Some people might say "cheer up your miserable bastard, we won, that's all that matters", or "there's no pleasing some people". I'm sick of Rafa being pessimistic and trying to scrape 1-0 wins in a 4-5-1 like this when we obviously have the quality to go 4-4-2 and win the game by scoring several goals, which is far more preferable. WE WERE AGAINST ROTHERHAM. The bottom team in the championship for god's sake. We did the same thing against Villa and it cost us because we conceded a last minute equalizer because we're not good at defending set pieces, and tried to scrape a 1-0 win. And now we almost threw another 2pts away because, despite dominating possession, we almost conceded a cheap set piece goal in the 86th minute just like against Villa, and that's all it takes. It means **** all if we keep the ball for 70% of the game if we can only score 1 goal and hope that our weaknesses aren't exploited. I'm happy that we won, but against the ****ing bottom team in the championship we should have more ambition. Gayle looked isolated again and barely got a chance. He looks much better with someone up top with him. What is it about 4-4-2 that Rafa doesn't like? If we can hoof balls to a target man who knocks down for a littler man, and that gets us 3,4,5,6+ goals, surely that is preferable to 4-5-1 and w*nking over our possession stats whilst p*ssing ourselves towards the end of the game trying to defend a 1-0 win? Ratings - Darlow - 7 - Some good saves and positive distribution. Anita - 7 - Solid Lascelles - 7.5 - Solid as a rock and didn't let Rotherham have much. Clark - 7.5 - Another great performance Dummett - 6.5 - Better today, but still made stupid mistakes and skinned too easily at times. Still, a decent display. Atsu - 8 - What a tank! Great goal, excellent skills and looks a real threat. Colback - 7 - Good game. Shelvey - 7 - Good passing today and some good shots on goal. Some ****e ones but came close a few times. Got into some good areas. Gouff - 7 - Hard working performance and unlucky not to have one. Diame - 7 - Some great touches and decent hold up play. I still want him dropped because he doesn't threaten the goal enough or create enough chances for me, but can't criticize him too much on today's performance. Gayle - 6 - Didn't get much of a chance. Isolated. Worked hard though. Ritchie - 6.5 - Good second half display. Mitro - 6.5 - Did well to get the ball down into some decent areas. Worked hard to close the game out. Rafa - 7 - We looked well organised. A good graft and a win, but I want to see more ambition from him. I have no idea why he rims Diame.
You'll be in shock, but i don't disagree much with any of your ratings. If I was being picky I'd give Colback an 8 too. One of his best performances for us in a long time.
Only 1-0 up in games but not because of the formation not creating chances. Because we haven't been taking the chances. That won't continue for ever.
Beat me to it. We are going well enough - if we can keep winning the confidence will grow and the rest will come.
We are going to spank someone soon. If we weren't creating chances then I would be worried. We are though.
Ill take that all day. An away win is an away win. Also remember we are still the highest scorers in the league and we are moaning that we dont put away our chances.
Ah, I think I understand. Are you saying that if a team scores one goal against the team in 44th position and who are therefore lower than you then you DONT get three points whereas if you score one goal against a team in 10th position who are higher than you then you do? I'll be honest that sounds a very strange game to play. What is it called as it's not football?
I just checked mine and it said the last team in Tyne Wear to win a Premiership game was NUFC #perspective
You can mock Rotherham but they are going places. I reckon they will be in the same league as Sunderland next year.
It's about winning and entertaining the fans is football. Our fans are experiencing both so can't complain. Now I know your side is providing neither but things can turnaround quickly so pick up your mood and don't embarrass yourself with all this bitterness/shame/petulance
I'm not entertained often enough with 4-5-1 football where we often play long balls to Gayle and expect him to make something of them. Often we pass it along the back and try to hammer balls into an isolated Gayle, which is not entertaining and highly frustrating, on top of whipping ball after ball into the box and not having a target man in their to make anything of them. Our deliveries into the box are improving game by game and adding Mitro into the mix would certainly make this play more effective.
No but it's very early still and we have shifted ourselves into striking distance while integrating a lot of new players. I think it will click soon enough. I'd prefer to see Mitro also but it's unlikely we will see 2 up top under rafa
