Now they're worried!!! Don't our players understand they must pass to the players in blue, not those in red or no one in particular. Sol nearly got a third then.
Crap. Glad I didn't pay to watch that. I have grave reservations about us staying in this division at the end of next season. I know there will be up to 15 or more leaving. Morison needs to get good new signings in early to ensure there is a positive start. However how he knits in a great raft of new signings to give us a cohesive team with some sort of style I don't know. A bad start could see us slumping at the foot of the league a difficult place to recover from. I hope I'm wrong.
I thought we tried to pass it and did quite well especially for the first hour, but we had no edge up top. City had enough half chances to register but our forwards are simply just not sharp enough. Phillips poor for the first and they got lucky with the second. Other clubs would have buried a very average Boro team. The downsides were clear evidence that Ng is not a full back, Phillips is too short, Nelson is inadequate, Vaulks is simply hopeless, Watters and Harris aren’t good enough finishers.
Agreed we tried to pass but probably only 60% got to our player. The rest were either picked up by one of theirs or just into open space. Giving the ball away. Either Doyle is playing a different game to the rest or he needs to be playing with Man City colleagues who move all the time and offer clear passing options. Because we don't. On several occasions all he could do was lump the ball forward as he had no other choices. I thought Nelson wasn't that bad as he was regularly fighting fires lit by other players of ours. I understand why but it feels strange that with this set up we offer little or no aerial threat at set pieces. It shouldn't be our only mode of attack as in the past but apart from Denham's far post header first half we offered nothing in that department, taking short corners and not bothering with long throw opportunities - as we had no one to get on the end of them. Other than Colwill trying to run past people and get off telling passes it appeared to me that we had few other attacking options or plans. Just pi$$ poor.
Last night just confirmed one thing again. Apart from some obvious latent ablity in Colwill, the skill factor in this current City squad is abysmal. It'll take more than fine words and principles from Morison to transform this side into anything more than also rans next season.
It's certainly going to be interesting watching the rebuild this summer. That's the first time in a little while that I've thought we got progressively poorer as the game wore on (no, I didn't see the Jack game). Agree with much of what's been said above regards individual performances. Phillips isn't inspiring confidence yet. Could perhaps have done better for the opener. Drameh didn't look himself. Whether that's his injury or the limitations imposed by being in a back 4 instead of a 5 I'm not sure. Ng was very mixed, but playing on the "wrong" side so could be cut some slack I guess? Denham was ok in the main. Showed some cynicism and decision making when picking up his yellow card. Ok, he put himself in a poor position but had the piece of mind to commit the foul straight away to avoid a dangerous situation developing. Nelson was also 50/50 for me. Looked a little off the pace at times but was by no means the worst. Vaulks actually did do some tidy work at times but his impudence needs to be reined in if he stays... Wintle was ok but didn't do anything to stand out. Doyle was also having an off night. Don't think he was helped much by a lack of options but he also often held the ball too long or picked a wrong option. Colwill was the best of an average bunch last night but even he made lots of wrong decisions with the ball and looked like he tired badly in the second half. Hugill did some good stuff as usual but wasted a couple of decent chances. He appears to have dropped his effort levels a little recently. Watters did very little right from what I could see but still could have snatched a goal or two. Stats wise it was a very even game but the reality is, when Boro got going they were just far more clinical and penetrating than we were.. I still believe there's grounds for optimism for the future, but the club really need to get the next two transfer windows right, otherwise we could (as some fear) go backwards really badly.
One thing is for certain and that's the fact that any budget for transfers will be minute at best. Add to this that players that will make a difference and are available and wanting to come and are not swept up by richer clubs, will be few and far between. We have to realise that it's going to be a hard slog for at least a couple of seasons and that we can't expect to be elevated to any dizzying heights without some pain. Unfortunately, we are still paying the price for short term pursuits of glory regardless of cost and the effect on style. As Sparkey correctly states, fine words and principles alone are not enough to transform things but given the other constraints I've mentioned, they are vitally important at the moment. I'm still positive and excited about the future and having a well run club that plays decent football. We've only started the journey to achieving this so patience is key. Bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds
