I know some of you will be sick of hearing me moan about the lack of subs but I was looking at some Stats this morning We have made 45 subs this season, the fewest in the league by 18 Here is how the teams expected to be up there fair: Burnley - 66 Boro - 66 Leeds - 68 Norwich - 75 Watford - 77 WBA - 80 Sheff Utd - 81 Make of it what you will but thought I'd provide some data around the sub usage
Yep,good post mate,agree with all of that. Hadn't given too much thought to the Pedro influence...interesting.
We don't seem to have the depth that we thought we had at the start. Both wingers should be swapped out TBF and Neil should be too. Watson looked like a 14 year old playing men's football last night. Literally just getting blasted off the ball. Ok running into space but definitely not ready to be a consistent starter. Who do we have to play there? Who plays instead of Neil? Who subs in for Rigg when he is blowing out his arse at 70 mins? We definitely need some reinforcements to replace and challenge those positions. Otherwise they just stay on and it goes flat.
We used them well last night. Two subs around the 60th minute were the right thing to do. Just because we didn’t agree with who he took off. Putting two quick left footers on the left changed the dynamic, alese and mayenda caused a problem with their first touches I would’ve made one more late on but I didn’t think subs were a problem yesterday unlike the past
I mentioned ribeiro a couple wks back mate hopefully he's not having to much influence because we seem to have tighned up at the back but not getting as many clear cut chances. Just need a bit of luck sometimes tho can't remember the last time a ball dropped kindly for us yet other teams always seem to get the lucky loose balls etc. I'd of kept mayender on the right last night Roberts has done nothing for ages and last night he wasn't even trying to beat his man.
Great info and backs up what lots of us are debating on here. The issue is either down to RLB and his need for total boxed control of players or he knows the squad isn't up to scratch.
Midfield needs strengthening, specifically Riggs 10 role because we’ve only got aleksic neil had a good game last night. wingers though wow. Watson looked good last night but wasteful, he just keep shooting. Other than that I thought he looked good Roberts aswell. 55 passes completed man! Roberts has taken 32 shots this season and hit the target with 5. One of which was a penalty so if we discount that. 31 shots 4 on target. An on target percentage of 12.9%
Agree about West Brom. Last night a top 6 team came to our place and basically played with a back six for the whole 90 minutes. Even then there were times where we were able to play through them. Certainly in the second half there were moments when we managed to get into great positions And will let down by the final pass or the final shot. It really wasn’t as bad as many seem to think it was.
What was connolly going to do in that game? he was poor at milwall. Scored a worldie yes but he’s not going to break down a low block. In 60 minutes at milwall he made 2 passes
He absolutely could have ratted about and found some space. Literally couldn't do worse than Watson. I was amazed how out of his depth he was. Be class in a couple of years but looked like a child last night.
To be fair mate in and ideal world Mundle comes in for Watson, Browne in for Rigg, Samed in for Neil and Poveda in for Roberts, but its not ideal as they are injured. Unfortunately we cant carry a massive squad and have 3 players for every position.
Watson won the most fouls. Won 7/10 ground duels. Completed 2/3 dribbles. Had 7 touches in the opposition box. Not sure why you think he looked lightweight connolly would’ve done nothing. He’s a hold up striker. Nothing about his game and what he’s shown us would’ve been needed
I honestly don’t think we’ll see much action in January. I know that’s ‘common practice’ but I don’t believe we’ll sign a couple of players to ‘push us over the line’. Yes we’ll take promotion if it comes but I don’t think we’ll force the issue just for the sake of it. I agree with that policy, if that’s what it is, and would rather see us continue to allow players to develop by playing games. We have players like Watson, Rigg, Jobe, Mayenda, Mundle, etc who have great promise but aren’t the finished article. I'd rather keep playing them, even in rotation, rather than bring others in for a ‘short term fix’ that may not even work. I appreciate that if you’re a ‘PL at all costs’ you’d disagree but promotion isn’t all it’s cracked up to be imo. Newcastle have bought some very expensive players, on big wages, and sit 9 points off a relegation place. Promoted teams can quickly see their season turned into a relegation fight they end up losing. Yes we’ll take promotion make mistakes, and drop points, but we have academy lads starting games and others on the bench. I’d rather see them continue to improve rather than bring in a pile of mercenaries, like Burnley, who’ll demand to leave as soon as the relegation trapdoor opens. Football has changed and so have I … … as long as we put in the effort we did last night I’ll accept the odd knock back.
We signed them injured through. Thats on us. Poveda has been plauged with injuries all his career and we have a 4 year deal out to him. Samed was injured when we signed him and his yet to play a single minute. That's on us. We need to do better. If we want to get promoted that is.
On the eye he did. And he was a rabbit in the headlights. Wasn't surprised he was hooked. Thought he would at half time TBH.
I thought we were good last night but facing a team set up for 0-0 is never easy . We needed a bit of luck or good dead ball play .. we got neither. What we dont have is a big beast who can come on and cause havoc on deadballs disrupt a deep defence and a player who can actually cross …
Issue is if we don't get over the line and show promotion ambition, Jobe will leave in the summer. Rigg probably will too. It's a big balance.
I doubt anyone at the club thought they would be injured this long, its been terrible luck with both of them, but we dont have the finances to try and cover every possibility.
