Lot of people have been banging on for ages about how good Fleming is as a left back, so much better than Elder, etc. Personally, I think Fleming's reputation is built on coming into the team last season as a wing Back, not a left Back, where his attacking strengths were highlighted and his defensive weaknesses not so exposed. I really hope Elder is back soon as overall I think he has been our most consistent defender over 2-3 seasons.
Wasn't there last night but looks like Boro did something radical and played TWO central strikers - Akpom and Forss? Haven't seen us do that for a long time. On Saturday when Daws brought on Oscar and kept Longman on, there was a brief moment when I thought we might try it - but of course no. Our inability to put teams under pressure in their penalty area is almost as big a problem as our inability to keep them out of ours.
We look completely impotent playing 1 striker. I felt sorry for Oscar last night with no service and no support. It was a thankless task. Any opposition team will only need look at our goals against column and stick two up front, knowing opportunities for goals will be in abundance because of our piss poor ability to defend. If their strikers can’t score, one of our haphazard defenders will duly oblige.
Literally no pace. Weak, error prone defence, who also offer next to no threat from set pieces into their box. In spite of 16 signings, we have square pegs, round holes, and a handful starting who are simply not good enough to be anything more than 2nd or 3rd choice squad players. And no leaders (including that being left with Greaves as stand in captain is a joke). We actually played some nice tidy football at times, especially first half ... but to literally no effect or purpose. Oscar far too isolated. Made runs time and again but nobody attempted to pick him out or play him in. And all against a very limited Boro side, who should have had 4!! That's frightening and disgraceful. Tetteh and Allahyar are proving big misses for us, but all teams will be missing 1, 2 or more big players, so that's no excuse for us. What is an excuse is having a ramshackle, under-resourced interim managerial / coaching set up. It probably wasn't what it needed to be under Shota either. Thankfully (hopefully) that get's addressed as of today. BTW, are Pardo and Stockdale still geniuses? It hasn't looked like it from the evidence of the past 2 home games; we looked close to clueless with the set up, the changes, etc. I'd love to know what Rosie has been saying to Acun about how he sees things and what his plan is to sort it out. Meaning partly for interest, partly for reassurance. Hopefully totally fresh eyes and ideas are needed as Daws and Shota before him have failed to find a way to make this squad work. I wonder what if anything Rosie has been promised in January? 3 or 4 quality players to plug in the right positions, along with getting Tetteh and Allahyar back, would make a massive difference.
I was too angry to post anything when I got in last night - and am still angry this morning, so I might regret some of what I post below, so here goes. People say we have an imbalanced squad and I accept that. But imbalance is no excuse for the lack of effort and desire we saw for 70 minutes last night. Apart from a 20-minute spell in the second half where we got back into the game, there was no urgency, no belief and no composure. Once again, we have been beaten by a team who did nothing except the basics of the game to a reasonable standard. Once again, we concede goals from crosses coming into our box and once again, opposition players find time and space to do whatever they want in our penalty area. It's time to stop making excuses for our defense - and centre halves in particular and accept they are just not good enough. One clean sheet from 18 games is a shocking record and we are shipping goals for fun. In January we need two experienced championship central defenders who are leaders and organizers. The current crop are neither and need either dropping or selling in the New Year. For all of our new midfielders, where is the know-how? Why did no-one clock that they had two players booked in the first 5 minutes last night (The only thing that useless twat in black got right) and therefore sit one-to one on those players when we had possession? Instead, we stuck to the pedestrian, and predictable "game plan" that clearly wasn't working. Where is the leadership on the pitch? When their 3rd goal went in last night, not one player on our team believed we could get back into the game. Body language said it all. No one was geeing the others up, and no one was handing out bollockings. You might say it's "Typical City" - 2 good away performances followed by 2 disappointing home ones. Last night felt worse than that - last night was a real let down. Maybe last night the reality of a relegation fight hit home for me. Offer me 21st place at the end of the season right now and I'll take your hand off. Hopefully Rosie has some good connections and contacts in the game that will help to reshape our squad into something better than it is currently in January. At least after last night's sh1t show, whatever he serves up can't be any worse. As someone once said, Football? Bloody Hell! Rant over (At least until Saturday)
I have done an extensive analysis of the data I collated and have come up with the conclusion that we weren’t very good. Always available if you want my help, Acun.
