Unlike others on here, I've never been one to use injuries, poor refereeing or bad luck as excuses for dropped points. Tonight we dropped a hard-earned point through yet another piece of mindlessness by Hanley; on Saturday, Pukki had two more points in his grasp but botched the penalty. Our youngsters, and players new to the English game, need their more experienced colleagues to give a lead; too frequently they (and DS) are being let down. And by the way, where was McLean? Oh, yes, needlessly suspended ..........
Annnnnnnnnd Robbie entirely predictably makes this about yet again trying to justify his irrational hatred of Hanley Sorry, no. Total pish. Hanley and Pukki have won us far more points this season that a couple of poor performances have lost us. It’s totally and utterly delusional, complete fantasy, to expect our players never to make mistakes. Teams like ours have to accept that every player will have a mistake in them. It’s ludicrous and just because your pride won’t let you back down. This is manager issue. The performances of the team, as a team, have been dreadful. You’re only fooling yourself Robbie.
I agree that Hanley has been a liability in recent weeks, but instead of using the situation to take your usual pop at him, you might want to consider why Hanley - and Pukki and Aarons and all the old guard - have got so much worse since Smith arrived. You might also want to consider why a player who looked like he could really be special (Nunez) when he arrived is now as bad as everyone else after a few months of Smith's anti-Midas touch, why Sara isn't firing, why we have failed to beat any of our likely rivals for promotion, and why we have only looked a decent team in a few fifteen-minute spells in a handful of games.
Zero shots in the first half , Cantwell tried to poke the ball In on his bum and Pukki fluffed a good chance. Not good enough, I have seen enough of Dean Smith and Shakespeare and to stand any chance of stopping the rot I would like to see them go .
I'm not convinced either way about Smith because the issues are complex. We knew Burnley away would be a tough game and I expected far worse. Our defence was good and both McCallum and Tomkinson were the best of that. The handball undid us at the end but Hanley performed well and he and Tomkinson were excellent in our improved defence against set pieces, as were the whole team against a taller side. Where we failed is in midfield. Nunez was ok (6.6), but Hayden and Sara (both 6.1) were very disappointing. Sara has shown very little so far for the £9m we're paying. Sargent was also disappointing (6.0) and didn't really seem interested at times. Our highest rated player was Cantwell (7.2). Onel's 6.4 was good for a sub, outscoring many others who played the whole game.
This demonstrates that we are frighteningly reliant on McClean in midfield. For all his faults, we do seem to look a little bit (but not enough) tougher in midfield and the skill of Nunes etc more likely to get unlocked. That’s really not at all good when I think, while there are some really anti- and some give him credit for his adaptability and commitment, we can all agree that McClean is not the grade we need to stay in the Premier League (if we can even get promoted) and certainly not as he gets older.
The biggest disappointment for me was Hayden's performance. He is supposed to be the defensive balance which lets us play both Núñez and Sara in midfield but that was hardly evident last night as Burnley dominated the midfield. It's early days for Hayden, but the signs aren't good so far.
Yeah I hear you, but equally I think that he deserves patience. The fact is the system is awful and he isn’t fit, I think he deserves a game or two to get going - there is a decent player in there and he physically looks a lot better.
Well at this rate it doesn't look like we'll be triggering any contracts where he'll only stay if we get promoted.
