This defence is weak. Another soft goal. Surely there must be some recruits in January to strengthen the back line, or get in another Oliver Skipp/Tettey style player.
Mid table at best. We have yet to play many of the higher placed teams away from home. One goal scored in the last 3 matches and that was by a CB.
We're going nowhere until more emphasis is placed on defending. Everybody stood like statues as Flemming was given the time and space to line up his shot and then the usual chaos in our own box to concede the second. Really depressing.
Decent game to be fair, ref seemed to be relatively good. Fisher and Shwartau did great, as did Sainz and Crnac. Nunez, Slimane and Naecindes were brilliant first half but I think they ran out of legs a bit in the second. Completely switched off for the first goal but it was an incredible strike. Duffy should have cut out the initial ball in for the second in my opinion. Some good opportunities/penalty shouts in the closing minutes as well. Marcondes could have drawn it at the end
Agreed but I’m not going to get too down about an entertaining game against one of the top teams in the league. We must always remember things a transitional season, there will be highs and lows in each game as well as the season. We are not the complete package and not expected to be
That's fine if you're willing to accept the transitional season line which keeps being handed out. I'm reluctant to write off any season that way. We competed well in the first half and I agree that Crnac and Schwartau did well, but we fell apart in the second half. For me, that's not entertaining. I was hoping Wilshere would bring some composure to our defence, but no sign of it yet.
The winning goal came from yet another example of Sainz trying to do too much on his own. A simple pass to the right would have kept us in possession, and our own attack going forward. Instead, he allowed himself to be tackled, lost the ball, and sprang the Burnley counter-attack.
"Transitional season" is not a "line"; it's the reality of a club building towards EPL readiness after three years of little more than marking time. Nobody has "written the season off"; all there is is honest recognition, based on our experience of the last five promotions, under Worthington, Lambert, Neil and Farke (x2), that getting promoted before you are ready is fool's gold.
I’m not sure I understand that “honest recognition”. And that’s not an admittance of ignorance, that’s me saying I think it’s bollocks. When we went up under Lambert, we weren’t “ready” by any stretch of the imagination. What even is “ready”? Ready stay up? Frankly, very few teams who get promoted are “ready” in the sense of anyone expects them to stay up. Or does it mean when your odds of going up are higher? Well by those standards I agree we aren’t ready. But statistically the longer you’re in the Championship, the harder it is to get promoted out of it. So we may well not be ready by those standards, but we are in all likelihood going to be even less “ready” next season. And we were more ready last season. So it’s rubbish - you can have a plan for the club, you can have a strategy, but there is no such thing as “ready” for the Premier League. You either achieve promotion or you do not. And if you do, you can be damn sure you’ll be one of the hot favourites for relegation, come what may. The thing is, promotion brings lots of benefits - so you take it whenever you can. There’s no-one saying “oh no, let’s not get promoted this year - we are not ready”. That would be a fool’s game.
Everybody was asleep. Nunez didn't even see the initial pass forward as he was facing our goal. Lined up way too deep, no-one in a wall, their two players over the ball should have triggered some players mind that something was planned. Their second should have been stopped, firstly by a defender then by Gunn. If that was Long people would be going crazy over it. Fisher and Schwartau were very good. Sainz has become too greedy, seems unable to see a pass for a player in a much better position.
I'd suggest it's one hell of a difference playing against some of the international teams U20 &U21 players than it is against strong, experienced Championship level players.
He has played for England at every level since U15's, played for Exeter at 15, played 16 games for Blackburn in a short loan last season and is 21 in a couple of weeks time. At what age will he be ready to come out and play?
I was chatting to a Burnley fan earlier and he thought we were the better side over the game. He thought we should have had a penalty for the handball at the end (I’m not so sure) and also reminded me of the Crnac offside (that wasn’t offside IMO).
I thought we were certainly the better team in 1st half, but 2nd half we were terrible. Poor marking, poor defending, poor finishing, poor subs, We got what we deserved, sweet FA
I don't agree we got what we deserved, Bure. The equaliser was just a great strike that happened to be perfectly placed, like one of those Tettey piledrivers, or a strike from distance by Núñez, and for all we handed them the winning goal, we still created the better chances overall and deserved at least a draw. To put it another way: that we lost was our own fault, but to come out of the game with no points was not what we deserved! Not for the first time this season either; Cardiff another example.
I agree Robbie, Crnac was ruled offside incorrectly when he was clean through with the GK, penalty claim for handball, Marcondes last gasp miss. I would suggest we had the better chances but were unfortunate
xG supports that as regards chances (Norwich 1.1, Burnley 0.5). But I don't think Marcondes's miss late on can be attributed to misfortune. Tiredness maybe, but he really should have been able to do better and put it away. Are our players coached to put their foot through the ball rather than go for placement? It often looks is if they are.
