Thetownend.com

Our season hype can depend on this game today. About time we beat the pikeys.

2-1 loss

Predictions can go in the predictions thread if you like.

Hope the merly doesn't get rammed too early.

It's all very exciting

Good feeling about today.

We never beat Leeds, I'd take a draw.

What Tails says....2 wins in 18 matches against them....11 defeats, I think I would be happy with a draw TBH.

3-2 to Town. 25/1. Mcnamee to have a blinder. Cox to get 2, Jack Smith the other. Leeds fans to take defeat badly in a sulky, pissy, who the fuck are Swindon way rather than violent manner.

Where's Brez? According to the o/s he's not even on the bench.

Mark Scott on the bench according to the OS..who he??? youth team keeper?

Right fine. Thanks Ed!

Yeah must be an injury for Brez, dissapointed Corr isnt on the bench today.

The Leeds team -

Lucas, Richardson, Telfer, Marques, Sheehan, Hughes, Kilkenny, Douglas, Delph, Beckford, Becchio. Subs: Martin, Prutton, Howson, Robinson, Snodgrass.

The things, you say, your purple prose just give you away.
The things, you say.
You're unbeleivable.!

(Tune playing now for those not listening to the beeb)

leeds down to 10 men

Swindon Team?

Pivotal today I reckon, late Cox goal to steal it after being under the cosh for the 90.

anyone get this on the swindon town website.  I can not hear anything!

I have nothing either Manc, not a sausage on STFC World so far.

Alan Sheehan (left back?) sent off for a professional foul - come on they're there for the taking!!

Leeds leftback got sent off for those who can't hear anything. Apperently a bit of a shock red. Maybe a twofooted challenge or something.

This is so frustrating, especially playing against 10 men so early!

There isnt any coverage of the Leeds commentary available either grrrr

damn I am in leeds, yet there games are on dab, stupid ken bates!!!!!

Anyone got an update?

Didn't you realise the game was at home?...

Yeah I know its at home for us.  But I am in Leeds (I live in Leeds), but Ken bates has sold the right to listen to Yorkshire DAB station, which he owns.  No DAB so I can not listen to there commentary!!!

Hehe I was only taking the piss....  I should really sign up to STFC World but when I was a member the service was shit and half the games kept cutting out or I had to listen to the opposition commentary which drove me nuts...  Starting to regret not going today, especially with the weather as it is...  In the mood for some beers tonight, please God let one of my accumulators come off!

They are down to 10 men, but still have 72% of possein according to world stats.

Nada hear as well "Redirect limit exceeded". Well they had better get the fucking redirect limit increased innit. CUNTS.

1 - 0 leeds

Ifil fucks up.

Ok, didnt realise that.  World service isnt working, so you are not missing anything!!

Oxf*rd a goal down to Kidderminster if that's any consolation...  if we lose at home to 10 man Leeds we're going to be looking over our shoulder for the rest of the season...

fucking hell come on boys

Its a fucking shit service for summut we pay for, and what with Beckford goal, I am double dissapointed now!

fucking shit service, I am giving up now! WANKERS!!!

*Have to pay for. I thought the monopolies are illegal.

Anybody have any idea how we are playing?

Leeds are dominating with ten men now

shit we are losing!

A mate at the game just txt me and said its end to end stuff but a bad fuck up by Ifil for the goal.

Should have played Marshall from the start! :)

I think its about time marshall got his chance

Fucking bastard World.

I just e-mailed STFC World/Premium TV or whatever they call themselves. Wanking wankers :doh:

I was tempted, but I want to listen to it NOW. Some reply making feeble excuses Monday morning just won't cut it.

Useless, I wonder if it is down for all matches or just ours.

HAVE IT!!!

Cox :D

And got himself booked for winding up the LEeds fans.

1-1 Cox!

 :D

COXY WOXY!!!!!  McNamee cross, first time shot...

get in yesssssssss

Half time

Halfy mctime time

So, who thinks we're going to fuck this up in the second half?

Not me. Definitely maybe without a doubt perhaps.

I dont think we will finish them off if thats what you mean

Try listening here ... BBC Leeds. Not full commentary but keeps you up to date. I've followed first half on here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/leeds.shtml

I can still see it finishing 2-2 as I predicted before the game, they come out second half and attack us and get a goal, then we get a very late equalizer...89th minute!

finally working!!!!

