Hard for Henry to fail in your eyes as the expectations are set so low. If it works so well then why have we created so few chances?
I'm glad he's comfortable on the ball, but he got into trouble/ran down blind alleys a lot yesterday, particularly in the first half. There were occasions he'd be in our own half, surrounded by two big players, and still screaming for the ball! He needs a bit more positional awareness, and needs to find space to make himself a good passing option- to make his teammates job easier.
I don't know if it was just me but the way Carroll went looking for the ball and moved around reminded me of a younger version of Don Masson, they seem to be from the same mould......his positional awareness will develope as he gets used to the players around him....... All in all i think his time with us will benefit both parties....
Masson's a bit before my time, i'll have to take your word on that one! In the U21s game Vs Moldova I saw, he was brilliant. I think the thing with him is he always wants the ball, regardless of where he's positioned. That then puts all the onus on the man in possession to decide whether Carroll is a good option, and often there isn't the time to do that in the maelstrom of the championship. Carroll should be "filtering out" those poor positions by not calling for the ball whilst he's in them, rather than leaving the passer to do all the filtering. There were times at the weekend where he genuinely was in a good position to be passed to, but was overlooked- almost as if he'd "cried wolf" one too many times. I'm sure the understanding will come with time though, he's only been with us since Thursday!
Well obviously it doesn't matter whether Joey is any good on the pitch or the personification of sportsmanship as long as he wears the right laces: http://www.heatworld.com/Celeb-News/2013/09/Joey-Barton-stops-punching-people-for-a-moment-to-support-gay-footballers-Well-done-Joey-Barton/
I thought you'd emerge before we played Brighton! Any other Queens coming up from Brighton for the game?
I am one of the people who didn't want him back but I accept that he's back now and I want him to do well for us, not for his own sake but ours. And he wasn't that good on Saturday. O'Neill deserves a lot of praise for that game but he won't get it because he doesn't make a scene and he's not a big character. BUT! Barton has been very good this season so far. On Saturday he was average but apart from that game he's always been a contender for man of the match. He is a good player and can change a game. He's allowed to have an average game every now and them. He'll be an important player for us this season. Yet I still think there's room for a partnership with Faurlin. I'm not sure if having Henry and Barton on the field at the same time is a good idea. I see Barton and Henry as replacements/backups for each other. We still need that bit of creativity that Faurlin can deliver if he's getting regular games. I don't think Tom Caroll is ready yet.
I don't always agree with you, but that's an excellent post. My lad is in a Southern League youth team and thankfully, he is encouraged to receive the ball under pressure, give it and get it again. Carroll has been coached to keep on demanding the ball..............drummed into him. It's a good thing imo!!
We weren’t just lucky on Saturday. We were lucky to win every game that we have won this season in which Henry played. We could quite easily have lost every single one of those games this season. We definitely haven’t “grabbed anything by the throat” this season!! We’ve just snuck by. We have been massively fortunate to pick up the points we have this season. With games being as tight as they have been we will start losing those games as our luck runs out. Something needs to change and with teams likely to play for a point at our place we need to look to ways of resolving this. BAE at left back will help but the alternative to Henry in the centre is one of O’Neil, Faurlin or Jenas alongside Barton. 3 good players and certainly not a drop in quality where we’re suddenly going to start conceding goals and score no more than we have done. Henry’s influence has been massively overplayed. His only genuinely good game was Leeds. Dropping him wont change that much!!!! BUT I think we will create more chances with him out of the side than in it and that is something we need to do. Weird how some have taken to him as the bar is set so low in terms of what we expect him to do. This is a player who has been relegated 2 years running. I’m convinced though eventually we’ll see in the emperor has no clothes style how limited he is. We’ve seen him play in 5 games in which we’ve been fortunate to win 4 of them so maybe that’s helped him. Wolves fans have seen him play for 5 years and they thought he was rubbish
Winning1-0, with little creativity, some times riding out luck might in some eyes seem to be a problem, but if at the end of the season we had won 46 games by 1-0, we'd be clear champions. What would you call all those 1-0 wins then? It doesn't matter how you win them, you just need to win. I'm pretty sure a lot of teams see us as the team to beat, therefore they raise their game and so it becomes a war of attrition, and sometimes not pretty, but so far we are coming out on top, thatis the stuff of champions. But so far it's too early to call it either way, we may yet struggle after a defeat it two. But don't forget, that apart from the first month or so in our promotion season, where we scored for fun, after that we struggled to put games away and were made to look very ordinary, but we were still the best team over 46 games and rightly deserved promotion, and if we continue as we are, 1-0's all the way, we will again deserve promotion.
Where were we after six games three seasons ago compared to now? I'd say its pretty much identical points and position wise, only with a lot more goals scored. It would be interesting if we could keep a progression table so we could compare our current position in the league to our position that season, every week.
Saturday was our worst performance of the season- worse than all the games Henry has been included in. He's been very solid, thus we shouldn't change him. I don't see the problem really, assuming this is our strongest team: simpson onouha dunne BAE Henry Barton M.Phillips Kranjcar Hoillet Austin That's still an incredibly attacking side- with two pacy wingbacks bombing forward Henry's role in the team with be absolutely crucial. His defensive mindedness facilitates the 4 players in front of him, 2 wingbacks, and Barton being more attacking.
If it's "luck" we are creating it. Sheer good fortune doesn't strike six league games in a row. But you are correct that we have just snuck by in all our games. We haven't looked much better than any of our opponents. I am dying for the game when there is daylight between us and the other side, and I am sure it will come. Irrespective of how Henry played for Wolves, he hasn't been the worst player in the team this season (which has to be Bobby "Always-selected" Zamora). He didn't play against Swindon in the cup, and we lost. He didn't play against Brum and we struggled. I think he has improved, and will continue to to so. And I hope he starts ahead of Carroll on Wednesday night.
Who is Henry Barton? As for Joey Barton as I have said before, even if he morphs into Messi, he'll still be a ****.
I must say that Henry has been improving but I don't know what extras he offers us. We're needing that little extra at the moment.
