Rosie seemed to be happy with what we created but there’s part of me says “how so”? As you say we hardly worked the keeper. As harsh as it sounds if you don’t score goals you don’t win games and if you don’t work the keeper you can’t claim you deserved to win (as the home team) or be happy with what you created
Think that honestly comes down to just having nothing up front with injuries/suspensions. Greaves put a beauty of a cross in today that Oscar would have loved. Longman was out of position
Burning question,do you think the owner is going to throw large amounts of money around in January? I don't...
Interesting how we all differ in our views. I was underwhelmed with Sinik. Yet another left winger who always cuts back onto his right front. Would love to see a winger who can get beyond the defence. Don't remember him doing that.But maybe he needs a start to see what he can do.
I think it's debatable but the frustrating thing is you know if that happens at certain other grounds it's an instant red, but at our stadium the ref will always give himself 30 seconds to think about it and then talk himself out of it. We go away and don't get the rub of the green because of home advantage but then we also don't get the home advantage ourselves when we are at home. Like Ulrika said, we really need to give refs more stick instead of our own players.
No - but I think there might be some comings and goings. I also think we will end up with a smaller squad at the end of the window. Think Rosie said he wanted to work with a smaller group in one of his interviews. Quality as opposed to quantity as it were. Also told Burnsy he would be talking to Tan and Darnborough this week about how the squad might be amended
Yeah, I think people see promise in Sinik because they expect to see it. He's done very little every time I've seen him. We lack a proper wide player who'll take players on and get to the byline but he doesn't seem to be that. He cuts inside near the halfway line and passes inside, not really sure what he's supposed to offer in attack. I think if someone with a less exciting background was playing the way he has people would be a lot more critical. It's way too early to write him off and I certainly hope that we'll see much more from him, but I'm not sure how much we're going to see him play. He's not breaking into the team even when we have nobody else available, so it doesn't look good.
It's tough for any player from abroad, especially one who's had little to no pre season. He's definitely got promise but it will probably take a little bit of time for him to adapt. I think we look more threatening when he's playing. We didn't see much of Allahyar in his first couple of months either so we do need to have a touch of patience
That's all reasonable. I wouldn't question his talent, it's just that so far all I've seen him do is pick it up miles from goal and move it on. We need someone to take men on and create and on paper you'd hope he was the man for that, but so far he hasn't. Maybe with time and confidence he'll start playing in more advanced positions.
I think we'll try and shift on some fringe players in January and that may free up a bit of space in the squad and the budget.Personally,I don't see any 'blow your socks off' signings coming this season.I think the chips are down,the money's been spent and we sink or swim by the business that's already been done?
I do get that. He needs a run of starts really as coming on as a sub ain't easy either. We definitely need another winger though if possible. The winter window is always tough though and it's not easy to bring players in from abroad as you need them to make an instant impact.
Once we have Traore, Tetteh and Ali back we probably have enough at the attacking end of the pitch. Remember we have M'hand also. Another out and out striker option to cover injuries and suspensions without having to play Longman out of position or rely on Smith would be nice, but I do think we need to tweak the spine of that midfield still, and possibly another centre half. Wouldn't be a huge surprise to me if Vale and Simons went back to Chelsea, and I'm sure we'd listen to offers for Cannon, Williams and Smith at the very least.
Lots of pant ****ting going on this evening. Wasn't our best game this season by any stretch but we still made far more happen than we're used to seeing. It just didn't come off this time. Greaves scores from a set piece, Slater doesn't take his chance at an open goal, Pelkas bicycle kick blocked, Fig's header saved, possible pen on Greaves denied, on another day they'd have had a red card. Reading created very little. Baxter made one good save I can remember, anything else was bread and butter for him. It was a smash and grab from them thanks to two poor moments from us defensively and a couple of key moments from the referee that didn't go our way. Debatably their first goal wasn't even poor defending, just good movement from their lad. The scenario we're in and the fact it's at home again makes it more frustrating but we're not going to win every game. If we play the rest of our games like we did today I'm confident we'll win more than we lose. A couple of months ago we were genuinely piss poor. Low possession and most of it in our own half, no shots, let alone on target, no chances, no half chances and constantly inviting pressure on, making glaring mistakes in scandalous places etc... This is a hard result to swallow, but with a bit of clarity, we're definitely improving, despite the result, and with some key players due to come back soon.
