I really think that Chaz is finished at this level, all those injuries have finally taken their toll unfortunately.
I actually think this was Charlie’s best game of the season, which doesn’t say much. But I thought Ings was awful. Passing was off and nothing went right for him. Then got in the way of Charlie on his chance.
The long-hinted lack of commitment may be coming to the fore, too. When you reach your late 20s, especially with his injury history, you aren't going to get by on talent alone.
Clocks go back tonight. Was going to say hoped they could go back to 3pm. But then again I don't think that if we played another 90 mins, we still wouldn't score.
I thought Charlie was coming on the ball, but in my delirious nature of shivering too much I may have become confused. Another note, we really missed Pierre’s energy.
I probably thought it was the other way round as the rabbiting old bastard behind me sat there for 70mins slating Charlie. He even started blaming him for not getting his end of crosses that were above him. When he went up against the keeper, he said he hoped he was injured. Then, when he went off, he said good riddance and didn’t applaud. I thought he put a shift in to be fair.
I forgot to add, the tactics and cohesion let us down. There was a lot of effort out there on the pitch.
If only Elyounoussi has squared it to Charlie early on instead of shooting it would have been a tap in. Trouble is, we would have spent the rest of the game wondering when Newcastle would equalise!
Oh, that chance pee’d me off. Don’t get me wrong, I like Danny but he had a game to forget. Whilst the defence was charging in to cover he just stood on his heels instead of challenging for a rebound.
I have just watched the game and was about to post the same thing. Both players are the same, they run into the same spaces and just get in each others way. From watching there appears to be a big rivalry between the two of them and both would rather shoot than pass to each other, Charley in particular. Same old stuff, thought it was ground hog day and watching the Bournemouth game. I have been a big supporter of Gabbi, but he looks lost out there.
The problem seems to me isn't that we aren't making chances as we are, its finishing where the real problem is. Surely anybody can see that Long and Austin cannot score regularly. Gabbi is better than those two and Ings possibly better than the other 3 but in general our strikers are hopeless, and that has been the case for at least the last few seasons since we sold Pelle and Mane. What is really annoying is that we haven't addressed it. A crocked Austin who is arrogant and slow isn't the answer, neither is Long who cant hit a barn door with a banjo. Gabbi seemed to be the answer but he is slow and cant header, and therefore limited. Carrillo was simply a mystery. Three different managers haven't sorted out our scoring form simply because they aren't miracle workers. To simply put it, our strikers are not upto it, and are board are the ones to blame by not not investing in better. Why did they spunk all that money on Gunn without buying a better striker?
We struggle to create the kinds of chances good enough that our poor finishing matters less, IMO. We don't pick that incisive pass that means the striker has a chance at a moving keeper from 10 yards. We don't put in the wicked cross to the back post that simply needs to be headed down to score. We create half-chances for guys who regularly fluff half-chances by the bushel.
Watching Charlie yesterday was like watching Tiss right at the end of his career, but without the capacity for magic.
