Agree completely. When is MH going to stop Kenny hoofing every ball up to the half way line, we never seem to win any worthwhile ball that way. The other premiership teams don't do this, they pass it out from the back! This is one thing that must change from the NW era.
He should do it when hes got a defence he can trust, i wouldnt be giving the ball to Gabbidon or Hill.
OK, OK, OK, I just finished watching the match, finally! Late night off work, and then I just had to watch the recording..... I was amazed Derry was in. But then again, I thought, perhaps he's in, because he's just good enough to the pace and skills of lesser teams from lower divisions???? Not to take anything away too much from him, as he was solid last year, but he has struggled this year, and why not let him run it out while we (hopefully) change it up a bit in the middle in the PL? IMO, Bothroyd needs to be re-trained, re-programmed for him to be absolutely effective. For me, as an example, he needs to be more of a Anelka type player, or even a Berbatov, who can hold up the ball, in a sense, where we could use him more as a turn-about up front in the middle. He has enough skill to turn players and when he wants, pace to burn, but, at the moment, I think he feels lost himself as to where he should float. He does need much more support from the rest of the team when we pile forward, however, so it's not all on him that he's not done enough. Funny how the goal came when we brought on Heidar. Perhaps that was a good substitution, as the Dons defense had to change their marking due to HH, and because of that the goal came as we were able to load the front of goal and had a couple of free heads open. I wouldn't call it an astute substitution, but it did help us meddle with their defense on the corner. Gabbidon must be thrilled. Creativity....? Yeah. That's where we need stronger play-makers in the middle. Buz surprised me, and perhaps he finally feels he's back on his feet and run it out some more, he does need more play time to stay loose and to keep the touch. I didn't quite understand our wing play, so many times we kept getting stuck, and so the passing looked even worse as nobody really wanted to run into space or help out trying to make connective passes. The Dons looked so much more fluid than us with their passing - but then again, we didn't really chase them around much either! We need to hassle the opponents more, but this is perhaps our biggest weakness - no pace due to age? So frustrating to watch one pass by a player and he seems done, not willing to move into space or have the conscience to just be back in the slot for an escape-pass if the original pass didn't quite work out wide. What is wrong with our up-and-down running, just inside the wing, so we can make incisive diagonal passes? Oh yeah we don't know how to do that yet. Seeing Mackie just barrage up and down in the same width he likes to roam without much thought as to remember what's behind him is simply pathetic to watch. He doesn't know if he should be a winger or an inside-midfielder or just a lump-striker piling himself forward! Oh yeah and we're being out-jumped a lot at the back. Not to take anything away from our backline boys, they do make some timely sliding tackles more often than not, but when the ball gets tossed in the air I just cringe. Not good with our headers, and not good with directing them away properly either. Was the hoof-it-from-the-back by Kenny part of what MH instituted for this game as a tactic, do you think, so we can bypass our back-midfield? I think so. Oh how I wish I was playing "Football Manager" on the computer so I can muck about with ideas! Glad we won, but we need some serious work to stay up if this is how it's going to be. Looking forward to our new players and Tarbs coming back.
For the first half-hour I thought we looked energetic, decisive and aggressive in all the right areas. The curly-haired bloke down the middle seemed our main dangerman, whilst the big suave dude looked commanding. The old chap lacked pace, but seemed to be orchestrating things effectively from the centre. I say the first half-hour, 'cos that's when my wife pointed out that I was looking at a re-run of The Professionals...
well we won & congrats on that but overhaul that was woeful but about time we had some luck. if we play like that saturday wigan will beat us, thank christ bartons back & he will make a big difference to that team & hope we can get another 1/2 players in for sat, midfield as looked bare last night & boy do we miss ali, gabbidon gives me no confidence ok he scored but sorry he's got to go hurry up alex!! lets hope it can give them a bit of confidence with that win becuse they sure need it.
the mistakes on show last night helps hughes to pinpoint areas for improvement - our counterattacking and our defending from their breaks were two glaring ones I could make out. But we ground out a result, and that helps build confidence - so its not all doom and gloom
Maybe in the NPC but I see us going with a combination of Faurlin/Muntari/NZonzi/Barton and hes not going to get in the side ahead of them but he might ahead of SWP or Mackie.
Get the lube ready because based on that performance Chelski are going give us a humping in the next round. I'm always pleased when we win but I can't say it was deserved last night and the shocker for me is that most of the team on show will be there again against Wigan. No teams will be scared of coming to W12 and the likes of Wigan & Wolves will look at us a chance to get much needed points. It isn't just going to take a few big names arriving in the transfer window to keep us up, it is going to be a loaves and fishes type miracle to stay in the Premiership based on what I have seen recently. If alarm bells have been ringing before they are clanging like mad now. I might change my tune if we beat Wigan becuase everything is so close as far as points are concerned but my big worry is that there starts to be a gap appearing between the bottom 5 and the rest of the league, cutting us adrift and making it a bun fight all the way to May.
Flyer...Can't be Derry anymore... Barton And Buzsaky in the middle. I think Akos is getting back to his best slowly and if he performs well against Wigan I think he will replace Faurlin till the summer. It is interesting for Gabbidon to say that training was more intense now, so we will be fitter and some of our players will be better for it. So maybe we will play for 90 minutes plus now.
It has to be Barton and Buz now but we have to get someone better than Buz in the middle andi think Buz would be more productive than either SWP or Mackie on the wing so we upgrade 2 positions with 1 CM signing.
Couldn't stop thinking at the game last night how much we miss Faurlin and how much we're going to miss him for the remainder of the season. Our midfield and link up play is shocking without him. Still don't understand how people earlier on in the season got on his back and criticised him, surely even they can now see the massive void his injury will leave. About the actual game, it was a shocker. Reminded me of some old League 1 games and left me with more questions than answers as to whether we'll survive this season.
