He's already shown his finishing ability, that goal against Luton was top drawer so does again seem we need to adjust playing style to get the best from the players we have

Long slender neck wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 9:51 pm Expect Chinedu, do we have a player that weighs more than 11 stone?

Olowu and Forrester are both big and strong enough, no problem there. The striker yesterday day was a right handful and between them they - just about - managed to contain his physicality.

Iddy, Gilbert amd Hayden are all big and strong enough to compete in midfield.

It’s up top that we struggle. You don’t have to be six foot plus, Ballard and Kelman second time around proved that, but Jaze does need to be a bit stronger and just as importantly a bit wiser.

Iddy and Gilbert look pretty thin to me

Hayden is a fair size and pedigree of course but loses physicality points because of his age.

Bigger players we've had like Bakinson don't seem to use their size to their advantage.

Iddy and Gilbert are just about the ideal physique to play in central midfield. Big enough to not be outmuscled but still able to cover ground all day long.

Bakinson was tall but there was nothing of him.

Cheshunto wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 9:56 am

Long slender neck wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2026 7:51 am Yesterday it was said we were boys against men. Every team we play seems to be massive. Why do we always seem to have a physically weak squad? We are losing battles of strength, particularly in the air.

If we weighed both sides from yesterday, i bet the difference would be a man or more.

Kabia looked to be outnumbered and outmuscled up front on his own and was ineffective against their ‘big lumps’ at the back.

They are not big lumps. Alex Mitchell is a classy robust centre back. To play kabia as a single forward against him was wasteful. He needed another player alongside him . Everybody could see it was man against boy except Wellens who persisted to play one up front. Why bring on Theo and play him as a LB when we are 2-0 down.We don’t seem to have any leaders in our team and not having your manager on the touch line is a disgrace. What team has the manager sitting high in the stand giving instructions. Seems Richie is playing the role of Director of Football. Unfortunately sacking him is going to cost the club a lot of money . We do seem to have some creative players being stifled with by the managers tactics

All our players minus a couple are wirey. Being a lump doesn’t equate to strength necessarily and you lose some pace generally BUT I was thinking the same watching on Saturday. Oppositions generally do come and dominate physically.
I wonder if it’s part of our defending set peice woes

We were not dominated physically on Saturday. (Other than Kabia up against Mitchell and their no 2 who, if the ref had been any good, would have booked him at least 4 times).

I think we're more weak mentally than physically. We lack leaders and self belief all over the pitch

Adz wrote: Mon Oct 05, 2026 9:49 am I think we're more weak mentally than physically. We lack leaders and self belief all over the pitch

This is definitely the case.

Take Hayden out and there's no leadership whatsoever.

I suspect that's the reason Theo is still being selected on the bench, he's one of the few/less players who has any character.