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Thread | Julian
at 12:52 4 Nov 2026
He has had a lot of praise lately (deserved) so haven’t come on here to dis the bloke as he has done a lot well.
But a couple of issues:
1. He seems very rigid within games rather than changing what isn’t working. It’s not just his “no subs until 60 mins” rule (tho that is annoying) but he often doesn’t change what obviously isn’t working. For example, the game was crying out for a winger to take them on round the outside at pace. Smyth clearly wasn’t getting any change out of the big CBs so why didn’t Julian shift him out wide? We know how effective he can be at that and had been in hot form. Lots of us could see it watching the match, but he stood their sphinx-like.
2. Half time team talks. Does he get into the players enough? A pattern has emerged of coming out (and often conceding) in the 2nd half. Last night we came out brighter admittedly but this lasted until precisely the 49th min, when we actually grew worse.
3. In interviews he has shrugged off the issue of not being able to beat teams when we dominate possession. But along with injuries this is what is de-railing our play off chances. You see when teams sit back we can get three quarters of the way up the pitch pretty easily, but once there we look clueless. This is not helped by 2 CMs who are better defensively, but the Vales, Saitos, Pokus etc are not daring to take players on. Lack of pace? Power? Confidence? What?
He is up against teams with often huge budgets and we have Burrell and Maders to come back who could be game changers. But plenty to ponder me thinks. |
| Forum
Reply | Justin Obikwu
at 12:37 4 Nov 2026
I actually thought he looked quite sharp and nimble |
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Reply | i lied...burnley home......match thread.
at 22:02 3 Nov 2026
BTW, what's the issue with Koki? Really like the guy and want him to succeed. Still not fully fit perhaps? But couldn't trap a bag of cement today (albeit a lot of the passes into him were not great). And just seemed low energy. Have been critical of Vale but he actually did quite a bit better first half before fading completely after the break.
This tricky winger/ number 10 position was meant to be where we had our embarrassment of riches but not a single one is in form. Only positive is that Chair is back and maybe he will shove Smyth out wide next time because - as someone said in the match thread - the experiment of him up top has more than run its course, he has been blunted the last two games playing there. |
| Forum
Reply | Cirkin
at 21:51 3 Nov 2026
Good defensively. Decent carrying the ball out of defence. But would like to have seen him run to the by-line or delver a cross. Seemed to get high up the pitch then develop a bit of a nose-bleed. Like a slightly smoother RND. But he has a good track record, very early days. And in fairness he probably did more going forwards than Adamson. |
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Reply | i lied...burnley home......match thread.
at 21:46 3 Nov 2026
Wish I shared your positivity. We had a lot of the ball in the first half because Burnley didn't really want it. We could get three quarters of the way up the pitch unchallenged. But once we got there we were pretty clueless. it's not coincidental or a one off that we can't break down a team when we dominate possession. All those midget wingers and supposedly clever full backs. Did one QPR player get to the byline and get a cross in once in 94 minutes? If so I don't remember it. |
| Forum
Reply | i lied...burnley home......match thread.
at 20:45 3 Nov 2026
Smash and grab to some extent but we haven’t been that dominant. Nobody willing to put a cross in, always a safe ball back.
Smyth and Saito both been v poor and Kone had no service. |
| Forum
Reply | i lied...burnley home......match thread.
at 20:34 3 Nov 2026
We would need to win with way more than 50% possession…
This game shows why we can’t do that. When a team sits deep against us we are v static and don’t have anyone with the skill to unlock a defence. |
| | Stainrod
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