I may be mis-remembering things, but I thought that Russ hinted that Downes would be available for the WBA match.
I thought they were one, if not the best side at SMS earlier this season. Yes, snap your hand for a point. Reset & then move forward with 2 “easy” (easier) home games.
Wondering if RM will see this as an opportunity to give Jack a game and rest one of Bedders or THB. Jack is a talker and RM did name him as his captain because he rates him.
I think we would have done better in the last game with some with the younger players on. There is a hesitancy building in the team and it would be nice to get some more fearlessness into them. I want Meghoma starting.
Bazza KWP stephens beddy meghoma Downes smallbone Brooks rothwell Fraser Che Armstrong or Mara for che if he’s not fit
We won't need to win every game for the rest of the season though. We have Leicester, Leeds, Ipswich & West Brom away all to play, a point is a decent result in those games.
Agreed. Difficult to judge opposition teams that came to play us before we started to work out how to play football under RM. So not sure how good Leicester were against us vs it just being very easy to play against us then. Obviously they've proven during the season they are the best team in the league. Ipswich beat us during that period too and were decent, but nothing special. West Brom however I still think looked the best team we've hosted at St. Marys and were unlucky to lose. Huddersfield obviously recently played really well too but it felt like they were throwing the kitchen sink at us and I was confident they would tire whereas West Brom seemed very comfortable, calculated and dangerous and that was away from home where they are typically not performing as well. A draw would be a decent result, but I can see why it wouldn't seem it off the back of a poor loss, our record of not beating the top teams to this stage of the season, and the pressure that Leeds have put on us by winning 7 straight games (and Ipswich lurking right behind us). But it's highly unlikely they won't drop points between now and the end of the season too. Long way to go yet and if we drop down to 4th again for a bit it doesn't mean we can't climb back up again!
I thought Brooks was awful on Tuesday. Left massive gaping holes on that rw on Tuesday. KWP never had any support and literally competing with Bristols Winger and FB on his own all evening.
If he is still out, I hope there's a better plan B than on display Tuesday night. To be fair though, even with the three goals, we did have opportunities to score and one or two of ours, gave them every opportunity very easily. So a bit more discipline on that front and quicken up the moves towards the forwards should see us do ok tomorrow.
Baz ; KWP, THB, Bednarek, Meghoma; Downes; Smallbone, Stuey; Arma, Mara, Fraser. If Downes isn't available, then switch midfield around and have to holding players of Charles and Smallbone. Then play a 4 2 3 1.
I think that we missed Stuey in the first half as much as Downes against Brizzle and the balance of the midfield and affected the whole team and set the tone for the whole match. Downes at 6 and Smallbone at 8 reminds me a bit of Romeu and JWP and how they compliment each other which allows Stuey to play with freedom to run forward knowing that he cover behind him but i'd be tempted to rest Will for this one because of the shifts he has put in recently. It is early days for both Rothwell and Brooks in this new system for them but they have already showed their worth against 'Udders from the bench.
Nah, not for me. Firstly, Stu came on at HT and we looked just as shaky in midfield. Secondly, I actually thought Rothwell played quite well in the first half - he was certainly the most forward thinking midfielder out there. Him and Stu are similar types of player. We don't have anyone else who can do what Downes does to the same effect. It will be huge if he's back tomorrow.
But that was after Smallbone had dropped back to a 6. The point i'm making is that we have had consistency in the engine room of the team for so long (Downes@6 Smallbone@8 and Stuey roaming) and the two changes out of those three affected us from the start and we never really recovered.
It's surprising that more teams have not done what Bristol Huddersfield and Leicester have done. Any time we have a goal kick they have all but three players in our half marking players. They know we will not kick it long so no point sitting back. We then slowly keep passing it sideways as we see no way through which leads to a mistake and a counter. I would almost be tempted to play Stephens in the downes role. He doesn't mind running it out and turns to face. Too often we get it to smallbone or Rothwell or Charles who pass it back rather then turning and looking for one of our quick wingers. Stu is good at this but since his knock against Huddersfield he has lost his control and has given it away the majority of times he has tried it. (Hopefuly he will recover for west brom) if teams keep doing this we need to have a plan b lined up like moving the wing backs further up and chipping it over to them like we did before.
