Coyle played great to give him his credit. He had a lot of the ball on the right side and occasionally positioned himself such that he beat his man. Hate to be a downer though but many of his crosses missed their target. Whether that was his fault or whether said targets failed to get in the proper position I am not sure. But lots of crosses from Coyle went in to no avail.
We certainly got the reaction we all hoped for, overall a very good performance, particularly in the 2nd half. Liam changed it slightly after the break, with Traore coming more centrally, where he was much more effective. Tufan was outstanding and MOTM, certainly his best game with us. Coyle, a very close second, he had a very good game. Closely followed by Slater and Greaves who were certainly up for it. I liked the look of Lokilo, he will get better once he gets to grip with the English game and gets more confidence. Certainly looked better balanced that last weekend, though Wendies look a poor side, and I guess the only slight negative is allowing them to score 2 goals which gave an undeserved flattering score line to proceedings. Certainly make the weekend much more enjoyable, let's hope we can build on this, and with a couple more signings we should be looking competitive.
Just a thought ... Tufan has hit two worldies from a moving ball... I appreciate that might be Twines forte, but why the heck hasn't that been Tufans responsibility.
What I liked about the two goals by Tufan in the second half and Connolly's effort just before he scored was how they curled them making it more difficult for the goalkeeper.
The team scoring first has lost in all three of City’s matches this season. So I’m looking forward to Blackburn netting early next week.
One thing that's been little mentioned on here is how little we missed Vaughan. Lokilo was much more impactful. Although he did let their runner go for their first goal, his game experience over Harry without the ball showed clearly yesterday. Vaughan - as I and others have said - now needs to be a regular but late sub for the next few months to get a grounding in the game. Hopefully we'll be able to do that without having to play him as a first choice. A word on Connolly. Obviously a cameo - and he'll never score an easier goal - but he looked better for a week's training and a game under his belt than last Saturday. Jury's still out for me but I'm feeling more hopeful.
I think this was a very important part of the performance, they couldn't cope with our pressing at all. Really felt obvious that we were a superior side when watching them trying to get out of their own half and coughing up possession. They booted it off the pitch a lot.
I think that's a bit harsh on Vaughan. He played in a difficult away performance where we didn't have enough of the ball for him to do a lot. Yesterday was a very different game and was always going to feature our attacking players on the ball a lot more. At times in the first half I actually thought we did miss him with his ability to play little one-twos around the box and make more decisive runs at goal than most of our other attacking players.
Yep. Fair enough regarding his decisive runs. I do think that for his overall development he needs to play a secondary role for a while rather than being a first team regular.
It's been an unusual path for him to come into a side way higher than he's ever played in and immediately be the best available winger in the squad, as he was at the end of last season. Hopefully in a few weeks time he'll be one of four or five good options.
Maybe Tufan enjoyed his 3 goals so much he might start thinking i could finish top scorer and start having alot more shots on goal with the confidence, something we have lacked severly a player who can score goals like that from outside the box.
Coyle seems to send a lot of his crosses deep/to the back post. Either this is something they’ve worked on and isn’t being executed by runners coming into the box or he’s over hitting the ball. I wouldn’t like to say which. On the Wednesday board he was described as “their right winger” which shows how advanced he managed to get yesterday.
That was a nice watch. Slater driving at their defence just before passing to Tufan created the space for him to choose to hit it like he did. A thing of beauty, and as has already been said an amazing watch from North stand because you knew it was going in and had time to just grin and watch it.
As a Tufan doubter, I had to take my hat off to him for that performance. My doubts have always been around his tendency to give the ball away under pressure or mess up the final ball when in a good position in the final third. None of that was on show on Saturday, although (and applies to the whole team performance) we shouldn't get too carried away until we see that against a team that don't give us the freedom of the park to play around them. Someone on here previously said we need to be braver in possession (and Rosenior keeps saying same), and that was still on show. There are almost always passes on for our defenders, but they need a second look before they will trust themselves to play it, by which time the space is closed down. They are also reluctant to carry the ball forward if a pass isn't on. The exception to this is Greaves who had a fine game yesterday. Coyle will go forward when free on the right but not when deeper. All of this contributes to our tendency to turn one backwards pass on the edge of their penalty area into possession for our goalie several passes later. For all that so many want to blame the manager, it's the fault of the players who need to take the passes when they are available. However we should also be guided by the fans. Sheff Weds were pressing us properly for once around the halfway line, we played about 12 quick passes mosly one touch before working the ball to Seri in space and going forward in their half. Excellent football. Picked up on the commentary mike, halfway through the move someone in the stand bellowing 'stop fannying about!' Classic.
