Realistically though, who is available and who would we want? Let's not ALL say Dyche as I think he's next in line for most bottom half prem teams.
They SHOULD be doing a lot better though. They’re dominating games and not punishing sides. If we had him here we’d be a much better side as we have Oscar. They have Forss…
Forss really isn't a bad striker he just clearly didn't suit our system (does anyone at the moment?).
Oscar is certainly doing everything he can in general play just not getting any chances. 1/2 a game max, real shame. Although he went 3. He’s not getting a look in at Boro though because he’s useless in build up as he showed for us.
Not sure how we managed to sign so many midfielders and still not replace the Smallwood profile of midfielder
Certainly can't argue with any of that HT. As you said the minutes silence was impeccably observed and quite emotional. I was proud of everyone in the stadium.
Funny how everyone’s now asking the same questions I was getting shot down for asking in the summer. We just need MORE players. That’s all.
It's not time for Shota to go yet if he learns from this... We've brought a lot of new players in after all, but we're not starting a number of them or giving them anywhere near enough time for them to show what they've got, despite the injury list. If we line up similar against Swansea however, then he's not learning anything at all. We talk about a top half wage bill and we were all seemingly happy with the transfer window overall. Not many questioned the defence really until pre season started to be fair. The names we have there should be able to do a job if we use them properly, ie as defenders, not deep playmakers trying to advance and pick clinical passes out whilst we have no width further up. We need to inject some confidence by playing to our strengths, which seems to be ball to feet further up the pitch... We've seen some great attacking football in moments when we have the ball up the other end but it's been few and far between, so Shota needs to set us up to get the most out of that rather than relying on full backs getting all the way up the pitch past two opposing players in order to get a bang average cross in to a lone striker over and over again. Coyle can cross from deep quite nicely so put a wide forward in front of him with a bit of quality. Gives us two attacking options immediately even if that's an out of position Pelkas for the time being. We badly miss Tetteh and Allahyar, but we have similar enough, if not debatably better replacements there in any combo of Pelkas, Vale, Longman... Two of them got an hour between them last night and one didn't make the bench. Simons could be the perfect partner for Seri too... I know the Chelsea lads are young but they're highly regarded and we were happy with the signings... So where are they? Bottom line, we need to try to go out with the set up and mentality to win. Have some belief that who we've signed will score goals. Not set up with a largely league one defense and give them the job of trying to dictate the play from the back. We need to try and dominate in the other half and the defenders can just do a no nonsense job of clearing their lines and pressing on from full back when needed. That's where they're more likely to excel. I'd like to see us get to half time or 60 mins actually being ahead in the game... Then we can sub players like Smith on to put themselves about and use their legs to keep things spaced out when the opposition is pressing us for a needed come back. We can only do this if we start strong. Bringing quality on when we're 2 goals behind is pointless. Odds on though we'll start similarly against Swansea because we're away from home.
It's easy to say we've signed all these players yet we don't have X, Y or Z type of player and isn't it disgraceful. But injuries are still completely dictating the players we can choose from. None of us know whether we replaced Honeyman and Smallwood since one of our new midfielders has been ruled out the whole time. We've also got another one we've not yet seen in Simons. We complain at the lack of wingers but that's what Allahyar and Sinik, and to some extent Tetteh, were signed for. All are injured. I think it's unrealistic to expect us to be able to cope with this level of injuries and not find ourselves short in some positions.
Don't normally comment on games, but here goes my view. The defence is by and large the same as last season's which most of the time was ok when it went through a rocky spell bringing in Baxter stabilised the ship. We appear to have loads of midfielders, the were a few times last night when we had the ball in the space between the halfway line and their penalty area and the ball just went from side to side between the players like a ball passing exercise in training. Forwards we have Oscar, eventually launching high balls into the box isn't what he has shown he can deal with.
Remind me, which injured wingers are we waiting the return of? Allahyar isn't a winger, neither is Tetteh. We're yet to see Sinik, but by all accounts he's likely better suited to play as a wing-back. What about down the right? Zero plan B.
There is still plenty available and can be surely be put to much better use. Like why bring the left back off and replace him with a right winger FFS? Why even start with Smith? Then hook him at half time when he inevitably comes up short. Why play 5 at the back without wingbacks? And when one of the defenders is severely out of form? Why sign the two young Chelsea lads and not even give them a place on the bench? If they can’t get given a chance in an injury crisis when can they get given a chance? You can find an excuse for everything if you want but injuries aren’t unique to us and we have so many players - more than we can register - to even still leave quality out of the match day squad. So injuries aren’t a valid excuse. He has plenty of good players at his disposal.
I don’t know where this Sinik being a wing back has come from, he’s just like KLP. A right footed attacking winger who plays out left and cuts inside. I don’t think he has ever played wing back in his life.
