The U's-letter: Issue #6
The U's-letter: Issue #6
Anyone getting the feeling it could be a long season? All your updates from another winless week at Cambridge United
It’s hard to know where we go from here. In his pre-Lincoln Thursday press conference, Garry Monk maintained his faith in the system, and pressed home the fact we just need it all to “click”. When asked about the performances so far, he said “we’ve been closer to getting points than not”.
For some games of 2024/25, that is very true - we have been a little bit of luck or a touch more clinical in nature away from coming away with all three points and getting rid of this monkey off our back much sooner than now. At Wycombe on Saturday, we were not. The stats for that game are not pretty reading, the eye test was equally poor, and the result was, if anything, flattering. We’ll have to be a lot, lot better if we want to take anything from a really good Lincoln side, incidentally one that Monk called his favourite in the league to watch.
It’s maybe not relevant, but it’s worth nothing that if we had converted even just one game into a win, I think people would be feeling much more calm right now. We’d still be in the bottom three, but the mood would feel different. But this game we love is all about fine margins, and as it is, it’s hard to escape the feeling that a loss on Saturday will set the clock really ticking on Monk’s time to get his system to work, or it’s curtains.
As well as being subscribed to undertheabbeystand.com, make sure you’re also following the podcast wherever you get your pods so you’re not missing any episodes: remember there’s a new show every Monday and Friday, and this week we have the first Mailbag episode of the season, a non-league special, going out on Saturday:
📰 News From The U’s 📰
Cambridge United are launching an official Guinness World Record attempt for
longest winless streakthe most signatures on a piece of sports memorabilia. You’ll never sing that.Update on the women’s team, they sit mid-table after a hard-fought point at Real Bedford on Wednesday night, keeping touch with top of the table Norwich.
✍️ At The Match ✍️
Wycombe 2-1 U’s
Written by Owen Kiernan. Subscribe to The Antler to read the report in full and receive regular match reports in your inbox.
Same old same old then. Another nil points for United. Another weekend of individual errors, of players caught out of position, of defeat.
There’s been positives to take from most of our results so far, but in this performance I’m not sure there’s many - if any. No-one got injured is about all I can say about it. But you know what - despite this defeat, there’s still a side in there. The fact that Dan Nlundulu can score two goals in succession shows you there’s something there. There were times on Saturday he looked as if he’d never kicked a ball before, but then up he pops and it’s two-in-two for United’s number nine.
That shows me that we’re probably just a clinical finisher away from getting results. Look at all the stats, all the xG, all that kind of stuff and you’ll see a mid-table side. Yes the table shows differently, but for want of a better striker we’d maybe have converted some of those chances and won games. If Ryan Loft actually exists, and is actually the 25 goal a season striker he hasn’t yet proved to be anywhere else then maybe things will be alright. These are big ‘if’s’ though.
The defence is the defence, it’s a mess, we’re stuck with it. There’s obviously something going on as Monk doesn’t trust Morrison, instead picking Digby out of position for the senior CB role. O’Riordan hopefully won’t feature much more before we send him back to Blackburn, Okedina will hopefully get the move we want for him too. Kell Watts? Kell What? Oh for a Ryan Bennett type player eh?
Reyes in goal is getting better by the game so there’s that. He needs to be more commanding and work on his distribution a bit more, but the fact he doesn’t fall to pieces the moment the ball gets anywhere near the box already means he’s ten times the player Stevens is.
Despite all this, I still don’t think changing Monk is the answer. We’ve got two home games, but really who’s going to come in and improve things? We might get a nasty bastard in for a bit and scare the team into picking up a few points, but these type of managers never last long, and it’s too early for that kind of panic right now. There’s probably no-one better, if we’re thinking of changing Monk we might as well save ourselves the money and get John Beck back for a third spell. Give him a couple of grand to throw at the two biggest strikers in the Southern Premier and have him lump it up to them for the rest of the season. We’ll still go down, but we’ll go down cheaply.
Two games coming up, two of the biggest games of the season. Let’s back the side, let’s get the results. It’s not like we’re not trying, I think the players still appear to give a shit, and until they don’t they deserve our support. Up the U’s.
🧐 View From The Away End 🧐
Wycombe Wanderers
From The Wycombe Way
Wycombe were excellent value for the win, and we’d have been looking at one of the more comfortable results of the season if not for some lacklustre finishing from our forward line.
