I thought Willock was outstanding today. Would have given him MOTM. Isak was very good first half but tired quickly in 2nd.
Pope 8 Trippier 7 Schar 9 Botman 7 Burn 7 Bruno 7 Longstaff 6 Willock 8 Murphy 7 ASM 7 Isak 9 (MOTM) Wilson 6 Almiron 9
Got to agree with Willock MOTM. Think CBs looked good, Isak and Miggy good too. The rest were OK but nothing great. Bruno flashes of class, Pope some good saves, Murphy worked hard but all were guilty of sloppy play which could have cost us. ASM didn't have a bad game but I just don't recognise him.
What do you guys think about the Pope potential red card? Personally I think the ref got it right. The Wolves player made a meal of it and barged into him, but Pope got himself into some massive bother there like.
thought it was a dive from where I was sitting and it was straight in front of me (I was closer to the incident than the ref or lino) seen the replays and still think it was a dive but very surprised the ref didn't give considering he was blowing for every little or soft foul and our luck with VAR
I'm sorry H but you didn't see Max just Trotting back casual like on a good few occasions when there were 2 attacking down our left on Dan Burn left BDB high and dry, don't think he made a tackle in defence on going forward he made a couple of incisions into the opposition box but like has been for a couple of weeks now, not getting the killer ball away
Max goes walkabout a lot during the match and leaves Burn exposed far too often, it's no wonder that Burn has been getting stick when he has to make up for Max not doing the job that others do in front of him.
So we should have Isak starting now and Wilson replacing him at the end, rather than vice versa, as we can now see Isak's awesome and Wilson sucks huge lengths of donkey cock right now. Willock was pretty excellent yesterday, so much so than Joelinton was barely missed and we comfortably dominated. Murphy was nippy and skillful, nice to see we have another option there. ASM....bah. He just doesn't fly through players and create chances anymore. Isak looks far more able to get around players in the box and create something. ASM's time looks to be up unless he has a big turnaround. Defensively ok, although Pope needs to get those howlers out of his system and Tripps needs to stop wasting set pieces.
I was watching on TV and had the benefit of replays and halfwit analysis at half time, it was at worst a 50/50 with the Wolves player bringing his shoulder up into Pope, the ref and VAR for whatever reason got it right in my opinion, have a look at several replays and see what you think.
Never a red card for me - the Wolves player ran right into him, there was nothing Pope could do about that. Pope didn't make any deliberate attempt to take him out. Obviously a howler from Pope to create the situation, but never a red.
I don't agree with that really. Joelington brings good attacking threat in my eyes, and he picks up the ball and looks to drive it forward with purpose at every opportunity, really stretching the play. He may not have Bruno's creativity, but brings a lot more - some of it similar to little Joe in honesty. For me, our issues are as follows: 1 - Wilson is not mobile enough, tricky enough or dangerous enough. Also bang out of form. 2 - BDB isn't a threat down the left at all, so whoever plays there is stifled / not supported creatively. This imbalances the team and forces a lot of our good play down the right, which teams have worked out. 3 - If it's Maxi left, there's less support for the full back defensively there is some effort, sure, but tactically it's not tight. 4 - Our wingers can't cross for ****. If we had another full back that could whip em in well, that would at least balance up with the right.
This is why we may need Targett back in the side, as he can cross, overlap, provide some attacking support, but I think Burn might just be playing too good defensively at this point. We may need a new LB altogether. Burn is in because he essentially plays a 3rd CB to allow Trippier to bomb forward as a RWB.
I think your comments about Burn are wrong, he was perfectly fine when Max was out of the team, Max leaves him wide open defensively but he also can go walkabout when Burn is looking to move the ball forwards, there have been a number of instances in matches where Burn looks to play a ball forwards and Max isn't there, he's drifted into the centre of the pitch or as he did on one occasion headed off to the right wing. Max causes the imbalance not Burn, in one match Longstaff, Almiron and Trippier were moving the ball between themselves on the wing and next thing Max comes charging in and upset everything ending up with the other team clearing the ball.
Whether Max is in or out of the team, BDB is not an attacking threat. That was my point. I've no issues with what BDB is doing and defensively he's great, but it makes us one dimensional. Even when we were solid and on a good run, with BDB and Big Joe on the left, most of our attacking play came down the right - and teams started to snuff that out. I agree with your comments on Maxi though - I wouldn't play him. Drives me mad. If I was playing in the same team as him I'd want to strangle him.
Aye, Pope didn't lay a glove on him otherwise if was a straight red. Mind, it was as clumsy as **** from our keeper, and he can consider himself a very lucky boy.
Did you watch the match yesterday, Burn overlapped on several runs on the wing so to say he does nothing is nonsense, he didn't score that goal by doing nothing either.
I'll take that as a fair call, I wasn't at the match so only see what the cameras show me. Defensively he's never been the best help so i guess he does therefore need to do more goign forward to justify himself. I was mainly considering his forays forward, in the recent past (end of last season and glimses at the start of this) he looked an explosive player who you would bend over backwards to try and get into the team even if it was like playing with 10 men at times. Yesterday he looked "ok" going forward but I'd rank him behind Miggy (who did more in 20 mins than ASM did all game), Gordon and on yesterdays showing even Murphy. If he doesn't do something to justify himself in the coming weeks I can see him leaving in the Summer whilst his stock is still high enough to try and get £30m+ Still a talent in there but get the feeling he needs to feel like the team hangs on him and he's no longer going to get that here. FWIW I thought there were times last season when Howe got the best out of him and it was going to work out nicely. Hopefully still does but it's seeming less likely. He was an avsolute baller in the home game against Man City, was a while ago now though.