Actually MM seems to be good with his half time talks.
Not for me

I just left it for 15-20 mins, then just started working!guess im a lucky one

2 - 1 down :(

Phil Smith fucks up this time.

2-1

2-1 to Leeds

My link has just started working and the first thing I hear is that! FFS

fuck

Then coxy just nearly scored a header.

Ifil puts it over.

For fuck sake :doh:

Its all Swindon by the sound of it.

World still not working for me

Seems to be fine for me now, took a few goes to get it but there now.

Fightings.

Beckford booked

Get Marshall on MM he will scare them, we seem to be attacking well but not defending.

We need a miracle

I'm listening to the Leeds Beeb link and their commentators are shite as I have NO idea what is happening. They have not said ONE thing about what is actually happening in the match apart from Smith's howler

Marshall on for McGovern

Marshall on for Mcgoven

Hasn't Marshall beaten 9 men and scored yet?  Fuck me he's shit...

Timlin on for someone.

Please someone fucking score

Corner. I'm feeling good about this.

I was wrong.

come on town score please

I have turned off the Leeds beeb link, their commentators just are not interested in the match. They can't even be bothered to let us know about sub's ect.

And I am furious at world, the cunts.

3-1 leeds. game over.

3 - 1, game over :(

Malpas out thought i would start it

Spoooky.

What a fucking joke.

I agree with you

Come on, you would have taken a 3-1 defeat before the game.

They have had ten men all game and our defensive fucks haven't been dealt with and with a big crowd today makes you wonder how many will return :bye:

down to 10 men for over 80 minutes and it sounds like they are playing us off the park. What a load of bollox

Not if I knew we would be playing against 10 men.

To be honest though STFC world has done little to help my mood.

The match will take care of itself - and very predictably it did  :nod:

You must have been listening to a different game. Sounds like we've played quite well. Just punished by two individual errors.

nar im at work and pissed off. was just readin it off the beeb.

It'll be interesting to see what people who went say, it's difficult at best to judge from from Hadwin's mumblings.

Do you drop Smith and Ifil for disasterous errors that gift goals? Who knows.

Whistle goes. To the pub!

Same here, thanks to those cocks at world being cocks (I am still VERY unhappy about that), and the Beeb Leeds commentators being utter crap. Maybe it isn't all doom and gloom.

I hope to hear a better story from those who went.

I've invented an Ifil hat to make him good.

[url width=739 height=605]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d35/flammableben/Ifilhat.gif[/url]

SO people can control him with a remote.

So where you controlling him tonight?

It's for controlling him during games not for making him suck you off you sick cunt.

How long is M.M going to last?  

This is not a get him out post.  That is totally redundant, he is sealing his own fate simply by not having players prepared at kick-off time to play professional football.

Can you not make an exception?

Just got back, so mega pissed off. Once again cuntish defensive errors cost us again. WTF was Ifil thinking for the first, then don't get me started on Smiths howler. Our defence is costing us time and time again, it just pisses me off when we lose a game we really should of won.

Have to give credit to Leeds though, their number 15, Delph, played us off the park. He is something special. Beckford will be laughing at how easy his goals came, I've had enough of the management saying how well the weeks training sessions has gone etc, then we make pathetic errors again. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Oh and atmoshere was shit.

I just cant understand how he got the job in the first place were does fitton think he can take us well certainly isnt up thats for sure.

3 defensive errors cost us today. Ifil should of but that into row z in the arkells. so fucked off with the defense. Also Leeds number 15 Fabian Delph best player on the park he will be one for the future and he is keeping out Howson out of the team

Gifted them 3 goals - all shoddy mistakes.

Hate to say it but Smith (Phil) had a shocker.  His head dropped after the first mistake and then that was it - confidence shot to pieces.

All is all - mistakes again and its not good enough.

Give the kids a chance I say if this lot aren't prepared to put in the effort.

