Good post BT....The Man Citeh game is obviously a free hit for them. If they get whacked 4,5 or 6 no one will be too surprised. If they win or draw the 90 mins then they'll be on cloud 9. In both those scenarios they would be right up for the City game. Avenge the hammering or ride the crest of a wave. Best thing might be a 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 defeat or loss on pens, then the disappointment might have them in the dumps. Either way I'm never convinced that City can win an important home game and Tuesday is one of them.
I suppose you can't drop Crooks after he started scoring, Alzate has been very good and Matazo obviously had the quality, so it's about balance. That being said, a midfield 3 of Alzate, Puerta and Slater isn't going to let us down. I'd even be tempted to look at playing Hughes in the DM role (I would have said Burns but I can't recall what he was like when he played as a DM) and bringing Burns in as he seems to be able to pick a pass and he's tough in the tackle.
Since last season we've had at least 3 completely different attacking line ups, in full. There's no wonder there's no cohesion... If you look back a little further then it just gets worse... In the last 2 or 3 seasons these have been our attacking players: Oscar Tetteh Allahyar Pelkas Twine Longman Lokilo Tufan Sinik Oulad M'Hand Vale Philogene Bedia Delap Zaroury Traore Barry Gelhardt Crooks Pedro Belloumi Millar Lincoln Carvalho Joseph Omur Smith Palmer Vaughan Kamara Amrabat Sharp Burstow Connolly Ohio Williams Eibiowei Covil Jarvis Some of those are youths we tried to blood a bit, but that's 39 attacking players there. That's 40 if we include Wilks as well, over usually 3, rarely 4 positions. I've probably missed some too. These numbers look more sensible when we look at midfielders... Slater Matazo Puerta Alzate Zambrano Simons Morton Seri Woods Docherty That's only 11 players in comparison over the past 3 seasons, for 2, often 3 positions. Defence next... Coyle Jones Hughes Macca Egan Jacob Drameh Burns Greaves Giles Vinagre Christie Furlong Fleming Smith Figueiredo Elder That's 17 players, for 4 positions - most churn of which is full backs. I've probably missed some, but that's 68 players we've fielded in the last 3 seasons. The vast majority of which are attackers. There's absolutely no wonder there's no cohesion and we can't create enough chances to score goals, they're not settled and it takes a long time to achieve that fluidity as a team. We need to survive this season, convert our loans to permanents where we can, focus on sorting out our full back issues and start a season with as much of a settled side as possible for once. Walter never stood a chance, Selles is having the same issues now to a lesser extent, with a better side. Rosenior dealt with it by over controlling possession with a lot more quality in the side that could pop up and win points as individuals. We have only a couple of players of that calibre now, but they're injured.
Some good points Except Walters a ****ing **** manager and any half competent manager wouldnt have ****ed it like him
My biggest concern regarding Millar and Belloumi's ACL injuries (and Matazo's too as it's looking likely) is that they're all agile players whose playing styles rely on turning in tight spaces to evade pressure. I don't think Millar, Belloumi and Matazo will ever play the same as we briefly saw in a City shirt, which is sad. Matazo's not your typical ball-winning midfielder. He's got a low centre of gravity and one of the things I like about him is those quick, sharp turns he makes to get away from other players and create space to drive into. Don't think he'll play like that when he returns from injury if it's an ACL tear, either because of the physical limitations on his knee or the mental hesitation to do it for fear of rupturing it again. What a shame. I'm fearing the worst because it's just our luck and his injury is worse than the loss for me.
I honestly believe it would have been too big a mountain to climb for any manager. We've done too much business again in attack, but also in midfield too this season. Christ, I've just remembered Mehlem as well, there's another one for the list. There must be loads of them. I bet the number of players for the past 3 seasons is over 70 if I keep thinking about it.
I didn’t see the game last night, but disappointed with the result. Realistically, Cardiff should have been down because of their previous defeat at the weekend & also the players should have been thinking about City at the weekend. But apparently that’s only us that can’t win games when the opposition is down & distracted!
Its not exactly the same injury But ansu fati is one whose career ruined by knee injuries He was going to the very top
I couldn't agree more Ernie, I just listened to Ruben's post match interview on Tiger+ and this is the first time I detected he was angry.
Lincoln looks like another typical Turkish signing, good on the ball neat and tidy but no turn of pace or dribbling speed with the ball.
Unfortunately, I fear Millar and Belloumi will be the same when they return. ACL injuries are horrible for wingers especially who rely on explosive pace and close-control dribbling to beat players. Their careers aren’t over but they’ll have to adjust their play styles to dribble less.
Really interesting point about the number of attackers. It's strange how we put so much investment into improving that area and it never works, yet in defensive positions we've never really needed to improve on the players we've had for years. Why can't we find attacking players who can contribute as effectively over a period of time as easily as we can defenders and midfielders. It's an age-old issue though. We've hardly ever had good strikers in the 25 years I've supported City.
It's really frustrating. Cos it's true, they are a **** team. They wanted Ryan Longman last summer to improve their attack, we were in a position where we could offload him because we've got loads of better options. Yet they're 12 points ahead of us. Hopefully it won't upset anyone me using this word again, but it is embarrassing. Portsmouth are another one. When we played them at home they were rock bottom, think they'd lost every away game and we were all over them in the first half but as always we didn't kill them off. They scored just after half time, totally penned us in for the rest of the half and should've won, and they've improved since then and are now miles ahead of us. Again it's embarrassing really when I think back to how poor they were then, that they're so far ahead of us now.
Stats are awful and highlighted how poor the game was, We’ve done well away from home recently but last night it was a terrible game and we offered nothing. They score through a deflected goal but One shot on target is shocking over 90 plus minutes.
