Think we need to play one of our central mids very, very deep for that one, though. If on Saturday we leave the sort of space ahead of the central defenders that we did tonight, the Swans attacking players will shred us.
Listened to the game on 5Live! From the "picture" that emerged in my mind we need more pace on and off the ball in order to manufacture openings! At present we are not really getting behind Premiership defences. So perhaps persist with Mayuka and try out Tanadari Lee.
Ah well, shame to go down with a bit of a whimper, but this was a game where a point was always going to be a huge result and a loss by far the most likely. West Brom have only not one twice in their last 10 home games, against Arsenal and City, and we've only won one game in our last 10, was never going to be a great game for us. 2-0 is not a terrible result against this team. Things just aren't going our way at the moment and it's frustrating and a touch depressing but it's no reason to lose hope. We were very unlucky to concede the goal we did, and once we had then it was always going to be a huge uphill battle with West Brom the best team in the league at staying rigid, sitting behind the ball and defending stoutly and then stinging you on the counter, and that just worked out perfectly for them tonight. Then throw in hitting the bar at 1-0 and then a stonewall penalty (don't know why Adam wasn't screaming for that one!) not being given, and you round it off nicely. We weren't great but it wasn't dreadful. That said, I still firmly believe we should have come into the game with three centre-mids, as Mulumbu just dominated us in the first half and we really had no answer to that. And we aren't half a bit baffling with our style of play, first half we couldn't string three passes together at times and reverted to far too many long balls, then when we need to be chasing the game at 2-0 down, with West Brom sat 11 men behind the ball and we just passed it around the back when our only real chance was just knocking it up there. When we finally did revert to a long ball late, Lambert knocked it down to Lallana who had a great chance. Overall though, not as bad as some people make out, anyone who was targeting this game as a much-win were being a bit deluded. The next run of games is where the points must come from, and I wont start really worrying until those points don't come.
Are the people on this forum ****ing blind? Am i the only one who can see us as what we really are? A joke of a team who with out serious intervention are heading straight back down to the championship. Embarrassed to be a fan right now
Roll on Saturday. We may be doomed, but we cant lose every game. And it can't be time to give up on Nigel, not after 2 promotions in 2 years.
Quite how anybody can knock Guly for today. Ridiculous! He actually looked like one of a very small number that gave a toss when he came on.
Me too, and Mayuka and/or Lee need to start soon.From what I heard we need to start getting beyond the defence wide and crossing. Ramirez will be OK but didn't sound like he's fit. Having said all that, we need to start covering our fence better. Shaw and Reeves on the left?
Sometimes you can get away with a lack of experience (ie Norwich and Swansea) but sometimes you can't. I hope we're part of the former.
Mikey, I'm a big fan of your posts, but I don't get the attitude that seems incredibly prevalent here of "well we never had this down for a point" - honestly, right now the games we ARE optimistic about will lead us to get about 9 points at the end of the season. We have to start picking up points in games like this (see Wigan at Spurs etc) rather than making this excuse of "oh well we were never going to get points at x". Not good enough. The REAL worry is that we don't even look close to picking up a point and I genuinely fear that we're actually getting worse as a team, not adapting or improving.....
Are the players stepping on to the pitch now, thinking they are going to lose? Players need to get out there and enjoy and express themselves with positivity in mind!!
This is a spot on analysis. My additions: Ramirez unfit - shouldn't have been playing. Davis and Schneidelin not good together. Davis gives the ball away too much Fox - Probs his best game for us so he can have a 5/10. good to see Shaw at last get a run out. Rodriguez - Not happening for him. Someone else's turn Lallana - Needs to be in the centre and play someone on the left to track back. West Brom are a very good side. Similar to Reading last year in style. We would have done well to get a win or draw and from what I saw they didn't exactly outplay us. Wasn't the prettiest match.
Disagree with the Lallana comments, he ran his socks off and pressed hard all game, and covered a lot more than previously. I'm beginning to think our problem is in centre midfield, Morg and Davis press so high up the park when we're in very deep positions. Thought the defense was far better than any one else, though Fox is still cack, terrible positioning, why is he so narrow? MoM has to be Clyne, has was a rock, little came down the right hand side, bar their second goal, which he cant be blamed for as it was a cracking long ball forwards.
You just can't look at away games against teams in the top half as bankers, you're only going to be disappointed. The game next weekend is one we should get something from, let's judge them after that.
The problem with Lallana is he is having to play full back because Fox is incapable of doing it, no coincidence that most of West Broms play went down our left
We've made a lot of teams look a lot better than they are. When Schneiderlin plays badly, we're just going to get over-run, and our pressing is abysmal at times. Going to be very difficult to win games when we can't control a midfield, and our wing backs get caught out on every counter attack.
