how do one and all, Football is truly a funny old game. I did not watch the first half today but from all accounts we were pretty dire. To concede after 4 minutes is not a good enough, Big Brede was caught napping and did not follow his man. It seems as though he is struggling a little this season, so hopefully he will find his feet and lead us forward. From what I saw in the second half we have some issues that need sorting out. Our ball retention was dreadful in the middle of the park. To be fair to Bairdinho he does what is needed and mops up and distributes a simple 5 or 10 yarder to Sidders. At which point we find our problems. Sidders only seems to run sideways and does not seem able to run forwards with the ball. He then distributes to full back who pumps it forward to Rodders. This worked a few times but is not what I expect from us. We lost the ball so many times from sloppy passes and from not being able to hold the ball up. I am not sure if this is reason that Ruiz looks so disinterested. I have supported Ruiz ever since he arrived here, claiming he is a quality player that will come good. However, he simply is not cut out for the premiership on today's performance. Credit to Southampton, they closed him down whenever he got the ball, but he then just stops running and makes not attempt to get the ball back. It may be he is not getting the service he needs but he is pathetic at times and I cannot help but feel we do much better. Frei played his role against Chelsea the other night and was reputedly brilliant. Ruiz's days may be numbered unfortunately, a talent that may never live upto his reputation. Our squad is OK but needs pace and the ability to take people on. Dejagah and Frei may bring this to the team, but some astute sighning do need to be made in January. All this said though, we are sitting nicely in the league and a win today would have planted us firmly in the top 10. So we are grinding out results without particularly playing that well. This is most unfulhamish and is very pleasing to see. In times gone by we would have lost today and be really cheesed off. So roll on January and may we keep Duffers fit for as long as is possible. COYW
Which is why taking stock of all his performances is probably fairer. Ruiz is going to be one of those players for us who'll never win all the supporters over, either he plays a blinder in every game or he's pathetic and isn't cut out for the PL.
The bloke behind me at St. Mary's was moaning about Ruiz throughout, and to be honest I didn't think much of the criticism was warrented. He didn't have his best game, admittedly, but there were others worse than him. As for the not working for the team, it seemed to me that all the times he did chase, tackle back and so on were ignored and any slight failing instantly picked up on. I can't remember seeing Hangeland make so many sloppy passes in a game, and he wasn't the only one. In the first half we gave the ball away far too easily far too often. A lot of the times we lost possession through unforced errors (although that may be a bit unfair to Southampton, who were working hard when we had the ball). Hangeland seemed to me to be the worst offender, but he was far from being the only one - Hughes, Baird, Sidwell, Riise and (yes) Ruiz were all guilty at one time or another. The change after half time wasn't instant, but it came. Duff seemed to be the team's leader, cajoling and urging people to close players down with more urgency. For me he was our man of the match. Kacaniklic looked the most likely source of openings, running at their defenders at every opportunity, but somehow his runs always ended up delivering less than they promised. He was one of our better players, but when Richardson came on we seemed more likely to score (although that could just be a coincidence - I'm not claiming cause and effect on this one). Sorry to disappoint Bidley, but I wasn't impressed with Rodallega today. I went with an open mind, hoping that he'd impress in the absence of Petric and the 'Tov. He had a couple of chances where he was unlucky rather than wasteful, but my problem with him is his movement. Too often he was just standing in the centre forwards position waiting for something to happen rather than making a run to create space, either for himself or a team mate. For me his shortcomings aren't in his finishing or his ability, it's in his knowledge of what to do when he hasn't got the ball. We deserved to be down at half-time, but our prolonged spell in the second half was probably the best that either team played and I don't think 2-1 would have been too harsh on Southampton. We must get out of this habit of letting in late goals. One player I haven't mentioned was Reither, who was solid and unspectacular and didn't really do anything wrong. He's never going to win MOTM awards, but he's a real find who's well worth his place in the side. He was better going forward than the last time I saw him (against Norwich). Schwarzer made one very sharp save in a 1 on 1. If it had gone to 2-0, I'm not sure we would have come back.
No disappointment from me, he's our third choice striker and that's more or less where he should be. He does need a Berbatov to get the best out of him. I trust you to at least give him a chance before you write him off
I'm touched by your confidence. I haven't written him off - he had a couple of good chances where he was denied rather than messing them up - but he hasn't won me over yet. Ruiz was dropping deeper in the second half (on Jol's orders? Possibly) so Rodallega's lack of incisive movement was more significant than if he'd had someone like Berbatov alongside him.
It is a shame really that either Petric or Breba were not playing today. their ability to drop off a bit and pick up the ball would created more space for us. Rodders worked hard but likes to play high up the pitch and unfortunately for him the service was very poor. I agrre with Captain, Duffers was head and shoulders above all our players today, Mr composed and still got the legs of 25 year old.
