...but what we really needed was a quality centre half (or two). Some real positives from yesterdays game. Green had a good game, Fabio had his best game yet (going forward at least), Bosingwa looked quality, Granero looks a class act (no left foot though), Faurlin played a solid seventy minutes and will only get better, Park worked his socks off, SWP even made a few of his trademark runs and Zamora and Johnson worked tirelessly for each other. Hell even Dyer had a fifteen minute run and looked positive. But we are not going to win games letting teams like City have as many chances as we did and when,when, when are we going to stop gifting the ball to the opposition when our whole team are streaming forward! There are better things to come from this squad but I am sure most of you will agree that we missed out not getting Dawson or someone of that ilk. I wonder if Hughes is planning on playing Mbia as a central defender as it doesnt seem to make sense having yet another holding midfielder in the squad. One other point looking at other threads and posts about the substitutions. At 2-1 down with ten minutes left we were in the ascendancy, at that point Hoilett should definitely have come on to give them even more problems. We let them off the hook yesterday even though they should have been out of sight already!
Hughes has already said he intends to play Mbia at the back mate...although he also indicated he is aware he a is a good DM as well and would have no worries about playing him there either.
Ok,he lost Decko for the goal,but I think Nelson is a big improvment. Seemed to organise the back four.
well qpr did try to get a centre half, problem was none of the players we wanted want anything to do with qpr
Who knows? Nelsen looked very much like what the centre of defence has been missing and with M'Bia now available and likely to start in place of Ferdinand I can see us shipping less goals and freeing the midfield to be at their creative best. Granero is a class above and linked so well with Faurlin. When Ale is fully fit and those 2 are firing then I believe we will see one of the best CM pairings outside the top 4. Dyer not only looked fit but also looked to have rolled back the years to something approaching his best form, was very good to see. Fabio got some important tackles in to improve his defensive game and Bosingwa showed glimpses of the quality of player he is. Park looked much better out wide than in the centre and even SWP had a reasonable game, though I would still rather Taarabt or Hoillet in his place. Johnson and Zamora looked to work well together, which is no surprise seeings as they know each other's games inside out but I have to say that Cisse needs to start whenever we play 2 up top, for me anyway. All in all a very decent second half showing, the best 2 chances fell to Nelsen when just about anybody else may have tucked one or the other away and after surviving what was a pretty poor opening 15 minutes got ourselves back in it to the extent that I came away feeling we were unlucky not to get a draw at the end. Some very promising signs and when this team are all on the same page we will be more than comfortable long before the season ends IMO
Massive plus point. I know it's a huge if but IF he can stay fit for a reasonable length of time then we will have a very good squad player for relatively little outlay.
