It's just a sore point when 2 of the higher earners (Giles & Christie) aren't getting game time. You've got to reduce how much you waste as much as you can, rely on the 21s as we can't spend a lot. Traore will be on decent money as Doch's in his option year and Ehab always gave the players a decent rise in the option year so he won't be on peanuts. Connolly ain't making the squad, Sharp isn't playing, neither is Ingram and he got a new deal lot that long ago. We'll always have wastage it's just trying to probably have 2/3 instead of the 6/7 we've currently got. Missed Zaroury too
Jacob probably showed exactly why you need someone like Giles in the side ahead of him most of the time though. Yeah Traore etc in midfield can go and free up a wage - Woods, Sinik too etc. But there's waste all over the pitch not just defence.
I think you're being harsh on Jacob... he's been asked to fill in, in a critical position (Coyle tried there) and in the last two games against superior teams he has performed well, despite one or three errors.. back stick marking being one, but then Robertson was rubbish at that too. I honestly think that with a summer of training, fitter, stronger, more adept he could make the place his own. If I was MJ I'd be having a short holiday and then be making sure exactly that happened. Giles IS NOT the answer...
Seri has been more effective for me recently because he's finally operating further up the pitch where his composure and eye for a pass can be so helpful. But in the same way as I've maybe downplayed his strengths, I still think he gets away quite lightly for his weaknesses. He is very slow for a defensive midfielder - a more aggressive and quicker CDM might have blocked the cross for the first goal before Morton made a hash of it, and (as was pointed out on Sky), while Philogene should have tried to show Hutchinson outside for his first goal, Seri was slow to close down the angle too. Maybe if we found him that destructive partner, he could play further up the pitch more consistently but I'll continue to have my reservations if we rely on him to stop the opposition as we have done too much this season.
It’s something I’ve been saying for at least two years now that has become a meme on this board. Seri is not really a defensive mid. His strength is playing as a playmaker, either deep or slightly further up. His defensive awareness is okay due to his experience but he doesn’t have the physical attributes or aggression to be a defensive mid. Slater doesn’t either and Morton makes the odd crunching tackle but he’s another lacking in physicality and nous. Morsy isn’t the tallest and neither is Luongo but they’re both strong, aggressive and clever. Their midfield was winning all the loose second balls last night. It’s not the first time we’ve struggled against physical teams. Watford also dominated the midfield battle recently and there’s been countless other occasions. It’s a weakness in our team that needs to be addressed. A ball-winning midfielder who is comfortable on the ball is a priority in the summer.
I think Jones has had two rare unconvincing games v Cov and Ipswich but feel it's possibly because he is being asked to virtually play RB as well as right sided centre back. I don't know what you'd call Slater's position but it hasn't really been RB for me and therefore Jones has been working overtime.
We defend very narrow and crowd the area it seems to be the plan , it gives oppos so much time and space at the corner of our box ,Ipswich like other overload that area and get behind us , many teams have Dr one it against us . Omur and Slater are really all over the place on that left corner , it’s not their position. Omur was slow to come out for the second but o think he is probably expecting b others to do it naturally . By the way he is knackered after bout 65mibd because he’s gone all the running that Fabio hasn’t in the first half . Fabio really hit moving second half yesterday he just needs to do it all game .
We had 10 players inside our penalty area surely after is first goal we should have had a man marking him outside the penalty area.
Omur was already out, he was covering the wide player, someome else should have been coming out to cover Hutchinson.
I think Onur might have been injured - he carried on playing for a while but was obviously feeling his groin and indicating that he wanted to come off. Fair play to him though, he still kept on trying to carry the ball forwards. He's a terrific player.
No, just working off the average you posted, but I haven't checked myself yet. There've been numerous games earlier in the season where we've barely mustered a meaningful effort on goal and very rarely got behind the defense due to the pace we were playing at. Now and then we had the odd game where we'd attacked and played well, which obviously helps drag the average up. When I get chance I'll go through the match stats in detail and see what it turns up. If I'm wrong then I'm wrong and so be it. I did recently look into our matches for possession vs scoreline and it was pretty conclusive that we don't get results when achieving 60+% possession. I imagine if I go back and check those games the goal scoring opportunities would be fairly minimal. Can't help but think I'd be wasting my time regardless.
