Pope 6 Gomez 6 Wiggins 7 Ben Haim 7 Bikey 8 Jackson 7 Cousins 6 Buyens 8 Gudmundsson 8 Vetokele 7 Tucudean 8 they did target pope and in his first full game for us he did show some nerves. i do think that both goals/shots should have been closed down earlier. there was nothing he could do for the first whilst the second was hopefully the one howler a season for us out of the way. gomez was brilliant going forward, but he shy's away from tackles and is slow to get back or into position when the play switches. hopefully this will be corrected at training as if he gets this right he'll be a class defender. his main duty is to defend after all. i'd have felt that with pope and gomez in from the start, as two youngsters, i'd have preferred wilson in instead to give a bit of stability. overall we kept composure and stuck to a passing game. as much as i love morrison, his instinct is to go long too often. for the first 10 mins i dont think derby had a kick and that was due to passing it to death. still room for improvement though. if our central midfield two can stick a challenge in and we sign delort as a alternative, i think we can stay on this current form.
Very impressed with the way we played last night against a very good Derby side. What I like about the way Peeters sets us up is that we are wanting to pass out from the back. We look solid at Centre half with Bikey and Ben Haim. Gudmundsson, Vetokele and Tucudean have given us a bit more cutting edge. Moussa also looks like an attacking midfielder with a goal threat. A special well done to Joe Gomez who gave a sterling display playing out of position at right back. This boy is just seventeen yet plays like a veteran. The downside for me was the goalkeeping position. Pope looked shaky last night and made an unfortunate mistake. We should definitely persevere with him as there is a good goalkeeper in there. I am yet to be convinced by Henderson, but I would like to see him in a few more games to decide. We also need to bring in a couple of new players before the window closes. We need a new centre forward and a midfielder. I have heard that both could be close.
Spot on, not too keen on Hendo and I'm sure Pope will come back bigger and stronger, don't get 16 clean sheets in a season without being a good keeper. Any idea of who the CF or the midfielder are dick?
The striker is Delort, two midfielders we are interested in are Jed Wallace of Portsmouth or Traore on loan. I have no names of any other midfielders we are interested in.
If we sign Wallace I could see him being a buy to loan back to Pompey kind of deal. Traore, not too bothered, team seems fine now, striker far more important.
Wallace is a good prospect, but already widely known as such (England u-19s, etc) so won't come cheap. I thought the idea was that we could pick up similar players cheaper on the Continent?
I agree we don't need another attacking midfielder like Wallace as a priority (though he could be bought and loaned back as an investment as CAFC TED says. But we don't have an automatic choice at LM. We have a string of players who can do a job there, but are better elsewhere (like Cousins, Jackson, Wiggins or Gudmundsson) or are not quite good enough yet (like Harriott, Holmes-Dennis, Daniell or Ansah). This means it is not a critical problem, but one that needs fixing before we mount a serious promotion challenge this season or next. Maybe Moussa will settle there when fully fit? Or maybe Holmes-Dennis will come through and save us some money? I hope his progress doesn't flatten off like Pigott, Harriott, Azeez and others. I would be more confident if Nathan Jones was still in charge of the u21s.
http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/19/evert...d-an-absolute-mare-against-leicester-4838968/ Keep your head up, Pope. It could have been worse...
Stanek looks like an outfield player having a go in goal. I didn't think Pope's error was any worse than Henderson's. Latter had a narrow angle to cover and clear view,
A bit late in the day, but I feel the compulsion to eat humble pie in public for forecasting we would lose to Derby. Congratulations to those of you who had more faith. A well-deserved win against a good team.
Humble Pie tastes fine. I ate mine for describing Trucudean as "useless" in public. I said a lot worse in private.
Humble pie is one of the finest dishes availible, though after the amount I generally get through in a season, I'm suprised there was much left for others. Part of my silence about this season is dietary:- fat git from too much pie.
