This international break couldn't come quicker for us. Bruce needs to reevaluate his tactics; his stubbornness is pissing me off. He's a good manager, but he rarely switches things up and I don't think he has a Plan B. Some of our players need to take a look at themselves as well, because today was f**ing dire. It isn't one or the other; Bruce and the players need to take responsibility for this slump.
A defeat at Burnley was as predictable as Christmas Day falling on the 25th of December. They had no wins in 10, we are the most charitable cause when it comes to giving **** teams a leg up, especially when they are teams from Lancashire beginning with a B. i don't think we have played at all well this season, our form over the past 15 games of just 2 wins illustrates that. We're a team in the ****, and we've spent a fortune making good players look ****.
We switched from 3 at the back in the 59th minute mate. That was plenty of time for the team to get its act together. He went with a formation thats served us well. He also allowed the first to subs time to make an impact before altering it. I'll say Bruce made a mistake in playing Aluko. I really cant fathom that one at all. But to me the players let the manager down.
Game was lost in midfield - Huddlestone and Livermore were passengers - Diame tried hard but kept running into trouble - Brady and Elmo must have been under orders not to charge into the last third because they were constantly stopping and holding play back - which meant the front two were totally isolated - **** tactic and **** centre of midfield - Livermore ( how much money did we waste on him - unbelievable) and Hudd need to warm the bench until they learn to pass quicker and start to create something - Meyler certainly isn't the answer so I'd give Quinny a longer run - at least hes capable of making something happen always gives 100pc - cant understand why we loaned out Ince - he should start as soon as we get him back, hes certainly a better option than the ex Spurs duo
God forbid that those dropped points v. Stoke, WHU, Newcastle and Arsenal come back to bite us in the arris... I don't want to go all Carpet Burns/Peter Swannish but something against Spurs (h), WBA (h), Swansea (h), Sund (a) and Lester (h) is a must because I can't see much return from Man Utd, Everton, Chelsea
I think you have that the wrong way around, have you seen Brady cross a ball lately? He never beats the first defender, failing that he passes square or backwards. Brady is now a better left back than left winger, and Robbo is definitely a better left winger than left back. Just saying.
Brady's crossing has never particularly been his strongest area. He likes to run at/behind players, cause problems pulling defenders about and get in scoring positions. Playing as a wing back doesn't really let him do any of that, as he is the only one offering what little width we have in a back 5 he has to stay wide, when he gets the ball he's never one on one with the full back or centre half, he's always got the winger, full back and maybe a covering central midfielder/defender to deal with. It worked well in the promotion season because Quinn would pull out wide allowing Brady to cut in, and they linked up excellently. We don't play like that anymore the central midfielders all stay central, they don't even support the forwards never mind the wide men, leaving the wing backs to play the flanks alone, and all they can really do (probably what they're told to do) is get within 20 yards of the byline and cross to the smallest attacker they can see. And as I already said, that's not really Brady's game. I'd like to see Bruce let the shackles off this team a bit, there's some real attacking talent in the squad, let them use it. It'd be nice to see some balls played behind the defence or Diame making runs beyond the striker or late onto the end of crosses. Something it feels like we haven't seen in years.
Agreed, so why is Brady still holding down the position of left wingback whilst Robbo doesn't appear to be able to get on the pitch, even from the bench now? It's now over 24 hours since that debacle on Saturday so this in no way is a knee jerk reaction, I just cannot for the life of me understand why Aluko started in place of HBA or why, after he'd obviously not been deemed worthy of a starting place, only God and SB knows why, that Robbo wasn't brought on in the first half as it was blatantly obvious that we needed an outlet?
You have to go back to Barnsley away in 2013 for something that bad. Best we move on and forget Burnley happened. SB on the other hand now has a great new stick to beat the players with.
I actually meant that I'd have played Brady instead of Aluko in and around Hernandez, as I think he'd have caused their back line more problems.
We showed some fight in the latter stages, there's been worse. Villa away at the end of last season was as bad as you'll ever see. Worse than Saturday.
I think SB thought he could rest some of our more influential players, as Burnley are hardly a top team. This of course was the wrong thing to do, as he should've started A-Bob and Ben Arfa. None of the other teams underestimated Burnley and we treated more like a cup tie. I think we'll pick it up against Spurs, we couldn't possibly play any worse than we did on Saturday.
