The loss of Agustien from midfield changed the game. He was influential first half and didn't look too happy about slotting in at RB. Just shows our lack of strength in depth. Both he and Graham were excellent yesterday and are two of the few to come out of that game with any credit. But my main beef is Rodgers. How on earth anyone who professes to have an intelligent footballing brain can think that Moore is a better player than Dobbie defies belief. No guts, no desire and easily muscled off the ball. When our wingers aren't firing you need someone who is willing to take the ball through the centre of the park, support Graham, create chances and possibly have a pop themselves. Moore is not that man.
Musty, I have been screaming for Dobbie to be given a run. I don't mean a cameo off the bench or a sporadic appearance when Buck runs out of options, I mean a RUN. Players need games to get up to speed; to find a vein of form and to gel in a match situation with team mates. It's no good Buck giving Dobbie, or anyone else, a few minutes here and there only to bench them again because they failed to turn in a match winning performance. I suspect that Buck is a very methodical manager who plots his strategy almost like painting by numbers. He likes his players to retain shape and be where he has detailed them to be at any stage of the game. All well and good but that removes flair and innovation from the players. It can stop them from playing what's in front of them. It might be that Dobbie is too much of a maverick for Buck's liking. We all know that the Scot is a stubborn animal from previous experience - perhaps why Sousa shipped him out. But there's no denying that this guy could offer what we have all been demanding - a player from midfield who will get in and around the penalty area and get off a shot. His forward forays will divide the defenders' attention and allow Graham a little more freedom to try and cash in. What is an absolute certainty based on recent games is that the tip-tap play of our central middies has been sussed and is no longer working. So, what to do? Well, Gower is resting; Leon is needed for his scavenging and ball pinching; Kemy is starting to grow into his role and provides muscle, which leaves Joe Allen..... Yes, that leaves Joe Allen and, shock! horror!! blasphemy!!! to some, I would leave Joe Allen out to bring in Dobbie to do the job that Allen is patently unable to do - at this point in time. I appreciate that some of our fluency will go by the wayside but, of late, what fluency? It might not be a bad thing if we weren't able to pussy-foot about so much in the middle of the park and encourage us to release the wide players and the strikers a lot sooner. Let's face it, by the time Gower, Allen, Britton and whoever have finished waving their collective arses about in midfield, the opposition have all got behind the ball, together with the team bus, their supporter's cars and anything else they cared to use. They certainly usually have all the time in the world to do what they want. A rest might do Joe some good anyway. He's a talented lad but right now he's not providing what we need - some rapid go-forward. The same applies to the other middies but they do offer other things. I appreciate that many will disagree but we have to do something because I am getting some nasty deja vu about our performances. If we don't snap out of this rut, and soon, I only see a long slide back to the Championship. And wouldn't the Bluebirds just love that!!!
it wont make a blind difference if dobbie plays or not, it will be the same old nearly men all the time, the truth is we are not good enough whoever takes to the field. one of our best players yesterday was danny and that says it all if he is our best player and we still drop points at home. Brendan says it feels like 2 points dropped...how many more times is he going to come out with that comment.... we played a team that is sliding down the table at a rate of knots and we were clueless at anyone scoring with all the possession we had in the first half. we should have had the game won in the first half the amount of waste chances we had. qpr should have won the game in the second half as they created and out played us, they are one of the poor sides in recent months and we could not match them in any department except for vorm, god we are so lucky to have him as the rest are clueless and danny our best player huffs and puffs like a lower league striker and that sums up the side boys against men like a FA cup tie where the underdog tries their best but usually comes in second because the reality is we are punching well above our weight......like i said Danny was our best player and we still drop points at home......god help us against spurs and villa if we dont change our pretty unproductive way we play....
Rodgers substitutions defy belief on times, and yesterday he cost us 2 points, but what has worried me, was his brain storm with putting Agustien at right back, when we had Monk on the bench, Monk could have gone into his usual position, with Caulker on the right, but he chose to weaken our midfield, by removing Agustien, leaving Britton and Allen, the two smallest in the side to cope, and let's not get carried away with Moore, he's no midfielder, it was a substitution that gifted a share of the points to QPR, I don't think there is one Jack yesterday, that didn't long for Dobbie to come on, I must admit that I'm fast running out of patience with Moore, his body language on the pitch is zero, and I feel we should ship him out, another Baggies wast of space, if you ask me, if Rodgers don't wise up second half of the season, he'll get some serious criticism from me, the PL is hard enough as it is, without our managers schoolboy errors!......................... please log in to view this image
I'd say turn the record over 99 , but it's Phil on the other side Lol !! . Looks like Donnelly might be coming our way !! P.S. .. Just funnin Phil , hope you had a good Christmas .