Oh and I'd hate to see how many we would have conceeded if they had 11 men!

strikers don't score - we get new strikers in. Defence doesn't do it's job properly, we get new defenders in??? I'm fed up with listetning to the same shit on Monday's in the paper about how they are trying to cut the mostakes and will work hard in training.. BULLSHIT.
Malpas needs to look to the loan market and drop Ifil and Aljofree. Ifil is great defender, but how many useless balls did he play and always has to cover for his own mistakes. Smith and Amankwaah looked pretty decent today at fullback. How many goals has our mistakes cost us this season - we would be top of the league if it wasn't for them fucking stupid errors Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I cannot understand why Corr didn't make the bench

...and why we still had 4 defenders on the pitch going into added time?

negatives.our support was shit(totally shown up by leeds)
our defence.ifil was fucking terrible and had one of the worst games i've ever seen.if we are looking to move up as a club he aint good enough.
aljofree did ok until the fuck up for the third which he blamed ifil for(no hasney, it was your fucking fault!) we need another leader at the back as it aint working.we got carved open time after time and always looked like conceeding.
wanker did fuck all, neither did smith.
our keeper was worked once and fucked up big time(brez, even with his flaws has great handling of the ball)
easton.utter shit today fella!
marshall(fucking lay it off instead of running down blind alleys!)
fucking loads of wasted corners!


positives for me was the understanding the front 2 look to be building.didn't come off alot today but the signs are good for sure.maccca always a threat.nalis was good first half and reads the game well(faded second half mind)
jpm did ok imo.

their 15 was the best player on the park.beckford scared the shit out of our defence.

Ifil and Aljofree were poor, but it didn't help them that Malpas told Smith and Amankwaah to push on when Leeds went down to 10 men. Leeds then brought Howson on in the second half and him and Beckford were playing 2 on 2 with our centre backs. That's absolutely criminal when they're down to 10 men.

On the subject of Beckford, I used to think he was a good player and had respect for him. Now he's just turned into a whining primadonna and is complete cunt.

Apart from the obvious blunder, Smith didn't have such a bad game in goal I thought.

Our biggest problem was lacking creativity. Macca just wasn't getting the crosses in and there was nothing coming through the middle, Nalis and Easton were completely ineffective. Some nice little one-two's between Paynter and Cox but we simply weren't good enough.

All in all, a typical Swindon performance against 10 men.

Think you are being kind sam. Smith did not have nothing to do and what he did he messed up. I thought jpm was shit so was easton. Our 36 year old done all our running today

Their first goal - Why was mcgovern not tracking beckford and in a position to clear behind ifil?
Their second goal - Why was mcgovern not standing on the post to clear when smith threw it in
Their third goal - Why was mcgovern not on the pitch to get rid of the ball before it reached aljofree.

Shit scared against the big club syndrome,when we have the extra man they should be marking us....our midfield were shocking...Cox worked his bollox off again,Smith makes too many mistakes now,all in all ime totally pissed off because Leeds are not a great team.

Looks like we're stuffed this season. Ifil and Aljofre between them make more basic mistakes and misplaced hoofs than any other central pair in other teams I can remember, for some seasons. (Or so it seems to me).   This is messing up other parts of the team performance, IMO. Can't see a solution at the moment. Leeds were mostly playing it out from deep defence, while we, with the extra man, were lumping it up to Paynter/Cox, who did quite well but had little support. Against a good strong organised team, I didn't think the others played too badly, but success means not making basic mistakes in defence as a starting point, and I think we are almost waiting for it to happen now.

I thought we looked quite good at the start when we were playing balls into the channels for cox and paynter. They had paul telfer playing at the back ffs!

put it in up top today let down by defensive mistakes and a superb save by their keeper at 2-1. Delph ran the show didnt really notice they only had 10 men they moved it about so well. Didn't turn up first half either. whens vincent back?

the wise old man normy speaks sense. jerel and hasney is quickly becoming a kamikaze partnership and i lack confidence in them. however, the full backs did "okay" today and smith's error was absolutely criminal.

today's game was a catalogue of errors, not all of them punished. passing was poor and we gave away posession too often when trying to play out from the back, intercepted passes setting up attacks for leeds - we need to be more decisive and assured with the ball. not resort to hoofing it which destroys the gameplan and doesn't give our best player any chance to get in the game. however, with aljofree and ifil's distribution we're fucked.

i don't see how we can stop these individual errors but they're going to kill us. malpas can only do so much, once a player goes out on the pitch and makes elementary mistakes then it's damage limitation. i can't see how it is a lack of confidence when we can go to places like MK and win 2-1 or how players like cox, paynter, nalis, macnamee can play so well even when we're poor.

god forbid, do we miss vincent that much? phil smith is a shadow of the keeper he was sadly. is jerel returning to the ways of old when he played with such low confidence that he was a constant liability?

the game aside, our fans are mentally deficient.

