I'm not saying he's a bad player Wonky and he was much better in the second half, but his passing in the first half put us under pressure quite a few times. This in itself can be overlooked to an extent because he isn't a ball playing centre half in the way Whitbread and Ayala are and when Wolves started lumping balls into the box in the second half he was in his element. What annoyed me most about his distribution today was a) the number of short, simple passes that were going astray and b) the lack of effort to get back after he'd played a bad pass, particularly before the Wolves goal. I have no complaint with Ward at all as he, like everyone else, has been immense when he's played this season, its just today I don't think he played that well today until Ruddy tore him a new one.
That's true enough but when Ayala was in the team our distribution and ball retention was a whole lot better. Perhaps Ward is better defensively but Ayala kept us in possession for longer periods of the games and therefore spent less time having to make last ditch interventions! Also as has already been discussed, I bet Ryan Bennet must have been thinking along the lines of "If Wardy keeps giving it straight to those orange shirts my time will come quicker than I expected!"
Ward was poor in the first half and good in the second. However it was NOT his fault that he was poor. Ruddy kept passing short to him to distribute, Ward isn't build for this. He's a great centre back but he's a blunt instrument, he's no playmaker. When he played it simple to fox or Howson it was GREAT. We played some great stuff today, bodes very well for a good run in. Very pleased, very proud.
Just seen the highlights on MOTD, anyone else see the smug look, almost a smile, on Clattenburgs face as he pulled out the red card?
I noticed there looked a bit of a sly grin too! They were pretty fair today, I thought. There wasn't much controversial to say about the match, though
How on earth was that 1st booking a yellow?? all he did was put his arm out to hold his marker off! 1st goal was sublime, if it was RVP or someone they would have been ****ing over it for ages!
