some of our rivals look just as bad if not worse. West Ham in particular not only look ****ing awful but also like a dressing room turning / turned against the manager. Paolo Di Canio in? We can only hope.
Palace are still fooked, even with Pulis going in I reckon. They looked even less of a threat going forward than us yesterday, and if we'd played like we did in some of our recent games, we wouldn't all be miserable today. Palace won't play many, if any,teams as bad as we were yesterday and we have a reasonable cushion at the moment.
Palace's next 3 games are against other relegation battlers. But I didn't see anything yesterday to suggest that Pulis can turn them around.
It's interesting in the switch between 2 managers they are going from as far apart on the philosophy scale as it is possible to get. Have they got they players to suit Pulis? Gayle for example is about 3 ft 6 and 7 stone wringing wet.
From the Observer:- "this was a match of desperately low quality, throughout which neither side looked remotely as though they belonged in the Premier League. The question for Pulis, who has signed a two-and-a-half year contract and starts work on Monday, is whether there are three worse teams, and on the evidence of this match, Hull City may be one." It made those claims that this is our greatest ever team look somewhat premature and hollow. This was the City that lost at Wolves and Barnsley towards the end of last season. No threat up front, and second to every ball. Very worrying. This from Richard Rae, a reporter normally sympathetic to our cause. Make no mistake, it was a dreadful performance from us yesterday and a very damaging defeat. We would have been out of site of Palace for the season had we beaten them yesterday.
Not sure why the papers are crediting Pulis with that result yesterday. Unfortunately it was Bruce's tactics and team selection that had a bigger influence on the result.
Players have to take responsibility for yesterday as well and we can't go relying on others to be worse than us. It's a long season and if Palace pick up 5-7 points in their next 3 games they will fancy their chances - especially when Pulis brings in a load of thugs in January
Watching MOTD seeing the replay It was more obvious than at the game that Elmo just stood there watching Jerome go past him. He is useless at right back in this division, must play Rossy at right back.
West Ham do look poor but they have the financial clout to bring in a quality striker and they'll be fine. Especially when Carroll is fit too. Nrowich and Fulham seem to keep on losing too. I think we're competing with these teams.
What about the outstanding interception in the box to prevent them scoring immediately after Sagbo's one on one?
Fair point...that would have been a certain goal. Think they doubled up on Elmo when he got forward (as most teams do), and Brady wasn't much of a threat down the other side. Lot of players had a 'pretty ordinary' game yesterday with Thomas Huddlestone perhaps being quieter than most. There's nowt written in his contract or that of Koren to say they can't bang one in from 25 yards . Why don't they try that?
You've got to look at if teams are scoring enough We're not, neither are West Ham, Palace & Sunderland Norwich have Hooper, Stoke have Crouch & Walters Fulham have excellent players on paper but most of them don't 'fight' and close down the opposition. We will be in a relegation battle.
The Premier League has been odd this season so far, with most clubs having a short poor run and a short good run and pundits proclaiming pointless pap based on where they are in that sequence. We are typical of that. A few weeks ago we were a tidy little team who looked odds on for a mid table finish. Now we're nailed on relegation candidates. It'll change again. However what is patently obvious is that we need to look at the right hand side of the team and address the woeful performances upfront. Teams have worked out how we play Huddlestone too and are just crowding him, hence him moving too deep. These are all things that need to be dealt with on the training ground. Should be a busy week then.
We've had easy home games and difficult away games. Yesterday was on paper the easiest. SB needs to refocus some of his larkers in a one to one motivational chat this week.
I don't just think it is a lack of goal - we aren't creating enough chances. We had 5 or 6 players essentially 'hiding' once Palace had scored - camped out in Palace's box amongst their defenders, leaving Huddlestone and Livermore to do all the work of trying to inlock the defence on their own. Gedo noticed this and dropped deep to pick the ball up a couple of times, but that isn't enough from our attackers. We shouldn't go into hiding, we should be looking to help create and give options.
I agree with you, but he needs to do that consistently not make great challenges like that then lose his man, the best example is in the first half where he got the wrong side of his man and had to rugby tackle. He can do some great tackles but its when he forgets to track his marker and loses his concentration which he has done consistently all season. Going forward he was poor but he had two men on him, he needed someone to overlap him and Koren didn't do that once. The only time someone overlapped was when Figueroa and Boyd did it first half and it was our best spell. We need Rosie and Elmo one side and Brady and Fig the other, otherwise teams just double up on our full backs as Boyd and Koren are somewhere in the middle.
At various times yesterday we had a right winger at right back, a right back at left back, a left back at centre back, a centre midfielder at right wing, a forward at left wing, a left winger supporting a centre forward, a centre forward at right wing. No wonder Huddlestone couldn't find a pass he didn't know who was where.
We were always going to be in a relegation battle this season. Anyone who thought otherwise was deluding themselves. It takes a lot of luck as well as hard work and skill for a club to be promoted from the Championship and become established in the Premier League. I will be delighted to finish 17th this season.
Surely Gedo should be considered for a start against Liverpool? Graham and Prozzy aren't convincing, and I don't think Brady or Koren should be considered to be a striker again. Or we could bring Meyler back into the midfield and leave Sagbo as a lone striker.
