Goalscorers always go hiding only to pop up and score. It is what makes them special. Cisse does it for us. A good striker will fit the majority of systems. Sort out a viable system that works with what you have first.
See Cest, I agree we are way short and we have failed to be read in time, I feel that we are already at least a point down, that's least I hoped for yesterday, actually, it's what I expected, a draw. What I can't understand is the last part. Coates, while far from perfect, was immaculate last few games and absolutely was worth signing for the fee, and absolutely has shown he is 'good enough' for the league. Kaboul is absolutely an improvement on Brown and O''Shea, he's been a proven and capable Premier League player, with France caps. Matthews I don't believe you have seen play to make a judgement, or barely seen play, yet are writing him off. I've seen him in the flesh for Celtic v Inter Milan and he was very impressive. To just assume these players aren't good enough is not right or fair. And sadly it's what half the stadium does constantly. It's not the way. We are short, absolutely, but the players we have brought in have made sense either financially, or to cover a shortfall in numbers, and to be slating them is utterly ridiculous at this point.
Absolutely spot on. Matthews has only played half an hour!! Kaboul's a beast and despite a couple of errors still did some very good things yesterday. I have reservations about Coates but think he's young enough for signing him at that price to be a reasonable gamble.
Coates blew tepid and freezing last year and yesterday it wasn't particularly warm. He simply is no where near better than either Brown or OShea. Kaboul was awful. Did we watch the same game? He was directly at fault for that pathetic clearance which led to the killer goal and positional lay all over the place. PVA did him no favours by his poor performance but he did not impress me at all. I expected him to disappoint and he lived up to that expectation totally. Mathews I saw for 40 odd mins and he is no better or worse than Jones. All the defense looked poor if I'm being honest And all at sea. I heard the words 'quality signings' when Dick came back. Lens is at least better but the others are not and hoping they are won't make it so. Our recruitment thus far has been woeful but I'll happily eat my words if we bring in another 3 top class acquisitions in the next 20 days. But bit part loans and cheap second raters will only exacerbate my ire.
I'm sorry but you can't judge strikers on lack of goals 1 minute then tell me Defoe has to play bloody left back again. All the goals this weekend we're because of piss poor defending by the defence and midfield. Defoe and Fletcher done ok for me
A performance like the one we gave deserves everything it gets. Thankfully it's only the first game of the season and we get another go next week at home. I would have started Kaboul and O'Shea because Coates is not ready yet to anchor a defence and Kaboul is new. Hopefully this gets fixed against Norwich. As for our new signings and the topic of this thread: Kaboul - is clearly a solid defender, but was horribly rusty and cost us at least 2 goals. If fit, he will certainly come good in no time. Lens - found out that this league is much rougher and faster than any other. He'll need to adjust and quickly. Nice to see him get the lob assist to Fletch, but was otherwise ineffective with some encouraging flashes. Matthews - too early to tell, but at least he was part of the steadied ship after the opening debacle. Coates - is not ready and should be our third choice CB. If all goes well, he can phase O'Shea out the starting lineup around Christmas (in my view anyway). Of course, it's far too early to tell how good a window we've had because we're clearly going to be adding more. Now for some special mentions: Cattermole - it wasn't all his fault and apparently got subbed off because Advocaat wrongly thought he was on a yellow. I really hope we don't have O'Neill version 2.0 on our hands. That said, things steadied after he went off. Van A - was probably worst on ground and cost us goals. Previous history shows he takes this **** seriously, will beat himself up about it and come back quickly from it. AJ - there's another thread on this. He was garbage. Utter garbage. Hopefully he's just holding the position until Janu comes. If he can't get his head in order with the court stuff, then he needs to ride the pine. Rodwell - complete junk. I can't believe it's the same person from Everton here. He was like a deer in headlights every time he got the ball. Does he know how to dribble anymore? Or has he just forgotten? I see a scared chicken who's forgotten how to play top flight football. time is fast running out before he's a championship level player. Advocaat - I'll forgive the Cattermole yellow card oversight. However, next time a bottom feeder like Leicester decides to press and trap every possession of ours, don't over think it - just hoof it long up front and exploit their awful defence directly. Don't get fancy and try to play your way around it with the bodies we have.
