I can remember two occasions were Ramirez was required to play a simple pass but instead he tried and failed with a fancy flick. And there was also the "pass straight to a defender, luckily get it back only to pass straight to a different defender" moment which resulted in him being taken off afterwards. I'm not saying he was the worst player on the pitch (he wasn't) but he definately wasn't great. I only watched MOTD to see the first half attempted leg break on Clyne and Lallana being pole-axed into a concussion again. They showed neither. Did anyone who watched the game on a screen with the benefits of action replays have an opinion on these two incidents?
Lallana defends pretty well. Ramirez not so much. I consider the definition of "luxury player" to be someone who has a lot of flair and makes things happen up front in a sort of free role, but doesn't contribute to the defensive side of play. Le Tiss fit that description rather well, and same with Totti, Ronaldinho, Bergkamp, Maradona and a few others. Ramirez strikes me as that kind of player as well. He's the kind of player who will do much better in a dominant team that doesn't need to defend as often and can therefore accommodate him better. I'm convinced that he'll end up back on the continent playing very well for a very good team, but I don't think we'll ever get the best of him.
Goals on Sunday showed the tackle on Clyne - they even discussed it afterwards. Both the commentator, and then Kamara, commented on how Bothroyd could have easily been sent off. And on review, I do agree. It was a bad challenge, which could have broken his ankle (note: ankle, not leg - I guess that is what saved him, even if it was still worthy of a red in my view. It was very low to the ground). Hasslebaink though (guest on the show) wasn't having it as a possible red though. They didn't show the Lallana incident.
Having been to this game it has taken me 24 hours to recover and make comment. No point in going over what has already been said about the dire performance of all but Snidders, Corky and JRod who all put in a real shift. Having been late to get a ticket, I had the misfortune to have to sit in the Chapel end, aptley named, I have been into noisier churches and there certainly is more singing in a church than was going on around me! I was very disappointed in our crowd, completely out sung by the excellent QPR fans. Not sure whether the players dragged us down or whether we dragged them down but both players and fans didn't turn up. Very disappointed by both.
We are not the noisiest fans, but players gave us too little to cheer and our expectations may be getting a bit high as well.
Clyne one was borderline yellow/red, it was a nasty challenge but Bothroyd's foot wasn't raised which probably saved him. Lallana incident was a foul as he was clearly impeded (don't ask me how the referee didn't see it that way) but the head clash was accidental. Apart from those two I thought Mbia was very fortunate to stay on the pitch by the end. Could have had about four yellow cards. MOTD highlights were poor I thought, but I guess history is written by the victors.
I counted Mbia and Bothroyd both committing three futher fouls each after their yellows. Did quite annoy me that they both escaped second yellows.
Bothroyd probably would have been red-carded if that foul happened in the second half. Agree that there was a foul on Lallana, but there was nothing malicious in it. It wouldn't even be a yellow card in my book, just an unfortunate accident. QPR have some physical players who are quite good at knowing what they can get away with and committing sneak fouls. They will always get away with things no matter which official is in charge, and this is something good teams learn to deal with. Tiote at Newcastle is the same way. I thought Ramirez was pretty good overall. He did have a nice finish on the goal, and he made several nice passes that I thought other players could have done better with. I thought he was one of the better players, although I can also understand the argument that "one of the better players" does not justify his 12 million pound cost. I think Ramirez takes a lot of criticism for attempting fancy moves that don't pay off, but that is kind of his role. Probably no one tries more fancy stuff that doesn't work out than Lallana but fans are much less harsh on him. I also think Ramirez is a pretty good defender... for an attacking midfielder. He is better than Lallana on defense but neither of them are any good. But both of them give good effort and can at least by relied on to slow an attack down slightly, and they put pressure on CB's most of whom can't dribble, so that's all you can really ask for from that position.
Sorry to say, but so far, Lallana has looked pretty average in the Prem. He needs to up his game, although I guess he's out injured again for a while? (no doubt getting info on his injury will be the usual pointless exercise from Saints)
I totally agree. We should have stuck with Rodriguez and Davis and brought Lallana and/or Ramirez on as impact players. As it was we were left with no tactical options with subs as replacements had been forced on us by a very physical QPR side.
It can be frustrating it is true.......I can understand from one angle but sometimes the secrecy can be a bit over the top.......
Having watched the Spurs game today, you can see haw much width they play with, both goals came from widemen getting behind the defence. Both Lallana and Punch drift into he middle esp Punch with Clyne having to pass the ball backwards to Punch when he should be infront of Clyne, which stalls our attack.We should be stretching teams instead we are trying to play through 3 defenders, Ramirez and Morgan should be arriving into space around the area, but all there is is congestion. Would love to see one of the youth players like Rowe play a more winger like position and giving ammunition to Rickie
One thing that has frustrated me all season and not just yesterday, is how many goals have we scored from outside the box. I cannot recall any. We seem to rely on walking the ball into the net which won't happen very often against teams that defend like rangers ie big powerful defenders. We need some serious shooting practice
Yeah, I mentioned this during the game; if we want to open up space in the box, we need to utilize the full width of the pitch. Using the fullbacks to overlap while the wide men cut in is certainly useful, but we're often forced to slow the attack to set that up, at which point we're facing a rather crowded mess. One of the best sequences in recent games came because we moved Lallana to the right wing, where he was able to hit an early cross in to Rickie's feet...it's one of the rare times that Lambert has actually had a clear sight of goal with the ball at his feet in months. Might be worth putting our wide players on their strong sides for a game; we need to up our tempo in attack, and ceasing to create situations where five players run into the same cul-de-sac might be beneficial in that regard. You also aren't likely to score too many from outside the box if there's a herd of defenders on the edge of the 18 yard box. We've managed a handful, but we've also driven plenty into a thicket of legs, or wide for lack of a clear shooting angle.
Yet the one goal we did get was as a result of roddy shooting from outside the box and being mishandled by their goalkeeper. Have to agree there is too much tip tapping just outside the box we didn't seem to have an answer to them playing so deep.
And there in lies the problem. So we can play when it's a nice open game, but what's the tactics when our oppponents are going to have 10 men behind the ball at all times? I think MP failed as much as any player on Saturday.
There won't be many games when teams play as negatively. Most teams in the PL would consider themselves better than us and would have confidence to play and give us the chance as well. For every style there is a counter style, but most teams will not put 10 behind the ball.
If it was that quiet DL Would have thought we would have heard you shouting your head off.......As we didn't I guess some of us were actually making too much noise. Can assure you we were making a noise in our area although there was a lot of moaning and groaning as well. As far as my memory goes we joined in with any singing especially after their first goal.......We may not be as noisy as the Northam lot....but by all standards their was non too much from there end either!!
Eventually, I've watched it on Motd. Apart from everything else that has been said I was wondering about Fox running away from Remy back to the goal line. I reckon if he'd stayed on him and put him under pressure, he'd never have got his shot away. Apart from that my only comment is that he should have stuck with the team that beat Man City (except for Shaw and maybe Fonte). I wonder if Ramirez' price tag is putting pressure on his selection. Also, same thing with left footed corners and free kicks. Let Fox take these please, it is the one thing at which he excels.