Go along with everyone's comments and thanks Captain for the info about the pitch (the other thread). I guess I was looking for a reason (excuse ?) why we mis-passed so often and why the ball bounced off so many diffferent player's boots or somehow went through their legs causing them to turn backwards rather than move forward. The question remains, if it wasn't the pitch why did so many have an off day ? Maybe it was a confidence thing (not helped by losing such an early goal) - a kind of 'inferior complex' thinking that we're a makeshift team because of injuries ? I don't buy that since people weren't playing out of position and pretty much the same starting line has played together before. However, as Captain said, we did not perform as a team (even in the improved second half there was limited cohesion. So was it tactics which were not properly understood ? Another point people have commented on was the poor movement off the ball - a number of players (particularly the initial 3 midfielders) looked very lethargic. Why ? Another mystery is Hangeland. Bandit's point in the other thread about him bearing the burden of captaincy does seem to have merit. Whatever there was yet again a total lack of leadership. Accepting, as Captain said, that Duff tried to gee up the others that isn't enough - you need someone 'directing the traffic'. And then there is Bryan. I think he had a difficult job today and indeed was poorly supported by Baird and Sidwell. Overall, he seemed unsure exactly what his role was; to support Hugo up front or get the ball through to Hugo ? That said, I thought he was at the root of many of our problems - taking on people when the simple pass would have released someone else to go forward, too slow on the ball ... I won't go on. Suffice to say he's had enough chances and now needs to give way.
I disagree with you concerning Ruiz, Cottager. In the first half he seemed to play up alongside Rodallega, then dropped much deeper in the second half. My guess would be that this was on instructions from Jol, but who knows? Either way, I didn't see him as the problem. With Berbatov or Petric up front, he would have looked a lot better. I take your point about the lack of dynamism from centre-midfield. Karagounnis looked livelier. Perhaps he should take Sidwell's place when everyone comes back from the international break?
I watched the game on the TV and have more or less the same comments. Sidwell is know at Aston Villa as "sideways" Sidwell due to the passing. The problem is that neither him or Baird are attacking midfielders. Baird can play a forward pass better than Sidwell. Karagounis can do the job but needs to get into the team spirit. Ruiz was not too bad. Soton seemed hungrier and they closed down our players much faster. One point on Hangeland. I am sorry to say but he is not a leader. Never seen him directing the team or challenging ref regarding their decisions. We need someone more bossy than him. May be the contract negotiations have deluded him. Jol needs to sort this out.
Unfortunately could not get to the match,but regarding the comments about Hangaland, there are newspaper reports that Man U are interested,maybe this has turned his head. We seem to be regarded as one of Fergies feeder clubs. Jan have got to splash some cash on a quality attacking midfielder and a solid defender.
Spot on FFC-Mad. The obvious question is who should replace him ? Not essential, but the Captain would be a player expected to be in the starting line up each week and experience says someone central. Diarra is the probable candidate and his tiffs with Hangeland, as it happens, on the pitch now and again suggest that he's passionate and prepared to speak his mind (attributes definitely required from a Captain). And if he can stay injury free, should be starting most games. Wouldn't be surprised and in fact suggested this in the 'Hangeland' thread. A bit of me is suspicious about the timing of these reports though and I wonder if his Agent may have a hand in them - trying to up the ante in contract negotiations with the Club ??
On Rodallega I think the reason he is not top striker material is that he requires a lot of chances to get shots on target, unlike Berbatov or Petric who are the type of players who tend to take their chances and change a game. At present Hangeland has no competition for his place, that always puts players into a comfort zone. Jol missed out on signing Douglas on the last transfer day (because Douglas was using us to get a bigger team come in for him). I don't think Man Utd are looking at Hangeland, the only thing I can see why they might go for him is to maybe link him up with Smalling again. On Ruiz, he reminds so much of Steed when he first came to us, running round in circles getting nowhere, but I can see Ruiz is skilfull and can bring the unexpected to the team, but being mainly one-footed means if he doesn't have a 'Dembele' to play with, he can be surrounded and blocked out of the game. Be interesting to see how Jol plays Dejagah.
I was wondering about that SuperBri. Admittedly it was only 45 minutes on Friday night for the U21s and he was easing his way back into competitive games, but he looked very much like a midfielder rather than a winger. Could be he's that No. 10 Jol's keeps talking about (or No. 8 in his case) ??
'Fraid not Bidley. It would be like comparing silk with horsehair. I'm not doing the guy down, it's just that he's more of an 'up their arse' type of player.
I have no idea what you mean by an "up their arse" kind of player. Also, I meant pehaps he plays in a similar style/position to Dembele, not he would be as good (and he could be very good, it's completely unfair to judge him on 45 minutes in the u21 squad, his first in the country and his first for a number of months).
I appreciate that Bidley. I wasn't judging him and did say as much. My material comparison, and the other description, were meant to reflect the difference in styles. Even in 45 minutes, I promise you, it's clear that they are very different types of player. As to position, I think he would be ideal for the old inside right (N0. 8) role so could be similar to Dembele. Could he be good ? If by 'good' we mean 'effective', it's another yes (and that's with confidence in Jol rather than my 45 minutes). However not in the same way as Dembele was.