Is that the same killer goal where the goal scorer was 4 yards offside that Kaboul was directly at fault for? See I think the linesman was directly at fault as Kaboul would've had time to clear the ball had the flag gone up
You're misreading what I'm saying. I'm saying Defoe struggles to play as a lone striker. The system favoured by DA doesn't suit Defoe very well, he prefers to play in a front two. If we had a target man instead, it'd mean we keep the ball better as s team, higher up the pitch. It'd allow our full backs and Lens to get in behind their defence and to the byline. In this case Defoe would be an option from the bench (or against certain opposition) to change things to a 2 striker system.
Exact words DA used as well - spot on - but I thought Defoe was rubbish in the first half - first touch was miles off and should've scored one of the chances he had at 0-0 - we have a different conversation IMO today if that happens as Leicester have to change their game and we are on the front foot.
No denial from me but he was still miles offside - not even close to level - and lying on the floor when the pass was played - if the rules are adhered to it stays 3-1 and we are still in with a little chance - regardless of Rodwell and Kaboul's mistakes on that 4th goal, neither should be relevant as he was MILES offside (Rodwell could easily have been sent off mind as well! - But then so could their centre half! Still have to say, if you watch our first goal, the move leading up to it was one of the best I've seen Sudnerland play for quite some time - very good passing move and a great finish. Totally overshadowed by the poor performance
What does the rule book say about this, as Kaboul touched it before the goalscorer did? So many rules within rules about offside I barely know where I am with that rule anymore.
"What is new? The Premier League states: "A player in an offside position shall be penalised if he; 1. Clearly attempts to play a ball which is close to him when this action impacts on an opponent or; 2. Makes an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball." The ball was played towards goal and, as the attacker was there, the defender plays the ball so his actions have to impact the opponent - he actually played the ball!! Sad reality is if Kaboul had not touched the ball and allowed it to run, he'd probably have been flagged offside and this debate doesn;t arise! Chances are also that the Linesman doesn't know the rule properly or it has confused him somewhat! **** knows in all honesty but, according to what the Premier League states to the BBC (my quote above) he has impacted the defender by coming back from an offside position to play the ball - therefore he is offside!
It's not his fault though is it, that Kaboul fluffed what could have otherwise been a simple clearance? This rule doesn't protect defenders being **** at their job surely? That would be a major fail in my opinion.
So you're basing Kaboul, a proven player, on this one game when it was his first game in the league for a number of months? Are you suggesting Brown & O'Shea aren't error prone? Coates was poor last season until given a run then last 5-6 games he was outstanding. Am I to assume you didn't attend or watch these games? The Arsenal game that kept us up he was a 10. I already said I have reservations about him but as soon as he had a solid run in the team he markedly improved, anyone who watches every game seen that clearly. I maintain I agree that we haven't done enough, but I dispute every single word you've made on the new lads, which seem to have been made on a whim, having not seen them play previously, or based on a single game to supposedly add weight to you slating them. It doesn't. It was a poor decision by Dick to play both, but CB pairings are just like forwards, they grow together over time. Every one of us would have signed different defenders, but I'll give them a few weeks at least before I write them off, Cattermole was our worst player by a distance, do we get rid of him too based on the one game?
No it's not but I can guarantee that 99% of the time that's given as offside as, according to the rules, he was and the fluffed clearance shouldn't even be an issue! I agree Rodwell and Kaboul have their part to play but neither of them broke a rule - they both simply did poorly at their jobs - The lad was offside which, in itself, is breaking a rule - so the ****eness of the others shouldn't be relevant! We probably would've lost anyway so it's immaterial but, at that time, we looked like we might get back into the game. Even pisshead Merson said he's offside! And he ****ing hates us
I'm not disputing he was offside when the ball was played, just that he was onside when Kaboul touched the ball, so if the rules state this is ok, then there's no problem. Like I say, I don't know the rules in their entirety.
