Sorry,but I thought SWP was ok.So,apart from run around a lot,what did Mackie do??. I actualy think Tarbs could have come on for Mackie. Mackie justs puts his head down and runs in straight lines!.Hes not a striker,not a midfielder and not a midfielder...Oh yeh,'he puts a shift in!'..thats not enough in this league.I thought Traore could have used his pace and overlapped on the outside.He had so much space in the first half. A few decent players,but we just look so average sometimes.Just hope we can beg,borrow or steal our way to January!
Just back. Player ratings: Cerny - 7 Looked ok and did nothing wrong Young - 6 Didn't get forward as much as usual, but looked solid Gabbidon - 7 Another solid display Ferdinand - 7 Much better and back to his usual self Traore - 6 Good going forward, but messed up an easy pass to SWP that should have led to a goal. A bit dodgy when caught in possession Barton - 5 Some good things, but also some terrible passing and missed a sitter! Faurlin - 7 Usual classy self, but left a little exposed and out-numbered by Barton and SWP Mackie - 6 Very lively in the first half, but seemed to run out of steam in the 2nd SWP - 6 Frustrating and loses the ball in dangerous places. Fantastic strike for a goal that apparently should have stood! Bothroyd - 4 Awful HH - 8 Fantastic header for the goal and led the line superbly Sub: Buzz - 2 Even worse than Bothroyd NW - 3 Terrible decision to put Buzz on (UP FRONT!!) with HH and not bring on Taarabt or try anything else different!! Bad day for him!! We played quite well in the first half and should have been 2 up at half time, as, apparently, SWP's fantastic strike shouldn't have been ruled out for off-side!! But in the 2nd half we were truly awful. We never picked up the pace of the game and let WBA completely take over and it was only a matter of time before they scored. NW had a mare today. Bringing on Buzz up front was a truly horrific decision. Looks like Taarabt won't get another chance now which is a shame as we desperately missed his kind of creativity today. NW looked clueless today and cost us the win with a terrible substitution and a lack of imagination or inclination to change things!! Piss poor!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bitterly disappointed with the final outcome of this very winnable game - I feared, and saw this coming since our end product was woeful. So many opportunities squandered by not having a sharp finisher (using his feet), as opposed to Helguson's head, who once again netted a great goal. On the balance of play, it should have been a 4-1 scoreline. Great play & wonderful non-goal by SWP - clearly not offside, the linesman even had the 18 yard line as a marker guide here - we finally got to see the end product by SWP, but to no avail. In much of his other play I find SWP like a pin-ball game, bouncing around all over the place, with neiher the ball or himself ever quite under control. Recently we seem to using Bothroyd as a play maker, rather than using him as a central finishing forward alongside Helguson. At 1-1, I would have preferred to see Taarabt brought on, instead of Buz (who looked rusty) for the last 10 min to see if he could work some of his creative magic, and get a result out of this important game. I remember Ollie during his Blackpool campaign last season saying it was all about the wins and getting 3 pts out of games, rather than playing for a draw and a point, or sacrificing a win by not putting games away. Lastly, I thought our 3rd string keeper Cerny (apparently also carrying an injury) played a decent game here.
SWP just needs longer studs/blades on his boots as all he seems to do well is fall over at the moment, he spends most of the time on his arse. But he'll come good. Faurlin today played some passes that were truly world class. Unfortunately I see a problem developing, and that is that we seem to play the ball to him at every available opportunity, not a bad thing when he's in space, but we keep doing it when he's surrounded and on numerous occasions he, or someone else who comes to help him out is getting caught out. It happened again today and it was Buz who gave away the ball in a similar situation that led to their goal. It is a pleasure to watch when we're playing beautiful football, but we seem to want to complicate things too much, especially in the middle which is leading to basic errors. It's a shame we were poor today as it would have been good to get the win and go into next weeks game with some confidence. As it is I'm just praying January comes quickly as we need more options up front and we sure need a quality CB. But it is work in progress, and we are progressing. But we are also going to have to accept the rough with the smooth.
We're all entitled to our own opinions, just as other are equally entitled to disagree with them. So, I have to say my opinion is that SWP has been hugely disappointing in an R's shirt. He has promised so much yet delivered so little. Sure, he's still a bit quick and has a few tricks in his locker, but then so has Mackie. Whilst appreciating that this is a different league to last season, I never thought I'd be saying it, but I kinda miss the combination of Adel and Routledge that we saw in the second-half of 2010/11. I agree entirely with the opinion that we are lacking somebody with the habit of sticking the ball into the net with his boot on a regular basis, but then so are we also currently missing personnel in the build-up play that can split defences with incisive through-balls.
Don't think a quality CB is our main priority. Thought Gabby and Ferdy were very good today. Barton was ordinary and missed a sitter. Bothroyd and Buzz were terrible.
A lot of the problem is that at the moment we do not have strength in depth, unfortunately Buz is not at the standard for the prem, so it would have been either Adel or Tommy as a sub to replace boothroyd, and neither of them have had a lot of game time lately. If anything NW should have just left the strting 11 on the pitch and given instructions for a formation change. At the end of the day we had enough chances to win the game, it was not NW who missed them!!!!
But its NW who issues tatics and its NW who buys the players.Its also NW who takes training.Some shooting practice wouldnt go a miss.I cant remember the last time one of our lot had a shot from outside the box and it went in.
But it is NW who makes a terrible substitution and then tries to cover it up by saying that we played really well! He had a mare today.
Thanks Col, really sounds like we left some points behind us today. Be careful talking about NW on here as you will be heavily criticized. Some people here think that its almost a hanging offense to even think about questioning him. Managed to get my hands on a can of Guinness out here and was all ready for the match when the internet went down. Fuccccccccccccccccccccccc*