Is it bad that the thing I was most dissapointed about was their third ruining my prediction league streak?

I actually thought we played alright, bar two of the most hilariously inept bits of defending/keeping I've ever seen.

What does Malpas do though? Does he spend the whole of Monday (unless they're in tomorrow) teaching our players the complete basics?

Swindon Town are consistantly inconsistant... We have been for many, many years - it's no excuse, especially as our major let down is the bread-and-butter stuff. I'm looking at the division and I'm seeing more clubs in our situation than those who are not.

It's early days but we must get it sorted... I would like to see some competition for the defenders in the form of a loan signing...

13,000 today and I'm sure we didn't impress the day trippers which is disappointing.

I aint being funny but I said a few weeks ago that Smith is massively overrated in goal and he is just proving the point time and time again. With Smith not upto it and Brez horribly off form we have a keeper crisis which is unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg when it comes  to our problems. Everything Smith had to do today he pretty much fucked up. I don't know where this bollocks about him commanding his box came from..........the goal, dropping that cross, that pass back near the end it was just amateurish. He's a nice bloke but not really upto the job and unfortunately the same can be said about a large % of our players at the moment and most worryingly of all they seem devoid of any form of team spirit.

Didnt go yesterday....had my daughter up and a 25th Aniv'y party to attend...whoop,whoop!

Listened on the Wireless and to be fair i could hear the mistakes coming........so i feel for you poor sods who had to watch it and SEE it coming!

Very worrying.as i have said before........We have a manager with international defensive experience, an experienced defensive coach and experienced defenders......so why is the defence a liability??

Im back for the Millwall game and looking forward to it.......and an improvement at the back.

PS...lets stop the players running off their mouths to the press about 'clean sheets' - Slags keep cleaner sheets than us!!!!!!!

He might run out of ideas soon which is a worry. He's probably done shit loads to try and buck the defences ideas up.

An ideal way of getting results is to have a consistent starting 11, Malpas has made many changes to try and get that elusive clean sheet and he must do it again.
Ifil needs a rest, I've always been a big fan of his but he has gone stale, I thought he gave up yesterday.
Morrison must be given a run, not just the one game.
As much as like Cox and Paynter combination, it might be time to grind results out and play five across the middle and one upfront at the moment the midfield couldn't win a tiddlywinks match.

Having watched the INDIVIDUAL errors from the last 2 home games I'm not sure there is much Malpas can do.  It's not a defensive system or coaching problem, it's absolutely school boy errors costing us goals.  All 3 yesterday were down to individuals not being decisive.  The only answer is a change of personnel I believe, which means a forray into the Loan Market asap for a centre half at the very least.

Ifil has had more than enough time to mature and show individual responsibility for the errors in his game, but he continues to make them and distribute the ball like it's a hot potato filled with helium.  Aljofree just doesn't do it for me, loses too many headers, equally poor distribution and doesn't as far as I can see LEAD anyone anywhere.  Shame, because both are comitted, seem to be trying and from time to time pull off cracking recovery challenges, but the two together simply will not work.

Smith in goal is not working.  He's too prone to bouts of complete confidence loss.  His games where he pulls off great saves are matched by yesterdays performance.  Brez has not played well, but has to be number one when available.

If the core of the defensive area are making such howlers, and it's part of their natural game to do so, we are in trouble.  We'll get games like Colchester & Leeds, and then a few games where it seems to work and we get some draws or wins.

Time to change them.  Smith unfortunately I fear has had his chance now and must be a back-up option.  Ifil and Aljofree require a steady eddy to partner them, and he doesn;t exist in the squad unless Vincent can do it.  Neither should play together unless there is no other option, we need a replacement in to provide the assurity at the back that is needed.  The rest of the team is good enough to hold it's own.  We can argue about Timlin vs Easton, or McGovern vs Marshall/Easton, but in all truthfullness, any of the options should be ok for League 1.  We created enough to win a game yesterday.  We have to concentrate on getting the solid base and quick, and I don't see that any Manager can get that with our current options in the back of the spine of the team.

