It's been very quiet after Tuesday's encounter, although I suspect most of us were left speechless after the last 20 minutes of that diabolical performance. It was like amateur hour ... winning the ball and then giving it straight back or just booting it upfield to no one. Absolutely pathetic. I was surprised how ordinary Boro were. I was expecting better from a team sitting near the top of the table. The fact that we hardly laid a glove on them shows how far we've fallen. How we need a KDH type player to knit that midfield together ....... someone who can hold the ball, not give it away cheaply, win tackles, create chances and score goals. Can someone explain to me why Soumare has fallen out of favour again. He was actually looking interested and winning challenges a few matches ago but is now back on the bench. It's not easy to form partnerships on the pitch when the team changes every game. And the team will be forced to change if we keep having players booked for stupid fouls. Absolutely hate seeing us having to resort to such gamesmanship because we are so disorganised. Are there any positives out there?
I gave up watching at about 60 minutes on Tuesday. Like you say, there were aimless balls played forwards to no one in particular, when defenders had unchallenged headers they headed them straight to the opposition when they could have controlled the ball. Fatawu seems out of sorts at the moment which doesn’t help us and our strikers probably won’t score this side of Christmas. One bright spot was Ben Nelson being recalled. I believe our approach this season should have been to have a team that had a healthy quota of young or academy players and had a two or three year plan to achieve promotion. If we achieve promotion then we’ll have team with potential and a sense of togetherness. Trying to go up straight away means we are persevering with the old faithful of Vestegaard, Faes, Ayew, Soumare, Decordova Reid and co, who if we do go up will bring us straight back down like last year as we won’t spend any money. The younger players will be another couple of years older and become disenchanted with the club. I’d love to have seen a team with Nelson, Aluko, Stolarczyk, Fatawu, Monga, Alves, Page and more, with some old heads like Winks, Mavididi, Pereira. What happened to Michael Golding? This season is turning into a frustrating watch and I don’t think it’s going to get much better any time soon, hopefully I’m wrong. Boro were very ordinary like you say, as were Coventry when we played them, and they’re gaining plaudits from all angles. This shows how poor the league is at the moment and with a bit of a spark we could gain some momentum and start moving back up the league. Saturday is an interesting game, Norwich are on a wretched run at the moment at home, if they beat us then Cifuentes may start feeling the heat.
Half time stats at Carrow Road suggest we should win by 0.51 goals to 0.1. Bring it on! Wonder if anyone will still be awake by the end of the game.
A wins a win ... but some selections are still baffling for me - just hope Ben Nelson's injury isn't too bad...
A welcome win against Stoke, but the stats don't make comfortable reading. And another 6 yellow cards to add to the 6 picked up against Middlesbrough.
Don't hold your breath! he did take that goal very well, but JJ set him up with a great chance early in the second half and unfortunately normal service was resumed!
Interested to see what Cifuentes does against saints at the back and front. Would like to see Aluko get a game. He has to be tested at some time and would rather he gets a look than we risk Ricky going twice in four days or a back three. Agree with Jamba, Daka did miss an easy chance but he is far more preferable to Ayew or Carranza
We've not really given Caranza any decent service, to be fair to the lad ... but Ayew is no front line striker ... Hope that Daka can now go on a run ... ... and yes Aluko should be given a chance ... also where is Brandon Cover now?- he had a really good spell out on loan at Port Vale ...
Very peed off! how i rate the players tonight! Bergovic No help no surport 5 Choudhury Captain {your having a laugh}4 Faes Thinks he his too good for the club! sooner he his gone the better for everyone 2 Vestergaard Playing against his old club- can see why they sold him especially when we put 9 past them 3 Aluko Young player lot to learn must get better 1 Winks will be gone soon! 3 Skipp 20 + mill Your having a laugh 2 Fatawu No show 2 James Will not stay and be gone after his loan period 4 Mavididi No show 2 Daka Usual Standard did not get his kit dirty so 1 Can't be arsed with the subs.
WTF was he thinking taking off the 3 most attacking threats (however poorly they were playing) to bring on Soumare, Ayew and de Cordova-Reid when we are 3-0 down? ... damage limitation? ... coz it ain't sparking any dramatic turnaround in this life... had to bring Monga and SilkoThomas on ... baffling ... huge shake up required in January... gotta get rid of Faes, Vestergaard, Kristiansen, Winks, Skipp, Ayew, de Cordova-Reid and Daka ...
I genuinely feel this season is going to be a struggle. We’re nearly in December now and can anyone recall a game where we played well? Maybe the Swansea and Birmingham games are the best we’ve played but other than those, even the games we’ve won we’ve hardly played well. There’s no one with a creative mind in the midfield, the strikers are all practically useless and the defenders are slapstick to say the least. Cifuentes doesn’t strike me as having any idea how to inspire the players so something needs to change, whether it be replacing him or bringing in new players. As we’ve seen we’re practicing austerity when it comes to our transfer policy and I don’t see the board sacking the manager as we’d need to compensate him and his staff then hire a new management team. The board will probably carry on with their eyes shut hoping things will pick up, but from where I’m standing I can’t see much improvement any time soon.
