I think THB has indeed been poor but he is getting more stick than he deserves. Who pelted the ball back to him for their first goal? It was basically a safe midfield position turned stupidly into a dangerous defensive spot. And the second goal was Bednarek mucking about with a one two as the last man.
Yeah, the passes back have always been a problem, But I'd suggest the level is issue.. thr players need to be able to receive the ball better. I haven't given THB any undeserved pelters.. but it's clear to see he is struggling right now. Stephens seems to get abuse every game no matter what happens.
Yeah, He is definitely our best CB and I'm still expecting him to be sold or loaned to a league that is still very much open.
In fairness the way it reads is that RM now feels he has given them their chance and now its time to start changing, this probably would have happened after Forest if they hadn't given Newcastle a decent game.
And Forest at home and Brentford away are two of the easier fixtures on paper all season, so if they couldn’t do it then it’s not getting much easier in this league
Whilst we are all rightly angry at the way we gifted Brentford 2 goals from sloppy play (3 if you count the poor defence of a long throw) Brentford gave an absolute master class in how to press. Pretty much every Saints player was being man marked, when we had possession, so a lot of credit has to be given to the Bees. Having said that, we are usually the architects of our own downfall. When the CBs and Downes are playing tippy tappy football, the FBs are usually nowhere to be seen because they have pushed forward, meaning that Downes doesn’t have a square pass option. Maybe if the FBs didn’t push forward so quickly, we would have safer passing options. Equally Smallbone and Aribo tend to be too far forward for Downes to slip a pass round the corner and if he does they are both on their heels and slow to react, often having the ball taken from them. Add to this the fact that they don’t play on the half turn, they inevitably hit backward passes. Given RM’s comments about Dibling’s fitness, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lallana was picked ahead of him for the Utd game, with Dibling coming on second half again, although this would depend on Lallana getting in another good two weeks of training without injuring himself. Our next game could be a good one for us as Utd won’t press in the same way as Brentford did, so we might be able to play balls into our midfield, which will hopefully consist of players who play on the half turn and will run the ball forward.
I wouldn't call Brentford away easy. I'm not sure why people think they're suddenly going to be dragged into a relegation battle TBH. Toney's a good player, but so is Mbuemo. They've also always been very tough to beat on their own ground. So I think to call that one of the easier games is bollocks TBH.
Ah Grasshopper, you bring a Zen twist to the discussion I've sort of been interpretting brave as going long at times, but its actually doing what you believe to be best at that point in time, and that may be playing it short Of course you're right about the automatisms, but if that's all players do, then the best players will reduce their potential impact I believe that the bravery is to interpret the rules and make good decisions on the pitch, saying "that's what you told me to do" isn't brave Zen involves Self-Control AND Insight, the players need Insight Aren't Edozie, Fernandes, Dibling, KWP showing that there is room for individual skill too? (Although Edozie isn't particularly getting anywhere) The knock on issue is if 10 players are doing this well in a game, how many times will the 11th, make a mistake in a dangerous situation that leads to conceding, given that EPL strikers miss less than EFL ones? I realise that this can only be settled by what we see and the results we get, but that isn't going to happen instantly so I'm being patient (ish)
But, surely we need another more defensive mid, otherwise the attacking guys won't see much of the ball
Our midfield is definitely contributing to our defence looking shaky, by using them as a 'safe' get out Same as RM said about Baz & Macca previously, its all very well criticising their passing errors, but maybe the defence shouldn't always the GK as a 'safe' get out
I think Ipswich, Leicester, Everton and currently Palace are the teams we should hope to see points from
