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This is increasingly feeling like a tallest dwarf contest, isn’t it?

Thinking about positive moments I remember, I came up with Young’s goal and back heel and RHM’s turn and not a whole lot else. So Young I guess.

Hutton for me. 6/10 everyone else 5 or below

I think I agree with you Nemo. Young for me, shame he missed a decent chance from uncharacteristically good work from Shade.

Very concerning how bad the whole team was second half.

For the first 35 or so minutes, Kinsella was probably up there, but after that misplaced pass and subsequent booking he was poor.
Young had a few good moments, a few poor ones too, but probably is a 6/10 in a team of 4s

I see Hubbard is taking the 'none' option. He looks about 15. Not exactly what you need when chasing a game!

That's interesting. I thought Kinsella was dreadful and looks a very limited footballer.

He's definitely a limited footballer, just thought he did what you'd expect of a defensive midfielder well at the start of the game (agree that he was dreadful later on)

I kind of see where you are coming from. I don't really see a place for him in a Flynn side as he doesn't seem to want just a defensive midfielder. He wants his players to be much more fluid. I don't think it suits Kinsella at all.

Which is weird because he's the one signing Flynn must have known plenty about before bringing him in. I don't disagree by the way, he doesn't suit the style at all, but we must be missing something.

This is the great conundrum. He didn't pick him at Walsall,so why did he think he was right for us? Baffling

I don't know who to vote for.

Kinsella is a crab. McEachran too
Austin should have scored but didn't. Played one good pass.
UGM played one good pass. But Mr Flynn, he is NOT a midfielder!
FBT did a silky turn/shoulder drop
Brewitt fixed a couple of his mistakes
Hutton crossed to noone all game
RHM got into good positions but got out of them again
Young one good finish. A second saved shot and 3 clear misses.
Kemp cup tied...Oh, was he playing? (Actually he missed one chance)
Shade was summed up by running clear in the first half and the ball hit his heel and was cleared
Hubbard coming on was ridiculous
Minturn slid in once
Mahoney didn't have much to do other than pick the ball out of the net

Went for Young. Good goal.

Thats about it.

I think Hutton gets good balls in. It's up to players to attack them. You get the ball into good areas and hope someone busts a gut to get on it. Very rarely are there unmarked players in the box to "pick out" but when there are Hutton finds them more often than not as in the Austin chance last night. That's how I see it and why I voted for him

I do think that if we had anything resembling a target man, we'd think Hutton was twice the player we do now. But we don't, and he isn't adapting - or the coaching staff are telling him to still put in high balls, or both. It's a head scratcher.

Agree with most of that, and I know you probably aren't criticising Shade for that incident, but that was really unlucky. Had Kemp slipped the ball further in front of him at least he would have had the chance to race clear of the defender, go past the goalkeeper and then slice the ball into the crowd.

😂

Yeah,fair enough point

Young cos he scored, thats it.

Spot on!  :clap:

If Hutton could whip in low fast crosses as Colchester did twice he would be creating way more chances than just aimlessly crossing high floated balls to the far post where, with all due respect, even a younger fitter Austin couldn't get to then he would be a major asset.

As it stands we dont have any player that will attack the near post or far post or even be capable of winning a header and getting on target.

Crosses into the box are pointless if youhave no one on the end of them, ever. Hutton for me flatters to decieve, he gets a high volume of crosses but how many create good chances? I would say less than 10% at absolute most.

We also never have midfielders crashing into the box. We get so few bodies in there.

To be fair mate, 2 last night

His crosses are tailor made for a Harry Smith type. Shame Sutton somehow gazumped us for him.

Massive club with big attendances and a sugar daddy owner. Oh... hold on...

Yet another manager without a Plan B. Same tactics (ha!), same result.

That contract extension is looking a dodgy decision. There’s only so much that can be laid at Clem’s door.

I don't disagree but I kind of read it more as "If we had a Rory Fallon his floaty shite crosses may be a bit more useful than a chocolate teapot."

That's exactly what it is. He's a square peg in a round hole right now, but in the right set up he'd be incredibly useful. A generation ago he would have been Jon Paul McGovern, a right winger whose entire job was crossing in for a Fallon, a Peacock or a Paynter. Playing wing back and crossing in towards an empty box with Austin blowing out of his arse 30 yards away is not a showcase of his skills. I'm not letting him off entirely - he should be able to adapt to lower crosses or running at defenders, but it's easy to see how he could be doing better without doing much different.

and the fact he can't defend made me on the "sell him" side of things in the summer.

