Well, that must be the quietest London derby I've ever attended and certainly one of the worst. Match of the Day probably won't bother showing any of it! Green - 6 - Usual dodgy kicking, which seems to be happening almost every game. Isla - 6 - Good on the ball and tried to get forward. Bad decision making. Dunne - 6 - Solid. A couple of dodgy looking moments. Caulker - 8 - His best game for us. Gets better and better imo. Hill - 6 - Tries his best. Hoilett - 5 - Attacks as often as possible, but as well documented, awful final ball. Often had 3 men on him though. Henry (MOTM) - 8 - Absolutely superb. Without his covering across the entire back 4 following us giving the ball away time and again, we would have lost by 2 or 3 imo. Barton - 2 - Absolutely ****-covered awfulness!! He managed a couple of decent passes and deliveries, but apart from that Joey simply gave them the ball over and over and over again. Very nearly cost us the game at the death by again..............giving the ****ing ball away. You are not Paul Scholes Joey!!!! Run around a lot and then PLAY IT SIMPLE FOR ****'S SAKE! Fer - 6 - Would have been a 5, but he had two very good efforts on goal, one of which that was kept out by an excellent save. OBZ - 5 - Very ineffective. Austin - 5 - Equally ineffective. Looked leaden footed and never seemed to anticipate anything. Subs: Vargas - 4 - Has totally lost all confidence it seems. Only at QPR! Phillips - 5 - At least tried to get down the flank, but produced nothing. There are one or two mitigating excuses for the ****e that we served up today. 2 games in 2 days is never easy and Charlie especially seemed to suffer. Playing 2 central midfield players against 3 is always going to make it very hard for limited players to create much in the middle. This probably leads Joey to think that he must try something....he just shouldn't! Trouble is, Charlie has benefited hugely from playing 4-4-2 and we would be right down the bottom of the league without his goals! Also, Fer looks likely to be our most creative player and is ineffective playing on the left. We can't really play him centrally though in a two man midfield as we'd be even more open. I can't really see a solution, as Charlie isn't suited to playing up top on his own, so we'll have to continue with the **** football at home and hope for the best. Even a tubby Taarabt, with a dodgy attitude and playing on one leg would have created more than any of our shower did today! Thank Christ Palace were just as bad! I'd definitely play 4-2-3-1 at home to Swansea, or else they will hammer us!
Good summary, Col, difficult to argue with any of that. Why can't Rob a Green kick a moving ball properly, he always seems to slice it to his right and into touch? We can't keep the ball, but that isn't helped by the constant high balls into Zamora or whatever, particularly as they're not delivered with any accuracy. I'd say we need at least one quick, mobile striker and three midfielders that can keep the ball and create stuff. Personally I'd listen to offers for: Traore, Hoilett, Mutch, Phillips and Barton. I agree with you on Caulker - he looks like he'll be a stalwart of our defence for years to come. Works hard and wants it.
I think your précis is very similar to mine Rangercol; I also had Karl 'Onree shading it from Stephen Caulker. Very harsh on Joey Barton - a 6 from me today. Too one dimensional today - wanting to play it long to OBZ was too predictable. We ran out of ideas when Lorey Fer and OBZ were substituted. It could have gone either way, and we improved in the second half; that said we could have lost it at the death. I suspect we got away with a foul or two in the melee on 93 minutes!
The biggest missing piece is someone who can consistently deliver quality passes, that was what that game was screaming out for. I know Barton is captain but he really needs to be dropped, his 1 in 20 ratio for good to bad set-pieces is so frustrating! I can see Austin leaving in the window if we don't improve in that area you could see how frustrated he was getting with the lack of quality service.
On what planet? Is there an alternative universe where atrocious distribution is a good thing. And he must have taken 20-30 set pieces today without any of them troubling Speroni. Shockingly poor.
Austin just looked tired today. I think he, and a few others maybe should have been rested against Arsenal. And now another game on Thursday, our squad isnt deep enough for these games so close together.
It doesn't matter how many strikers we bring in, if there's no-one to provide them with a service we won't score. We need an urgent injection of creativity or we'll finish at the bottom...
Perhaps a 5 - but no lower - especially if you take into account the other player ratings. Without Nico Kranjcar, every dead ball was left to Joey Barton. At one point Richard Dunne got him to change his mind and float a ball up. As I said at the time, he should have ignored the advice and backed himself. I've noticed that when Joey Barton makes a poor pass or gets his judgement wrong on the ball, he gets unduly criticised. The same is true of Leroy Fer and David Hoilett. Last year it was Thomas Carroll. But these players try things that others don't; have more of the ball and back themselves. Too easy to climb into them when things go wrong. Three or four times today Clint Hill cleared the ball out under no pressure and was caught out of position several times. On another day he would have seen red for his reckless challenge just before the break. Not many supporters are clambering to criticise, or for his return at left back to be questioned.
Agree with some... I however thought Fer had a good game - given he played him in the wrong position. I thought Isla also did ok today..... Barton hideous - but... in his defence we need someone in the middle who can disperse the ball - with Fer out wide - it is Barton's job in that position - even if he is **** at it... We overall lack pace and any creativity. I know - bring back Adel..... even as an impact sub..... howls from all of you And yes we need a pacy striker....... And a left back. Green kept up in the game at the end....
What a New Year's present that would be, to have a fit and firing Tarbs back in the team. Alas I fear its but a pipe dream fellas
Thanks Col I think the simplest explanation for much of what's gone wrong is the fact that our squad is terribly unbalanced. Harry bought players for a 352 but is now putting square pegs in round holes every week. Too many CBs not enough FBs Too many CMs not enough wingers Not enough forwards. Barton is neither s DCM or ACM. He's simply useless.
That was awful to watch, more like Sunday morning over scrubs, no creativity at all & didn't look like any team would score, won't bother watching highlights.
Pretty much rounds up our situation. Credit for not being stubborn and sticking to his plan, but has put us on the back foot this season and not sure how we are going to get out if it unless we turn around our away form and develop some creativity in the middle.
Good sum up Col, agree with that. Barton's set pieces were woeful today. So many potential opportunities wasted. What also annoyed me today was our constant lumping of the ball up to Zamora/Austin. They had no luck against their centre backs and we kept on doing it. When we did play it to feet we looked better. However, I really didn't agree with the booing at the end, they clearly tried, but just were not at the races today.
I'd tend to agree mate. Poor game from both sides... I'm an advocate of the 4 - 2 -3 -1 system though Charlie seem to need some support up there, still don't think we have found a system that works for us. Not a lot else to same after that game.
