I think Hilts has nayled it. Apart from Brighton, I haven't seen a game yet this season where were second best in midfield - such a difference from the last few years under DJ. We usually got overun and resorted to the long ball over the top to bypass the problem - not now. Full marks to Mackay who's stamped his mark on this side and totally changed the philosophy at the club. Today was another example of his influence, none more evident than in Naylor who looked every inch a confident choice at LB. The midfield oozes confidence and was stroked along by another silky Whitts performance. Miller up front has amazed me this past half dozen games especially after I admittedly called for him to benched - maybe Rudy's injury came at the right time in a sort of perverse way? An overall view of the game? I thought Birmingham were surprisingly poor on the day, or did we just make them look like that? We could have won it 4-0 and not have been flattered with the scoreline. Play anything like that for the rest of the season and playoffs will be the very least we can expect. Yes I know we need strengthening in depth to support that for another 26 Championship games let alone cup committments, but I firmly believe Malky will get the support from the board.
does anyone know if MM played the same system at watford? it seems one thing the new generation of managers have is adaptability, in terms of formation and styles of play. i think under the current tactics earnshaw wont get too many games, gestede has been injured so we've only really had miller and mason as options, so i think the circumstances have dictated what formation he has played. gunnarsson, kiss, mcphail and whitts are all good players, most have good ability on the ball and the two wide players arent out and out wingers, they work hard defensively and have discipline. MM has done what DJ failed to do, which was make a team which performs better than the sum of the parts.
Thought we were a little off our recent form in the final third and that Conway in particular was very wasteful. He worked really hard, stretched the game and got us into a couple of great positions but his final ball was unusually wayward. I don't see an issue, just today it prevented us turning a few of our more promising positions into chances. Hope Kiss and Gunnar aren't too badly injured, looked like a pretty bad dead leg for Gunnar, I missed what caused Kiss to go off, I saw him give the foul away then he was rolling around in pain. Did he get stepped on? 6 home wins and 10 unbeaten is top of the table form, lets just hope we can keep in up. Saints are starting to have a little wobble imo and it'll be great if we can pile the pressure on. I honestly believe the squad West Ham have means they'll fill one of the top 2 places.
Swamp, he played the exactly same system at Watford. They played some really nice football last season under Mackay but did lose key players to injury later in the season.
Kiss turned on his ankle in a tackle. Same injury as Tuesday night. Good job we have 6 days to get everyone fit again but Nayls did a great job and Taylor wasn't missed. Never thought I would say that. Gezza had his best game for a while with some great blocks and clearances and didn't give the ball away much. However, when Hudson came on the defence went up a gear. I think he was ready for action before Gezza went down and won everything in the air when he came on. Turner was magnificent again. If he has Welsh ancestry then the FAW had better get hm capped ASAP before England come calling. Malky's Watford side had more pace with Graham, Sordell and Buckley but were not so strong defensively - while they had Cowie they didn't have a Gunnar or Kiss putting in the hard yards and making tough tackles - or a Whitts with his magic left boot.