I would like to see Easton and Timlin giving the chance in the centre. Nalis been alright, but with high tempo game yesterday, I thought we needed Beastie and Timlin with they're up and down work rate.

Bloody Beckford a dirty cunt, having little hacks at players off the ball.

so, basically what were all saying is

our players who start are shit and ones not playing are better.

If Malpas does do and suggest drop Smith, JPM, Nalis, Aljofree & Ifil next week we'll be saying how great they are and how rubbish Brez, Timlin, Easton, Morrison and Kanyuka are....

No we are saying we are conceding too many fucking goals and yesterday lacked creativity,desire and spirit and would like to know why

I was actually suggesting that all the defenders who play in the middle have the same problem, so swapping them won;t make much difference.  We wither change formation and/or style or find new players, which I admit is easier said than done.

desire and spirit.....sounds like what Lee Peacock gives us.....ooooh!!

What do you think went wrong yesterday Deev?

But malpas decided not to put peacock on when he could of.but thats not his fault is it dv

Individual errors. Ifil fucked up for their first goal and Phil Smith royally fucked up for their second. Aljofree messed up for their third but it was when we were pushing the game. These things happen, ok they seem to be happening alot and we also seem to be getting punished all the time. I cant really place who fault it is these errors happen, but say we got rid of Malpas and appointed Ian Holloway that wouldnt get rid of the mistakes

I thought bar the odd mistake we were alright, we got the ball down now and again and played it about. We created enough chances to be in the game. Up untill the Lucas save right after their second goal I still thought we were in it.

That save knocked the stuffing out of us.

Im sure if you have a look we created just as many chances as Leeds and as usual had 10+ corners.

We didnt boss the midfield we tried (...only a little bit mind) and Leeds kept the ball much better than us. We couldnt get near them which I think is credit to their midfield because its a good one!

I think the finger of blame can go on Malpas for trying to use a more open and attacking style of play.  It's becomming clear our players can't cut it when playing that way.  The one thing I will lay at his door is if he doesn't spot that and make allowances.  It may mean packing the midfield to cover for the defenders ability to make mistakes, or going more direct.  We've got away with a shit defence before by

a) playing for a year in Div 4
b) playing very direct under Sturrock who curbed flair and passing pretty much

Peacock hasn't done that much this season though has he? Peacock dodged a bullet by not coming on and feeling the wrath of our fans  ;)

It was an almighty off day against a better team than us.... I am always content if the players give it a good go, but they didn't. However, by the sounds of it we've played alot worse. We must see improvement against Stockport and we must start getting more points at home.

It seems that TEF is going around in circles.

 ???

I think we lacked overall control. The errors didn't matter, we'd have still lost that game.

Well that's my opinion anyway.

Word. At no stage did leeds look like they had 10 men, and they would have every right to feel agrreived not too have won.

We dont seem to have a plan B either. We can't even play route one anymore

That save from lucas on the cox header knocked the stuffing out of us. I thought it was in, my dad also thought it ws in. I thought we played ok apart the defensive errors which cost us dearly u really don't give 2 chances to Beckford. Even though he missed a really simple one half way through the 2nd half.

From what I remember, Vincent at CB was very solid, made no bad mistakes, and talked well to his colleagues. Much better than at fullback, in my view. I wonder what the stats are for the few games he played in that position?

We don't have a plan B? I didn't realise we had a plan A tbh.

plan a is to try and mesmorise the opposition with our sexy triangles.

maybe we could make their eyes go like the bloke in the sweaty lynx ad.

Were you secretly listening to my conversation on the way home?  That is a spot on analysis, with which I fully agree.  Howver, please don't mention Holloway (I know you didn't say you wanted him in, and were only using him as an example), many of my friends still can't say his name without swearing.

BTW, for what it's worth I think both our keepers are a bit shit, and would be happy enough with either as back up, but neither as first choice (I realise we have no choice until January...or maybe July).

I know its been pointed out numerous times and is very obvious but for a change after all the Aljofree bashing we have on here, i didn't think Aljofree had that bad a game and he was the one cleaning up the wreckage caused by Ifil being out of position/shit, pretty well. But their third goal came from both of them choosing not to pick up arguably the best striker in the league so sort of undone his earlier work.

