I think Crnac was a bit unlucky today. He got himself into good positions, struck his shots well, but couldn’t quite get the accuracy
But yes, definitely not his fault - we didn’t take our chances and let in two scrappy late goals due to tiredness
Shame, but overall I'm impressed by the performance, First half we had more control of the game than we can usually achieve with our full starting eleven. Lots of positives: Marcondes looks better every game he plays, Lunghi and Schwartau played well, Crnac too. Alnwick stopped us going 2:0 up, from where we would likely have won the game.
Agree with that, especially Sainz(7.4), Marcondes(7.3), Schwartau(7.5) and Doyle(7.6), all excellent ratings on WhoScored in a losing cause. Crnac is improving both in attack and pressing up top but I can't help feeling that this could be yet another season destroyed by injuries. The loss of both Sargent and Slimane today looks the potential final nails in the coffin.
I think Crnac was up top until he went off and Schwartau moved up to replace him but I'm not sure as there was a lot of movement and rotation throughout the game. WhoScored also showed Crnac on the right so you could be right.
WhoScored Player Positions graphic shows Crnac as clearly playing in the central striker role. As Rick says, there was a lot of movement, but so is there when Sargent plays. I think it was basically a straight swap.
Far too early for any such prognosis. Remember what Alex Ferguson used to say: "The season doesn't start until after Christmas".
Sargent is definitely out for the next two games and may need surgery. It's now 8 players out from a squad of 24 senior players, but Sargent is the biggest loss. Crnac and Schwartau have potential for the future but they're a big step down from Josh at the moment. This was billed as a rebuilding season and that's the way it looks to me now.
Agree that if you are going to get out of this league you can't have too many injuries and we have lots out at the moment
I agree it looks that way, but that’s not the reason for negativity as we always knew this was a rebuilding season. I also don’t agree with the idea the season only starts at Christmas, although I know that was said with tongue in cheek by Ferguson - the reality is the Championship is different and the Premier League is certainly a different beast to what it was. In Ferguson’s time, he won the league twice with fewer than 80 points, whereas the average winner since 2016/17 has got well over 90 points - so every game counts these days. I think our chance of automatics is probably close to finished. However, at this stage last season we were a point and five positions further back from where we are now, about to lose two further matches and slip to 17th and we still made the play-offs (and actually got into the position with ten matches remaining). It is massively frustrating how year after year we go through periods of mass key injuries though.
