Thing #1: Our attack is absolutely bloody appalling. The number of games we've dominated and not scored in the last 2-3 years is just ridiculous. God knows what the reason is, we signed Fryatt and McLean to rectify this which had no effect, we signed Adebola which had no effect, we've now signed Prossy, Aluko etc. and brought in Simpson from the cold, even tried Koren as a striker, our entire team has been overhauled in the last few years really and yet the problems are exactly the same as when we first came back into this division. We played 4-4-2 for a long time, then 4-2-3-1 for half a season and now 3-5-2 for a while, we've tried everything to find some way to get us to score a bloody goal now and again and nothing has changed. I find it amazing just how bad we are at converting good positions into goals. We get into positions where a midfielder will make an interception on halfway and we suddenly have 4 against 2, yet I don't even get excited that we might score a goal any more, I fully expect us to somehow mess it up and let them get 10 men behind the ball before inevitably losing it without even having a shot, this happened several times today. For example when Meyler went clean through on the right side and went striding into their area, waited for someone to catch him up and then tried a cross which was blocked. He should have been far enough clear to be shooting himself but he didn't even managed to get the next pass off. When their keeper fell over in the box in stoppage time and the ref mercifully (but correctly) didn't give him a soft free kick, again I didn't even expect us to get a shot off and sure enough we didn't even come close. It's an absolute piece of piss defending against us. We must have had 60% possession today and loads more chances and good positions than them and we didn't come close to scoring. That happens to every team, but you actually expect it with us. We play well and don't score more often than we play well and do score. It's an absolute joke how bad we are at attacking. When we do create the chances most of our attacking players can't even strike a ball so it just goes harmlessly wide. Koren and Rosenior's pathetic second half efforts today summed that up, but again the depressing thing is that it wasn't anything our of the ordinary, that's what we always do. I'm not bothered in the slightest that we're out of the cup, but I'm immensely pissed off that we didn't score (or come close) yet again. Thing #2: We lost a cup game today even though we only made one change, we also picked up an injury to Bruce in a pointless game, you'd think that this showed exactly why it's bollocks that so many people get all upset when we make changes in a cup game, but I noticed someone on Humberside still managed to make the (ridiculous) point that we lost today because we made too many changes against Orient . Thing #3: McShane. This is doing my head in now. Can anyone tell me what he does that's any better than anyone else? He had another decent game today, but he wasn't anywhere near man of the match, he was decent just the same as Chester and Bruce were but nothing more. Meyler and Brady stood out to me, both did far, far more than McShane. It's stupid that McShane has become our most over-rated player from being someone that everyone loved to hate.
Mcshane has always and will be a sub par player. People are quick to forget but he always puts in a shift, (i'll grant him that) in meaningless games or coming off the bench... suddenly everyone forgets the millions of **** ups he's had... he then gets a start in the next game and concedes a penalty or some **** like that. He is Mr clumsy by excellence. The point I'm making is that he has no consistency. As soon as he does relatively well, all is forgiven and hope is back/// only for him to crush it with some sliced clearance or own goal in the following game. I really don't get it. Maybe it's because he's a nice guy or maybe everyone here is irish but his mistakes far outweigh his good performances. People have been far more forgiving with him than anyone else wearing black and amber. It was the same back then people, don't be fooled! remember when he came on loan from sunderland under brownie? Did great for 2/3 games and then we went and signed him... surprise surprise he played like a right donkey following that. I don't want him starting the game in front of anyone else because in my opinion he is our worst defender. A backup player for injuries or what not...sure but anything else, NO WAY. RANT OVER
I didn't go today so I can't really comment on the game. However, I do know what you mean about converting chances. The way I see it; any great team needs great strikers. We have a great team, we do not have a single great striker. (Maybe Fryatt but he's injured so pointless conversation) Aluko for me is a winger, he's the best we have so naturally you will put him up front but his strengths make him a winger. Look at the team we went up with in this league. Yes okay, perhaps the quality in the midfield and defence was perhaps not as good as the current team. But Windass and Campbell were strikers. would you ever consider playing them in midfield? No. For me that is what we are missing. I Actually think that the best formation for us would be ----------------Stockdale---------------- Rosy -------Hobbs--------Chester -------(need a player) Elmo ------Korren --------Meyler --------( Aluko) --------(need two new strikers)-----------
Agree with what you're saying there Beverley, but I think Brady is one of our best players at the moment and he needs to be in there somewhere. Maybe left back? With the players we've got though (Aluko being injured) I don't think we have the players for a 4-4-2 but I'd probably get some wingers signed up next summer to allow us to play with a bit more width, that's something we lack. With only one player out wide, you know that whenever the ball is played to, say, Rosenior out wide he will quickly be closed down and have to go backwards. It just seems a bit easy to slow us down and send us backwards lately. With Elmo in the team it's a bit better because he can take a man on.
There is nothing wrong with the quality of the players in the midfield. It's the type of players. Quinn, Meyler, Koren, Aluko, are all very attacking. We need another Ashbee to boss the middle of the park, doesn't even have to make a single contribution to our attack, we have enough talent for that just needed to scare the **** out of the oppo, cause hassle in the middle etc... more importantly though we lack a leader for me. Edit: It was like the nick Barmby problem though, he never really fit into our formation due to his style of play and as a result the whole team often suffered when we tried to play him. Even though obviously he was a class player. With Elmo now out of the picture, we will not replace his quality with another wingback so for me we have to abandon the formation now.
