Hi guys, first post on here. Pretty disappointed by the game which I thought we had more than enough chances to win, but can accept the draw. However, we seem to be suffering from the same issues each game. Yet again today our possession stats are very poor, with only 41% of the ball, which has been the case for every game this season except the Villa match (and possibly Wigan, which I missed). Although we've played some top sides so far, there were times against United and City where we completely dominated in spells, and up to mid-way through the second half of the united game we had the majority of possession. It seems that we are unwilling/unable to keep the ball well, and look very nervy under pressure. This, combined with the amount of running the team has done (over 60 miles in several games, making us the team who has covered most distances in the league) leaves the team exhausted and also gives opposition plenty of chances to run at a weak defence. Surely Adkins can see this and should encourage us to play the ball around and to stop Fox aimlessly hoofing it down the wing, and maybe encourage Gazzaniga to play it short slightly more often when Clyne is playing? City, United, Wigan and even Fulham today have over-run us towards the end of the second half when the team has sat incredibly deep and Adkins has been forced into substitutions because the team is knackered from all the running. The fact that Schneiderlin has covered over 7 miles in some games surely can't have helped with his injury as well. I'm especially disappointed today, as it would have been the perfect opportunity to get passing the ball around after the 1st goal, and would personally have brought Mayuka on instead of Chaplow. Sorry if this is rather rambling, but I'm absolutely shattered and rather grumpy about the result.
It was a game which we could've and should've won but we failed to grasp it in the end. Anyway we have a two week break now so we move on
It seemed like Adkins was trying to shut up shop in the second half, hence bringing on Chaplow and Guly. Things didn't really go for us today, with losing Richardson (Yoshida did his best but didn't look terribly comfortable at right-back) so I can kind of see why he did it, but we invited too much pressure. We had chances to make it 2-0 but we didn't take them, and that's probably why we ended up where we did, but yeah I was also disappointed with the lack of adventure in the second half.
Adkins made a big mistake by taking off Puncheon and Lambert. We should have gone for the kill rather than shut up shop and Adkins was very lucky Fonte came to the rescue.
Easy to say that now, but he has been criticised for being too offensive. If we'd got a 1-0 win and a clean sheet you'd have been perfectly happy with the tactics.
He would have been criticized for attacking with a lead and makeshift defense if it didn't work, definitely. That said, I believe that it would have been the right decision...30 minutes on the back foot with a shaky back four is damned difficult to manage, no matter who is up front or on the wing. Having Chaplow to protect Yoshida was sensible, but when we started defending deeper they had all the ball.
I agree we didn't keep up the pressing game and allowed them far too much possession. Adkins has criticised the team's performance in the second half so I guess they didn't do what he asked anyway.
We've seen across the season that we can't hold one goal leads, but I'm sure Adkins will be disapointed we didn't score more in the first half
Lambert missed two golden opportunities. One volley which he skied, another tap which was fluffed and trickled wide. It's a point. We move on.
He ****ed up with the subs again today - there wasn't much of a cushion and bringing on Chaplow & Guly meant we were ****ed once they went 2-1 up, there was nothing up front after we took our creative players off
Yeah you are right about that particularly as Fulham offered not a lot. If that Puncheon goal wasn't disallowed for what appeared to be not a lot, we could be talking about a different result. But maybe that is Premier League life. Also welcome on the bus.
Could've done with Mayuka today but I think in the second half we needed some bite which is why Guly and Chaplow came on. They are players that aren't scared to get stuck in.
The error was taking Puncheon off who was giving Yoshida great cover. He used his brain very well, something Chaplow didn't do when he came on.
I called Chaplow for Puncheon even before it happened (though that was mainly because I didn't want to take Jay or Lambert off). The problem for me was then putting Chaplow in Puncheon's position. Made no sense at all to me. I wanted Chaplow to join Davis and Morgan in the middle. An extra body defensively, whilst also helping to get the ball from Ruiz who was beginning to dictate the play too much I thought. Guly for Lambert substitution happened far too early for me. I know the early injury effectively reduced us to have subs, but I still didn't agree with using our final sub which so long left in the match. But hey, we got a point and that's what I wanted. Had predicted a 2-1 defeat.
With our defence still adapting to the league, we're going to need to score more than one to win a game. Puncheon and maybe even Lambert should not have been subbed off.
Puncheon was knackered, he had run himself into the ground, I was hoping for Mayuka, but Chaplow it was and he put in a shift.
We brought on Chaplow as we were dropping too deep and Puncheon was cutting inside and giving the ball away. I also think Guly was brought on to hold the ball up which he did and made an impact. I am also not sure if Lambert was not carrying a knock and I think due to the early enforced substitution we had to shuffle our pack earlier than Adkins would have wished to. Awful second half and lucky to grab a point, but we will take it and have a break to recover. Looks like the bottom five and Swansea will be trying to keep above the dotted line and as long as we are scoring we can readily achieve this.
