Simposon found himself drawn down the pitch, at times he was behind Quinn and Brady. He lost the ball instead of holding on to and simply lacks the confidence to surge past defenders. Koren , who is one of my favourite players, looked like someone who is nt enjoying his job anymore. I don't think he likes wet pitches or something. Brighton changed their formation and we didn't, Atwell is in a different place at times, but we lost because our game plan did not work.
we mixed it up once before against boro by playing McLean and Proz and it was our worst attacking performance of the season but Proz has got 4 months under his belt and Gedo (on reputation) would seem a more potent threat than McLean so I'd be happy giving them a go and start Koren in Midfield. Elmo and Brady outwide then Meyler and Quinn (both of whom need to improve on last night) either side of Koren. We're at home for the next 3, we have to set up to attack. Simpson will cause debate over his part in style of play but for our 'lone forward' to go 90 minutes without getting close to any kind of chance let alone taking one is utterly unacceptable, especially with the balls being fired in as they are. SB needs to focus on possession and Bruce jnr or Evans as a holding midfielder is excessive. It's not a death or glory attitude, it's just a distinctly more positive one. Playing Bruce jnr in that position last night said 'right we'll be happy with a point and maybe try and nick a win'. Away I can just about accept that but at home, I want to see more.
I am totally 100% in support of Steve Bruce however I thought that it was a mistake to start with Alex as a defensive midfielder yesterday, and to replace him with Cory Evans simply compounded the issue, it constantly invited Brighton to apply pressure, which, especially in the first half, they gladly accepted.
I rekon we needed someone upfront who could keep the ball and dribble past to link up the play up, unlike when simpson tryed to control passes into him. ...missing aluko alot!
Because he's utter **** in about half of our games at the moment. He hasn't addressed the problems we had when he came in, who's going to want him? Don't get me wrong he's doing an alright job but it's not like he's worked miracles here is it? We're the same pointless side we were 12 months ago.
Agree with you on Koren, but come on, we're a lot better now than we were 12 months ago, as evidenced by our position in the table. I think Bruce is doing a fantastic job, and I think we'll go up automatically this season, but even if we don't I'd be disappointed if Bruce left. This is the first season since relegation where we've given it a real go and the players/manager/owners/fans don't want to accept mediocrity. That can only be a good thing.
I thought that up until a month or two ago but right now we seem just as happy to accept mediocrity as we have been for the last two years.
We've certainly invested, but we went into this season with our only quality striker out for the season, we've had a transfer window, an emergency transfer window, another transfer window and now we're into another emergency transfer window and we still haven't got an established quality striker. We might have decided not to accept mediocrity, but a far as strikers go, that's exactly what we've got.
I thought there was some good football by City at times throughout the match but especially during the second half. I think the biggest single problem relates to playing Robbie Koren as a striker - he has a fabulous shot but is just not a "fox in the box" type. He lacks the explosive pace, physical strength and ability to improvise that strikers need. When played as a striker so far this season he has missed several absolute sitters in and around the six yard box and his general play has been poor. As a midfielder he is obviously much more at home behind the front two and that is where his best games have been. He is a class player and obviously very important to the team but he should not be playing as a striker.
you can't take our best player out of midfield, put him up top and then complain when he doesn't score and as some suggest on here take him off! Just play him in midfield! As for Simpson, he is suppose to be a striker so what is his excuse?
Just a thought but have Jay and Koren ever really performed when used together as the furthest 2 forward? I might be wrong but cant recall it. It just doesn't seem to work, yesterday there were some truly exceptional quality balls put in from the wings - mainly Elmo - and a half decent striker would kill his granny to get service like that. Ive said it for weeks and I stick by it - just give Der Bomber five 90 minutes no matter how well he does in the first three of those. Jay is an alright player, I like him, but he's simply not the main striker of a promotion chasing team.
You may well be right but the point is we don't know unless we try. He simply hasn't been given the chance, a game here and there is no good, he needs a run the like which is afforded our other non-scoring strikers.
He's made 24 appearances, nine starts and fifteen sub appearances and having seen most of them, I can understand why he's not starting. If we're serious about promotion this season, then we need to loan an experienced striker in a couple of weeks time, Proschwitz definitely isn't the answer.
For me youve answered my point perfectly there - 9 starts. And how many consecutive league starts has had made? Any striker in the world will tell you that the odd starts here and there isn't good enough to get into the rhythm of a team. Jay gets so much faith when he isn't performing.
id say tomorrow, 9 points up for grabs in these 3 home games would be massive in the hope of automatic, which i cant see us snapping up with the current options....aluko back and gedo fitter if we do end up in the play offs
The thing that worries me is that we're assuming a new striker in but we said this when we signed Simpson and it made no difference, then we thought Fryatt and McLean would get us scoring and that failed, then Proschwitz was the same. All the strikers we have were expected to fire us the goals we've been missing and it's backfired every time. What's to say another striker is going to finally solve this problem? I feel like if we had Messi and Ronaldo up front right now they still wouldn't get on the end of these crosses or get into any dangerous positions...
