Mixed bag yesterday, but an entertaining game and taking a real reflection we absolutely battered WBA at the end. If you'd have told me we'd have been the dominating team against a 5th placed WBA even last season I'd have have been so impressed with how we'd done.
I think on the whole this season our CBs have been outstanding despite the number of goals we concede, today particularly Woolfenden made a real bad one. Though again sorry to keep picking on Clarke but his positioning for that was awful, Woolfenden constantly has to get him out of trouble unfortunately this time he dealt with it very poorly. I thought on the ball particularly first half Clarke was poor also.
The second goal I'm not sure really why Edmunson was trying a pass like that but also Harness seems to always lose the ball anytime his back is to goal. I'm not sure what it is because I think Edmundson has been pretty good since coming in for Burgess but we look far more open as a team with him in it, not sure if it's because Edmundson is faster than Burgess so we play a higher line or also because he's right footed so plays more balls into the centre which if we lose it we are more exposed. Whatever it is teams are starting to realise the game we play and when they get the ball back break in numbers.
I thought quite a few of our key players were slightly under par many have been for a while, not bad but just lacking the levels we saw earlier in the season Luongo wasn't his industrious self, Chaplin has missed quite a few chances which last season he would've buried, Burns wasn't direct enough (although he did have 3 men alot of the time on him). I thought again Broadhead looked short of confidence, although he improved after scoring, hopefully that will do him the world of good.
However saying all this we were up against probably the best defensive side in the league and we caused them problems. I thought with Moore in the team we looked far better with the ball than we have since we lost Hirst. They are slightly different players, I think Moore holds the ball up better and potentially also better in and around the penalty box but Hirst is more dynamic, mobile and better on the turn. What they both do though is occupy defenders and offer us an outball which creates more space for others, gives us more options and prevents us from overpassing.
The biggest positive from today is what I saw the last 15/20 minutes, we have some real firepower now. We were so dominant and relentless at the end I can't see many teams being able to deal with an onslaught like how WBA did, they were out on their feet. As long as players stay fit we've got some great options up top and it's good to see what that means Mckenna looks like he's happy to just go for it. We had 2 strikers on the pitch and only 1 defensive pivot in midfield. That is really encouraging.
Southampton and Leeds have gained about 15 points on us over what has been a difficult couple of months. We've had those more challenging fixtures now and getting the team up to strength so really need to kick on now over the next month and a half if we want to make a fist out of the autos.
