I never said he was 'consistently good' and I had the benefit of watching him for 3 seasons at Ibrox..
Yeah, painfully embarrassing...Maybe they should recruit two, one-legged men to have an arse kicking competition.
I don't want to hang, draw and quarter the kid, because there's a larker in there, but heading the ball across his own box in the lead-up to their first was frankly Sunday League quality.
Watching on tv really wanted to go to this one but one of my daughters needed taking and bringing back from an exam. I've just taken her for a nice meal to say thank you for stopping me going to the game. I'm no big fan of Slater but he does get a lot of undeserved criticism. I agree he should be a squad player and that's what he is, its just our squad is paper thin so one injury means he's a starter. You only have to look at hiw many managers have come in and chosen not to get rid. He wasn't good enough today but who was?
We all just going to ignore the fact that Pandur has regressed to version we saw in pre-season a year ago? He’s got credit in the bank after his performances last season but it’s been a really poor start from him.
One of those days unfortunately. Good experience for McCarthy. Potentially could have been different if an early chance had gone in for us. Belloumi got to stretch his legs. Sounds like this virus is behind a lot of the dross we saw. Nothing to get too worried about yet all in all though injuries are going to be a key point of contention throughout the season. I will say though that Slater needs to work on his game. Fine at playing keep ball providing he can go backwards... Offers **** all else. It's like starting the game with ten men. People happy to jump on Giles for shirking one challenge, yet Slater gets away with it every game, constantly - and has people defend him when people call it out. Needs to start wanting the ball and developing the ability to play it wide diagonally or forward into feet.
Who was doing their job today? But that doesn't matter as long as Slater is the one getting singled out
don't agree with blaming Slater, McCarthy, Giles - there were plenty of others who were no better, no worse - it was a bad day, Blackburn played a good game, pressing us, quick passing and a few 'tricky' players - we could have scored in the first half and maybe it would have been a different game - their second goal was a killer and totally avoidable - the team fell asleep - very frustrating day but glass half full from my point of view
Wasn’t the second goal miles offside? Not seen a replay yet, just looked off. It wasn’t a free kick either as Lundstrum won the ball, to be honest the standard of officiating in the last games has been absolutely horrendous. Not the reason we lost though.
Some singled Crooks out for not completing tackles successfully last game despite him at least being there and putting a leg in. Regardless of which team is in possession Slater constantly finds himself on the wrong side of his man. When he needs to be winning a second ball, he's never quite there. When he needs to be slowing their progression down, he's never quite there. Personally I get the impression he's hiding from focus whilst trying to look like he's putting a shift in. I think his confidence is shot. We can't keep trying to carry him. He was Crooks's replacement today. He found himself on the ball absolutely nowhere near as much as Crooks does. It completely stifles us. Last season Slater was a mainstay. The biggest gripes were teams waltzing through our midfield, our attacks breaking down through the middle and us not taking control of the midfield. We haven't seen much of that this season. Slater then comes in for one game and it's exactly the same problems again. Is it just a coincidence then?
Hope your daughter’s exam went well and you had a nice meal mate. No one was good but I still think he’s not good enough. Agree to disagree!