The issue with that is though you have to have the ability to sign players to replace, which this basket case football club has shown time and time again, it doesn't.

I watched the game and accept people have different opinions on players but I don't get the Hutton "shit crosses" thing to be honest.
The shit one that landed bang on Austin's head in the first half, the one that picked out Shade on the far post or the one that Kemp headed wide from less than a yard out? Add to that the great through ball which set Kemp up for a good chance and that's not a bad contribution to last night's proceedings surely? Even Parkin commented on the good quality of Hutton's crosses last night. Don't get me wrong, he has his faults but in my opinion he is far from the problem. His assists over the last season and a half speak for themselves.

I think his good points are clouded by his obvious lack of defensive nous/ability. Now, that’s probably not his fault in Flynn’s system.

Agree with this. There's a lot wrong with our squad but Hutton is far down the list of worries.

Is he a great defender? no. He probably fits into the below average category for this level. He is however the best attacking full back in this league in my opinion.

He'll be gone in January and our right side will become as toothless as our left.

I mainly agree with this. I haven't checked statistics to back this up but I bet of our team, Hutton puts the most crosses in per game. Not even David Beckham put crosses in where every single one was fodder for strikers. Again, no stats to back this up, but I reckon on average Hutton's crosses create at least 1 golden opportunity and probably 2/3 half chances. I think what might be a current issue is that the team's form is poor, fans are unhappy and so the poorer crosses are getting more focus than the ones that are creating chances. That one to Austin last night was absolutely pinpoint and he should have scored.

Austin has had numerous chances recently, mostly headers.  Nowhere near the player he was, appreciate that he’s that much older but should still be a constant goal scorer in this division.  Probably a good future coach, knows the game well but with two games a week looks totally fucked.

I am certainly not suggesting Hutton is THE problem thats missreading my post.

Hutton cant defend, we all can see that, hes in the team to create chances, but Colchester put in 2 crosses all game and both resulted in goals - Hutton put in 4 or 5 crosses and 1 should have been a goal but the rest were nowhere near a goal scoring chance. Look at the Gills game, if he had switched up his crossing instead of being defender fodder we may have created more genuine goal scoring chances.

If Hutton crosses like that then the problem is not Hutton as much as the attackers he is crossing to, if we had a bigger target man up front then Hutton could well create 3 or 4 times as many clear cut goal scoring chances, Austin does not have the pace to get into good positions any more but can still provide a cracker of a header/goal at times, as he did on Saturday.

Our problem is that we have pretty much 10 attack minded players and no defensive minded players, even Brewitt, often our last line of defence gets caught out when taking the ball forwards and attacking.

For me, and this is just me, you cannot build a team with attacking players alone, as a priority you need defensive players 1st and foremost.

There are only so many teams we will outscore, ala Kevin Keegans sides in the 90s and early 00s. How many titles or cups did he win? yet Arsenal who were classed as boring around that time, based their entire team on a rock solid defence and went an entire season unbeaten because of that and won many cups and titles playing that way.

Basically after my waffling, I personally (and many wont agree) want a side with a solid defensive backbone who dont go wandering up the pitch when they should be defending leaving gaping holes at the back that every team, no matter how poor, seem to exploit in us. Defenders are paid to defend, as excting as it it watching Dokes and FBT run with the ball creating things we are left massively exposed at the back all the time.

As per my other post the squad needs a massive overhaul and that’s not going to happen with the current owners.

I did miss the one to Austin tbf. My ifollow froze and then came back just before we scored.

Those types of crosses only really work when the striker is completely unmarked. Against a team like Gillingham when we kept putting them in, they're virtually useless.

Sorry mate,I didn't misread your post and I don't think for a minute you regard him as THE problem. My comment wasn't aimed at anyone in particular,it's just that the idea that his crosses are "shit" I find baffling. I wasn't extolling his defensive attributes but I'm sorry I have to disagree that only one last night was anywhere near a goal. How Kemp missed that header from practically on the goal line was crazy. Also if Shade had been sharper in the first half he could have got a decent shot away when Hutton picked him out at the far post. But that's opinions I know. Saturday's goals by Austin were from Hutton's crosses(I think)
I fully agree,and anyone can see that the balance of our side re attacking and defending is out and yes I fully agree with you that teams should be built from the back but that wasn't the point I was trying to make mate. Cheers