A player on a yellow who gets himself another yellow has screwed up, but it's not generally a big deal. To give a player a straight red, you've got to be very sure, as you're not just penalising him in that game, you're penalising him for four games.
You may want to add a center half to that wish list also. If Greaves or Jones get injured we are screwed. McLoughlin definitely not at the required standard unfortunately.
I think this is true to some extent, but also we were just a lot more defensive last season. This season we've consciously set out to be more attacking and therefore more open, and it has brought more goals, but obviously the challenge is doing that whilst not starting to leak goals as a result and lately that's become a big problem for us.
Agree. Someone on this board also mentioned that they would have liked LR in five years' time when he's had some experience of the highs and lows of management and how to deal with in-game situations - maybe even learn that he sometimes to be more flexible in his approach. I really want him to be a success but I'm starting to wonder if he's learning on the job and that his next club (or the one after) will reap the benefits.
True, I think we still haven’t cracked the code for our midfield balance yet, they get played through way too easily and are often just chasing shadows. The midfield pairing should be supporting the full backs when they are overlapped but it always seems to be too slow getting across.
Traore and Sharpe aren't regular starters and there seems to be a consensus that Allsop and Coyle need replacing.
Its all well and good saying that, but they turned up last night for their 4th game in 10 days.... we didnt...
we didn't concede with Macca in the middle - we conceded 3 after he went off - and two against Blackburn and 3 against Bristol - in fact there is a strong correlation between Greaves in the middle and shipping a lot of goals - arguably the first goal last night was because Greaves failed to deal with the attack - again couple of recent posts from the Mail 1. 'Greaves has improved but still overrated in my opinion. He’s too slow at full back. His best position is Centre Back but even then he occasionally gets caught out of position and is slow to react. His strongest point is bringing the ball out from the back but his priority is to be a defender'. 2. 'Never rated greaves…can’t understand what all the hype about him is…must be me…' we have serious problems at the back - we don't have a left back - if Greaves goes there he leaves too much space, doesn't mark the winger and drifts into the middle - if Coyle goes there it means Christie comes on and he isn't anything like the player he was last year and is constantly being beaten - we might be better playing Macca at the centre of three centre backs which will allow Greaves to go walkabout up front from time to time - at least there will be two centre backs still in place when he lumbers back to get back in position
Or the next season or the one after, which may fit with the owners 'plan / vision' - though I suspect next season will be his big test (& the owners)
Macca, although also been by and large ****e this season, hadn’t been bad in the first half. Not sure why he was hooked at half time and Christie brought in to then play at centre half. An absolutely ludicrous decision that inevitably cost us a goal when Christie got turned inside out yet again. There is also Smith. Untried at this level but if he’s never tried then we’ll never know. If he’s good enough to be in the squad he’s good enough to be in the team. Has to be time for him to be given his opportunity, otherwise what’s the point in keeping him here?
You can’t have 3 centre backs in a 4-4-2 otherwise that wouldn’t be a bad shout with what’s available.
All the players mentioned that we're in for (apart from Kent, who I reckon won't be coming here) seem to be fairly young. Who's the experienced name you're thinking of?
I think all 3 centre backs are decent at this level but perhaps we have been spoilt with fantastic ones in the past? Curtis Davies, Michael Dawson, James Chester, Michael Turner, Harry Maguire…to name a few.
