Totally disagree with your reasoning. You don't get within minutes of the last 16 of a major European competition and THEN start thinking of Premier League survival. Monk made the substitution in an effort to WIN the game and he made the WRONG decision. Simples. The kudos we would have received from dumping a club the size of Napoli out of the cup would have been huge. It would have raised our profile even higher and made quality signings for next season a much easier proposition..... not to mention the massive boost in confidence and morale it would have given the players for the Premier League run in. Monk has done well in raising the team's spirit, so credit to him for that but he is fallible just like any other manager and will make mistakes just like any other manager. He made a big mistake last night and put us on the back foot when the team formation and shape was doing just fine.
My comment was in reference to the starting XI, with Britton, Rangel, Dyer, all being rested for the palace game, and it's my view why he played Taylor and not Rangel which the game was crying out for, it's why I said what I said, I don't think that Monk made a mistake at all, it's simply that he viewed the Palace game more important, why else would he take off Routledge also? Under normal circumstances Rangel would have come on not Taylor, but I thought taking off Emnes was a mistake.
I was referring to the team setup as a whole, agree on the substitution though, but then he did the same at Everton, that game could have been won in my view, with Bony coming on for 30 or 40 minutes, but instead we had Lita, who we have been trying to offload? Rangel again could have made the difference with Dyer, but instead we got Taylor, I do not think that Monk is that stupid, it's my view we are only concerned now with PL survival, call it a gut feeling, but if he really wanted to have won that game, where was Britton?
I think Emnes had to come off as he was shattered. He didn't play a great deal for Boro before his move to us so I think he is struggling to play 90 minutes at present. But he certainly didn't look out of place yesterday.
Wasn't Britton injured? The team did well at Everton and I have said, like you, that the substitution was flawed. Against Napoli, I also disagreed with the substitution but if he had to bring on Taylor it should have been the other way round. Taylor, the better defender should have dropped in at LB with Ben, the better attacker, playing further forward. Just my opinion.
I agree he didn't look out of place, and I would have kept him on, unless of course he is not fit for a full 90 minutes yet, which would explain things, I like the look of Emnes, always have and hope we can keep him here, he can only improve with us, I also heard he's very happy being back here..........
We all have opinions even monk but the only time we moan is if we lose, the same fans would be saying it was the right decision if we had held on. I think its a blessing in disguise as monk will be able to concentrate fully on the premiership instead of worrying about how he is going to juggle the players around to fit in playing porto in the next round, Im disappointed as the next fan we lost but im also relieved at the same time because staying in the premiership is far more important to us at this time. Its like i posted in another thread that the signs are there that if we survive we can make sure we will be better organised for next season to make a challenge for a European place where hopefully we wont be short on players that has been our problem this season...
I don't think so, he's just being rested Ivor, the only reasoning behind some of these obvious poor substitutions can be PL survival in my view, I don't think Monk is really that stupid with subs, I see Britton in the line up for Palace: Provisional squad: Vorm, Amat, Taylor, Flores, Williams, Britton, Bony, Hernandez, Dyer, Cornell, Lamah, Routledge, Tiendalli, De Guzman, Canas, Rangel, Pozuelo, Tremmel, Vazquez, Richards, Ngog, Emnes. MICHU though is beginning to concern me, he not in the squad list again, something is definitely not right here, and I do not mean his ankle, I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever see him again?
Maybe someone on here has some news or info, sure would love to see him back, but I've not seen him with the boys on the club video's or seen him at Landore when I went down the other week!...............