All this Malpas bashing who-ha is an over reaction in my opinion. Defensive mistakes are always highlighted more than strikers missing sitters, but the mistakes so far seem to have been confidence related mistakes - especially over the weekend. But explaining that after a few decent away results is difficult.

I too think that aljofree has been he better of the two center backs recently

Yes i agree aswell i am going to ignore ifils goals that got us our point recently and through to the next round.

Thats not saying alot Dave!.....Ifill and Aljofree are good players,but it seems that they dont get on,personaly i think Ifill was unimpressed when Aljofree was made captain.

This is true. Cox missed two good chances at 0-0 at Cheltenham, which cost us 3 points. But this got ignored.

At least he held his hand up in the paper 2 days later. Oh no he didnt, he said he was going to play for Liverpool!

Aljofree is a crap captain. Hes OK as a defender.

Here fishy fishy fishy

We've shipped 11 goals in 6 games and have only scored 7.

This whole entertaining football thing is a myth. I wasn't entertained at Cheltenham, or the home game against Leeds. Half of the games against the franchise scum and Colchester were dull and shit.

I didn't go to Hereford but it didn't sound great, neither did Aldershot. Where is this entertaining football we've been talking about?

Tranmere was a decent game and it sounded like QPR was a cracker (I had to give that one a miss too unfortunately). So there have been times when we have played nice, 'entertaining' stuff.

I'm not moaning that I'm not getting exciting football but I just think it's a bit of a false argument. I think anyone who isn't worried we can ship two goals to teams like Cheltenham and Aldershot and isn't worried by the way in which are conceding goals in every single game we've played in, is a little bit mad.

Does anyone think we have any defenders capable of improving  on last seasons position

It hasnt been great Sie...but at least MM is trying to get them playing some footy on the deck,lets be honest apart from Cox he really hasnt had quality added to the squad although Nalis will come good ime sure.
Personaly i would have liked the purse strings stretched abit more and Malpass would have got em going more...Cox has shown that if you splash the cash sensibly your going to get the rewards.

i dont

If we score 4 every other game, and always score first then weve got a great chance of being top half.

Sorry I dont understand the question

Do you mean does anyone think we have defenders capable of improving?
or do you mean does anyone with with this defence we can improve on last season?

I think we all know full well that Ifil is capable of much more. No matter what he's done this season we seen him be alot more solid in the past, at this level as well not just League Two.

Ifils been hear a long time, we know he is a confidence player, we know he cant pass and we know he is thick as shit. Play to his strengths and he's a very good defender at this level.

Amankwaah has only played a hand full of games and apart from the obvious Colchester mistake I think Jack Smith will do a solid enough job in defence and he can play a bit as well.

Aljofree is the tough one. I think hes an ok defender, nothing more nothing less but he does have expirence. The thought of Ifil along side a Morrison or a Kanyuka scares me. We need an expirenced head and at the moment it has to be Aljofree, hes the only option.

I've always rated Vincent as a defender and I do believe hes one of those defenders you dont miss untill he isnt there. He talks, he organises. What with Aljofree being expirenced and the captain you'd think he was the one organising the defence, but with Vincent missing its clear Aljofree doesnt do this job. With that in mind, if he cant organise a defence then how can he be captain?!

Im also starting to wonder about our midfield helping the back 4. I dont think we've looked as solid in the middle as we did last season. Craig Easton has missed a few and played a few. Not really back into the grove but again for all his faults and limits I always thought Peacock did a good job of breaking up play in the middle and helping the defence. Also, he's good in the air and helps defend the set pieces which we arent doing now.

....as for Peacock, I dunno part of me thinks im doing the classic because he isnt playing hes the answer part of me thinks we miss his effort, work rate, commitment, presence, ariel ability & character.

Sorry dv what i meant was with the defenders we have are we capable of improving on last years position. By the way how do you play to a defenders strenghs?

Thats what I thought you meant....

