Is it me but Curtis Davies does not appear to be the player he was last season. His positional play is suspect and his tackling is nowhere as confident last season. I love Curtis but does he need a break to revive his play? Thoughts?
Ahh... nice to have a football thread. Totally agree, not really been as dominant as he was. Felt Chester had been the stronger CB so far and tonight, Dawson was awesome. Doubt a break is what he needs as he's just had the summer break, think he just needs a run of games to get his rhythm.
I thought Davies did fine. The own goal was unfortunate. The centre backs tonight were left quite exposed tonight as well with Elmo and Robertson at full back. Dawson was very good, initially I thought he could have closed the man down better for their first but after seeing a replay there was not much he could have done
Curtis had to adapt to a back 4 tonight - instead of the usual 3. The back 4 system seemed to suit Dawson much better than it did Curtis but to be fair I thought the back 4 did as well as they could against a very fast and always threatening West Ham attack. For me WHAM were miles better than when we played them last season and they will cause problems for any defence this season.
I thought life was made very hard for davies tonight by robertson, he was constantly coming out of position to cover for robertson, and hadnto track back alot when robertson gave possession away, I dont want to knock robertson, coz he's still learning, but I thought he looked very much out of his depth tonight! He looked a frustrated figure aswell!
Honestly think we need three at the back for a couple of reasons. The CBs look better when there's three down there, and Chester is too good to sit on the bench. Also, Elmo looks suspect at RB - almost let Valencia in late on by not tracking him - and is much better suited for RWB. Robertson looked stuffed at the end because he was basically playing left wing back AND left back - so he was still running up to make the crosses early - and brilliant I might add - but also had to track back a lot harder than usual.
Not everything came off for Robertson tonight but he tried his best and is still getting used to the premier league and playing against better quality opposition. Also in our narrow midfield he was probably asked to push further up to give us width- probably why a couple of times he was caught out of position.
I did mention that he is still learning! Im just explaining why davies looked abit rough tonight mate!
Seems that both managers tried systems that surprised the other tonight. Allardyce expected us to play 3 at the back and so employed a diamond shape in midfield and we expected them to play one up with one behind instead of two out and out strikers. Listening to SB after the game he said we now had the personnel to adapt to 2 or 3 systems depending on who we are up against.
Hate this part of the season, all the stop start, this I feel is not helping Curtis, definitely he has not got going yet, he was awful at Villa, but he will come good. Robertson to me looks real quality, yes rash at times, needs to learn the defensive side but that will come ,can not believe the having a go at him already, he has so much potential we might be lucky to hang on to him come the end of the season, have a close look at our current left back for England, Baines is also not the best defender one on one. Thought last night we looked at times like a team re-inventing itself, as we tried to be more expansive, which also exposes the defence more, but to see the likes of Ben Arfa and Gaston (some nice touches last night) coming of the bench shows me how far we have come.
I agree, he still has a lot to learn, and he did expose Curtis quite a few times. On the other side Elmo has improved his tracking back, which is something Robby needs to learn.
If we're going four at the back, Rosie should be at right back and I'd have Chester as the first name on the team sheet.
I was surprised at Chester's omission and at first I wondered if he was either banned or injured - both those thoughts blown away when he was named on the bench. Seemed to be a lot of 2nd guessing by both managers re the team the other would field last night and I wonder if we went with the Dawson / Davies pairing as we anticipated an aerial threat from Carlton Cole?
I think Chester should've started tonight if he was fit enough, as OLM said he should be one of the first names on the team sheet. McGregor is a cracking keeper, but he seems to be making more and more mistakes these days. Hopefully he can shake them off, lest the Jakupovic bashers come out of hiding again.
Wonder if it's just a case of money and status? Last season Curtis was captain, top dog, player of the season, etc. Might he now feel a bit marginalised by Dawson's arrival? I'm guessing he's on more money than Curtis and he's got a bigger reputation. Whatever it is he's been a bit off all season and we could do with it being sorted out.
Spot on with this and I can't see ether of them being happy bench warming for long . two of our most consistent performers for the last 3 seasons are too good to be sitting on a bench
Totally agree Rosie is a natural right back, whereas Elmo is a wide midfielder trying to adapt to a fullback, and we certainly miss Chesters pace in the middle of a back four. Big decisions for SB to make.
