Good evening Wolves have Chelsea and Arsenal, you need to concede less than they do and you could still climb out of the zone with two defeats
We have to concentrate on ourselves and try not to worry too much on what others do / don’t do. Phillips was poor again today. He’s had enough chances and for me, he’s not worth the wages we’re spending on him. Omari tries to do too much, not overly critical of him - just an observation. We need to score the 1st goal in games as not set up to make comebacks. For what it’s worth, my team for Sunday would be. Walton Godfrey, O’Shea, wolfenden, burgess, Leif Morsy, cajuste Broadhead, j Clarke Delap (who needs to stop collecting silly bookings) burgess over greaves for me as he can play the pass over the top for Leif which greaves is either unable or unwilling to do
Not a great game. Under the cosh first 20 minutes and then got a foothold in the game. Omari again held onto the ball too long and too often when passes are there to be made. Delap still too rash, giving silly free kicks away for no reason. Broadhead was good and Burns looked lively. Got really annoyed with Veltman, his only job at corners was to be right on top of Walton and never got called out for it by the ref. He was never looking at the play, only there to block our keeper. We don't move the ball quick enough. That first 20 minutes showed us where we are lacking. Brighton were all about one and two touch passes and no player had the ball very long, it was constantly moving. We struggled to retain possession when we did get it and Omari was one of the worst culprits. For much of the game, we looked defensively pretty solid, but the inability to keep the ball and move through the middle third meant we didn't keep it long. Walton had some shaky moments and if we stay up, a quality keeper has to be towards the top of our focus in the summer. We have a tough run of fixtures coming up but you never know where the points are coming from so we'll just have to stick at it and see where we finish come May. I still think McK is waiting too long to make subs. Whilst his thinking may be that we're competitive still around the 60 minute mark, the energy levels quickly drop off and we do seem to concede quite a few goals between 60 and 70th minute mark. Please, let's get the fresh legs on sooner to keep that press going.
Was it just a bad day at the office, or were our tactics & team selection wrong? We all felt so disappointed that, apart from last 20 in 1st half, we created so little at home to a side that hadn’t won in 8. I agree with Hampy, at times our low defensive block had 5 players. And then our once quick counters were quickly stifled as we lost the middle. It worked well against Arsenal, Chelsea and Fulham and for a time it looked like it might work here - we weathered an early storm and for all their possession Brighton didn't create many clear cut chances in the first half. The last 20 of the first half we started to get on top and created the better chances. Second half everything changed with their goal and we lost our composure. As KM says, we lost our belief. Delap hardly saw the ball. Brighton are no mugs and they sure know to cheat! So much diving, feigning injury and time wasting. On one occasion, dont know his name, but their player pretended he was shot...twice! If this is modern day Premier League Football, tbings need to change. The ref let so much go. It was a real pity. They were good enough not to need to resort to that drama performance. That said, it is an effective tactic. Running down the clock disrupted our game.They did it from about 60mins. Imo Phillips offers little and I would start with Morsy & Cajuste on Sunday. I would bring back Burgess, and give Philogene a start. We need to get back to our quick passing attacks, as Man City will mock our defensive formation and run rings round us.
Disappointing night but the most we could have hoped for from that was a draw.Is the aim now to mirror Wolves results and beat them at home?!
Everton game in hand is Liverpool. We have played the 4 teams around us taking 5 points from a possible 12 !!!! We need to finish top of this mini league taking 12 points from the 4 games against them.
