He waved an imaginary yellow card. I’m not sure if he gestured to the lino or the ref, but if it was the latter the ref never saw it as he was 20yds away. The lino immediately told him off for it and apparently grassed him up too, as Stroud then came across and booked Sema. I thought it was harsh given Sema was spot on about their keeper rolling the ball back onto the pitch to stop the quick corner.
Fair enough I didn't see the game but just going off a video from one angle. Louza at least somewhat redeemed himself with the cross for Raj to level. Still, our overall defensing from set pieces needs some work on the training pitch.
Haven’t seen any praise for him yet but Hoedt was great today I thought, got his head on a lot. Looks calmer with the big Chilean next to him.
Both did well. Though Millwall seemed to be prepared for the cross field pass Hoedt likes to play often and especially in the first half blocked it off very effectively.
If it can be sustained then yeah it's superb - that's an almost 31% conversion rate. Looking at last season in the Champ, of all strikers to play 1200 mins or more the best goal conversion rate was Cameron Archer with 28%. A conversion rate of 19% would've make it into the top 10 (out of 57 players)
Agree Louza let his man go but can't agree that Bachmann wasn't at fault - when their goalscorer heads it hes on the 6 yard box line. If you watch it back, Bachmann starts to come, then stops and goes back, then ends up diving out of the way of the header - just a complete horror show of indecisive goalkeeping https://x.com/chapmandelboy/status/1718293460900315509?s=20 Healey spared his blushes on what should have been their third goal as well, hes so late to react to a loose ball in the box that Cooper is able to head it twice and lob him
I'm not sure it was against the run of play, they weren't really troubling us, but we'd stopped troubling them and they'd had a lot of territory. We have a lot of depth out wide, I get the idea of subbing them after x amount of minutes, but it seemed a bit muddled today as Sema ended up on the right where he's a lot less effective. Ince hasn't been very productive for us so far, but he at least puts in a shift so I wouldn't give up on him yet, I wonder if he could do a job in what was the Louza position
If I'm understanding it correctly, he has a 45% shot accuracy rate based on a total of 11 shots. Therefore out of the 11 shots, 5 have been on target, of which 4 have gone in. So he scores 80% of his attempts on target!
A strange game in all, the two goals they scored were very predictable, the exact reason we would have feared that we wouldn't get anything, but unlike last season, they couldn't really stop us playing our game. I'll take a point, thankfully we'd won our last two, because that point wouldn't look as good had we not won those two
He’s never going to conquer his indecisiveness. 100 games and he’s still rooted to the line. Second goal was totally down to him. The Healey clearance was down to him too. It’s frustrating as he does have a lot of ability, but he just can’t command his area and it’s a big problem. You just can’t allow the opposition to head the ball from such a close range. He should just for one match make a decision to come for everything. If he f&cks it up so be it. Foster used to do it all the time and didn't care if it led to a goal because he knew on the law of averages, just him coming out for a ball will either put the opposition off or he will be fouled and given a cheap free kick.
It appears the lad knows where the goal Is. If he can learn to play football he’ll be some player! Seriously though I did see some slight improvements today. He managed to turn and play a nice ball wide and he won a couple of headers.
He'd be far better off just staying completely rooted to his line all the time, coming out and looking indecisive is the worst thing imo
The second goal was vintage Bachmann. Every other keeper in this division would have either claimed it or punched it. He is a very good shot stopper but he does not dominate his box and is terrible at claiming crosses. He is very wary of any potential physical contact and that, along with Martin’s trying to perform a back heel in our own third , cost us two points today. Shame as it was an enjoyable game and with that starting XI VI might be on to something.
Those were, as you say, years ago though. I know he's not had much time on the pitch, but he's not come close to contributing anything at all during those cameos (aside from the goal-line clearance today). Meanwhile, with both Rajovic and Healey on the pitch at the same time as each other it was actually Rajovic who did the job of a "competent" centre forward and scored.
Odd game. Should have won comfortably but ended up being happy with a point. Probably our best performance of the week and the only game we didn’t win. Think we have stumbled across a team that finally feels balanced, especially the midfield. Don’t agree with people saying we didn’t really create chances. Raj was about an inch away from having a free header about two yards out, Sieralta missed a pretty easy chance from about 8 yards out. As did Louza, Ngakia’s deflected shot trickled just wide, Bayo almost scored from closing down the keeper and Livermore should have scored in the first half. Doesn’t really matter though when you can’t defend crosses to the point you can almost guarantee giving away a goal from one. Is Stroud (the ref) actually a Luton fan? I don’t normally buy into ref conspiracy’s but his performance today was baffling and diabolical. There isn’t one decision you could highlight but he was awful throughout.
Yea he is apparently and from Bournemouth! Although our record with him in charge is pretty good supposedly.
Might be because he isn’t having to constantly rush back to fix the rash tackles Porteous puts in. Both centre halves had a good game. Actually the defence as a whole were quite good
Now that we know Livermore isn't as disastrous as we feared, Sierralta and Hoedt has to be the way forward
I was sceptical about signing him but I’m happy to have been proven wrong. Does all the little things well, no fancy nancy stuff just old school defensive midfield work. I like Porteous but 4 points from the two games he hasn’t played- he’ll find it hard to get back in the side
I agree with @Hogg-DEENEY!!! I’m in the group who thinks Sierralta has been rather badly underused at the back these last two or so seasons. I was pleased RP didn’t get an automatic pass back into the side yesterday. If it ain’t broke.. Livermore has indeed been decent these past four games, none of which we’ve lost. I wouldn’t complain if he were made captain if he could nail down that starting place. Yesterday was the 6th time this season we’ve lost a lead but the 4th time this season we’ve gained a point from a losing position too. Rajovic has now scored two goals for us in second-half stoppage time. Yesterday was the third consecutive match we scored after 80 minutes. Ironically we came quite close (a Sierralta chance that went over the bar) to scoring in the 82nd minute for the third time in a week. If you look at like for like results, we’ve taken 7 points so far this season against three clubs who did the double over us last season, QPR, Swansea and Millwall.
Impressed with how we played for 80% of the game, the subs killed our momentum and allowed Millwall a bit of breathing space. It wasn't the game to bring Louza on in normally but fair play to him he got the important assist despite doing naff all else. Well apart from giving them a soft free kick in the 95th minute in a great position. I think the inverted wingers are causing more issues than they are worth as we are continuously running into blind alleys. Thought Ken and Lewis worked well together and added a real attacking threat. Lewis is growing more into the side but is crap in the air. Livermore was unlucky to be booked for a great challenge, quietly impressed by him. Kayembe owned the midfield and Kone is really growing into a good player. He will have bad games but he is learning particularly in how to use his body in challenges. All in all it's been a great week with the team progressing with more minutes played. We need to keep this midfield for the next few games, good mix of aggression and guile.
The problem I saw with Rajovic was that he tries too hard to help out with defence, so when we break and end up with the ball in Millwalls box, he's nowhere to be seen. Tell him to stay up there and he'll be much more effective.
The Millwall second goal came after a spell where they repeatedly won headers in our half. We then fail to defend a corner. Something we need to look at from what was otherwise a decent performance.
I was pleased to see him come on and immediately knock one of their defenders over. Ok, a bit old school and cloggy, but he needs more aggression.
Best we have played since opening day. Back 4 more solid with FS in for Porto. Has to be our starting midfield, Livermore solid, Kone and especially Kayembe immense. Thought Bayo worked hard as usual. Didn,t see what Ince brought to the game, maybe Dave would have been the better option. However, progress is being made and we should have won the game easily.
