welcome cherry jck ...didn't see you here last week ....wonder why ? ....ah , maybe you were afraid of losing hey , but hey ho your here now , hindsight is a wonderful thing ... but bottle ??? ......................You have none it seems xx
Still incredibly tight in the bottom half of the table so don't lose the faith just yet - still think you'll be okay! Fulham seem doomed but them apart it's any two from nine - and we're not out of the woods yet. And credit to the Cardiff posters for being gracious in defeat, just hope we can be as gracious in victory. Still plenty of points to play for and think there will be many twists and turns before the end of the season.
I started the thread so I'll come back onto it now after that shambolic display. Forget the subject of Whitts about which it was posted, thisn is far more serious than one player. If Ole's judgement is assessed on that team selection in general he is going to condemn us to the drop even if it was likely before he arrived. I've had a quick read through this this morning and if we take out the inter-club posts as just being normal stuff, the non-biased comments from the City fans are spot on. Starting Noone as well as Zaha would have been brave, but the inclusion of Kim and the absence of Mutch was baffling. Another thing - Fabio. Who the hell ever thought he was a full back? He was piss poor against Norwich and totally useless at the art yesterday. The guy just cannot defend FFS! Having to change your right back other than for injury severeley hampers any change in strategy needed during a game. Ole got it completely wrong from the kick off, and the one for one swap of Fraizer for Jones was a limp response to say the least. Mutch came on far too late and for the wrong guy - Kim was very poor. He looked off the pace and got caught with the ball far too often, something we rarely saw last season. Take nothing away from Swansea who exploited our weakness and took us apart that second half, but those weaknesses were built in at kick off time and "Ole's Judgement" has taken a severe blow. If he doesn't get to grips with it and get results in the next two against Villa and Hull, we're down.
Correct. That is what im saying. I think a League 2 side could take us apart at the moment. Ole has somehow made a poor side much much worse.
Sparky we are going down. Ole should be given to the end of season to at least show he can turn things around next season. If the performances and results match the level of yesterday then we should appoint a proven Championship manager. Neil Warnock is available. I also think Pulis would leave Palace. Ole taking us down shouldnt mean he loses his job. But he cant keep making selections like yesterday.
Hilts - I know it looks that way after what we've just seen, but a couple of wins can turn the table positions around quite a bit. The worrying thing is that we're becoming detached from the pack and playing catch up is no easy task, especially in this division. It needs to change against Villa and Hull. If we don't get 6 points, I'll agree we're getting close to the point of no return. I don't want to have get the slide rule out with half a dozen games left and start working out the possibilities of a mathematical escape.
Absolutely no positives, the 2nd half was as poor as we've been this season and we've had a couple of shockers already. I know it's a cliche but goals change games and conceding 1 minute after half time was a disaster. Fabios position and decision making were poor (he should have chased back not tried to cut the ball out) but hernadez was able to pick that pass because Witts is stood stationery 5 yards from him offering no pressure. You can't do that in the PL, players are too good, if you stand off they hurt you. He's not a centre mid and poor medel is having to do world record amounts of running to try and cover him. I will say I thought Witts was ok for about 30-40 minutes but we need a lot more than that. The other 2 goals I've got to look at Turner. 2nd he gets under the ball 3 rd he totally loses bony. Add Turner getting skinned 3 or 4 times in the game and I expect cala to start on Tuesday. Lets all pray he's a lot better. I know turned would not get 12 odd games for Seville so be should be an improvement. I know we lack enough of a goal threat but until we stop concede 2 a game we're goin down. We need a harder working midfield 2/3 and better cb's. how we've managed to buy 3 rb's this season and still don't have one to do a job is ****ing mental. For villa I'd play Marshall (Any of our **** rb's) caulker cala John Daehli Medel Mutch noone Zaha Kwj I'm basing that on Bellers struggling to back to back games in 3 days and Zaha being in the most dangerous position I could play him in. I'd basically tell him to play where he wants in a totally free role. Mutch would have to play a disciplined role but he's more than capable. Daehli may seem a risk but I feel like we're at that stage where 'safe old what we know' really isn't doing the job.
