A conidence boosting win. I thought this had banana skin written all over it. Credit to Doncaster, the second half they were great. Which leads me nicely to my first point. Why could we not continue where the first half left off? My secod question is playing Stafylidis in midfield? What the hell was that all about? The first half was terrific, Ruiz scored a great team goal and you know what I'm pleased for the guy. There are still issues to work on (giving the ball away cheaply) but I hope he continues to play well and Kit is playing him centrally and not on the wing. Finally. Final mention to Bettinelli. I think he has to play ahead of tracksuit bottoms.
You have to eonder if Stafylidis looks like Xavi in training, because Kit evidently thinks he can play in midfield as well as Magath in spite of the evidence from actual matches. It's like Richardson in reverse. Of course it does highlight the incompetency of Magath in failing to address our midfield depth. Overall though, it was a decent win. I don't want many changes for the weekend, lets build up some consistency.
Without going into to much detail, there was nothing to impress, Bettenelli great penalty save but still concerned about his indecisive positional play, Ruiz another good performance, but as Cottager said resorting to lack of directness by playing crab like. We will see how we are progressing when we come up against competition in our own league, so table wise its onwards and upwards.
I can't say I've seen Staf play in midfield this season, but I remember in the Ipswich game he looked better going forward than he did actually defending. All I've heard here is that "he's no good in midfield". Not that I doubt anyone, but can anyone fill me in as to why, exactly? Do we have a better option for left wing? In any case Gentleman Jim and Sean Davis said much the same as you chaps, looked great the first half, foot very much off the pedal in the 2nd half. Lots to build on, for sure.
On the first question; always looking over his shoulder, doesn't read the game, doesn't make any forward runs with the ball, can't pass for toffee. On the second; as surly said the Magath legacy has left us us a tad bereft in that position. Although it's difficult to respond fully because we've seen so little of Eisfeld and Chihi who, on paper at least, could do a job there.
Am I right in thinking that we can recall Kacaniklic, but not until January? It seems that he'd be a good option to have right now.
He left us without wingers... Dejagah and Richardson would have torn apart all the teams we have faced so far... And I believe with decent crosses Mitroglou would have come good.
Dan has been captain every time Scotty Parker hasnât been on the field. The first time was against Brentford under Felix. Last night there was a lot of encouragement and clapping of hands from him but Iâm not really convinced - leadership is an awful lot more than simply geeing players up. Take one example from last nightâs match: The situation In the first half (our good half by the by) Doncaster had a corner on the right. Bettinellli was stood two feet from his right hand post with one of their players on him and two of ours hustling around; Bryan was standing entirely on his own just to the right of the penalty spot; everyone else (from both sides) was jostling, in a bunch, along the line of the penalty box, on the right hand side. The ball was slung over beyond the âjostling bunchâ who were now running in in unison, except for one Doncaster player who peeled off towards our left side. None of ours picked him up, we had nobody on the goalpost left side. All the Doncaster player needed was any kind of connection to score. Fortunately he didnât. Honestly he had more space than the cosmos and the unprotected area of our goal was .. well just unbelievable. And this wasnât the only instance. We were badly organised at just about every corner and free kick around our own box. Now Iâm not saying all of that is down to Dan. Obviously it isnât. The coaches need to stand up and be counted. But heâs meant to be the boss on the field and a true leader having seen a weakness that the opposition were exploiting would start issuing orders. Sorry, but Dan was oblivious to the occurrences never mind sorting them out.
C58 you are right, the line was all over the place too... Think there is a lot of work to be done by the coaches but these are young professionals, graduates if you wish, that need nurturing. I would love to have Hughes next to Burn or someone of that calibre. Parker is doing that in the midfield and McC up front some times. A right footed CB might be the answer, unless Bodurov steps up but not sure his english or ability are at this level.
