First of all, congratulations to Hull for a very hard earned victory this afternoon. Never easy to get that all-important first win on the board and to do it with 10 men must be pleasing. The game hinged on a dubious, no, incorrect penalty call. For the opening 20 minutes or so we were largely in control of the match and playing fairly well but the penalty altered the game completely and we became more and more ragged as the home side had something to protect, which they did very well. The red card (still not seen it so no idea if it was the correct call but given the ref was useless throughout I wouldn't be surprised if it was wrong) made matters even worse for us as it meant Hull's game plan adjusted to all-out defence. We struggle to break teams down when they leave holes across the pitch so playing a ten-man defence was always likely to show up our weaknesses even more. But we did not lose this game because of the referee - we should still have won the game, simple as that. Let's not dress it up, we were truly terrible in possession, an absolute horror show, and rarely threatened the impeccable Davies and Chester. RvW did everything he could, his movement was again excellent but whenever he made the right run he was not picked out. It's very frustrating because we have a very talented centre forward at our disposal and our midfield aren't clever enough (at the moment) to play him in. There's lot's of goals in this team, unquestionably. Our midfield was a real problem last season and still was today as we still lack the creativity required to break down teams that defend in numbers, ie the teams who will be in the bottom third of the table. Where we failed today was our inability to find teammates when in good (or even mediocre) positions and our decision making throughout the midfield in particular was abysmal. Tettey and Garrido for me were utterly hopeless throughout but it is perhaps unfair to solely pick on those two as they weren't the only ones at fault. I know he'll probably get a lot of stick but I really can't lay much blame at Hughton's door. I do think he set us up with a slightly poor balance but that was due to injuries and fitness issues to the likes of Snodgrass and Olsson, otherwise I think we'd have set up with those two from the start. I'm not sure how he could have set us up any differently. He made the right substitutions at the right times - the poor performance and result were down to the personnel on the pitch failing to deliver. Still, we're only two games in and when was the last time we started a season well? Not done us too much harm in the past and no matter how much we improve throughout the season, we will still be susceptible to being ground to a halt by teams who we should probably beat - no offence to Hull but even on our showing today, I am very, very confident we will finish much higher in the table than they do. Plenty of work to be done and I'd have the boys back at Colney first thing tomorrow morning if I were the boss. My team for Saints next week: Ruddy Whittaker R Bennett Bassong (please be fit!) Olsson Snodgrass Fer Johnson Redmond Howson Van Wolfswinkel
We will play a lot worse, and get a win... We will play a lot better, and get nothing... Todays game was poor, yes! But the team was so out of shape from normal and missing 2 or 3 key players still Im not atall surprised with what happened today. Ruddy Whittaker Bennett Bassong Olsson Snodgrass Fer Johnson Redmond Howson RvW All players who were not completely fit, played out of position or were missing today for one reason or another, but this shows how far we are still off knowing what CH vision is going to turn out like.... Hopefully our team will be close to this next Saturday and then we will have more of an idea of where were heading.
Great to have some perspective and balance. It amazes me that some people never learn. [Ooh look, no smiley]
I know mine would. I don't care if it's a deep-lying playmaker, someone more like Hoolahan, anything! The only central midfielder of ours to come out of today with any credit (for me) was Howson, but even he was guilty of trying shots when a pass was an infinitely better option. With the exception of Hoolahan, all our central midfielders offer is runs forward and/or tough tackling. Where's the guile and creativity?
Am I correct in saying that Fer played behind Rvw today and howson rw? Odd. I thought Fer was more a box to box midfielder not an acm in the hole?
If my stream was accurate, we went 4-4-1-1 to begin with: Howson-Johnson-Tettey-Redmond ---------Fer-------------------- ------------RvW---------------- And I agree, I thought Fer was a player more in the style of Tettey, good at sitting deep and winning possession, the breaking forward at pace. I said after the Sociedad game that I thought Fer was only being pushed further up the pitch to act as a pseudo-target man, but to be fair, we were generally a lot better at playing out from the back today, so that physical presence wasn't needed. I'm hoping that when setting us up, it was a case of "needs must" and Howson was pushed wide and Fer forward because they were the best options in those positions, even if it isn't their normal game. I'd much rather see Johnson and Fer sitting with Howson ahead of them in the middle. I guess it's still too early to really judge how Hughton would ideally set up our midfield.
At the press conference when Fer signed, CH said quite explicitly that he was looking forward to working with Fer and finding out what he was capable of. In other words, "I know he can play DM, and I know he considers Yaya Toure his role model, but I'm not going to pigeonhole him from the start. I'm going to let him try things and see what he can do". Good management of a young and promising player. Same with RvW. My feeling is that when things settle down we will see Fer at DM, with Howson at CAM. I still think we need an old head somewhere in midfield. If we'd had someone there today he would have told everyone to calm down and stop making suicide passes.
Thanks DH I agree there is an element of not knowing our Best set up in the middle so far Vs saints, i wouldn't mind going 2 up front as you know saints are going to attack us and they Play 4-3-3 often Edit, Robbie makes a good point about the age of our midfielders
*cough* Fox *cough* But more seriously, we did miss someone who could help spread play about, stretch their 10 men, and make probing passes.
Leroy Fer was played way out of his comfort zone today, shame for his debut as it gives all the fans who haven't really got a Scooby about him to have a bone to chew with him now! He is and will be a terrific player but we have to play him aswell as others in there best positions and I said above it happens to often when there not! Strange how Tettey looked off today alongside Johnson yet when he plays alongside Fer in the middle he seemed a different player.
Maybe he'll get another chance on Tuesday. But if he does he really needs to grab it with both hands this time; he's had several chances and failed to really take them.
Just been watching sampdoria v juve on bt sport, if we had someone half as good as Andre Pirlo we would be ok We don't have anyone (haven't seen enough of Fer) who can do that bar fox but he's not a hughton purchase
Perhaps Fer can be our "midfield Bassong" in that he seems to drag better performances out of whoever plays alongside him? Apparently Tettey had a 89% pass success rate, so he didn't lose possession as much as others, but neither did he do a lot with it. Which leads me onto Fox, perhaps with the strength and power of Fer alongside him, we could afford the relative luxury of Fox? Definitely. I do hope he plays, absolutely bosses the midfield and shows Hughton that he can still be valuable to the first team. More likely is a scrappy game where he fails to make any impression, and we either lose or win unconvincingly.
A display today as bad as colchester, fulham and Luton. It seemed that once they went down to 10 we had no idea what to do, suddenly the impetus was on us to take the game to them and away from home we dont do that. The slowness that we move the ball around the pitch is unbelievable at times, against 10 men you should be making the ball do the work, pass and move, tire the opposition out. We failed to create anything of significance in 70 minutes against 10 men. Unacceptable performance.
He is and was today especially pure class. Keeping him fit and interested seems to be another problem though.
Decisions mean **** all to me at the moment! Those players players on that pitch today took the ****ing piss! Apart from the midfield being unable to pass, shoot or retain the ball, the fact that RVW isn't 7ft tall hasn't hit home yet, so perhaps playing the ball to people's feet might help!