I'm not convinced by Zaha yet. Will he turn out to be one of those players who can look good in the comfort of home games and a waste of a place in away matches?
It's like watching some bad play where the characters keep forgetting their lines. Team selection and setup were poor, so bad, it's hard to think that Ole actually knows what setup we should play and is hoping that the mix he puts out will somehow clic. Playing FC upfront as the lone striker has never worked to date, so how Ole can think that bringing him on for Jones would be a good idea is beyond me. Noone on the bench? yes, good idea, we can't have him on tearing up the wing can we! And what about the wonder kid Daelhi, are we going to see him play again, certainly could have done with a bit of flair yesterday. The only good move yesterday was getting Fabio off and bringing our Kev on, too late of course. Why do other teams have players that pass and run into space, while ours pass and stand there waiting for the return, was happening a lot yesterday, enables the other side to close us down too much. Jesus, there was so much wrong with yesterday it would take pages to write about it all. I don't know what Ole is trying to do, and I don't expect it all to come together right away, but this is such a disjointed team it almost seems we are planning for relagation with a view to a quick return.
Just watched the 2nd goal on Sky, I was harsh on Turner. Bony's run took him under the ball. It was John who failed to attack the ball. They've also just agreed that Fabio is only 50% of the blame with wits making it way too easy for the pass to be played for the first goal.
Strange that, why sub a player after 38 minutes in one game, only to play him for 90 in the next game, that doesn't make any sense.
Only saw the goals yesterday at the time, but always thought it was Declan's failure to attack that crossed ball that allowed Dyer a free header for their second. Bony's third was a superb example of how to attack a crossed ball in a vulnerable area. He left Turner for dead and buried it. As for their first goal, and despite the criticism of Whitts (justified), it was explanation of why Fabio never made it at Man U. The guy has no defensive positional awareness - OK going forward and can look dangerous, but that should be just a bonus to the reason he's played, and that's to cut out danger from that side. He cannot defend and will cost us more goals from the right. To be honest, KTC is much in the same mould. Difficult to have to say it since I was against ever playing McNuggs a few months back after some dreadful stuff, but he is the best we have at RB at the moment and should figure against Villa.
He's only any good when we are being bombarded. In open play he looks far too cumbersome. The introduction of cala who I'm assuming will be comfortable on the ball will give teams a problem. Right now they mark Caulker and let turner have the ball. Everyone knows, it works and it'll continue to stop us playing from the back until we have someone better in possession.
I agree fabio was at fault but Hernandez is top class, give him time and space and he'll find the gaps. It's not just wits though. We aren't nasty enough, we don't foul people enough, we don't get a foot in often enough. We stand in spaces and let teams play,wits is the biggest problem when he's in cm but its a team wide problem with a couple of exceptions.
Imo McNaughton has played really well this season (by our standard anyway), he should be our first choice RB. Swansea's first goal was exactly the same as Norwich's goal, where Fabio wasn't following the runner. I think if we're going to play Whitts, it needs to be in a more attacking role with fewer defensive responsibilities, because he isn't fast enough to close down space. Although he did get stuck in a few times which looked like the whittingham from early last season. Mutch and Noone should be the first 2 names on the sheet for our attacking positions. I thought they were going to be super subs for us yesterday, under some master plan by Ole, which didn't happen. The only real selection dilemma Ole has is how to put Campbell in the team. We need someone big and strong like Jones, but we also need a poacher like Campbell without sacrificing numbers in midfield. As for the tactics; well we've looked completely lost under Ole so far. None of the players seem to know where they are meant to be positioned at different phases of play and nobody is supporting the players like Zaha and Noone who are trying to push the ball further up the field. We don't even look like a team. Obviously I'm no manager; but I think Ole needs to run through a match step by step and tell the players where they need to be during different situations. Go back to basics, because the players don't seem to understand what Ole wants them to do. I don't mean for this post to sound so negative, but the last 2 games (mainly) have been a shambles. Ole needs to get them playing as a team ASAP.