Wanderers - as has been the case at home this season - were quick out of the blocks, and nine minutes in is about as early as a lead can be deserved. I don’t remember Wycombe creating too many big chances before Cambridge woke up. The equaliser was well worked and the half time whistle came at the wrong time for you.
I can only assume Garry Monk thought you were attacking too much, because at the interval he must’ve told your lads to rein it in. The second half was a pretty constant onslaught, consisting of United giving the ball away cheaply in stupid areas, allowing Wycombe to flood forward with pace and power.
It felt like the sort of game where the ball just wouldn’t go in, and a year ago it wouldn’t have. I called the football “woke” in our preview last week - I don’t mind it actually, whilst it keeps yielding results.
I don’t like to say it, Cambridge will be in trouble this year, assuming your manager won’t let you cross the half way line when you’re looking good for a point. You have got possibly the nicest kits in the EFL this season mind, so there’s always that.
FANCY BEATING US AT EFL FANTASY? LINK BELOW 👇
🔢 Stats Corner 🔢
The winless teams in the EFL still remaining are… Portsmouth, Cardiff, Burton, The U’s, Accrington, Morecambe.
Burton Albion’s manager Mark Robinson has now not won in 26 league games and counting. That’s 6 games this season with Burton, and 20 at the end of his last spell with Wimbledon. Bleak.
Across Saturday’s games in League One, we recorded the 2nd least amount of accurate passes of any team, the least being Steve Evans’ Rotherham vs Birmingham which might not surprise you.
For much better stats of that ilk, there’s only one place you need to go, and that’s the second issue of Get Your Stats Right:
🔮 Opposition Preview 🔮
Lincoln City (H)
Last 5 (all comps): DDLWW - Lincoln have picked up from where they left off last season, where they ended the season like a steam train and the form team across the whole EFL basically - nearly barging their way into the playoffs right at the death. Right now they sit sixth after a positive start where they’ve only lost one league game at home to Barnsley.
Last time out: Lincoln 6-0 U’s, 12th March 2024. Garry Monk’s second game in charge, a disastrous evening.
Our H2H: P42, W10, L16, D16. A team we’ve played a lot in recent memory, but before Joe Ironside’s last minute winner in January 2022, the last time we’d beaten them home or away was 1995.
Manager: Michael Skubala. He is the former head coach of the English national futsal team, and having spent time as assistant manager at Leeds, took over at Lincoln in his first ever professional managerial role and has taken like a duck to water. The run of form they went on at the end of last season was spectacular where our 6-0 defeat was sandwiched in between a 5-1 and 5-0 win. He looks the real deal.
One to watch: Ben House. Great start to the season leading the line for the Imps and notching 3 in 6 already.
Former U’s players: Conor McGrandles, we still love you mate.
🏟️ Under The Other Stands 🏟️
The headline is Steve Bruce’s Blackpool. He was an eye-catching appointment after they decided to part ways with Neil Critchley. He’s gone 4-4-2, kept things simple, and won 3 of his first 3 games. What’s Sam Allardyce up to these days…
Bolton’s faith in Ian Evatt was repaid, in the short term at least, with a commanding 5-2 win over financially-stricken Reading. For the Royals it’s probably at the bottom of their priority list right now.
Some sort of good news at this very early stage is that the teams we’d expect to be around us all lost: Shrews at Mansfield, Crawley at Wrexham, and Burton at home to Barnsley. So that’s a little positive to end the newsletter with.
On the subject of Crawley, their transformative and immensely impressive manager Scott Lindsey has switched over to MK Dons, which could be disastrous for the Reds.
💻 On The Socials 💻
Tamworth’s absolutely insane last-minute winner at Braintree.
Come for the biblical storm at Mickleover as the game ends, stay for the stadium announcer.
📚 Read And Listen 🎧
If you’re ever Stateside, and looking where to watch the Champions League, look no further. This piece on the phenomenon of our friends across the pond watching the UCL in the middle of the working day is great.
🕺 What’s Spinning? 🕺
To reflect everyone’s mood, Bright Eyes’ new album features the American sad band collab we've been waiting for:
Thanks for reading this week’s U’s-letter. Send us through any suggestions to include in next week’s issue, or general feedback to hello@undertheabbeystand.com