If he’s remotely anything like he was pre-injury I’d take a punt on Zac Steffen from Man City on loan. Was very good at Boro last year and they play how we do
we desperately need a left back - playing Coyle out of position isn't the answer and neither is Greaves who's even worse - we also need a central defender who can win the ball in the air and doesn't get knocked off the ball - we didn't get the rub of the green today - Watford took their chances and we didn't
Watford boss Valerien Ismael told BBC Three Counties Radio: "I'm not surprised that we scored like that. We work on those patterns, especially when we face an opponent where the keeper takes a lot of risks in the build-up. "We knew when we win the ball that we had to try it. Wesley thought of it straightaway because it's a drill that we face all the time. "You could see the tiredness in the second half. The two key moments in the second half (Hamer's penalty save and Hoedt's goal) allowed us to get the three points. "We wanted to be more strong, to show that we can fight and that we can win duels and a desire to not concede. It's a great feeling to get the reward for our performance. "Now we face a tough period of the season for everyone in the league. It's all about staying stable and pushing as we have been doing." Hull boss Liam Rosenior told BBC Radio Humberside: "It's a sickener in terms of the result. In terms of the performance - I'm tired of saying it - I don't want to be that manager who lies, or is disingenuous, but we were so much better than them in every aspect of the game. "It's painful to lose. I would have been frustrated to draw. We missed a penalty and had so many opportunities. "Again, it comes down to that we're not clinical enough. Then we make 'young' mistakes - we're a young team and that's the down side to having an exciting young team. "But I love working with this group. It's a great group. I've got a really good feeling. "If we learn from our mistakes and improve certain aspects of our game then we're a very good team at this level."
Yes, if you like. Pretty even first half, ours a well worked goal, yours a well taken opportunity after a good Hoedt tackle. Philogene needs to stop thinking he can do everything, once he does that he'll be a top top player. Delap is pretty useful too - is he yours or on loan? Second half you were bossing it (which seeing you are the form team at home is not so surprising) and we retreated too much, and yet we didn't have to make any world class saves. Soft penalty, but hey ho, but a fairly week attempt by Philogene. Once that happened, you knew we'd win. Hoedt goal - crowned a fantastic defensive performance. After that the wind seemed to go out of your sails, Hamer wasn't troubled. Ref was good, let the game flow, although he should have given a foul when one of your players wrestled Bayo to the deck just outside the area. One thing that Ishmael has done is get the level of fitness up - we do seem to finish stronger than a lot of teams this season, the opposite of last. Overall 2 well matched sides; could have gone either way. But then,with the exception of Leicester, and the dress at the bottom, that probably applies to 14 teams on the division. How's that?
Don't even think it's hindsight. I was relatively surprised at the time Philogene was taking it as he just doesn't seem the type to do well from the spot. Delap has the power of a shot on his side to bury a pen.
Everyone is quick to praise Allsop when he's able to come up quickly to sort out a ball over the top and keep our attacking press going - which he did well on a number of occasions during the game. He also made 2-3 good saves to keep them out so it's not as if he's fluffing his lines at every opportunity at the moment. As someone else said, the ball was well over his head when it dropped in, there was nothing he could do about it. You often see keepers give up on saving it when it's so far away from them they can't get to it, which is exactly what happened in this case. There's a lot that Allsop offers that Ingram doesn't that doesn't offset a couple of freak incidents.
Lokilo seems quicker than Philogene to me so that's one criticism I wouldn't have expected for Lokilo.
Good summary. Fully agree on Philogene as well. Delap is always a handful, and while he's currently on loan, I think there's a good chance we could get him permanently eventually. Good at this level but not Prem quality yet for me.
Talk of dropping Allsop is ridiculous. He's been brilliant and he's evolved our build up play. It's not just that he's a good passer, he's very switched on and active in our buildup play which helps us dominate games. Even if he was really struggling, dropping him now would be a backward step for the team. You can't just go back on positive changes you've made every time there's a setback. That's reactionary, it's no way to build a team. In any case, he isn't even doing badly. He's not made a lot of mistakes, he spilled one at Swansea and that's about it. He was caught out today, but I'm not sure it's even really a mistake as opposed to just an inherent risk of being a goalkeeper who plays high up and active. And there's no style of play that comes without risks. For example, a keeper who stays on his line all game will get more attackers coming through on goal and scoring that way. Realistically, not many players are going to be able to punish him being off his line like that lad did today, it's not something to worry about.
I agree with your point but, our problem is that we never do play worse than that and win. We win maybe half of the games in which we're obviously the better side. We don't actually have many off days but when we do we definitely don't win.
As for individuals today. Delap was bloody brilliant and so often is. I worry about him getting injured at some point because his running is just so crucial to our attack, he'd be an enormous loss. Philogene had a poor game by his standards even before the penalty and the unfortunate accidental block. He seemed to lack a bit of intensity when he had the ball at times; he kept wanting to slow it down and stand the defender(s) up but they were happy to let him do that and gradually crowd him out. He'll obviously keep improving and hopefully handle those situations better in future. And finally, Tufan pissed me off when he came on. He's just so brainless sometimes. An utterly stupid, selfish decision to shoot (awfully) from the corner of the box when Morton was in acres of space in a much better central position, and then in the final moments when the ball was going out for our throw deep in their half and the one thing Tom Ince wanted was to draw a foul, so of course Ozan took the bait and nudged him. He's almost Eaves-like in his naivety around fouls and contact in both directions. I really struggle to find the patience with players like him.
Thought we didn't do much against Huddersfield and we won that; Preston likewise; Leicester we barely offered anything and got away with the win. There's actually quite a few instances where we create/do less than we did against Watford and walk away with the three points.
Jadens the form player, and he can welly it hard enough if that's what he intended to do. It was as Coyleys shout. Delap was no more or less likely to miss it at the time that decision was made.id have given it Twine, myself, Wasn't a bad pen though. Just wasn't great and the keeper did enough. Then we had a 1 in 100 long shot go in. Credit to the lad cos he hit it perfectly but we play that way again and we win 4 times out if 5. We cant scapegoat Twine anymore so now it's pile on Allsop time from some who need someone to blame. Bit pathetic at times. Innit?
