Did some players look disinterested knowing they might be dropped in 2 weeks time. Gone have any chances of losing players Zola doesn't want. Why have Dickinson at centre back - surely we must have had better options.
Just back from Derby. Shocking. No passion, no effort no skill. No passes together. A team full of loaners means that those playing today may be dead men walking. Really missed Taylor so we need to replace him. Why no subs until after and hour when we are 4 down, Anya looked OK when he came on. Only Dickinson and Doyley came to applaud those fans who did not leave early (2 hours from home, £25 a shot, so why not stay to the end??), so well done to them. Didnt look like Zola could change it here. A bad day at the office!! The most passion was shown by a fan near us who was clearly unimpressed by our efforts and perhaps his language was a touch industrial, but there really was no need to throw him out. More like him I think. Will I be at Bolton?? Get back to you on that one.......!!
Spent the day travelling from the depths of Hampshire to the north of Norfolk...only to find we've loaned five more from Udinese and lost 5-1. It might be the couple of glasses of red, but I'm no longer quite sure what I'm supporting.
i was quite relieved to have been distracted after the final whistle...Master H recording a backing track for me to sing to next week at the BM, and it wasn't going right, and now it's got loads of background noise and i'm not sure what to do about it...it's frustrating, a bit like today's game really. Good to see Zola taking the blame, but not encouraging to hear him say that he didn't want to lose Tiny. It seems there's a bit of a saga there that we may or may not find out about...doesn't seem very straightforward though, as Zola apparently had him down to captain the side today. Hmm. Anyway, time to put this behind us, and work hard through the international break to get back on track at Bolton. I'm seriously thinking of going...we're taking Master H to Uni at Leeds that day..it can't be far from there, can it?!
Okay - I know this won't go down well with many of you - but having seen this game and the Ipswich match - I am now convinced we are going to struggle. We were lucky against Palace and Birmingham was a one off - but todays match showed that a half decent team can and will overrun us. We have players who frankly couldn't give a monkeys and it showed today. Zola didn't know what to do when we were under the cosh and if it hadn't have been for the Watford players (i.e. Big Chris, Dickinson and Doyley) we'd shipped more than 5. Dreadful.
Its true teams with experienced and fairly decent managers which Ipswich and Derby have will have their teams set out in a way to put pressure on us and its up to Zola and whoever is playing to counter that. It might be harsh to blame the "non-watford players" though as one scored and Abdi isn't a defensive player. Pudli seems to be better going forward than in defence. I do agree maybe we have too many players and prehaps some that played yesterday had a feat factor in them?
Okay Abdi isn't a defensive player - but Big Chris is and he managed to haul himself the other side of the half way line so why can't Abdi? Also defence isn't just at the back - an effective defence needs a forward line that can get them out of trouble by keeping the ball further up the field - a skill Abdi seems to sadly lack. Yesterday we were utter rubbish - the passing game will only work if players are willing to run, make themselves available and actually want to play. Too many yesterday didn't even break sweat. Same as they were against Ipswich, Bradford and Wycombe - the rot is setting in too early and we need a strong manager to sort it out - i.e Dyche not Zola.
Fair enough but I think Abdi is quite a decent player. However I do agree lets see how everyone copes when we do have to travel...its what let Vialli down. The players potentially coming in sound better but lets hope they are fully fit and ready to prove themselves.
I didn't watch the match, didn't even listen to it. But I'm not taking this rubbish about players giving up from anyone, no matter how far they travel to support the 'Orns. Who? Who has given up, consciously or subconsciously? Dickinson? He may be crap, but he doesn't do half-hearted. Hodson? Didn't play yesterday, and a system with wing backs would give him a great chance of staking his place. Murray? 18 year olds who have had eight months of studying, regular first team football and international jollies shouldn't be playing as much as he is. Hogg? The safest ex-Watford player in the team. Yeates? A different player this season. Doyley? Give over. Nosworthy? With Taylor gone, Zola desperate to play three centre backs, and most of his competitors for a place still learning their trade, he knows he's got a golden opportunity here.
Agreed, but I'm not holding my breath - I've never known so many unfit or injured players signing at the same time. In fact, I'm beginning to suspect that the Pozzos have also entered into some sort of business partnership with the hospital - a new venture called MICE - the Muscle Imbalance Centre for Europe.
As you say you didn't go yesterday - but I did and I'm not talking about those you have named all of whom I agree are trying - they are our players - my concern is with the 'on loan' players who have now failed to even bother in at least three games I have seen - they need a blinking kick up the backside and I don't think Zola is capable of doing so. I repeat we were utter rubbish yesterday and if it hadn't have been for Doyley and Big Chris we would have been shipping double figures.
Related to my last post, Tim Vickery and Andy Brassell had some interesting things to say about us on the World Football Phone In podcast. About 51 minutes in: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wf They both made the point that players who join us are the ones who are in the last chance saloon as far as getting into a big league is concerned. The performances of Abdi and Vydra certainly strike me as being those of people who always had talent, but have just started to realise that it's now or never.
So what if they do well but we don't go up...will we not get such players back? Sounds a bit like short term thinking there which is my worry. Are we going to get 10 new loan players each season and how long will Zola get to take us up...
My horrendous away record continues - last time I was at a match that we won away was Norwich on the opening day of 2010/2011. After seeing the Birmigham game on TV, I was looking forward to yesterday. By half time I was wishing that I had stayed in Budapest for the whole of my holiday. If I'd stuck to the original plan, I would've been part way through a scheduled 7 hour wait between flights at Brussels Airport. Effort? Not as much as there should've been. If there was, then Big Chris wouldn't have been so isolated and when Pudil broke then lost it, he made hardly any attempt to get back. Those of us who saw Murray play last season all know what he is good at. As has been mentioned, he needs a rest but we are not playing to his strengths. Dickinson at centre back was a huge mistake. He did his best, but it was obvious he was out of position. If the club website is to be believed, then Tiny wanted to leave. If Cassetti has played as a centre-half, why not play him alongside Nos? If Zola knew Tiny wanted to leave, why send Bennett out on loan if the newcomers aren't fully fit? I'm sure Owen Coyle will show a video of yesterday as part of his pre-match preparation, so it wouldn't surprise me if they think their best chance of scoring are crosses by Eagles for Kevin Davies and Sordell. Finally, and I would've said this even if we'd won, I do not think that centre forwards should be captains. This is for 2 reasons: their position does demand a certain level of selfishness and if it's not going well, the first thing they're likely to comment about is the poor service to them which is exactly what Big Chris did. Also, I think those further back and out wide can see more of an overall picture of how the team are playing and are more able to (in theory) speak to the either the rest of the team or individual players accordingly.
I hadn't seen us lose at home last season until the Blackpool game so these runs can be broken. (here's hoping)
I am going to count this result as just a bad day at the office I will be disappointed though if we fail to impress in our next game I am not saying forget this result as hopefully it will act as a wake up call to all our new players that life in the Championship is not going to and never was easy!
Unless there is a meet beforehand, Christmas which will mean Forest at home then Bristol C and Brighton away.
