my 1st thought tonight is how unlucky we where, i thought we deserved to win 3 or 4 and played some great stuff, but as i drove home i started to think how familiar all the after match interviews etc sounded.. tonight and against donny, we must have made between 10-20 good chances and scored 0..at what point do you stop saying your unlucky and change it to, the attackers just arent good enough at what there paid to do, and at what point do you give jay simpson a go, and at what point do you look at the loan market? this isnt me criticising, just genuinely asking.
Poor in the final third altogether. We get the ball forwards, have a chance to make something, then stop and pass the ball back again. We've nearly turned back into an NP team, 2 strikers please.
best game seen at the kc for some time---ok we didn't score but neither did Brighton who are on a roll. feel for the players after creating so many chances but their keeper played well and their defence also made goal line clearances-must have learnt since their game against the pool
With ten minutes to go and nil nil there was no movement to bring on King. I know he is very raw but he was an option. If NP also thinks he is too raw then Homer Simpson should have been on the bench, and brought on. In saying that I believe we are still in with a good chance of the play-offs, OK I think we were unlucky and didn't score but we are in 8th place - 2 points behind the play-off place. Once the goals start to flow then I believe we will charge up the league into the top 6. NB will stick with the squad he's got.
I think today it was both. Generally we don't score enough goals, as we all know. I don't think Fryatt's the problem though. Stewart was unlucky with his 1 on 1 but should of scored the earlier one for me. All he had to do was give it some height/power and it was in. Honestly don't think Simpson is the answer, if we're going to stick with the 4-2-3-1 (which we will) Fryatt is the best at being the 1. We just don't have goals all over the pitch like we did in 07/08. Back then we had Turner, Garcia, Deano, Campbell, Folan etc all chipping in with goals. Now we just have Koren and Matty. I can't see us bringing anyone in, we've just got to hope we keep getting a goal.
Stewart creates his chances via his movement and creates chances for others. He just needs to get one goal and i think they will come flooding in, well hopefully. I had the exact same thought and something has to change somewhere, but what? It's so hard to figure out what to change as everything is working with this system bar scoring goals, and its not just Fryatt who isn't scoring its the whole team bar Koren whos goals to game ratio for his position is brilliant.
I was thinking the exact opposite of this. We had plenty of chances but the only one where I thought the 'keeper really made a good save was the Fryatt one-on-one in the first half when it eventually went wide for a corner. If the 'keeper had made loads of good saves you could say it was luck but it wasn't. Equally we must have put about 15 crosses into their box and each one was cleared away unchallenged. Their defence wasn't exactly heroic, they just cleared simple unchallenged crosses away. That isn't luck, that's **** strikers. As I said after Donny, drawing 0-0 when you've dominated the game isn't a massive problem. It happens to every team. Thing is, it doesn't happen every single time. Watching City games it's obvious we aren't going to score once you get into the second half. It seems like unless we get an early goal we can't score at all. No matter how many one on ones we create, no matter how much running McLean and Fryatt get through to create chances, and no matter how many set pieces and crosses we make, we still can't score. Of course the strikers aren't good enough, it's been going on far too long to be luck. The thing that makes it really frustrating is that we have the core of a promotion side. We move the ball as well as anyone and defend better than anyone, on top of that we have a great goalie but we just lack literally one player in the team who can strike a ball cleanly. If we had that we'd be top 2. As it is we've thrown away our playoff position and now we're nothing more than upper mid-table. Simpson deserves a chance and if he isn't good enough then we need to dip into the loan market. It's been going horribly wrong in front of goal sine the first game of the season when we scored 0 at home, and since then we've scored 0 at home far far too many times. I can't see how anyone could possibly defend the finishing of our strikers this season.
yep Simmo for me on bench King hasn't shown anything when he's come on, mcLean not a top 6 striker, Matty's playing well, Cam needs a goal or two he'll be a great player but still young.
My issue is we A) Have nothing on the bench to change it around B) We do create an awful lot of goal scoring opportunities, that are squandered because players take an extra touch, lose composure C) If we don't get promoted this season, then some of our players could conceivably become hot prospects for teams that do get promoted. No time better than the present to press ahead with the challenge of promotion, but I feel without reinforcements in the striker area, we are well short. The fact we convert one chance in 20 tells its own story. I thought McClean was excellent when he came on, with that cameo he should have started. He made a terrific tackle, hit the bar with a difficult volley, the overhead kick he made in the dying seconds he hit too well! If he'd have snatch or scuffed it either side it'd have been a goal. Onwards and upwards!
It is not about names and performances, it is all about us not having a player who can play as a striker at this level. We will bleed the season away finding excuses, but it is like a brilliant shag but no duff! It's not the lack of goals that is pissing me off, but the lame excuses trhat we are supposed to accept. But, of course, we are fans and know **** all!. Brighton managed to make us look good and bad all in the same breath! Or did we do that ourselves?
my opinion anyway cairney was not up to it think it would have been better to have oli on the bench--king has shown nothing when he has come on so maybe would be better to have simpson on the bench-- doesnt matter what we think barmby is the BOSS--this is all our opinions
Listening to Barmby on the way home from the game and its clear he is a manager that wont change his mind and its not just this game .He is very loyal to the players but could it back fire if the players he is backing to come good and start scoring fails.Games are coming thick and fast and our bench is so thin i think our nicky should go into the loan market.Even if its only a back up plan for games like last night on top just cant score.
i cant comment on last nights performance as i was at work and listened on the radio . But one thing thats glaringly obvious is that on 't radio the clean sheet is hardly getting any praise . Even when the radio bloke mentions equalling a 104 year old record Barmby goes nonchalantly" is it ? uh right!" Nothing else , christ i remember when nilling the other team was a basis for building a team. City are one tough team to crack , we have been like that for a season and a half (give or take the odd performance) What is frustrating is the lack of capitalising on our own teams strengths (heaven forbid i use Burnsies accurate boxing analogy though ) Another problem i see and have always seen is that Barmby is untouchable , so his decision makings become unquestionable , even the media feel awkward in asking genuinely obvious questions If someone was to ask why Simpson isnt featuring in even the squad ? will we a sane and sensible reply ?? I do however back Barbys stance on how he is backing his squad though - its the right way if sometimes it feels a bit ostridge-esque
I have said it once and i'll say it again until we start putting the ball in the net and beating teams we don't have a cat in hells chance of making the playoffs.
I thought McClean was good when he came on. Woke the rest of the team up, there where times when I actually wondered who it was who had played on Sunday
Seems to me that this goal shortage has got to all the players. It seems it has become all in thier minds and the only thing that will solve this is by giving someone a bloody good hiding. The problem with it is that the longer it goes on the worse it will get.
When you consider who we are playing and the time frame in which we are playing them, then next 7 games look our toughest of the season so far. Blackpool A, Leeds H, Ipswich H, Cardiff A, Palace A, Southampton H, Lesta A. Take 10 points from these games and it leaves us on 61 points with 8 games to go. 8 games of which 6 are very winnable. Portsmouth A, Coventry H, Millwall A, MâBoro H, Watford A, Barnsley H, Forest H, West Ham A. It all depends on how many points we will need for a play-off place (Obviously)! Over the last 9 years the lowest needed has been 70 points and the highest 75. This means we would need to pick up between 9-14 points from our last 8 games to match past seasons play off points. Itâs do-able but itâs going to be tight! Our last 7 games have yielded 12 points. The last 7 before that also gave us 12 points. Continue in that kind of form and we will end up on around 75 points.
