So long as they get used. Our central midfield today was piss poor, weren't in the game at all. Clucas is effective in the left wing why move him? Diame is a central midfielder, yes he may have more licence to venture forwards from the wing to do his stuff but he's better centrally. He's not a lightweight number 10 who's all playing the ball and not a lot else, Diame runs around and tracks back and gets stuck in too so absolutely no reason not to play him in the middle. Our other two central midfielders were on the bench, Meyler especially should have been thrown into such a scrap at half time, he would have revelled in a game like that, right up his street. Hayden was poor again, I don't know why he wasn't sent back in January. I wasn't at the Leicester game but I've seen all his other appearances and he hasn't looked convincing at all. He's not our player, why bother weakening our side to keep him happy and help him develop? Meyler and Tom for me and throw Diame back up behind Hernandez, both out of form but we've no one better and those two work well together. If we're going to make a serious push to hit the top of the league we need those pair back on song sooner rather than later, that ain't gonna happen when one of thems on the bench.
I thought you said Clucas wasn't up to it last week? You are right about Diame and Hernandez though that's for sure, if they don't produce play-offs at best maybe not even that
I thought he was ****e against Brum and I dont think he's half as good as some make out but he has been effective at times down the left wing and now with Maloney out there's no one to replace him.
Just read the post match interview by Bruce... "We never moved the ball quick enough in the first half" ... Honestly, I dont know how many times he's said that when we dont win. Surely this is something we can work on in training, either change the formation to suit or change the players.
One of those games where the passing was slow and inaccurate, the ball control sloppy. The ball was being passed bouncing or at kneelevel sometimes, not a lot of movement off the ball. What;s going on with Elmo? It's like he wants to show Odders up by not helping him out, passing it to him etc
Absolutely no point in playing 4 at the back when the opposition rarely puts 1 striker anywhere near our goal; surely has to be 3-5-2? Greegsy Harry, Daws, Curtis, Odubajo, Huddlestone, Meyler, Hayden, Robbo Diame, Abel. No Clucas for me!
This is bad news, any loss in revenue will be charged to home fans. Look forward to £70 tickets when Manchester visit.
Same old, same old! If he can't sort it by now with 3/4's of the season gone, draw your own conclusions
Assuming Livermore, Powell and Snodgrass are still out, I agree. Clucas probably in place of Hayden though. Huddlestone in the middle, Meyler right, Clucas left (obviously!?). Still wrong position for Diame but probably best selections out of a bad job given Diamonde appears a(nother) total waste of time & money, and Akpom aint doing it either. Harsh on Aluko as at least he's given it a go when he's been given his cameo role, but remains an option from the bench.
Some may see it as harsh on Aluko as he's done okay when he's come on. That said he's been brought on to either create a chance or score a goal and I don't recollect him doing that at all, so in that sense it's not harsh. He's not delivered the goods!
For me when Myler was playing well and we went on that good run our best midfield was clucas, Myler, Livermore and Snodgrass now it looks likely for at least this week we have lost two of these and the other is out of form, what an unbelievable week to lose Five ( Snodgrass, Talyor , Maloney, Powell and Livermore) all in training
Sooner Meyler gets a game and gets his error against Arsenal out his system the better. Certainly if we are still short in midfield come Friday, Meyler starts for me
4 at the back against the likes of MK Dons could easily have been 2 at the back in reality though, particularly with our full backs. It seems more a reticence to really press the opposition high up the pitch to get straight into them, particularly in the 1st 20 minutes of home games. Having 3 centre-halves in a 352 basically means having 3 lumps permanently marking 1 striker, and apart from increasing the threat at set pieces, basically means sacrificing 1 potentially attack minded player for a centre-half.
Ironic how many teams get sudden injuries when the team is going through a rough patch. Not saying it's all a ploy or any players are feigning injury,but it rarely seems to happen when the team is winning every week,or does it ?
I don't disagree, that said it's a while since Curtis or Harry had the chance to run out of defence with the ball, something they are both well capable of. I would only have Daws 'sitting in there' for 90 mins
Agreed. Another of his clichés. Yesterday we did our usual slow passing build up which is fine except we're really not very good at it. How many times does a simple pass to the full back end up going into touch?
