I have been through most of these threads and posts today and couldn't put this into any one of the many threads on the subject. Firstly we have been decimated with injuries and there is now a possibility that we could lose Davies for a while. We have McGreggor, Dawson, Jelly and (not forgetting) Snodgrass all out injured. The defence is in disarray and do not appear to have any confidence in Harper. The Hudd and Livermore are 'off the boil' because there is nothing they can do with the ball when they get it. Hernandez has no positional sense whatsoever and (imo) lacks stamina. He was on the half way line and put Brady through down the left wing but then just ambled about whilst Brady found there was nobody to centre the ball to. The same applies to Elmo who always plays his heart out but but he has nobody to play to. Aluko was his usual self but cannot bring himself to knuckled down to team work. We were a shambles today but we have nothing up front so what can we expect. When we put an injury-free team out we will surely get it together but, again, we need somebody with presence up front who can score goals. I'll cop some flack for this but whoever got 10 million quid out of us for Hernandez deserves the Nobel Prize for conman-ship. The bloke is nowhere near a 10 million quid player. Steve Bruce and his selection team have a huge problem trying to sort out the pieces of this jig-saw puzzle and are trying to put pieces in that simply don't and won't fit. We will have to be patient fellers and hope that we can get an injury-free first team into operation in the very near future.
Are you seriously asking some of the fickle bastards on here to be patient? You've got no ****ing chance.
I really don't get the Hernandez haters ,Lionel messi would of done nothing with the service Abel got today , he has goals in him , the major factor were we lost today was the midfield huddlestone diame Livermore all piss poor , didn't get a foot in offered nothing either end of the pitch , not having a go at Bruce but also dropping Ben arfa against a team he should of excelled against for aluko , was the single worst decision today he needs to be loaned out to rediscover his form , bring back ince , showed far more promise than aluko had this season
I'm not hating Hernandez just stating the facts as I see them. I could be well wrong but I honestly cannot see a 10 million quid player. He has shown that he can put the ball in the net given supply but he doesn't appear to have any presence whatsoever for me. Some other posters have also similarly remarked and called him 'the invisible man'. This is just my opinion (and I know others will disagree) but a 10 million quid striker to me is someone who can use both feet, a bit of pace, ball control and anticipation. Hernandez (to me) seems to have little of these qualities. Lionel Messi is a gifted player who, if he isn't getting the ball, will go after it himself. Saurez was a similar player and so is Rooney who is "Mr Everywhere". These, of course, are players worth ten's of millions and I am not comparing Hernandez to these but for 10 million quid I think we could have expected a little more. However, to be fair to him, he is playing as a lone striker and he cannot perform those duties (at this level anyway) so I sympathize with bloke. Perhaps when we get the full team together he will show us what he can do. I hope so.
Couldnt rgue with any of that, but the one thing that makes my blood boil is lack of effort and not fighting for thr shirt. The majority did not have the stmache for the fight and that is a disgrace. We knew it was going to be a game of rolling up the sleeves and competing but we wernt up for it, thats is what disappoints me. They deserve to be infor training and hope they get put through themill, they deserve it.
Totally agree with the above. We showed no fight at all and I honestly could see one player who deserved an praise at all. I would fine the whole ****ing bunch a weeks wages.
Could have mentioned Jelavič in there, often ended up front on his own and always tried to make something happen rather than casually strolling around and waiting for the ball to come to him.
Silly ****s... if we had won yesterday, we would have been lauding about how we are a top half team and above Liverpool. Get a grip. If last year's champions are struggling to beat QPR, then you would understand a lot of the time the difference between success and failure at this level are small margins.
Apart from 'the defence is in disarray and has no confidence in Harper', which is a ridiculous comment, I agree with most of this.
Hernandez has shown glimpses of great potential and is worth persevering with. ATM it looks £10 million possibly pissed away but consider; He is playing against much better defenders than he ever has before. Many foreign strikers have taken 6 months or more to get the Premier League and have then been sensational. He has essentially had no support at all for the last few games, playing 5 against 1. The service he has received has been very poor or nonexistent. He has actually scored some good goals.
No he doesnt but just cos he's a big lad doesnt mean he's ablood and thunder player. Never aska player to do a job he's unsuited to do. QPR fans were calling Austin a month ago, not good enough etc etc. His turnaround has coincided with Zamora being played up top with him. Now Austins a big lad but he doesnt knock people about like Zamora does. Bruce's mistake was not signing another forward. We should never have signed all of Ramirez, HBA, and Ince. One of those should have been a proper centre forward.
For me, the big blame is on Bruce. We had no midfield at all, and we haven't for a while when playing Thudd, Livermore and Diame in a 352. That's alright if you want to nick a point at Arsenal or Liverpool - but you can't just sit back like that against Burnley. When in possession, we have 3CBs, Huddlestone drops into the back line with those 3CBs, Elmo/Brady are (at default) relatively deep (and well marked), Hernandez and Aluko are adrift. Diame can do something special (but he isn't a passer). Livermore isn't the best in possession anyway, but he has nobody else to pass to... So... that's our team in possession. What can you do with the ball? 1) Pass it along the back line endlessly. 2) Give it to Elmo/Brady and hope they beat 2 players and put a cross in. 3) Give it to Diame and hope he beats 3 players. 4) Long ball. That's all we have. There is no passing in midfield. Time to get Gaston and Quinn in there from the start of a game. Let us have some possession and build some moves. We can still be threatening on the wing, but we can feed the ball to the wingers in good positions, rather than making them run with it from the halfway line.
Ben Arfa over Ramirez and I'd agree with that. Another thing that annoys me is that we piss about with the ball in defence too much. It's good to see us trying to play out if trouble now and again, but some of the play just ends up back with Harper who punts in down field and often into the grateful possession of an opposition player. The wide man need more confidence when taking a man on, theyre instantly looking for the pass instead of just taking on their man.
Last season. We had 23 points on 1/1/14....We have 11 so far this..Therefore aim has to be at get 12 points from the next 8 games.... Spurs h, Man U a, Everton a, WBA h, Chelsea a, Swans h, Sunland a, Lester h. I think we'll get close....Therefore no panic just yet!!
Yes, I understand where you are coming from Chazz but Steve has no options open to him but to play Hernandez on his own up front. We don't have a "Bobby Zamora" or any other forward for that matter who take on that sort of role. Nobody anticipated Jelly (and the others) would be injured and cause this problem. I agree that it was a big mistake not signing another forward and would back it in that we will in January as when Jelly is back and fit there will be times (through tactics and/or minor injuries) that either he or Hernandez needs subbing and we have nobody capable of replacing them at the moment.
Precisely why some of us would have recalled Sagbo, he's not likely to score goals, but the chances of Hernandez scoring dramatically improves if he has another striker alongside him and Sagbo can hold the ball up well.
I think people are being incredible harsh on Hernandez. He's coming in a country, he's had fly off round the world twice and isn't really playing in his natural position. I agree with OLM about Sagbo. He may not score a lot of goals but he'll lead the line, chase defenders down and occupied one of the centre halfs.
I am amazed why, with all this talent Sagbo has, nobody has come in for him. The best offer (and only one I believe) was from Wolves who wanted him to just sit on the bench in case their star larker got injured.
All i would say is 1) don't make 3 subs all in a short space of time.....we might as well as had a player sent off yesterday due to all the subs coming on too early. 2) Tell our main defender and captain not to go trying stupid f*****g bicycle kicks until the final few minutes. Most of those players need to be docked their wages for that shambolic performance. I pity the poor souls paying £36 to watch that s***e.
