What the ****!? You CANNOT hope to gain promotion by conceding an average of 3.33 goals per game! So WHAT has gone wrong with our defence??? Answers on a postcard, please address it to Steven Bruce
It does. Only on the pitch for about half an hour and still solely responsible for conceding a goal. He's just a liability.
Not having two holding midfielders away from home is the first problem. Maybe Fathi/Evans or Fathi/Meyler in place of Koren or Boyd or Quinn. We need to have a solid spine away from home and stop leaking goals.
I hate singling out players faults as it's against my personality however, Alex Bruce was abysmal tonight, truly appalling. If Faye or McShane isn't back in the squad over him, I'll be ****ing livid. He didn't stand a chance against Murray tonight, lost every header, lost out physically and was the liability all night. Why Steve even considered starting him in place of Macca or Faye is beyond me...
Yet not at fault for any of the goals candy. Go figure. Noticed he didn't score any goals either or setup any. Oh that would be the midfield and forwards. How did they do? Good?
I never said he was at fault for any of the goals? I said he wasn't the right man to have been given the job of putting tabs on Murray. Murray assisted one of the goals if I remember rightly anyway, or at least I think it was Murray. If there'd been a defender to head the ball away rather than allowing Murray to take the ball down on his chest or head it elsewhere, our defence might have had an easier night. This is the first time I've ever criticised Alex Bruce, and I'm not saying the result was his fault, as the midfield lacked legs tonight. They weren't getting back enough and with the amount of times the Palace players hit the ground, I'm surprised our lads kept trying. I'd have lost belief totally. There is the point however, that we have a great defensive record, McShane gets injured and Alex Bruce comes in. The 3 games that Bruce has started - if it's three - we've conceded 10 goals. See the link?
We have had 2 bad defeats in the last 3 games, and we are still only 1 point behind Watford. Whats the panic? Its gonna be like this until the last few games. We will fix the Burnley and Sky jinx next Monday night.
Your not saying the result was his fault but the only person you mention was AB was appalling!! Then on another thread Peter said the defence were superb first half and you agreed with him on that. Hobbs and chezzy played in those games too. I've seen the goals. I could writ mcshane what a disgrace never play him again for losing Zaha for the fourth goal drop him he's **** or he got done by a good player.
I nearly posted a similar article but with a different twist... 10 goals in 3 games yes. But look at the situations in all of them. 3 at Bolton inside a crazy ten minutes won't happen again, 2 against Birmingham who we'd already smashed and had started to relax against and 3 of tonight's were from Phillips who is always popping up with hat tricks in this league. We're scoring more regularly than ever at the moment too but nobody's mentioned that. We've scored 9 in 3 games which is the most this season by far as well... The defence will become tight again and we'll continue to keep scoring. Bruce just needs to make sure the heads don't drop and I think he'll be fine in doing that.
He was the worst player on the field IMO but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm blaming the result on him does it? Jesus Christ, it's not like I came on and said, "IT'S ALEX BRUCE'S FAULT THAT WE LOST 4-1, EVERY GOAL WAS HIS FAULT AND HE SHOULD NEVER PLAY FOOTBALL AGAIN". I was simply saying that he wasn't the right player to play against Glenn Murray, and the majority of the people around me agreed. I'll mention some other players if you want? Meyler should have done more nitty-gritty work, Elmo was kept relatively quiet and Stockdale, apart from the penalty save, looked a bit shakey. If you look at what I posted on the other thread, the defence seemed to appear and disappear throughout the game. There were periods that they were superd and then there were moments were they just looked a shambles.
9 in 3 but lost 2 out of 3.. in my opinion can't discount then as freak ten minutes and philips being a hitman
