I think it's time to accept we are avery boring side away from home. Glad we stuck with the same team but we are passing the ball very poorly at the moment. Savage and Claridge are making the point about lack of width, something we all know about. If we nick it 1-0 I'll be happy obviously but again, as against Cardiff and Barnsley, they are giving us space and we really haven't had the quality to create. It annoys me that we are not being patient but hoofing it long, it's unnecessary and not working. Vassell's once again is showing his pace but also a lack of technical ability. King (Andy) is playing poorly IMO. Defence has looked very comfortable apart from that headed chance they should have buried.
Changed the ref at half time as original wasn't cheating enough. Three and a half minutes later, a dodgy peno against us..
I hate to say this, but I think the ref has got both decisions right :-( But saying that we're still the better side. Here's hoping we can get a chance to equalise. Regards Neal
Well the third massive decision he got woefully wrong. Beausejour commits a definite second yellow card offence but because he plays for the home team he isn't shown it. A minute or so later and our player is sent off.
I was going to comment on the referee, but it just aint worth it. And as for the 'penalty' on Andy King, twat keown said 'I think he'd lost control of the ball'. Where the **** in the laws does that figure? he got sandwiched by two players, it's a fooking foul!! Cheated by a guy who isnt good enough to be a ref. Oh well, at least we lalyed football, not like the brummie 'hoofers'. If only I owned a cat, at least I could kick it. Having said that, if that twat ref was here, he'd probably give offside against me. TWAT!!
Is that supposed to be sarcastic? We were ****ing awful, we had time on the ball yet we resorted to hoofing it out of play so many times. At which point did we play football in this game?
Emile, just frustrated mate. We look good stroking the ball around, but just no end product. Makes you think, would we have been better with Howard and Schlupp up front? Couldn't have been any worse. Vassell was crap, Nugent worse, and as for Beckford. As someone else said, can we get our money back? I know, by the end of the season he'll have scored 20+ goals, probably get the winner in the play-off final, and he'll be a hero. But right now, they may as well play me up front! Doncha love supporting the City, it's never an easy ride.
Yeh I can totally understand your frustration. The strikers are playing crap (tbf Nugent had his first poor game today though) but on the other hand it can't be ignored that we can't cross it to them, or slide them in down the middle, or anything. They have had half chances at best for the majority, and the midfield has to be blamed for this, and obviously Sven for not putting players in who can open teams up. I really think Schlupp and Howard would have been better, I really do. If we are going to just be negative and hoof it, Howard can throw his weight around and flick it on or bring it down, Schlupp can make things happen with his pace and he can finish. The point of spending this money was to buy a team that could play good football and create loads of chances for our talented strikers, but this hasn't happened at all. We've become like Italy, talented, but very negative, and it's such a shame. Italy have won plenty I know but they've also often underachieved because of their lack of ambition. We are doing the latter at the moment.
Good point about the crosses, absolutely awful. Konchesky and Pantsil (who I thought played quite well), couldn't cross the road! It's so frustrating, we are 90% towards a really good side, it's just that last 10%. TBH Bamba was magnificent again, and Peltier looks a brilliant replacement CB. Tunch needs to come back though, and FFS we need a striker who can score. Is beckford the man? From what I've seen/heard so far, no. Perhaps we need to give Schlupp a run of games and see if he can do it. Although basing a promotion campaign on a 18/19 year old is a hell of a risk. Same old City, nearly there but not quite. Certainly more interesting than supporting ManU/Chelski/Arse though. Real football for real fans. Off for another wine and ***, I'm still hopping mad!
Just out of interest, how are you playing Beckford? We found he definitely needs a run of games with a striker who can hold the ball up (Becchio in our case) to really start firing on all cylinders.
Well, he started at the centre of a front 3, which we all new was wrong before we even signed him. Sven changed it to a 4-4-2 (diamond) and played with Vassell, who can hold the ball up quite well (that's all he can do though). TBF though there's not many excuses for his performances so far, he's missed one sitter and generally the ball has bounced off him. One big excuse though, is that the service has been appalling. Also, we are extremeley negative away from home so it's almost like the strikers are playing up on their own without a strike partner. It's been the same for Nugent as well on the most part, though he has made much better use of it overall. Nugent is a player who can hold it up so we were looking forward to him and Beckford together. Beckford didn't start today as he was injured the last game when we won 4-0, so it wasn't the best situation to come on in when we were tired and 1-0 down (and playing pathetically). He has been poor though, there's no denying it. I still think he'll come good but we do need to play much much better on the whole to give the strikers a real chance.
Two words. 'Poor' and 'Howard'. If thats what Beckford needs, Howard has to play. But that's not what we want to see. Big Steve is a legend, but a legend from the past. We need to move on, and for me the front two should be Schlupp and Messi. Ok, Messi isnt an out and out striker, but I think he'd fit in with Svens plans away from home. For games at the KP, drop Messi and bring in Howard, you know it makes sense. And lets face it. Messi is only a bit part player for Barcelona, he needs a real challenge. A few months in the Championship could turn him into a decent player
For us he would always go a few games without a goal and then go on a run where if you heard we'd scored, you knew it was Beckford. He's a big game player aswell, isn't bothered by pressure. He needs a run of games to get into a rhythm.
Yeh that makes sense, like I said it's not as if he's had it on a plate since he's been here, he has underperformed no dobt but he's had very poor service and tbf hes only had about 5 appearances so it's still early.
