I don't think anyone expects promotion, I just think people can see what an amazing opportunity we have this season potentially slipping away because of something that's been an issue all season that just hasn't been addressed ( and unfortunately doesn't look like it will be )
I don't think there's a simple answer, but I do get the feeling that our attacking wide play in general isn't meaningful enough. I say attacking specifically because we use the wings really well in the buildup, often a one-two with the fullback creates space for someone to burst through the middle. But around the box we often get it wide and then the move seems to lose momentum there, while the winger, full back and/or whichever other attacking players have drifted out there all exchange passes without ever looking like getting anywhere. Very often the end result is a blocked cross. When the cross isn't blocked, it still never comes to anything. I don't know why we can't find ways to create chances from those positions but it must be a big part of the problem.
But it wasn't an issue when we had two. It's only now that we have four that we somehow have a shortage. I think that's a cheap shot that doesn't really make sense.
Call it what you like. We had all the ball and were doing all the attacking, but the attacking was ultimately of poor quality.
Our four happen to be our main man out with a serious injury while his understudy has continued his record of being unavailable due to numerous unspecified issues. The other two are a 37 year old who can’t run and an unproven panic buy who can’t trap a bag of cement. The current situation is a result of poor planning and recruitment in probably the most important position on the pitch and the reason we average a goal a game at home.
Depends on your definition of attacking... I don't think we had that many good chances for all the shots we had. We don't score enough goals. At this stage in the season that much is clear and it's been going on for some time. Just depends on whether you think that's down to the manager, down to the players, or a combination of both. Personally I think we're far too casual for our own good.
I sort of agree with Baz Coopers post match thoughts, if we had got a 2nd goal and either won 2-0 or gone on to score more, then we would be saying how well we played and what a commanding performance. Unfortunately, we did get the 2nd goal, and to be honest, we didn't really create many clear-cut chances, which with all the good play from box to box we had was frustrating. Personally, I would have gone with Jacob at LB and pushed Giles further forward, rather than bring Zaroury on. We need to get more balls coming in from the by-line, whereas Jaden particularly as well as Zaroury both cuts inside more often than not, and are not players that get to the byline and crosses enough. Both Omur and Tufan IMO were the best players on the pitch, Ruddy made a very good save from Tufan in the first half, if that had gone in then I think we would have seen us push on to score more. Greaves and Jones had good games, as did Seri and Morton, we just lacked again the final ball or players took the wrong option. Norwich next 4 games on paper look relatively easy, Boro/Rotherham/Stoke/ Plymouth then Leicester and Ipswich. Consequently, we cannot drop points like this again if we are to make the top 6. As one or two have said, we need to put things into perspective, we are still a work in progress, and at the beginning of the season I think we would have taken the position we find ourselves in with 10 games to go. Lots of twists and turns to come yet, so it will be fascinating to see how things unfold.
I have a mate who is building his own house and he is using 6 of the best plumbers in Hull, but boy his brickwork stinks!
There are teams doing better than us while on paper having a worse squad (Ipswich) but they’re an exception to the rule. I’m going to do a rough correlation and say squad value = combined players ability Transfermarkt has us at 4th most valuable squad in the championship so yes we’re slightly underperforming currently but we’re going in the right direction.
Giles whipping crosses into 5’7” Carvalho was hilarious. The false 9 thing only seems to work against other possession teams as it gives us another body in midfield for build-up. It might work against Leicester on Saturday as it did against Southampton. Against the likes of Brum, we needed a striker playing from minute 1. Ohio is big, strong, quick, athletic, can play off the shoulder and get in behind or hold the ball up. His touch might be a bit loose but he looks eager. Already has a goal too. If not against Leicester, he must start against Stoke. Stoke are another aggressive, physical team and we always seem to struggle against those teams under Rosenior, especially at home. Having Ohio leading the line instead of Carvalho as a false 9 might make the difference between a win and dropping points, AGAIN.
Don’t sign or even play a striker don’t score goals who would have known. Get rid of Ohio and Connolly in the summer, try and keep Delap and sign focal point who can score goals.
Can't disagree with this. Carvalho is not a striker and should be playing as a 10 behind one. It's fair to say that losing Delap and Connolly has made a big dent in how we play best, but Ohio is worth a shot even if he is not fully up to speed get, he will get that with game time.
Leicester aren't exactly setting the world alight at the moment.Prior to scraping a win away at Sunderland last-night they'd lost 3 on the bounce. The Championship Trophy should've been secured by them some time ago but instead they've went off the boil and are in danger(if they don't get their act together) of having to join the play-off lottery... Saturday is going to tell us much about whether or not we can pull ourselves together and kick the habit of being so wasteful in the opposition last third...We need a performance and a goal or two!! Loads of twists and turns to come in the last phase of this season's campaign and we've as good a chance as those around us of securing a play-off spot.I'm not trying to paper over the cracks of last-nights disappointing result(and it was a huge one) but this League is still wide open and us,and those around us,are all perched on the same precarious knife-edge. It would be a shame to see us drop away due to our lack of fire-power but as Steven Toast quoted earlier,it certainly is not 'The end of the World'. UTT.
You’d need Philogene and Carvalho to want to pass for that to work. They both clearly have talent, but play as individuals. Someone needs to sit them down and show them footage of all the opportunities they’ve ignored. It would benefit both their careers to learn how to play with the rest of a team. I suspect this is why they’re both at city and not in the prem.
When they did see Giles unfortunately on about 10 occasions his cross was wiped out which meant that - his cross wasn't good enough
the morning after the night before and the realisation that it was still ****, a totally wasted opportunity and unless something changes we will slowly under achieve- the problem isn't just we don't have a recognised striker - that's not necessarily the problem but the build up from the back is so slow and tedious that we allow the opposition time to get back in position and end up with no space up front and end up resorting to shooting from outside the box - I'm not a fan of ****ing about at the back as a tactic but if we're going to persist with it at least move the ball forward quickly - Greaves and Jones are by far the worst offenders who seem to have a built in default mechanism of why pass forward when there's someone better placed behind you
on a more positive note, whilst we've managed 9 points from the last 15, Sunderland have achieved the grand total of **** all