No problems Breezy, yes very pleasant break thanks, with the boys home from school and UNI, my youngest is into Harry Potter, so I've been at Hogwarts most of the week!.............. Back to footy, this isn't the first time this season that Rodgers substitutions have cost us the game, I just don't get, putting Agustien at right back, when we had a defender (Monk) on the bench, it would have been far better to have brought Monk on and moved Caulker to right back, not to mention weakening an already struggling midfield, and as for Moore, he's no midfielder, 2 points thrown away unnecessarily yesterday!................. please log in to view this image
Seems like after the fact , players win games & managers lose them . I'll reserve judgement on Buck's thought process based on ... not knowing the reasoning involved . Could be something as simple as not wanting to risk Monk (if he's still carrying a knock ) in this game & end up with Williams standing alone against the Spurs ... or a hundred other reasons !!
Breezy we are talking 15 minutes to see out a game!! If Monk is on the bench, then there should be no question, regarding his ability to perform, even our players are questioning this decision, and I fully agree with Agustien's call on the BBC today............... please log in to view this image
Maybe Monk was only coming on in case of a CB problem . Hindsight .. ok Lets say Agustien stayed in his midfield role & Caulker moved to the right side & Monk came in . When the keeper kicked the ball up field , Agustien would have been nowhere near it . Now who would you rather there in this scenario for last line of defense .. Williams & Caulker or Williams & Monk . P.S. Williams should have tried to head the ball & even after that didn't work out he should have kept running hard & he might have got a foot on the ball after it was tucked past Vorm ... totally eased up his run
It was a long ball forward, if Leon had left the ball and it bounced over the defence into Mackie's run, we'd all be saying that you should never leave a ball bounce. He rightfully tried to deal with the ball and it didn't pay off - sickeningly unlucky. I thought we were awesome first half, and I felt completely comfortable up until their goal. Even after the goal, I still felt that we looked the most dangerous with our pace. QPR did knock it about quite nicely in the second half though. One last memory was Dyer breaking out of our half with Sinclair on the other side. He pulled up his run 15 yards into their half (scared to take the defender on), ignored a through ball to Sinclair, ignored a square through ball to a rare advancing midfielder, before trotting backwards for 10 yards and tapping it off to Agustien/Caulker (not 100% sure who). We've got pace to burn on the counter attack, but we've got absolutely no clue how to use it. Many of our wonder goals over the past few years (especially last season, and the League 1 title winning season) were from quick counter attacks. Short fast passes on the floor, and within 5/6 passes we've gone from the edge of our box to scoring a goal. Where has that ability gone from one season to the next?? We were awesome at counter attacking last year!
Sorry to invade your board lads, but this is a 150k player, or thereabouts. He does look talented, but reading through it, a bidding war maybe goes to 300k or so, he openly states he liked the club, town and your gaffer, and he's more likely to play if he signs for you, initially at least. It's all well and good saying his club are morally wrong, but if he has even half a good season, he's worth minimum 1 million straight off. Seems a decent punt, the lad looks a very decent prospect indeed. Calculated risk, surely?
CB's deal with plays like Britton's header every game . I was a little disappointed ( but not much , Williams is great ) in Williams's indecision on whether to head it or not & then became a spectator after that , when he might have had another say on the play .
Brendan's subs are a bit confusing to say the least and him and only him knows why he makes these decisions, leon was one of our better midfielders but sadly it was his soft header that led to the goal, as far as the penalty shout on Danny well it was a stone cold penalty and it looks as if the ref felt guilty with our goal as the ball hit danny on the arm and should have been disallowed even though it was a great finish.....the game was a bit boring watching our midfield and defenders passing the ball between themselves all the time, the atmosphere went dead with sheer frustration and boredom....amateurish someone said.....
It appears that Donnelly has agreed to terms but the club will keep it quiet till pen meets paper ... One for the future & a player Buck really wanted .. well done to those involved !!
Rory as we already knew is not part of the solution for this season so im happy we are taking a chance on the lad and hope he can come up to standard for next season......assuming he joins of course as nothing is definite until he signs on the dotted line.
