Okay, finally watched the 'highlights'. No excuses for the defence on any of their goals; a decent CB pairing should have dealt with all three of those arial bombardments. Shocking to watch that, not sure what to say really. Whoever is coaching our defence needs to start working overtime (unpaid, preferably). Armstrong's goal though. Great chest, pivot and half-volley, a superbly taken goal. He's certainly not finished at this level.
I still think the first one was the lack of pressure on the ball. Give someone all the time in the world and they'll deliver a better cross than if under pressure. Agree on Armstrong. Hopefully this gives him some confidence and he can go on a bit of a run.
Just watched the highlights myself. That Downs miss was worse than I realised at the time. Got to be hitting the target there.
I agree. However, if he was already off the mark that would have been a goal IMO. He just needs a crappy goal to boost his confidence then I am sure once he has the confidence he'll be ok.
I honestly don’t think he's good enough mate. BBD would be getting hung drawn and quartered for that miss on here
Interesting that Fraser apparently said to McBurnie "I wish I had you to aim for today". Wouldn't surprise me if some of our strikers weren't happy with that.
If Stills tactics really are just sling a 1000 crosses in then he has been ****ed over by recruitment not bringing in the right kind of striker for him. That said you also need your other attackers and midfielders arriving for the second ball. Slow build up and then a hopeful cross is such low probability stuff, even more so without a brute up front. Just so easy to defend. I don't blame Fraser for what he said, particularly as it wasn't supposed to be a public comment, however it's not going to help things here now that it's got out. I don't think Fraser has done much wrong, and he will run and run, but think it might be time to turn him back into super sub and get Robinson back in the team. A player who is not afraid to run with the ball and take players on. Alternatively with goals a problem, get Armstrong back on the right and play Fellows on the left.
Just read he only touched the ball 11 times on Saturday. Whether his finishing improves or not, we need someone with a far bigger presence, who will demand the ball and create their own chances. Downs is just another timid youngster. We have too many already. In our spine on Saturday: Baz 23 - THB 23 - Jander 22 - Charles 21 - Downs 21 It's only Stephens over the age of 23. For me I would have Macca in goal, and Stewart up top.
I'm getting huge Pellegrino flashbacks atm, when the build up play was painfully predictable and slow and crosses eventually came in deep to a lone Shane Long in the box. What about trying two strikers one big, one small and quick? I won't be surprised to see a return to 3 CBs as a reaction to saturday's disasterous and weak defensive display. I really want to see us come out of the dressing room pumped up and ready to compete but i'm doubful of Still and Stephens' motivational abilities right now. There needs to be more variation, tempo and ingenuity to our attacking play than what we have see so far this season.
I literally just explained why. We have too many youngsters and not enough experience. Baz isn’t vocal and commanding like Macca. Think the CBs need all the help they can get.
But there's plenty of players you can justify dropping for that reason way before you get to Bazunu. He's done very little wrong this season. The CB's are ****ing up so let's change the goalkeeper. Makes sense.
