No chance of my anger fading yet but Gracia in reality has been Mr Tactics since he landed and got subs correct in the main. In reality he has had one 45min period wrong to date, so I’m giving him some slack, but all them players yesterday need to look in the mirror and get it sorted or just fook off
This is a good example of how we lost our defensive discipline second half. As you can see Eze is inbetween the lines from a Palace throw in and he then receives the ball which then leads to him scoring the 3rd goal. Poor tactics or unacceptable ball watching from our midfield ? Either way if you leave the oppositions most creative player in acres of space then you will get hurt. If you remember Bielsa always used to designate someone (Dallas usually) to mark Eze out of the game.
when we made stupid individual errors under Jesse it was the coaches tactics, when we make them Under javi, it’s the players. hope that’s cleared it up for you.
he’d get them to practice defending… like javi’s had them practising shooting. all they need - a proper coach
In fairness. Jammy’s right, sides get rinsed. It’s happened to better sides than us. I thought it would be a tough game but I didn’t see that coming. Hopefully Javi gets them fired up and the fans get behind the boys. It looks like it’s going to the wire again.
Patrick Bamford was doubtful for the second half he was carrying a knock, even more strange that we didn't use Rodrigo. The good news is he might not start against Liverpool. Roy Keane says Meslier lacks bravery in goal, I can't argue with that Micah Richards said Rutter was a disgrace how he throws himself to the floor, again I can't say I disagree. Angus says should we be relegated we are in a prudent position, the heavy investment in the youth should see us okay. (not sure if that means sell them or rely on them for a return) A short spell in the championship would not alter our long term plans - Sounds bollocks to me Robin Koch posted on instagram, "Not good enough, 8 finals to go" Super Computer gave us a 10% chance of relegation before the Palace game, after it that doubled to a 20% chance And I am going to get in first, Noa Lang has apparently been identified as our top target for next season (again), who didn't see that one coming
The mistakes we made yesterday didn't really fall into the stupid errors category though in my opinion. For some strange reason we seem to mostly lose the tactical shape and discipline we've been keeping for the last few weeks. Even Dom Mateo pre game commented as to how impressed he'd been wiith us recently in terms of defensive shape etc. Question is why did that happen and especially after a solid first half where all the chances conceded came from set pieces ? My own view is that Hodgson tried to split our centre halves through his forwards subtle movements and then had runners exploiting the spaces/gaps between our defenders. With hindsiight this worked a treat and Palace were so much more effective after the break by going on the offensive which resulted in our midfield duo never working out where they needed to be. Repeatedly we saw Roca & McKennie coming deep to get on the ball, but out of possession they seemed too advanced as Palace expoited us straight throught the middle and inbetween the lines. Over to you milky, or are you still just obsessed with Jesse ?
Seeing a lot of stick for Bamford even though he scored. Can’t concede 5 goals in games no matter who your striker is as you aren’t winning
Despite scoring a good goal Bamford had a poor game yesterday with no sharpness to his play at all. Maybe he was carrying a knock, or had a niggle but he just didn't seem right.
His warmup was even hopeless. Put nothing into it Jammy. Didn’t look terrible interested. We’re you one of the 25k that left early by the way
He still got a goal and if the GK, defence and midfield did their job no one would be moaning about Bamford.
True, but in terms of being a focal point up front he was virtually non existent. Just not his usual self at all, whereas on Tuesday against Forest he led the line really well.
In the forest game we repeatedly had players in acres of space ‘between the lines’ it makes the game look easy when that happens and it can be hard to tell without inside track whether it’s tactical naivity from the manager or players misunderstanding/not doing their jobs. I don’t, and never have, claimed to be a footballing tactical guru Jambo but it strikes me that this occurs mostly in transition when there’s lack of clarity/indecision in whether the midfielder tracks the runner or the centre half comes out. Guys at the game such as yourself depending on the seating position get a better picture of the tactical battle than those of us watching on the tv where the cameras follow the ball I’d agree their chances in the first half came from set pieces but as the half wore on they got into more and more attacking positions… hence them getting the set pieces. I like Dom Matteo and I imagine he’s forgotten more about football than I’ve ever known but I think he must have missed the wolves game if he’d been impressed with our defensive organisation. In general it’s easier to look organised against sides with no ambition like forest and Southampton. Our defensive record is worse under gracia than he who shall not be named. Every side that plays us, every manager will be trying to exploit space and isolate our defenders to get mismatches with their pacy forwards. That hasn’t changed for several seasons. What they get now is more opportunity because we don’t press as aggressively as we did and try to stop the problem at source. For the first time in 4 years we’re trying to beat sides by playing in a ‘normal’ way instead of with a different footballing philosophy. I doubt Gracia is any more or less tactically capable than his opponents, so generally it will be more on the players than the system. We’ll find out if they’re good enough.
