I thought Cibicki had a good game last week, but not so much this week. We gave the ball away too much in midfield. As soon as a white shirt had the ball they panicked, all but Hernandez. Credit to Berardi who had a good game, as did the central defenders.
Did he? Seemed to give the ball away a lot when I was watching. Not the best view (not a criticism Ell - cheers as always) but interested to hear the views of those that were there.
Weidwald was most impressive today. Some quite brilliant saves, fabulous distribution, and even regularly frustrating the opposition by not picking up the ball until one of them ran at him to force the pick-up. Defence was a solid unit today & I didn't feel that there was much chance of us conceding. Did all they had to do. Ayling seems to be taking a slating elsewhere, but to me he was obviously targeted, and had to stay in his own half defending - which I think he did with due aplomb. Normally he's left stuck in the opposition half, so doesn't get the chance to get back to defend properly. Don't really recall him going into their half today & he's prolly getting marked down by people because of this. He did well for me, given the circumstances. Interestingly, this focus allowed Berra to have one of his best attacking performances in a long time. Usually it's him that's the focus of the attacks. Defensive midfield failed to shine, but that's not surprising given Hull's route 1 approach. Think Phillips was pulled off with a sore neck from watching the ball shoot over his head at 30,000 feet. Vieira improved on last week, but still not the player he (sometimes) was last season. Getting there, though. Attacking midfield were feeding off scraps. Pablo seemed to be struggling to keep his feet quite often - and was forever annoyingly wandering out to the wing & getting in the way more than adding to the effort. Cracking goal, though. Everyone where I was sitting was convinced he'd hit it too high. Moment of magic. Roofe seems to be getting a bit of flack, but I thought he did ok. In fact, if it was Ekuban playing, he's have been lauded. Similar performance, similar style. His job was not to rough up the CBs & get on the end of headers. His job was to use movement to create havoc & space. He did. End of. Soggy did ok when he came on. Had one cracking shot that went close from a distance - right at the end when Hull expected keep-ball rather than a shot. So did we, I might add! Let's be clear about this match. Hull had 17 players injured, so they could not rely on quality. Adkins did a great number on us. He chose to go route 1, and press us hard to disrupt us, and perhaps hope for a lucky goal. It nearly worked. They're going to climb back up the league playing like that. I fully expected us to plant them in the last 10 minutes, as they were bound to be knackered by their intensity. It didn't happen. Hats off to them - they were still going at it full bung right up to the final whistle. One final comment. I discovered that Cibicki has really electric pace. Breathtakingly so. Just at the end of normal time, they broke down their right. Fast. Cibicki was well advanced, yet ran back to defend at jaw-dropping speed, overtaking their attacker with ease, after giving him a 20 yd start. And that after running hard for 90 minutes! Not sure if it's something you'd pick up on tv (or the radio), but hopefully it'll be in the highlights for you to have a wee look at.
I know I’ll regret this, but we have 2 away games against lowly opposition next, and I think this team is dangerous away from home. So in theory, 6 points and that’s near the top of the playoff places Operative words ‘in theory’
If we are serious you would have to expect us to take a minimum of 7 points and hopefully 9 points from the next three games.
I said three games and was thus including florist on nyd. What are you babbling about. Mike if you are hacking accounts you might get banned.
Great summary as always WJ - I referred to the Cibicki chase back above, so it clearly came across on the TV too. Really showed his desire to contribute and bust a gut to keep the sheet clean. What interests me is that while there's nothing to him, unlike Roofe (to some extent) and specifically Alioski, both of whom have similar builds, he seems to be hard to bully and knock off the ball - maybe that's just how it looks on telly, I'd be interested to hear if it's actually the case.
