Very happy with a lot of what I saw, the team looked much more cohesive. A few points: 1) Fantastic to keep a clean sheet!! I know it wasn't against Barcelona, United or Citeh, but you can only beat what is in front of you and hopefully this will give Green and co. some confidence. Nelson looked commanding which is just what we needed. Brings the best out of Anton who wasn't perfect, but no one will ever have a perfect game and he was improved. 2) There was some good inter-play from the boys out wide (Boswingwa and SWP) and Zamora interacted really well with the midfield. This is a sign of a confidence which we lacked on Saturday against Norwich! Hope for more of the same. 3) WE MISSED FAURLIN SO MUCH! Great to see him playing again and he will add a lot. 4) Zamora was my MOM and must start. Vital as link up player. Happy with that. More of the same please. Not getting carried away as it was League One opposition but as I said, you can only beat what's in front of you.
Thanks for the report "4) Zamora was my MOM and must start. Vital as link up player. " I'm tired of messing on about it but he needs to be first on our team sheet imo. Vital as you say for creating cohession between the midfield and attack.
Thanks. Good to hear, perhaps most about Nelson - we have needed much more solidity in our central defense/midfield !
Excellent, thanks for the comments. Great great news to have Faurlin back. Leeds at home in round 3 will do me nicely!
Excellent, thanks for the comments. Great great news to have Faurlin back. Leeds at home in round 3 will do me nicely!
Cheers Raving, good write-up and glad to hear that the performance was much improved! Now, bring on City...
I just got back. From my point of view Faurlin looked like he never left apart from ruining out of steam abit towards the end. Dyer had a good run out and pass for zamroras goal was sublime. Thought fabio looked pretty decent and linked well with Faurlin Some green shots of recovery.
Yes defo good news about Nelson , he's a good player and also swp and bosingwa much more like it , ( even though Walsall alot of good teams got turned over tonite nice to see not us for a change , well done lads)
Ali played lovely for first 70mins. Went a little quiet and passing not as crisp towards end but thats only being picky and just a little lack of fitness as is to be expected. Cissee looked alot less flat footed.
Cisse looked very sharp. Had a great finish disallowed for offside. No idea if it was off or not. Ali did indeed look like he never left to agree with the above. Lastly, Walsall fans deserve a lot of credit. They outsang us almost the whole way through and seemed to really enjoy their night!
Raving. Agree the Walsall fans seemed like a decent lot. The Cisse offside goal looked plenty offside to me. What did you think of Fabio? I thought he played well and started to look like the player we should expect.
Ah brilliant, glad to hear that, didn't see any mention of him in the official report. Hopefully with such a positive performance from most of the team we might actually be competitive against City at the weekend!
Fantastic to hear Faurlin played so well before tiring. Give him half a game against Citeh and start him against Chelsea!!
I'd agree with almost all that. I think it was a very good performance by probably everyone on show and, importantly, it was a good team performance, albeit against lower league opposition. * Nelson looked strong and was a settling influence. * Fabio was much more like the player I expected to see, terrier-like in defence and dangerous in attack. * Faurlin looked like he'd never been away, very comfortable on the ball, although he probably tired a bit in the last 20 minutes. * Zamora's link up play was EXCELLENT and he scored a super goal that many stikers could only dream about, chipping it over the advancing keeper with great skill. * Johnson worked hard and ran the angles intelligently * Bosingwa looked classy * SWP worked hard and well deserved his place in the side * Cisse's first three touches after coming on all created something that could have lead to goals: he looked very sharp and I pitied Walsall at that point. * Green looked confident to me: he made a couple of saves and took out a couple of awkward crosses in the first half. Don't want to get carried away but it did cross my mind: who needs any more new recruits?!
Bloody fantastic to see a bit of positivity on the board . As Raving said..... It might not be Barcelona....but you can only beat what's in front of you
Surprised no one has mentioned how poor hoilett was tonight, and when I say poor I mean f**king s**t. He looked overweight and off the pace. Couldn't keep hold of the ball, make runs or take anyone on. He was exactly like SWP last season but without the work rate!! He's either not trying because he's got his contract now, or he was too scared about getting injured before the man city game........
Great input from raving, ironman and Rodney. I was going to do a rangercol/Judo type report but now no longer feel the need to. I was also 20 mins late getting to the game due to traffic on the A3 and getting home late after a day out with the family. ( I went to 'Go Ape' near Farnham, Surrey. A very well recommended day out if you have kids aged 10 - 15. You scale the treetops across ropebridges, walkways and zipwires 40 ft up. It's very active and will cure any fear of heights.) I got to the ground and my STs wouldn't work at the LR turnstile , so had to go around to SAR to collect my printed tickets. What a pallaver! Took my seat 22 mins into the match. From then on what I witnessed was fairly positive. Of course we have to take into account the standard of the opposition we faced in Walsall. They were up for it and gave us a good game. Full credit to them. What stood out most was that we looked like a team again. Nelsen was very vocal and always cajoling his teamates and marshalling all those around him , a true and very natural leader. You could tell this man has played at the highest level, he oozes confidence, never lost a header and is as tough as an Ox. I think it was his presence beside fabio that inspired the young Utd defender to produce his best game yet wearing the hoops. He looked more like the player that we thought we had signed. Ferdinand had a steady game and as far as I could tell never put a foot wrong. Again I think this was due to Nelsen's influence. Bosingwa, this bloke is a class act. He is a bit of an enigma. He looks like he isn't bothered and not really trying, but he is always where he should be. Never found wanting and when he motors he really does motor. He is up and down that right flank like a greyhound, and when he is on the ball he carries it very well. A few times he cut inside and held possesion right to the oppositions 18 yard box. He is a great signing for us and hopefully will become a crowd favourite. He did make an error towards the end with an attempted headed back pass that was intercepted, but I'll forgive him that on his debut. He won't get away with it in the Prem though. The midfield looked a lot more balanced tonight. But I think that was due to Faurlin's return, the fella looked like he had never been away. Park was OK, but gave the ball away too much and will be fine once he finds a cutting edge. I think he would benefit more from playing out wider. Hoillet was ineffective but didn't stop looking for the ball and SWP had a very good game and will play a super-sub part imo. The front two as you'd expect looked pretty comfortable. Zamora was excellent and deserved to be MotM. He didn't put a foot wrong all night. He held the ball up well, great with his distribution, won every header and scored a great goal with a sublime chip over the advancing keeper after receiving a pin-point pass from Dyer, who also looked good once he started getting on the ball. AJ had a cracking starting debut. Never really liked the look of him before. But after watching him play for us, the first thing you notice is his enthusiasm. He has a quality touch and looks to bring other players into the game. I think he is more effective running the channels though. He finds space out wide so well and when he gets on the ball he can deliver. I can see him becoming a crowd favourite with his great character. He likes to connect with the fans. He also has a little party piece whilst waiting for a corner. He runs into the back of the net, gets the opposing goalies drink, shows it to the loft and has a sip. He then poors some over his cueball head and tips the rest away. Thus depriving the away goalie any refreshment during breaks in play. Silly maybe, but the crowd loved it. At the end he ran over and applauded the loft and gave his shirt to one of the faithful in the front row. Top man.
