Boy, I am normally a paid-up sandal wearer but it's difficult to be cheerful watching that today. We were so slow, in contrast to Watford who very often anticipated the pass and intercepted it. We had the high press with MP1, the highish press with RK but now we have the plodding build up and no press at all. We don't break at speed but are so vulnerable to the quick break ourselves. And yet the strange thing is, the first game of the season, although we didn't score there was such great movement off the ball and most passes were forward. I don't understand what happened to the players today but it's as if they were all suffering from a total lack of energy. Final two observations; Davis was one of our better players today so I don't understand some of the negativity aimed at him. Also, the only positive is that they only played the end of My Way before the game- the bit where we know the words. Any more of those straws knocking about?
He will never get back on form until someone actually passes the ball to him when he makes his runs, must be pretty frustrated at the moment.
I would have Pierre on the bench too. At least. Such a shame Sims is injured, he'd practically be starting now. It's weird, Hoedt, Davis, Bertrand, Tadic all played 180 minutes or close enough. But I'm not trying to say that decision made the difference. Smashing the ball to Long...doesn't do it for me, I'll be honest. I think we're all agreeing so I just mashed your posts together. I don't want to be reptitive and I don't know what the magic solution is. There's still time, and some rubbish teams out there. Crystal Palace, for example.
Anyone think we looked comparatively short of fitness? I know Silva works his players hard with that, MP1 style. I may just be looking for things that aren't there.
Oh it doesn't do it for me either. But I'd rather be smashing the ball to Long, than smashing the ball straight out for a goal kick, or through to the opposition keeper or defenders.
It's not that Davis is bad; in the right lineup, he's invaluable. In this lineup and with the style we have been playing, he's not the right man for the job. Neither strong enough to play DM, nor dynamic enough to play the number 10. He was solid in the way he's often solid today, but it's not shocking that we got overrun with him at pivot.
I thought we had too many in midfield, none could find a forward pass. I was thinking Austin or Long for Prowsie at half time would have changed the dimension to a more attacking set up? Tadic to his credit did try hard but wasn't what we needed at the time, he could have replaced Sophie though. Not sure of Redmonds role, he kept swapping sides with Sophie, and Bertie was getting fed up with him not being wide left to pass to. If it was being done to confuse Watford it was only succeeding and bamboozling our own players. This as far as MoPo2 is concerned is still a learning curve and very much a work in progress I suspect. There are still a few combinations to work on, and a fit Lemina and a 100% restored VD could make a difference?
Plus, if Palace go into that game under huge pressure (ie because they've lost again tomorrow), then they might just find a way to raise their game and get a result against us. Backs to the wall performance, battling through to victory. Decent enough incentive, against a side they know can't score a goal.
Yeah we are probably exactly the sort of team Palace want to be playing right now. Don't pose much of a threat going forwards so their home crowd should get right behind them when they realise we are there for a 0-0.
God I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I'm drunk and I think we're going to be in a relegation scrap this season. Our form for 2017 must be up there with the worst in the country. But it's fine, Les knows everything!
27 points in 24 league matches. Not quite relegation form, but definitely lower midtable form, and scoring less than a goal a match.
Saw a stat this morning that Burnley are bottom of the 2017 form guide, with Bmouth one place above them. Not sure where we fall, but at least it's not in the bottom two.
