Ismeal Kabia

Um, I don't think we can be a one-man team, and we shouldn't be a one-man team.

Um, we weren't a one-man team when Kabia wasn't firing last season.

There were plenty of others that stepped up.

I think there's, there's...

Last season we put loads of crosses in, and we scored a lot of goals off the back of it.

It wasn't necessarily Cook that scored them.

Green did, Kabia did.

Other people, uh, scored, scored goals from, from crosses.

Uh, so quick news this week, Shaun Clare nets a first international goal.

Kabia nominated for Sky Bet League One Player of the Month.

Akamuriche nominated for the PFA League One Fans' Player of the Month, and O's legend donates 1989 playoff shirt to the museum.

Uh, Ed, uh, what, what caught your eye from the quick news this week?

Well, I suppose if you're getting near the end of the game, uh, I suppose you could sling all your, your, you know, Big Phil, someone like that, you could stick him up front, couldn't you? Um, there's not many players out there as tall as him.

Couple of things to point out though, Rob.

[clears throat] Kabia was a lucky boy.

I think around sort of the 60th minute he went up for one of those headers he know he never gets.

What's the worst that could happen?

I'm not trying to see Calafiori and Kabia on one damn side, man.

[laughs]

No.

So teams that are good at penetrating low blocks have late runners into the box, um, to catch the opposition off guard.

So I thought against Burton, I th- I said it in the analysis show, I thought our ball speed was quite slow and if you move the ball from side to side and keeping a fairly neutral ball speed, you don't really unsettle or destabil an opponent and you never really get in.

That said, I thought we had enough chances to get something from the game anyway without playing brilliantly.

So there's still lots to, to go off.

And then another attempt at the weekend where they were quite close together.

I think Iro again had a chance.

So that the fact that they're getting closer together means that they're starting to build a relationship One thing that coaches will look to do, and it might not always be, you know, obvious to, to say it just as someone who's a fan and perhaps is not as a, as a coach, is to deliberately deploy a team to move the ball often to tire the opponent.

So you deliberately move the ball left and right in a rotation, and you might be nil-nil, you know? And then on the-

You know, Akamrich has impressed at, in moments.

Kabia's come in and done okay in moments.

Gilbert is a player that should be a very good player for, for League One level.

Even Finn Stevens at right back.

I'm just not necessarily sure I'm seeing similar, and the only...

And maybe it's an unfair comparison, but I'm directly comparing him to Kabia.

And by now he'd scored quite a few, and we were actually saying, "Look, he's getting a bit burnt out.

We're expecting him to do quite a lot." Um, and that's what I remember from last season.

I'm just not seeing the same thing.

And that maybe it's unfair to judge him against that, but if the club are gonna sell Kabia the first chance they get to get rid of him, then the player they need to bring in needs to be, you know, at that sort of similar starting point that he was in when he j- came in.

And I think that's one of the-

Well, may- maybe not though if they want-

But they're not keeping to like where with the 4-4-2.

But having Kabia up front, we all know the threat Kabia's got.

Yeah.

Um, he's had two goals and two assists in the last few games.

So maybe on the right where Joe is possibly going to be in there or whoever's, or where's either of both of them, they're gonna try to exploit that with their speed of their r- um, the right side.

But they do like to switch it quite a bit as well.

Um, and they will, um, attack through and use it through Kabia because obviously we know what an outstanding striker he is.

Um, but yeah.