That referee was absolutely awful there is just a complete lack of consistency by referees in this league. Good performance by the players though just need that end product. Shame Martin didnt get any clear cut chances as he has an excellent finish.
I'd say the referees have been very consistent - consistently ****. I just made a rage topic on the whole thing and I think we would be on 7 points if we had fair refereeing, if the reffing had been biased towards to us rather than against who knows where we'd be?
That is the worry for me, well that and the back 4. Lack of shots on target! We can play good football all season against the very best the PL has to offer but it will all be pretty meaningless until the lads find the gap between the two white posts and the long horizontal one on top.
We become a bit predictable sometimes, constantly having Tierney, Bennett & Naughton cross the ball in we need to ping the ball about a bit more the open things up, Hoolahan will be our key player this season, his the only person who has that extra spark to create things.
Playing 2 big men up top doesn't work, no pace or plan b. Pick one and have Vaughan or Jackson off them for pace. Most of the time when we had the ball out wide there was 1 player in the box.
As much as I love Lambert, and I fully believe he is the man to take our club even further forward, I think if Wes doesnt start the next game it will be his first mistake as manager. He makes our play so much more fluid and is the only play to look like creating himself a chance. Also, although I beleive Rudd did well, this game did highlight for me how a more experienced keeper can make the defence look much more confident or decisive.
Got to say Tamas was a disgrace there, clear penalty and red card, can see why you are all frustrated with that and the West Brom penalty.
I only saw the second half but thought we were looking very one dimensional until the introduction of Wes. The creativity/unpredictability he brings is fully necessary. I was watching with a new colleague here who had never seen us play at this level and he thought we were lacking in basic passing skill and had a bit of a long ball attitude about us. While I will never doubt the guts that we have and need at this level, get the effing ball on the ground and be a bit more intelligent with it. The amount of times our centre forwards were getting tangled up with each other did my head in. And that was all of them. I'm thinking Lambert may be thinking another creative lad a la Wes might work miracles for us as quite frankly I thought we were poor against a poorer side. I've had enough of getting pissed off with Refs now, we need to look beyond that and start (as Thai mentions above) hitting the target. OTBC ILWT Great performance by Rudd though. He could probably punt it into the Wensum from a Barclay end tee off.
Just got back from the match & have to say i'd have expected somthing to have said of Delates performance. Its seems clear to me why Ferguson has let him out, again, the guy is making really bad errors on a consistant basis. He was at fault at Wigan & Chelsea, both resulting in goals & again today! PL must drop this guy he's killing us! The ref was very bad today, in the past ive had respect for him, but today he got so many calls wrong, including a pen that was & a clear pen that should never have been awarded, but hats off to Rudd for a terriffic save. But we must drop C.Martin against Bolton & start with Vaughan or Jackson if we are to get the first win. But as always OTBC
We need to stop blaming the ref. The penalty was a shocking decision, but it didn't effect the game. The decision not to award one to us for the elbow on Vaughan, again a poor decision, but we can't hide behind the ref all the time. The fact is we were 1-0 down thanks to yet another mistake from De Laet. For a player that Fergie has great faith in and is supposed to be a fantastic young player in he's been very hit and miss. We have conceded six goals this season and he's been at fault for three of them. His show boating lead to the penalty against Wigan, a shocking backpass lead to the third goal against Chelsea and and even worse header lead to the only goal today. Craig Fleming summed him up perfectly on Canary Call. He's a player who'll be 10/10 one week then 4/10 the next. We were rubbish in front of goal and didn't make Foster make a save all game. We need to start taking the chances we're getting otherwise we'll be in a lot of trouble. The plus sides from this though were Tierney's constant bombing forward, his crossing and his defending. Johnson had a brilliant game. Wasn't too impressed with his free kick taking towards the end but I can't really fault him. The biggest plus though, and I'm going to disagree with Canary Chippy, was Chris Martin. In my opinion he had his best game in a yellow shirt since we played Leeds at home in League 1. He absolutely ran himself into the ground today and we didn't look the same side after he came off. I'm still confident we can stay up but we really need to start taking our goal scoring chances and dare I say it, stop being quite so honest in the penalty area.
Drop him for who chippy?? One thing that i also think need to stop is the chopping and changing of the line ups and formations. Lets get a first XI, stick to it and the formation that goes with it and crack on... You dont see other teams changing each game, they play to there positives and get on with it, we should do the same!
I am glad we only have De Laet and Naughton on loan, they are not ready yet..... I would rather have R Martin on the right...