I thought decent first half and we were okay until the goals went in, then Brighton upped it and we weren't good enough. Unfortunately too many players not quite on it tonight. Too many little mistakes which contributed to the result. I thought Walton did some good things but also made a few mistakes (mainly after he'd been clattered) but for me should still retain his place. I thought defensively we still on the whole looked solid but a few mistakes. O'Shea defensively was sound but doesn't have enough quality on the ball to support the attacks. Woolfenden was okay but Brighton particularly second half honed in on a weakness of his, it always worries me seeing him touch tight to players as he rarely comes out on top, he's far better at reading the game and stepping in. I thought on the whole Greaves was pretty solid but like O'Shea could offer more on the ball although like a few goals this season for the first I thought positionally he was caught out, he has a tendancy to be a yard or 2 out of position on too many occasions, hopefully this will improve with time. Given this for me Burgess definitely should be starting, he barely put a foot wrong when he was in the team and currently also looks to offer more on the ball....maybe McKennna feels his lack of pace is exposed in this formation? Other players all had okay if unspectacular games. I agree with Royston about Phillips, he looks technically a good player but sometimes he looks like he just comes along for the ride, he doesn't try to make things happen nor does he seem particularly solid, far too often leaves gaps and lets players go past him (although he did make and exceptional tackle in the penalty area). I'd send him back and try to buy a long term replacement for Morsy, someone who is more robust and tries to dictate play. Morsy hasn't been in the best of form the last few games but we missed him last night, we haven't got someone taking the ball off the defence and breaking the lines. Cajust noticeably tried to make up for this on a couple of occasions but he plays a riskier game and not great sometimes to try that in such a deep position. In fact I thought it was one of his poorer games for some time. I do however thing our current formation does not really help the midfield, we've struggled to get as much control where in games earlier in the season we were. I thought Burns had a pretty solid game and is looking more back to his old self, he has his strengths and limitations and unfortunately we've seen quite a few times this season both Omari and Delap can have a tendancy to hold onto the ball for too long and run into trouble or take a shot when the pass was on...to get the best out of Burns we need to see more quick one touch passing. Also I noticed some of our crosses into the box last night particularly by Davis and Burns were finding pockets of space but our players weren't picking it up...perhaps missing Chaplin or perhaps they were just rubbish crosses. I think we saw the areas which Delap and Hutchinson need to improve last night. Hutchinson as he has for the majority of the season holds onto the ball for too long and runs into trouble, his and Delaps decision making needs to improve. I did think the strength he showed to get the ball from high balls was impressive and he continues with the same energy levels all match. Definitely feel his best position is out wide, we need someone with more speed of thought playing through the middle. Delap was pretty anonymous, he has some real strengths to his game and on a lot of levels is a far superior player to Hirst. Hirst is one of the only strikers I've watched where it doesn't bother me that he doesn't score that regularly just because he brings the best out of those around him...Delap is a far more selfish player and on night like last night where he's not getting a lot of joy we look pretty toothless up top because he doesn't impact on the game as much as he could. Even when Hirst has a bad game he still has an influence by his movement and pressing. Delap likes to roll defenders or run at them from deep rather than run over the top. Think it's an area he can improve on. I thought Broadhead showed some outstanding moments in the first half, real classy player but was pretty anonymous second half. I see what people mean about McKenna making subs a bit too late but every game you just see the difference in quality coming off the bench. Szmodics, Chaplin, Ogbene all injured and a number coming back from injury. It's just a really tough league. I do feel a little we are struggling for our identity and balance between what made us good the past few seasons e.g. good passing one touch football and trying to be more compact and having players up the pitch who can carry the ball (moving away from passing out at the back and quicker passing up top).
I see Haarland has just signed a new 91/2 yr contract, at £500,000 a week. I mean, honestly who needs that absurd weekly wage. For most of us, that is ridiculous for an annual salary!
I have a vocational degree and a professional qualification and on average it would have taken me 10 years to earn £1/2 million.Market forces and all that but still a crazy situation!!
Ditto BigAl, with my degree and quals it would have taken me 20 years back in 1974 to earn what he will earn in a week! As you say, crazy world. Is Football worldwide any better for it?
I think this time it was the attackers who weren’t on their game. Okay, the first goal was poor defensively and you can argue about the red card, but by then there had been so much outstanding defending and we should have made a bit more of our chances and been ahead. Delap and Hutchinson were both very poor on the night and Burns failed to pick out a Town shirt numerous times.
Is the reason our subs are not having much of an impact due to lack of minutes? The regular starters have been getting used to the Premier League with regular minutes but the subs aren't getting enough. Most of the team don't have PL experience so time on the pitch for them is valuable to help get to grips with the league. If we had a bench with PL experience, then bringing them on for 20 minutes you'd expect them to be able to influence the match. This hasn't been the case with our bench, who all lack that vital knowledge of playing at this level. Subs need to be earlier, we lack energy from 60 minutes onwards and if we don't concede, the momentum generally shifts in favour of the other team during this period and we struggle to get it back, leading to late goals.
I think there is a fear of shooting toward the SBR stand emerging. The players and maybe even the manager have quite obviously got a complex. The subs being too late might be a symptom of whatever is going on with that. The pressure to give the SBR fans a goal that was delight in the Championship when it happened has become a burden when the goals haven’t come.
Burns crossing (and some of Davis) was an interesting one, think shows we haven't quite got the patterns of play with the new guys up front and formations. Davis and Burns have been playing those types of crosses and cut backs for the past 2/3 years, of Chaplin was on the pitch he would've got on the end of them.
There was one particular cut back from Burns onto an empty penalty spot which would have been buried by Chaplin in the previous two Seasons.
Let's face it in the second half we hardly got out of our half and when we tried to get upfield there was nobody up front because we had 11 behind the ball defending, De Lap hardly touched the ball and Hutch constantly lost the ball trying to take on too many defenders. We looked clueless in spite of no lack of effort, so I'm afraid we were outplayed and outclassed by an established Prem side from 45 minutes onwards, it was so disappointing on a night where just 1 point would have been a real boost for us.
