Very odd decision to drop Jason Pearce. Lee Bowyer is tinkering too much IMO. We are playing one game a week ?
Wheels coming off...and a natural levelling out after over achieving in the first six games. If we finish anywhere mid table we should crack open the bubbly. We are too over reliant on Lyle Taylor, both as a talisman and a striker. Leko & Hemed are not impressing...
Too right we should crack open the champagne. Finishing mid table would be like winning the league for me. We are going to struggle , with the 3 games weve got coming up we could quite easily top up with nil points. Lets not expect too much from this squad
My only mild criticism of Bowyer is that he clearly didn’t pick the strongest 11 available to him yesterday. We are only playing a game a week at the moment, so the best players should always start. He has tinkered for the last two games, and it hasn’t worked. I wonder if Adam Matthews will play against Leeds.
I would agree with Elfs on this one. What was Bowyer doing - saving his best XI for the run of 9 tough games now? What difference will that make? I'd rather have had 3 more points in the bag (or even one) from that Wigan game, than a few slightly fresher players. There could well be reasons for Bowyer's team selection that we don't know about. In fact that's almost certain to be the case.
Yep, I mean we're not exactly holding players back for a midweek european tie. Bowyer must be the lovechild of our Moderator.
I don't get the criticism of Bowyer. Pearce was carrying an injury, Kayal picked up an injury in training. Oztumer was poor against Birmingham, Aneke didn't do much when he came on. I have not been impressed with Hamed at all. He doesn't offer any movement. Leko is good on the ball and can beat a man, but there is no end product. I would play Bonne and Aneka up top against Leeds as they offer a bit of pace. I would put Leko wide left, with Williams on the other flank. We need to give Leeds a problem. The honeymoon is over and now we are seeing how hard this division is. Leeds and Fulham, in my opinion, are the best teams in the division. If we can get a point out of each game we would have done well.
Bowyer is still trying to find his best 11 @DickPlumb What is clear from the last 2 defeats is that Lyle Taylor is a talisman for us as much as a striker. We haven’t looked the same team without him. To be honest, I haven’t been impressed with any of our other, new strikers so far. Hemed was highly rated at Brighton, and can’t yet be fit enough to do himself justice. You can see why West Brom loaned out Leko & Field.
Starting X1 v Leeds should be - Phillips Solly Purrington Pearce Lockyer Cullen Pratley Gallagher Williams Aneke Bonne
If we can get a U23 game into Mathews I would be inclined to start with him at RB as he gives a lot more than 5'3" going forward (I understand he has a excellent cross on him and a fair bit of pace)… then you can bring Solly on after 60 mins to close out the game.
Matthews has an excellent pedigree, and is just the type of player that Bowyer excels with in terms of reviving his career. We would have all taken 14 points from our opening 8 games. Only Reams & Ackers are calling for Bowyer’s head. We are going to lose plenty of games this season, and need to be realistic IMO.