....ok to play to Ifils strengths you would play him along a much more expirenced centre back or at least a talker. I know it was League Two but Ifil always looked his best along side Williams. Who not only was an expirenced defender he was a talker and a proper captain. Secondly we know he cant pass the ball to save his life so effectivly you should try and always have a midfielder dropping short to get the ball. Do that as often as you can and Ifil should only have to roll the ball 5 yards forward. I know you cant do this at every single time Ifil has the ball....but it would help Nalis does it a few times but as often as Ifil goes long for no real reason he also goes long because the options arent open to him. With Ifil not being much of a thinker he should be given a man to mark and follow him everywhere.

Again, personal opinion but our best defender on the ball is Jack Smith, so if the ball needs to bought out of defence and passed forward he should be the man to do it.

Ah i get you regarding ifil, agree about smith i have always been interested to see what he could offer at right wing

re: Smith right wing....its something I thought we might have tried in our relegation season what with Shakes being shit and we seemed to be crying out for a right winger. Not enough pace but passes the ball well and has a good delivery....

Would be an interesting one to try certainly.

I think I mentioned in another thread maybe Amankwaah and Smith as the right back and right winger. Amankwaah hasnt been here long but I'd say Smith is the better of the two defensivly but they could almost keep switching.

Thats my thinking problem with jpm and easton is they both go central too much

isn't aljofree experienced and a talker?
man to man marking is very risky too,ifil would be good at this but it could create openings for others.teams would do their homework and exploit it.

Aljofree is expirence but doesnt seem like much of a talker. I could be wrong I've never played centre back along side him but I think its safe to say our defence hasnt looked organised all season.

It looks alot worse off than it did last season and the difference between this seasons defence and last seasons defence is the full backs. Comminges and Vincent & the defensive coach.

cant argue with that dv.the fact is our centre back pairings this season have all not really worked.

I don't think you'd go for the man marking option every game, as in my opinion it doesn't always make sense. However, Ifil has shown he can mark the likes of Leroy Lita and an in-form Leon Knight out of games on several occasions so it is worth using him in that role when necessary

As for Smith, it would be interesting to see him on the right of midfield as he can spot gaps in the defence and put balls in the box. However, with our current defensive situation I think now is not the time to try it!

Don't be a cunt all your life DV. Ifil is far from being 'thick as shit'. The way your trying to make him sound like a thick fucking Benny who is incapable of passing the ball more than 5 yards without instruction is cunting scandalous.

If he's so thick, how come he's been virtually ever-present since he fucking joined us? How come every manager he's played under at SN1 has played him consistently?

He might play better with someone beside him constantly barking out instructions, but he aint a fucking retard.

lets be honest he is a bit seymour

Nearly 200 league apperances, 26 years old....

Yet he still needs someone to talk him through the game, in footballing terms he is thick. If he wasnt he'd be the leader of the defensive by now marshalling Kanyuka or Morrison along side him.

Im an Ifil fan and I've been sticking up for him. He is a good defender but has his limitations and we all bloody know it.

To be fair delta, if you'd seen the Leeds game you couldn't argue.

Obviously not fair to typify a player on one game, but it's evident Ifil's old traits are starting to creep back in. I don't think it's fair to point Ifil out alone, it's a team game. The whole team isn't doing the job well enough and some habits I thought we'd left behind when Onoura went have started to return.

With a specialist defensive coach in residence last season Ifil was part of a solid defence under Sturrock and few, if any, pointed a finger in his direction when things went wrong at the back. Now all of a sudden under Malpas he's a bit thick? I dont fucking think so.

maybe not thick, but in dire form.

Yeah, low on confidence at the moment. I can accept that.
Well put.

ifil looks as he did when king was in charge - devoid of any confidence and self-belief, which is when he makes mistakes.

I think it's evident that both Ifil and Aljofree are somewhat lacking in positional awareness e.g. both of them marking Beckford leaving acres of space for Leeds to break from midfield. Whether that's down to a lack of specialised defensive coaching now that Sturrock's gone I don't know.

I'm not going to call Ifil thick, but it is evident that he plays his best when paired up with someone who tells him what to do  re positioning. His best performances were when he played with Williams and Vincent: both of whom kept talking the whole time.

I personally don't think Aljorfree is a bad defender, but he doesn't appear to be a good organiser and that's what's required. A lot of people don't like Vincent, as he's not attack minded but it would be nice to get him back in the team as he can marshall the defence, something that no one is doing at present.

