We played well. If we'd scored once we would have got 3 or 4. If I were a Palace fan, I'd be thankful we'd won after such a poor performance. I see Palace as being relegated & us staying up. If we keep playing good football, we'll start scoring often & soon. We didn't need the penalty calls. Livermore's shot looked like it took a deflection otherwise it was "in". I like Harper, so Mac's 3 game suspension is ok with me.
Spot ****ing on. It's alright saying we didn't create loads of clear cut chances but we created more than them and restricted them to bugger all in fact. it should have been enough to win the game. The OP's point was that contrary to what some people are saying, we weren't ****e at all.
I went with a neutral and he said we played well, were much the better team and passed the ball around we but didn't create enough chances. He also thought we should have had a penalty with the Long challenge. We couldn't see the McGregor incident as it was in the corner. 9 times out of 10 the Long challenge would have been a penalty and McGregor would have got a yellow. It seems like you can lunge aggressively at a player when the ball is in play and only get a yellow but giving him a light tap after such a lunge is a straight red.
The goal was lucky, and against the run of play, but they won the game in midfield. Our wingbacks played very high up but if I remember correctly (watching on an ok stream) the space left behind Rosenior was exploited for the goal. If teams deny us time on the ball, and press with energy high up the pitch, Huddlestone sitting so deep leaves so much space between midfield and attack we simply aren't going to create enough chances to comfortably win games. Jelavic and Long should (better!) be an improvement over the strikers we have had so far - although Sagbo gets an honourable mention for his effort - but throwing £14million at forwards isn't going to be enough on its own I don't think. We need to create more opportunities further up the pitch as well as having better strikers to convert any chances we may create. My heart dropped when I saw Macca hitting long straight balls over midfield to Jelavic. This is what Bruce did last year, and if we do that again we will most likely go down. Fortunately we have Aluko to come back, and if the Tom Ince rumour is true (I heard it in passing on the radio no idea if there is anything in it) he is another player who could possible create through the middle on the floor. Obviously Bruce has forgotten about 5000 times what I will ever know about football, but some of this stuff seems like basic common sense. Drop the 5 at the back - have a back four with the likes of A. Bruce sitting in front if needed and go from there. We needed to do it the second half of last season, we still need to do it now.
Just look at Chelsea, they had a load of chances against a poor West Ham but couldn't score, sometimes that happens in a game. I thought it was a pen on Long, the guy had his legs wrapped round him. The McGregor sending of was totally wrong,it was a yellow for both players, not a red for a poor attempt to retaliate.
No. Sitting in front of a back four, almost as a third centre back in that space between midfield and defence forwards seem to like to exploit. Thought that would be obvious seeing as I said 4 - 1 then go from there but whatever. Edit - I assume the 'Behave.' attitude is a result of the what I consider dubious distinction of having more than 32k posts on an internet forum.... Oh well...
Bruce is barely good enough to be playing centre back, he's nowhere near good enough to be playing in midfield. Behave is a humorous/sarcastic remark, it has nothing to do with my post count, I'm sure all five of your posts have been excellent(apart from the ****ing stupid one about playing Bruce in midfield, obviously).
I've just seen this - it looks very much as if Long 'fell down' (rather than being brought down by Gabbidon.....) http://theeaglesbeak.com/2014/01/steve-bruce-idiot/?
Whatever, **** me. Suppose I will see what this forum is like/whether I can be arsed. Clearly the important idea I wanted to get across was employing 4 at the back with a third centre back type player in front in the sort of space a Luis Suarez type probably like to exploit, but able to drop into a centre backs role if Rosenior on the right or Figueroa (who is far better with Brady in front, rather than trying to play as a wingback) push on, causing the current centre backs to need to cover the fullbacks position (as Chester has struggled with imo since coming back - clearly it is asking a lot of him with the step up too). In turn this allows Huddlestone to play further forward, we can have Elmo on the right/Brady on left, then whatever you chose further forward. There is less space between where our creative players have the ball and our forwards, which hopefully would mean we dont resort to the long ball tactics we adopted last season, seemed to adopt against Palace, and will most likely send us down. If you want to fixate on Alex Bruce though be my guest.
100% not a penalty in my eyes long begins to fall into gabbidon before any contact is even made and he causes gabbison to actually fall
the mcgregor incident, okeefe SHOULD have 100% been atleast booked for that challenge, he was late as **** the referee couldn't control the game
I bet he is pissed off getting sent off and not actually kicking him into the stands. It's like being accused by your wife if having an affair when you are not having one, you may as well have had the enjoyment of having one, if you are going to get accused.
He did kick out a little so I think I'd be more like being accused of shagging another bird yet you'd only given her a stiff fingering. You may as well gone the full hog & battered her flaps accordingly. Punishment's the same.
Would that be a stiff little fingering? [video=youtube;qLo7z50Tt2g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLo7z50Tt2g[/video]