A captain's performance from Seri last night. He left it all on the pitch. Not many others did the same, and pointedly I think Greaves needs a rest as he's off his game. Why McLoughlin hasn't been given a start yet I don't know. Difficult to shine in a congested midfield formation, but Seri and to some extent Woods, Slater and Doc all worked hard, but it was a slog. We miss the outlet and holdup play of Tetteh and Allahyar but we play out from the back so rarely that without changes at the back and the willingness to stride forward exemplified by Christie in the 2nd half we will continue to lose to poor teams. Changes needed and quickly.
Good post. Me and many I guess feeling similar. I agree 100% about 'no urgency' (bar a spell) but disagree about the 'effort' and 'desire' bits and also the 'composure'. There was effort there but we were sort of like too calm and composed, which then links with not enough urgency and passion. But the reality is that the core issues are many and run deep, some of which you rightly point out. It's so frustrating and soul destroying at the moment. Hopefully we get to enjoy something quite different, even special, post January if not even earlier.
I thought Docherty showed a lot of desire, that passage where he beat his full back and got up the pitch showed a determination a lot of others lacked. Pelkas was also brilliant when he came on and I'm not sure why he wasn't starting.
That’s true for sure, but I also think the contrast between Oscar and Longman shows how relatively immobile Oscar is - and mobility is key for a lone striker. We looked much more of a threat going forward at Blackpool and Rotherham, benefitting from Longman’s running and link play.
To be fair to Oscar he was running the channels and working hard with zero service. I’d love to see us play with 2 up front.
Whatever happened to one of the sitting midfielders covering when the full back goes forward? We learned that in school football.
Cos he was really poor last Saturday? we have a match winner in Tufan but as we know he has a lot of baggage and I don’t mean his fat arse An ashbee would get hold of him in training and he’d either buckle down or we let him go he’s key one way or the other. as we’ve said all season syd the recruitment has been a head scratcher If Allahyar and tetteh were fit where the fuxk would Pelkas Sinik and Tufan fit in?? Can Tufan do the hard yards in cm alongside seri and doc? He’s capable but doesn’t work hard enough let’s hope rosey has a clue but I have my doubts
Let's just imagine Rosie does **** and the coach after him does ****. Where does that leave us? What do we do then? I wish I had the answers, but I don't.
Because we don't have a Smallwood type, Seri and Woods are both playing a similar role, not strictly defensive-minded midfielders, I've been saying for a while we need one ASAP, better than Smallwood but that sort of player. We conceded goals from that area against Blackpool and Rotherham when Christie was at right back, because he is more advanced and doesn't have the speed to get back to defend, so until we do get a covering defensive midfielder I just think having Coyle behind would help to minimise the threat there.
I always remember Deano saying he became a far better player, when Venables told him at Middlesbrough to not run outside the width of the 18 yard box. I’d say Oscar is a similar type of player to Deano in that respect. We need someone to play off Oscar, whether it’s Longman, Sinik or Pelkas. But they need to be able to run in behind. We don’t have a winger/ striker to run in behind anymore. I thought Sinik would be that, nice and direct but he’s more of a tippy tappy continental footballer, abit like Pelkas and Tufan. Their number two was an example scared the life out of us. We’ve been dealt a blow with Tetteh and Allyar as they where that type of player, however it’s bad squad management to have no one to come in, when we’ve wasted loans on the two Chelsea lads and the lad from Arsenal. Again bitty players that obviously had injury and fitness worries. Also playing Slater at left wing was a complete joke.
"I said to the ref at the end, there is a consequence to that (decision). I've just seen it back, it isn't a free-kick, Toby gets the ball cleanly and then it's their throw-in. I understand it's hard, but it's a really soft free-kick, but listen, he's given it and we have to defend it better. "I always say to the players what I say to myself and that's you have to look after yourself first and what can you do better. We have to defend that a lot better, the first phase, the second phase and the third phase it comes back in and hits Toby and goes in." “I’m really disappointed with the performance," he said. "First half, I thought they were better than us. I don’t think they caused us many problems but they were more aggressive than us. “That was the message at half-time – believe in yourselves and try. Be brave. “I thought the first 15-20 minutes we were excellent in the second half. All the momentum was with us but football has got an awful way of punching you in the nose. “You have to keep believing and stick to the process. I thought their heads probably went down a bit when that second goal went in. We have to do better. The only thing we can do is improve.”
