A big positive was how confident Bond was in goal. Very reassuring to see that. Of course it was disappointing that Anya or Forestieri could not convert those golden chances, but don't forget that Geijo , Ekstrand and Anya (oh, him again) missed easier chances against Derby. We must not expect to convert every chance, nor point the finger only at Fernando. Keep behind the team and every individual in it, and it WILL come good!
It was appalling to see the negativity about FF last night...he had a lot of tweets from fans of other clubs that were hugely insulting, but a few from our own fans which is simply wrong. People are idiotic sometimes!
Couldn't agree more - players and teams sometimes have "off" days - we will not win all the rest of our games no matter how good we are - and at least points dropped to Wolves are not dropped to our rivals
Maybe with FF we need to play him ALL the time so that he gets match fit and can regain his eye for goal. I also don't think it's a coincidence that since GZ has swapped Deeney and Vydra about our general form has gone down. We now need to play consistence players I feel
From here on out, the only planned rotation should be central midfield (Abdi plus two of Battochio, Chalobah and Hogg), and at wing back (two of Cassetti, Pudil and Anya). Other than that, if you're fit and on form you should play. We're close enough to the end of the season for fatigue not to be a significant factor: the squad has been well looked after up to this point. Considering that we didn't win, the weekend as a whole has gone relatively well. Hull winning is a blessing in disguise, because they're just close enough to Cardiff for them to start believing that they can be caught. Hull and Palace play on Tuesday, so something has to give there, and Leicester falling another point behind us is a huge positive. Cardiff have two tough-looking home games coming up as well, in Derby and Leicester.
It is going to be tight, I am not blaming anyone against Wolves, we all let it slip. Like Rodger68's comments, our club needs our support, if we go up of not. Things are looking good. Can we hold our nerve?
The problem with Forestieri is he seems to have lost confidence in front of goal and not just in the Wolves game but when he's come on in virtually every game recently. I don't think he's a bad player but one who needs to gain confidence somehow for the sake of ours and his own future. At the moment he won't start a game for us so i think he should go out on loan where he can make starts. I am not criticising him as a player but I do feel he has missed chances recently that have cost us.
As have Vydra, Anya, Deeney and even Ekstrand - so why focus on FF? Personally, I think the fact that he gets so little game time yet still manages to create those scoring opportunities in spite of that is more telling. As others have said, he probably only needs more game time, rather than the cameo roles that are currently coming his way, to regain his confidence - unfortunately for him though, we're at the business end of the season and can't really afford to experiment with swapping and changing starting teams.
At this very important time of the season we must play our strongest starting eleven every game, I was not impressed at all watching the game on Saturday morning after my return from holiday. Only positive was young Bond between the sticks, a very assured performance from him, it was the same against Palarse, we did not see the game off. We need to put teams to the sword when we are on top otherwise we will be lucky to make the play-offs IMHO!
Picking on 2 games where we 'should' have won, and concluding that we are on a downward spiral is not rational. FYI, the average points over the last 10 games is... Cardiff 20 Hull 17 WFC 23 Palarse 17 Foxes 19 Brig'n 21 Boro 7 ( And they are in with a good shout of ther playoffs!) If we (all 7 teams) keep the same form, we will end up as follows Cardiff 94 WFC 88 Hull 83/84 Brighton 80 Leicester 79/80 Palarse 78/79 Boro 62 Also, it turns out that ALL the top 7 teams have to play 3 of the other top 7, except Hull, who have to play 4 (shame), and Boro who have to play 2. So, Hull might struggle a bit more, boro might struggle a bit less ( not too difficult that). But none of the top 6/7 have a significantly easier run-in than the others. If 1 of the top 6 other than us or cardiff has a brilliant finish (like WFC in 1999 ,won last 7 to get into playoffs) we won't come 2nd. but I think 3rd to 6th is nailed on. For WFC to miss the playoffs (excluding points deductions) requires one of Forest to make up 15 points on us, or Boro to make up 12, ( both clubs have GD way below us) and the others in the mix to carry on as now. Frankly, I don't believe that is likely. Having watched the game on Friday, , it's true we were superior to wolves for 75 minutes, and could have been 3 up, but I'd rather have our version of a draw than their version. I hope this lot makes sense. BTW, Bond's excellent performance just shows me that we are well prepared for most eventualities.
Not saying we are on a downward spiral but we must see off teams when we are in front! I think the whole team need to look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves, do we want this and the answer is YES! The future is bright the future is Yellow U'Orns
Thank you, JT, for spending time doing the stats. I like stats but I'm too lazy to do the work ( and my boss would question whether it is really required for my job).
Never going to win them all..it was a bit like the Derby game though. Very good first half with another cracking free kick to put us ahead. However we sat back and alllowed pressure..Wolves despite their poor position have good players (as do all teams in this league) so Bond had to be alert. Soft goal to give away and ofcourse we mised some great chances.
"As have Vydra, Anya, Deeney and even Ekstrand - so why focus on FF? " - well because Vydra has scored 20 goals, Deeney 14, Abdi (midfield) 10 and Forestieri (striker) as scored 3. I think he probably is a good player but he doesn't seem to be able to score at the moment which is why I focus on him. I want him to step up and score but given the misses recently against Wolves and Palace to name but two I do think there is something wrong. Even Zola is saying so. So as this is the business end of the season as you say - can we really afford to play someone in our first team who is struggling to do what he is supposed to do - namely score goals?
Thereby lies the conundrum - he won't score goals if he is not getting enough time on the field, and we can't afford to give him time on the field if he's not scoring goals. Perhaps a short term loan down a division to give him the confidence to convert the chances he is making - according to ;ast match stats he had as many shots at goal in 18 minutes as Vydra (78 minutes) & Deeney (96 minutes) had between them ? We have a busy and somewhat important April looming and need everyone to be firing on all cylinders in case needed.
