Well I've now had chance to reflect on this truly horrendous 90 minute " performance " by both clubs. If I'd been blindfolded, got into a car, watched the 90 minutes and asked what division both sides were I would have honestly said conference. Our play was absolutely abysmal. We without fail kept going backwards ( all players guilty of this ), shifting the ball ridiculously slowly before the likes of Tommy Smith / Mings had the absolute pleasure of HOOF. Now I don't mind a few diagonal, in the corner balls like we did vs Fulham. But I do not appreciate or see how in gods name 90 minutes of attempting to injure all 22 players neck with the ball being in the air for second after second to be the way to play...... I will always back the manager, and Mick has done a good job so far. But boy do we need 2/3 bits of absolute class to go with this very hardworking but ultimately workmanlike side. Parr cannot come into the side quick enough, and lets hope C. Stewart can get back onto the pitch soon as potentially that could really solve the left side and give us a much better shape. As for the players.... Gerkin - An absolute spectator. The McGoldrick " backpass " left him short but could he have reacted a little quicker too....!? kicking was good but Reading had 3 shots the entire game ( work to do there Royals... ) Mings - Up there with some absolute shockers interms of " performances " I have seen. An absolute liability and until Parr comes in we simply have no choice to have Tabb infront to protect this player. Improvement needed ASAP. Got himself into trouble on several occasions, doesn't read the danger, dives in, so much work to do. We need Parr in, another defender signed and ship him out on loan. He may be good enough one day but right now, you're not. Smith - solid as usual. Please learn how to distribute better..... Berra - classy CB. Don't need to say a lot here! Chambers - Not a bad performance, needs to shift the ball a bit quicker and create more angles for attacks but he wasn't too bad. Tabb - Had the unfortunate job of having to cover Mings. I mean we all know he's makeshift on the left. Slowed attacks down for fun, out of position too often and aimless in possession. Another 100% effort bla bla usual. Get Parr at LB and he may be better LM but we all know we want a proper winger there. But it's got be common sense first. An attacking mid infront of Mings at the minute and we're really in the s*** at the back. Hyam - Cracking first half, not helped by the defenders hammering the ball forward at every opportunity. Faded, but wouldn't you if you were chasing shaddows for 90. Looks like a more complete player than I've seen before. Skuse - Poor distribution today when he had the ball. No runners to help..... defenders not giving it early. Good in battles though, decent shift. Hewitt - offered nothing from an attacking perspective. Kept coming short when had he run Chambers could have slipped him in on 4 /5 occasions. Seemed scared to get forward. Muprhy - Invisible today McGoldrick - unlucky on the header, but a good performance. Looked 60% at best, but held the ball up well. Is going to have another good season should he remain! * Subs Anderson - fantastic performance. Beat a few, direct, well played. Did everything well Hewitt didn't. Sammon - needs time but did fine Bank - not long on but again I thought did alright today. Better I'll always back the manager, and the good thing under Mick is we generally never lose two in a row so I expect us to bounce back at Brum. The game was soooo bad though guys I cannot emphasise enough how crap it was! I'd have said that had we won too. The problem we have right now though is the damn finances. Reading had P.Pogbreniak for instance, he must be on £30,000 a week plus. How the hell can we compete with these clubs!!!! It's not as if there' just one of them either, Fulham guffing £11 mill on R.McCormack. Get rid of these damn parachute payments. What I will say though, is Mick perhaps puts himself under a lot of pressure when we lose from peoples opinions. It was just absolute toss. Perhaps a draw would have been fair but jesus we played a lot better under Jewell but obviously lost games. I still think we may have quite a good season, get a bit of class on loan and do alright. COYB !!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was how it seemed on the radio, saying that i missed chunks of the first half as player was acting up!! Have to say i am not holding out much hope with this average side but if we can add a min of 3 decent quality loans, to complement our hard working players, then who knows but we really do need at least 3 decent additions!!
oh dear me! what happend to the wild,totaly out of proportion exitment of last weekend chaps? you know when you were going to win the championship and we were going to be relegated?normal service has been resumed i see.
Well canary I'm giving my viewpoint of a truly awful game buddy! I think we'll do alright and for what it's worth I see no reason why we won't finish above you, but there are areas where we need to improve which I have highlighted above. It's by no means a " season over " post as I think we'll be fine, just reporting what I saw Well done for beating 10 men
thats strange, i thought WE played with 10 men last week, you know when we were ( quote murderd) by wolves away. i will be interested in how your boys get on when they go there. if you lot finish higher than us this season i would be absolutly staggerd. i honestly think you have no chance and will have your normal battle to stay out the bottom 7 or 8 teams
Its like the budgies previous championship campaign, how many times did they cheat their way to a victory against 10 men!! At least when we do it we do it fairly!!
With our squad you're probably right, we most likely SHOULD be down there but we'll be top half somewhere by grinding out results more often than not. I really don't think your lot will achieve anything this season with the manager you have picked, but there we go. Wolves away is a tricky game sure, we usually lose there. Only good thing about trips to Wolves are £1 burgers.
Good summary Westlake. I wouldn't call us a hoof ball team or say that Mick is an advocate of long ball football, his teams can play decent football but how he sets up and the attitude of being solid off the ball first and then anything on the ball is a bonus means we don't have entertaining games of football, how many teams have looked average when they've played us, it's because how we set up to limit their chances but unfortunately that seems to mean we're not great on the ball either and then it's all down to someone taken their chances due to the small margins. We certainly need more quality in this very average squad but I've seen us with equally bad squads play far more creative football, as I've said how the manager sets up a team has an effect on how creative we can be. Look at what he did when he took over from PJ, he took a gungho team that created quite alot of chances (and albeit didn't take them) were defensively fragile and made us look so solid at the back but lacking real creativity with the same set of players I agree I'm not convinced by Mings yet and would like to see Hewitt given more of a chance at RB, it looks to me like Mick has drowned the attacking instinct out of him, although he does look more solid defensively. Listening to Burley yesterday I couldn't agree more with him saying we wanted players to go out there and play to their abilities and potential Berra is just a class above, I like Smith but as I said I'd perhaps like to see Chambers moved back into the middle with Hewitt at RB. I do think we need abit of perspective though and not throw the baby out with the bathwater as it were. I think you make a good point that because the football isn't entertaining when we lose it makes things seem far worse because there aren't as many positives to take out of the game.