Bruce hardly sounded all that optimistic about him coming back. Simply said we would call them up in a few days and see if he was available to come back on loan.
We should sign the bastard permanently. I'm told by the same person who rubbished the Egyptians coming here that (just as some had speculated) they just want us to sign him permanently but we don't want to. That's the worrying thing for me. Why aren't we prepared to buy one of our best players who wouldn't even cost that much?
Thing 1: Think we can all agree, the issue is its not even one manager whose struggled we have struggled under Brown, Dowie, Pearson, Barmby and Bruce. My view is we need to take someone young and nurture them and admit it will take time, or look at the lower leagues. Personally their are very few people like Le Fondre or Austin etc.. around currently so we are struggling. The problem is every club wants a striker, not many want to sell one. 2. Don't listen to Humberside. 3. I don't get it either, admittedly he did okay today going forward, but do people forget that positioning and marking is far more important, which Mcshane yet again did fairly poorly with and got turned numerous times.
Unless MON has had a change of heart, Elmo will be back. Without him and his like we're fooked. Today no pace down the flanks, no one got behind their back four and we struggled to break down a poor Championship side. That said it was only the Cup - just ask Norwich.
What sticks out to me is that our form dipped noticeably as soon as the transfer window opened. Almost like a sign that it is imperative to sign goal scorers NOW. We addressed the keeper (and mids) but why can a deal for a striker not get done??
For me it boils down to a lack of experience, Even someone like Meyler, he's a kid in terms of appearances, both goalkeepers have made very few appearances for their age, I compared to Myhill and it was almost half. the likes of Meyler, Brady, Chester, Simpson, Aluko are all very inexperienced. The players we have in the squad, the natural leaders, Dawson and Rosy don't seem to get a game. (I can see why just saying). I think we are a bit unbalanced, Don't get me wrong, I think it's great we are bringing in such talent, and if we can keep hold of them I have no doubt they will be excellent signings but we lack the likes of Windass, Pederson, Barmby, Ashbee, Brown, Dawson, and Myhill, who were all well experienced and the backbone of our team when we went up.
Agree ISTPLT, it's really frustrating the amount of games where we just cannot convert our chances. Final Score today was a perfect example, with the BBC commentator saying we just couldn't turn our dominance or chances into goals. In the end, we only had ourselves to blame by not taking our chances. With a manager of Bruce's ilk in charge I'm hopeful we can get a couple of addition up front in by the time we play Millwall next weekend, but our inability to convert our chances really has to end.
Re: Thing #1 More frustrating than half a ****, ain't it. January has been awful for us though. I thought we were going to spend some money on a forward or two. If Man United and Sunderland were happy to let Brady and Meyler go permanently, I'm sure they'd have been happy to let them sign on loan for the rest of the season provided we cover their wages. That way, we could have saved the £4m we spent on them (about £1.5m more than it should have been) and invested it in signing a couple of strikers. I'm thankful DJ Campbell isn't signing though, as I can assure you that he would have proved to be an expensive mistake. I don't think there were many of the 4-against-2 situations you mention today. I saw two or three 'attacks' were Koren came forward with the ball and Proschwitz was the only other player in the opposition half. Meyler, Oli, etc all just ambled along watching, making no effort at all to get in a decent position. Football fans look at individual matches in two ways: firstly, in the same way as moves in a game of chess - a 'match' is but a cog in the machine that is the 'season' - there are tactics, form ebbs and flows and ultimately the winner is the one who consistently makes the right moves (i.e. wins games). On the other hand, people like me are more concerned about the way in which individual matches pan out. People like me don't come home from away matches at Peterborough saying, "well a point's a point, and it could be the one that gets us up", or home games with Barnsley saying, "well I for one would rather see us get promoted to the Premier League and get thrashed every week than attempt to win a Cup". People like me come away from such matches questioning why we can't defend, why we can't score goals, and why the football itself has turned to ****. We want to be entertained, and that means SCORING F*CKING GOALS. I wonder how many extra season tickets the club shifted after those three games against Bolton, Millwall and Leeds, when they told the world that we were playing Total Football because the team managed to do what they're paid to and put the round thing in that net thing. Re: Thing #2 I think it just shows that we're ****e. Nothing more, nothing less. To get beaten-to-nil at home by one of the worst teams in our division is embarrassing. Obviously, though, we shouldn't complain because we were really, really **** just over a decade ago Let's all just clap-along as we stagnate Re: Thing #3 He's been better than Chester and Bruce recently. Bruce is an awful defender, and everybody ****s over him when he's ****ing gash. Chester has had a poor season, but we know he's capable of more.
I don't understand why Bruce is playing, when we have Hobbs and Faye available. Only joking, obviously I'm fully aware of why he's playing.
Because his dad is the manager, Bruce is a brilliant manager but when he starts playing his son over our best defender and a premier league experienced defender it really pisses me off. Faye and Hobbs should replace McShane and Bruce and the armband should be given back to Hobbs as Koren is not fit to lead as captain. Koren is a good player but once Hobbs get that armband back our team will be more disciplined.
Bruce did ok as usual today - Hobbs has had a long layoff and hardly covered himself in glory against Wednesday, it was just the FA Cup and it gave Bruce Snr an opportunity to rest him again after playing a few games in succession so soon after his injury...