Very true about vincent my worry is it will be him and aljofree next week

Vincent Ifil would be okay with me.  I agree with DV I don't think Ifil is the most intelligent bloke in the team, a bit thick may be a little harsh, but it's true that after 200 league games or so he should be the experienced head at the back, he seems incapable of fulfilling that role for some reason.

Vincent Ifil would be good, although Kanyuka shouldn't be excluded just because of the Col U match.

There's Football intelligence and general intelligence.

Theres plenty of players who have been "mentally challenged" yet seem to have a natural understanding of the game. The way Rooney finds space at times for example. Gazza.

Jerel clearly does not have this, I've never spoken to the bloke so dont know what he's like in "real life"

Ifil doesn't have what we would call a footballing brain.  He plays on instinct, he's good at marking because all he has to do is follow someone and tackle them when the ball comes near and then get rid, no thought about the game required.  That's not going to change as far as I can see, so Vincent does seem the best partner for him, someone who has a pretty good footballing brain if not the most gifted bloke in the world.  It's a partnership I'd be happy with, and I think Smith at left back, although he looks less influential going forward, works as a balance to McNamee.  If we could get that back 4 in place, Amankwah looks ok to me, then we just need to see if we have to use the 3 central players out of 4 in the middle for a while to settle.

They would get raped by somebody with pace though

if fit vincent has to play.who is dropped is up to malpas.despite not playing too well i wouldn't drop aljofree.

drop both of them and try vincent and kanyuke?

Ifil's not slow, he would handle some one with pace. 

nothing to lose i suppose.other pairings have been tried.i really want the ifil back who can be awesome,but his limitations which are obvious are really effecting him at the moment.i think he's been poor all season so far.colchester was a bad day too,didn't work at all with kanyuka as a pair with him.

Sorry jan thought you said aljofree and vincent

No, even I'm not that stupid!  Vincent/Ifil or even Vincent/Kanyuka would do for me.  I'm glad to see that people are giving JV a bit of credit nowadays as he's been an unsung not so much hero, but a very good player for us in the past couple of seasons.

That could equally work, but we'd have to give them a game or two to settle in together.

I have and in "real life" intelligence, he's far from thick and quite a lot deeper than many would give footballers credit for. However, on the pitch he does seem to need someone alongside him - which may be a confidence thing as much as "football intelligence" - but he is certainly not thick.

jerel believes in god so he is clearly insane

The simplest thing would be to drop I'm a wanker. Vincent doesn't have to be in the middle to do the organising role. We might lose a bit of attacking, but it would certainly strengthen our defence.

That's the funniest thing you've ever said! I actually spit a bit of my sandwich out, that's quite a feat.

Jerel Ifil = a lower league Titus Bramble

Yes he should be a really good CH. He's quick and strong and can tackle. But oftem it seems he's got no real idea of where he should be standing in any given situation, which direction he should be facing in or which side of an opposing player he should be trying to get.

You can coach a player to understand those things and on the training ground when he's thinking about it he might be able to apply it. But some players are never able to internalise it, to make it a natural instinctive way of reacting even when under pressure.

Jerel looks like he might be one of those players, but most of the defenders we're going to sign in this league are going to be. They are always going to make mistakes, that's why they're down here.

The annoying thing for me on Saturday was the fact that Ifill seemed to be left to distribute the ball from the back.  We all know his distribution is the poorest part of his game and so must he and the players, however numerous time the ball was past around the back for or even into the midfield and then passed back to Ifill for him to look for the telling pass/ through ball (lump it forward).  This seemed to happen time and again with us losing the ball nearly every time.  The other players did not seem to want to take any responsibilty and to the take the ball &  pass or run with it.

why not?serious question

In my humble and honest opinion aljofree has been the better of the two center backs at defending in recent weeks.

Academic that though as Vincent limped off after 60 mins apparently.

because he's the better of the pair currently.on paper i'd still say ifil and aljofree are our best centre backs,but at the momnet it aint working.if either was dropped i wouldn't really be too bothered

Fair comment,but Ifil was better than Aljofree at Hereford in my opinion

i wasn't there so i cannot comment.if i could replace both i would,but that doesn't look an option.

My latest idea is to play the same starting 11 on Saturday, on the basis that they all have a point to prove, and cannot possibly be any worse.

I would keep Ifil and Aljofree together to be honest, they're our best pairing.