Small consolation to say I was expecting a bigger defeat than that. We just don`t look capable of knocking the ball around and the defence is being put under constant pressure by teams who can. Defoe looked lost, Ndong looked good.
He said it was a medical situation but he couldn't have made it any more obvious he was bullshitting. My wife suggested that maybe he was hungover or something along those lines and they only realised before the game. I don't buy it one little bit that there was an injury risk they only knew about before kick off.
Pienaar ran out of steam I think. Can we afford for Khazri to play his way back. Could take him a while. I agree he's better all round than Watmore. But Watmore's cameo was far better than his today. I'm going to keep looking at the positives. Ndong looked very good. Yellow card for nowt but good on the ball and good pressing. Good signing IMO. Kone and Papy did well in the whole. Still argue that Papy was unlucky the way the ball bounced. Manquillo looked much better than Monday. Son has still got Denayer in his pocket! He's currently trying to find a way out
I'm starting to question Moyes, tbh. Did not look like that was handed well at all, he clearly knew nothing about it on the replay in the warm up. Would love to know the real reason behind it.
I'm sick of us getting battered all the time. Our defence must be top of the statistics when it comes to things like tackles, blocks and clearances with all the practice they are getting. No wonder players like Rose and Alonso improve so much with us because they get so much to do. They probably get about five games worth of experience in one game playing for us. It's just horrible to watch us struggling, backs to the wall all the time.
Quinn was saying it could be a concussion or something like that but the Moyes interview was as you say looking like bull
So would I but judging from Moyes' face we're never going to hear about it again. Which is fair enough I suppose.
Yeah, I thought there were plenty of positives too. As far as Khazri is concerned, he's ineffective while out of form but then the alternatives, which realistically only amount to Watmore, are equally ineffective. Like I said earlier, it was a mistake letting Lens leave.
I think perhaps his interpersonal skills aren't the best. His negativity in interviews still grates with me but I think he's a good tactician.
We didn't get hammered, Pickford was outstanding...Papy needs to get his feet sorted - it is a basic issue which Kaboul had when he came to us leading to hesitation in clearing the ball. Not having Januzjai could be a blessing if he plays Khazri from the start, he needs a start. N'dong impressed. Mike Dean...totally onconsistent, Januzjai's booking was 6 of one, 1/2 dozen if the other, Spuds players gt away with a few to say the least.
I've said before I've never been convinced by Moyes when he is in of a camera he's a dour Scot and just doesn't project himself with any real conviction. However he's getting paid the big bucks for what happens on the pitch, defensively he's about 8/10, the midfield we have to give him more time on due to injuries, nice to have Catts back and NDong looks a decent buy, Kirchhoff got another 80 minutes under his belt so I'll give Davie boy 7/10 with work in progress. Up front is our big issue, no transfer recruits to help Defoe, our late signing obviously isn't fit, so its a wait and see if were going to get any help out of Anichibe, so its a 5/10 upfront. Moyes has got to solve the issue of us not keeping the ball upfront to give the defence a rest, how he solves that is why he gets paid a decent wedge, if he can't resolve it quickly then we are in for a long hard season ....again. Losing by one goal at WHL wasn't a bad result, certainly a lot better than our last two seasons, but Moyes has to get a grip of these issues and very quickly IMO.
Does anybody see where the next points are coming from because we have lost the momentum we got with SA and the FA have left us in the sh1t
. Looks like we got off lightly just losing Januzaj to this useless t**t of a referee. Other than this I thought we played very well today, and only one unforced error undid us. Get our first win on the board next home game and we will be fine. Young Pick and N'Dong were outstanding.
Rome was not built in a day. This is going to take a long time to sort out. Positives are Pickford is shining and has really taken on being our No.1, The signing of N'Dong looks a really good one. Catts is back and so is Hoff, the 3 of them should make a decent midfield. It's going to take a few games for them to gel. Likewise I expect Kone and Pappy to get better and better. There are still some obvious problems around the team: Khazri's poor form, PVA?. Januzaj needs to grow up a bit. Nothing Moyes cannot sort out but he needs some time, and some luck, a couple of wins and things will look a lot better.
