Loathed as I am to lean on one of sportswriting’s most hackneyed clichés, Saturday’s schizophrenic weather in E10 felt like an apt metaphor for Cambridge United’s insipid 2-0 defeat at Leyton Orient.
Having started the afternoon basking in the warm, sunny, glow of their place atop the early League One table, by 5pm United were bedraggled and miserable after putting in what was by far their worst performance of 2023/24.
Blunders only happen when it’s raining
I’m going to spend the next 600 words looking at where it went wrong for us, but credit should go to Orient for what was a very decent showing. I did not expect to see Idris El Mizouni, who appeared to be the quintessential ephemeral number 10 in his two loan spells at the Abbey, develop into a deep lying playmaker, but he and Jordan Brown dominated possession and were at the heart of most of their team’s good work.
United’s own midfield was entirely bypassed. The trio behind Gassan Ahadme seemed unsure when to press and when to stand off and as a result were often rendered spectators as red shirts played round them with ease. Turning over the ball in dangerous areas has been key to many of our goals so far this season, but on Saturday we only managed it once - an early steal by James Brophy on Jordan Graham which led to attack that quickly fizzled out.
With our first line of defence failing, Paul Digby and George Thomas found themselves getting overrun as they tried to stem the tide of O’s attacks, and offered virtually nothing going forward. Thomas’s mobility and intelligent use of the ball has been a big factor in our performances so far, but on Saturday he looked well off the pace, attempting only 18 passes, most of which came from a small areas in the centre of the pitch.
Compare this to what Thomas was up to in our last away game, at Fleetwood, where he was much more influential, making twice as many passes and consistently getting on the ball in wide areas to provide support to the full-backs and wingers.
The Welshman was far from the only United player to fall well below his usual level, with the majority of the team looking sluggish and static throughout. This was all particularly frustrating because on the rare occasions we did get at Orient they looked vulnerable. A few promising attacks were let down by the final pass or a bad decision, and it did feel like we were beginning to find our feet when we gifted them the opening goal. For his part, Ahadme won a lot of aerial duels against the Orient centre backs, but we rarely got players close enough to him to take advantage.
Life’s a pitch
It’s hard to put your finger on quite why United looked so disjointed and lethargic. Bonner mentioned post-match that Jubril Okedina missed out with illness, so it’s possible a few of the others were feeling under the weather too.
I also wonder if the size of Orient’s pitch, which is apparently the second largest in the league, was a factor.
Not only do the O’s have a big bit of turf, but they like to use every inch of it, with wingers Graham and Theo Archibald hugging the touchlines and creating space inside them, which was repeatedly exploited by their much narrower full-backs.
It’s easy to see why such conditions could be problematic for our style of play, which relies on being able to reduce space and force our opponents into mistakes. It’s perhaps also notable that our victory at Fleetwood came on a pitch very similar in size to our own.
There’s no need to hit the panic button after the first bad performance in five games, but United will need to find some additional variation in their play if they are to continue what has been a fine start to the season.