I lost my stream for the first 20 mins of the second half, so maybe i missed stuff, but he looked very solid and decent going forward in the first half. Everyone was significantly worse in the second half, from what I saw.
Alzate - neat and tidy, interesting that all our best stuff comes through him Matazo - looking forward to seeing him get up to full speed, looks quite a dynamo Kamara - surprised he got hooked, was playing OK and did look to be a threat. Full backs have a mistake in all of them, and as I mentioned in the match thread, til we stamp this out it will cost us time and again.
Jacob got done for pace which should have led to a Stoke goal barring a remarkable clearance from Drameh. He played a really sloppy pass straight to a Stoke player and because he was annoyed with himself made a stupid foul and got himself booked. Gelhardt was going to have a shot first half but Jacob was better placed - due to a heavy touch he ended up making a tackle rather than having a shot. I don’t think he offered much going forward and looked vulnerable in defence. Apart from that he was ok.
Matazo McLoughlin Alzate Honorable mention for Kamara who is, at last, showing more confidence. No doubt he'll really get going and be dropped for one of the new signings.
Five points for first choice, three for second, one for third. Matazo 92 Alzate 85 Kamara 29 Pedro 18 McLoughlin 17 Gelhardt 1 Jacob 1 These poll results suggest that we made some poor substitution choices, although ultimately we lost that game due to two shocking pieces of defending. I'm away to India this afternoon and don't know where I'll be for the Burnley and Norwich games; Sunderland, I should be back in Blighty but probably flying over the ground coming in to land at Newcastle. I shall try to watch the games but if I can't put a MOTM thread up I'd appreciate it if one of you chaps could do so in my absence.
