Great game today. Really enjoyed it. Only the ref spoiled it. B'stard! The first 20 mins or so were fairly frantic & scrappy, before we took control. A very odd lineup today. Dallas did a marking job on their playmaker, whose name escapes me, so he was all over the place & did a grand job on the guy. Left us a little lopsided. Harrison was LWB & on his own on the left. On the right we had the standard pairing of Ayling & Costa. Casilla played what might be his last game this year, & Cooper came in for Berardi to pair up with White, with KP sitting in front as usual. Big change was Roberts coming into the middle to pair up with Klich, and it appeared to be the missing link. Lots of wonderful, dynamic football today & no point in awarding marks out of 10, as it was probably our first and certainly best team performance this season. Well, it felt like it, even if it wasn't. It was a comfortable victory against a free-scoring team. Only controversy really was the ref. Some strange decisions, and a reluctance to use his cards, unless your name was Klich. I heard Noel Whelan on the radio say that he had a good game. That's not what the crowd thought, & let him know almost every time he made a stupid decision - which was most of the time. Seemed to allow QPR to foul time & time again. For me, when someone is going full pelt & an opponent tries to dislocate his shoulder as he passes, he should be off the park - or a yellow at the very least. Not with this guy. At best, the QPR players got the proverbial 'see you in the showers - your soap or mine'-type of 'lecture'. They really could have caused serious injury and to me, it was clearly planned, as it happened so often. Most of that is down to the referee allowing them to get off with it. Lots of other weird & wonderful decisions from him too - including 3 shouts for a pen, 2 of which I thought were nailed on. Think it must have been Whelan's love child with the whistle for him to think he did ok. Got to mention that Bamford put in another sterling performance, as he has consistently done so all season. Nope, no goals though. Did have one in the net, but ruled offside. We were at the wrong angle to judge. In the first half, he was clean through the middle. 2 months ago, he'd have successfully chipped the 'keeper. Today, he tried to go round him, probably trying too hard to make sure. I blame the haters for this - and they were on the radio again. Don't they ever learn? Had a good chance with a header too. Whatever happened to heading into the ground in front of the 'keeper. Don't they teach that any more? Btw, apparently Eddie got a 'lower abdomen injury' last night at home & was taken to hospital. No further detail given, though requested on radio by Popey.
So is most of the squad. Bielsa seens to be learning about this league. Who was at left back or did we just interchange. Most of qprs stuff seemed to come from their left side which played in to our hands.
I had to laugh when he went to the touchline as required after injury. Then he started puffing on his nebuliser.
The team were bought to score goals! Gone are the days when you can carry a striker who does bugger all but hang about the penalty box. The game is too intense & pacey for that these days. Bamford provides as many chances as he gets, but it's only the ones he misses that get highlighted, not the ones he provides for others to convert. People hold Wood up as an example of what he should be doing, but they forget that we played a 4-2-3-1 that was all about defending well & getting the ball to Wood in the box. Did you ever see Wood do a 50 yard lung-buster to get back & defend like Bamford did today? Absolutely not, as he had a game plan to follow - and so does Bamford. He does what he's told, and does it well. If he didn't, he'd be on the bench. He isn't.
Well that's me told. So a part from his injury, that's why Eddie isn't starting because he doesn't track back.
LOL. Don't know about Eddie, Shaks. My view is that both he & Costa are luxury players. By that I mean that they're still learning Bielsaball. Everyone had to last season, but this season, all are well-versed in it & newbies like Eddie & Costa aren't. That to me makes them 'luxury' players. By that I mean that they will mis-fire as they're not on the same wavelength as the rest of the team. I think Bielsa wanted Costa to get up to speed before he introduced Eddie, so there was only one luxury player being accommodated at any time. Sadly, Costa has taken longer than expected to get up to speed - he's still not there. I think that's why Eddie has been held back. It could easily have been the other way round, I guess, but Eddie was last through the door, so Costa was already being introduced to Bielsaball. This is entirely my thinking, btw. I've not read it or heard it anywhere - it's just me reading the situation. It's highly likely it;s a load of pish, but for me, it fits - and I've not seen a better explanation of why Eddie's taken so long to come onstream. One thing confuses me, though - as Eddie was die to play, was it Bamford or Roberts that took his place? Anyone know what the original line-up was supposed to be?
Terrifies me too. Spent last weekend talking to dozens of jocks and being honest I don’t know one word anyone of them said. I’m just glad WJ writes his stuff down otherwise we wouldn’t be able to communicate at all