ICHB As soon as Whitbred gets fit or anyone who can play in the middle, thats who! De laet is shocking! Got to be one of PL's worst loans ever! Sorry Daz19 but running your self into the ground just isn't going to cut it in the prem! His passing was woefull, his pace is well short of whats required to beat prem deffenders, good in the champ but not what we need this term. I'll be amazed if he starts against Bolton.
What's the situation with Whitbread and Ward? Whitbread is our best centre back and we seem a lot more confident when his on the pitch.
I know he's on loan from Manchester United, but de Laet is worse than what we already have/had - assuming they could stay fit. As chippy kind of said above, his positional sense (or lack of) and ability to lead the line at the back will be our downfall. 6 goals conceeded, 3 directly down to him - that's liability, not asset. Halsey the ref was gash today, we had two decent penalty claims, the Baggies had a half of one - and got it awarded! Plus first half, Tierney and Surman were our most creative outlet, so why was Surman the first man subbed ? When Holt and C.Martin went off, we spent the next 12 or 15 minutes pegged back on the edge of or in our penalty area WTF?? OTBC/ILWT
I have to be honest Cromer I didn't rate Surman today, with the exception of Johnson I thought our midfield was quite poor. I didn't think much to Holt today Martin was alright but didn't get anything out of the game, but that moment of pressure when they were taken off was us losing possession, not holding our lines which seemed to be a constant thing today. We've established that we need creativity. They looked good against Chelsea but today gave me the impression Johnson and Crofts, just don't compliment each other well enough, their both gritty players that get stuck in, we lost our shape and didn't look neat enough in the centre of the park. I'd actually be tempted to bring Fox in, he reads the game well and his passing is supurb, he moves the ball well and I don't buy into all this business about him being weak he held his own against teams like Portsmouth.
Northants, it's easy to be critical but against sides like WBA, Bolton and Sunderland I too would happily see Fox and Wes start. Maybe Johnson in place of Crofts - hells teeth, they can't all play, but Fox and Wes offer something different especially if we have Pilks and/or Bennett out wide. Holt and Martin to me, are too similar, so one or the other ( or Morison ) with a pacey partner - Jackson or Vaughan, to offer variety and options if Fox and Wes play. Though it's easy from where I sit. OTBC
Interesting opinions here, going to agree with some; disagree with others. Rudd didn't seem to inspire much confidence at the back but his 2 saves from Odemwingie were outstanding. Overall an encouraging performance from the young lad. I'm certainly happy for him to play second fiddle this season and gain some valuable experience and hopefully confidence. Personally I feel Naughton is better than Martin at RB. If Naughton goes on a bad run, then there's no harm in throwing Russ in the side though. Naughton seems comfortable on the ball, his crossing is alright and his defending is sound. On the other flank side I thought Tierney was excellent as usual. He's fast becoming one of my favourite players, an excellent signing. I'm going to buck the trend with De Laet. He really can be an excellent defender. He definitely isn't slow. He's strong in the air and his positioning on the whole is excellent. He seems particularly strong in a one on one tackle. He absolutely has to learn form his mistakes though. The one against Wigan was dreadful but he will definitely learn from it. I can forgive his error at Chelsea when the game was lost on 100 mins after he'd had a sterling game. Today, he didn't cover himself in glory, but he was under pressure. In hindsight he'd have headed it sideways. But he can learn, hopefully he's a fast learner so it benefits us and not just Man Utd. I thought Surman was weak today. Yes he shows nice touches but I was screaming for Lambert to make the change he did. I assume Pilkington was injured? He would've been the better option. Johnson and Crofts both did well today, both a bit wayward with their shooting but they win the ball well and generally keep it. Bennett did well too. Martin looks sharp. I've said it before but I think this could be a huge season for him. Really hopes he bags that first goal soon. Holty was pretty poor by his high standards. He seemed to spend even more time on the floor than usual! I know it's his game but he really is more productive when he stays standing. I'm happy with our striking options, just think we need to focus on flooding numbers into the box because our crossing on the whole is decent. And let's not blame the ref. I really didn't think he was too bad. I haven't seen replays but the challenge for the pen looked clumsy. And all our penalty shouts were optimistic I'd say. If he missed the Vaughan incident that's too bad but if we were awarded a penalty against us like that, I would be miffed. Maybe bring back the diamond. Wes definitely needs to be on the pitch. He really gave us a spark we lacked when he was off and he tracked back well which is a bonus. I'd like to see Fox back in too but it would be harsh to drop Crofts, Johnson or Bennett on their recent displays. So overall, it wasn't great today. Somewhere around average I guess. But we look confident on the ball and we're going about things the right way. Cut the mistakes, be more positive in the final third and hit the damn target and we'll do fine. 2 points from 4 is not exactly ideal but I think we have enough quality and depth to still be in the league next season. OTBC
