Small plus we're still 4th, defensively we seem sound, just not going forward, although these stats suggest we are attacking, just giving the opposition too much opportunities at the end of games!
Only problem is Big Sam aside, I can't think of anyone else. This isn't good enough though Bruce should be able to get a tune out of these players.
We must be level or were level with several teams at that point after conceding, trust me I didn't make that up even if I am a bit senile
Still unbeaten at home. Still in the top 6. Still some players to come back into the mix whilst others are still looking for fitness. Yeah it's not clicking but we're hardly in the bottom three looking to go down. Brighton drew today too so it keeps everything as we were.
It's that immediate disappointment after again conceding a late equaliser! It just keeps happening, in the PL you could say ok, it's a point towards safety, but in the Championship it's not the same!
If we keep looking at it as, still unbeaten at home then we will eventually drift away, the lower sides need to be beaten, we need to start finishing these teams off, yes we're not Man City, Chelski etc, but we should be good enough for the majority of the teams in this division, maybe the top 7 or 8 teams should be causing us trouble but not the rest! This was at home as well!
I suggested that Pennock would make a good choice as assistant to a new more attack minded replacement for Bruce a few weeks ago but got shot down by some on here. He seems to know how to coach attacking football. The Bruce/Phelan team has been a dismal failure in that respect and their shut up shop defensive tactics when we hold a late lead has been disastrous. We now have the players for a more aggressive MF/Strike force. Lets use them!!
We were **** before that and fully deserved to be level. Blaming whoever made that mistake is distracting from the point. As a team we're just utterly ****e going forward. Blackburn are seriously average but they still created plenty by putting the odd decent ball in. We should be walking this league and routinely beating teams like Blackburn 2 or 3 nil.
Did I hear that right? Steve Bruce said early in his interview on RH 'going forward from back to front too quickly' was a problem. If that's the case Steve, tell your players to pass backward more often and play negative tippy, tappy football around the defence if it makes you feel more comfortable. Sorry, I forgot. That's what they do every week. Expect an away win next week at Forest. That's just the way it is.
I'm deadly serious when I say Tony Pennock. As you say he certainly has the U21's playing attacking linked up football, they certainly know where the back of the net is. He's done it at Swansea and is now repeating it here, it's time for him to step up, and I think he could. Move Bruce into a DOF role if needs be, and just tell Phelan to do one as he appears to have had absolutely no positive effect since he arrived, in fact I'd say we've gone backwards since his introduction.
Absolutely this ^ Bruce appears to have absolutely no idea how to get the eleven on the pitch to play fluid attacking football. We have a mostly PL squad that are struggling to put away below average Championship teams, and if that continues we're going nowhere fast.