I'll not take instruction from you on my tone thanks "pal" Just think about what you said. You have criticised/suggested that the manager should have known not to play a big striker against a big CB. Ask yourself this: his would Oldson have coped if he'd had to defend crosses coming in from the byeline into the six yard box at pace, with a 6'5" striker booming in behind him? Do you really think Everton will not play Lukaku against WBA? Do you really think we shouldn't have played Lambert against them last year? What about Giroud for Arsenal against them? Your comment smacks of "wise after the event" Ps. Arsenal just rescued a point by bringing on a big striker against a big defender. Wonder if the Arsenal fans are bemoaning Wenger for not starting him.
I think Long would have done better centrally, I said this to the people sat next to me before kick off. Obviously you won't believe that but I don't really care. I understand you do not agree. You're being way too confrontational about it pal.
I'm with thattheresaintsfan. We literally played long ball hoofball the whole time when it was clearly never going to work. I took a lot of stick when I mentioned that lambert, Lallana and jrod ripped the league apart - but this is exactly what I alluded to. It's their movement, unity and creativity that we miss. We are a team of strangers, playing like a team of strangers. Hopefully it will click soon.
We have played two games...in one, we played well without getting any points and, in the second, we were defensively sound but didn't produce many chances. Too soon to extrapolate much this early in the season. My best guess is that we will concede few goals and our victories will be by one or two goals only.
That is an excellent example.....Rickie and Adam's understanding was forged over 5 years from the dark and distant days of League One and it is fair to say that Jay took a season to fully show his true worth to the team, remember the infamous "one goal" tag. It could well take half a season before things really start to click as it did in Alan Pardew's first season.
I said that to my dad on the way out. Won't be as exciting as last season but we'll probably eek out results.
Lambert, Lallana and Rodriguez hardly "ripped the league apart." Tadic has been as good or better than Lallana. Rodriguez is coming back. Lambert is not easy to replace, but Lambert wouldn't have been the same old Lambert for us this year either. Not saying the offense was good today, but isn't all of this a major over reaction to what was really just one kind of bad day against a good defense? They played well against Liverpool. So it's not even like it's been consistent over as small as two games.
Haha go back to that thread and you will see that I did. People told me that they "hardly ripped the league apart" an blah blah blah. Well in actual fact that type of instinctive passing and moving was worked on for 4 years between Lallana and lambert and will be tough to reproduce - which is exactly what I tried to point out before. Our crossing needs to improve dramatically if we stick to today's tactics - although Koeman says he is hoping for a lot more tempo next time out, so hopefully we will keep it down!
One thing I did notice in the first half is that JWP was offering himself for a short pass but was largely ignored in favour of a hike up toward Pelle. Although it was congested in the middle of the park I don't think we gave ourselves the opportunity to try and play through them. I was surprised when Long was left on the bench and I don't think Koeman will be making that mistake again
I meant all games not just away. And they were all far more exciting than the dross we just served up.
At home to bottom half sides like WBA we really need to be playing Pelle and Long together from the start. Thought Forster was our MOM today, defence played ok, going forward we were pretty clueless. How long before Gaston is back, we definitely need someone like him to give us an alternative to humping the ball up to Pelle. The West Ham match next week aint going to be one for the purist.
Davis out wide was a bit of a joke, highlights our need for a winger which Norman has admitted. Too early to worry after one poor performance.
