One in the eye for the knee-jerkers today, played in position and showed his class- remember all you moaners and nitpickers form is temporary, class is permanent. UTT!
Agreed, he's been wasted up front. So good to have someone like Boyd to play the role instead and do a much better job.
No more guessing the selection up front and in midfield until an injury hits then! With Fryatt, Aluko, Fathi, Dudgeon, Faye, Simpson and potentially even Stewart as players who are in the wings or out on loan we finally look like we've got some great depth in the team to rely on for the final push and for the future!
Koren did well overall and I say that because of his goal, which was quality, a proper strike, but (and at this point if anyone can't bear to see mild criticism please look away) he had a really ****e first half, backed out of challenges a ridiculous number of times and wasn't really in the game which the other midfielders were. In the second half he seemed to suddenly get a new lease of life and start chasing all over the place when everyone else was tiring. In terms of attacking players I sort of judge them in terms of what they achieve and today Koren scored a great goal so while his early performance wasn't great, he certainly did his job for me. I think apart from the centre backs which seem to have changed all season, that was pretty much our best XI today and it showed. What a difference it has made getting a pair of decent strikers in!
Around the 50 minute mark, just after he'd made it 4-0, he had a great chance to put Quinn in on goal from the edge of the box. He played a really ****, lackadaisical ball straight to Butland, and it wasn't even close to going where it should have. That just about epitomised how he's been playing recently.
Personally I thought he had a good game. His work rate was very good. Brum had a breakaway in the first half and koren was the one who sprinted back to snuff out the danger with chester.
That was right in front of me, I think Quinn and Koren had different ideas, Quinn was starting to peel away towards the 6 yard box as if he was expecting a cross, Koren played it infront of him as if he expected Quinn to run across him and pull it out wide. Thought Koren was ace today, backed out of loads of challenges like normal but his distribution and the way he links things together and keeps everything flowing is immense. We can't afford not to play him in midfield, I can't believe we haven't done for so long.
Completely agree. There will be tears about that but you're spot on. He played one really good ball to Elmohamady in the first half but apart from that his passing was generally poor. As I said though, an attacking player only needs to score/create once to have done his job and he did that today. I'm still not pleased with his recent form though. In fairness, that was because having taken a free kick, he was the furthest player back. His effort in terms of tackling was shocking today. I lost count of the amount of challenges he jumped out of. If someone like Cairney did that everyone would notice and be all over it. He started closing down a lot more in the second half though. We haven't had much choice in terms of playing him up front; he was pretty much ineffective up there but over christmas he was the only attacker offering a goal threat because of his ability to get on the end of a few crosses. No one else was doing anything and since we have a lot of good midfielders, it sort of made sense to migrate him up front.
It's fair to say I pretty much disagree with everything you say ISPLT. But hey, football is all about opinions no matter how wrong yours is
I disagree too, other than the bit about him pulling out of challenges, which he obviously does. I thought he was excellent today, chased the ball, kept it well and played some really nice stuff.
Koren certainly didn't do anything worth ****ing over, though his goal was pretty decent. I think ISTPLT is being a bit harsh on him, as he was OK today, but as I said on t'other thread I don't think anybody really excelled today. They were all 'good'. They didn't have to get out of 2nd gear all day. And if, as a wise sage once queried, you're number one, then why try harder?
I haven't said anything about him being bad. I just said he's a pussy basically and agreed with you about the ****e pass. I could have added that he literally never judges where a bouncing ball is going to end up and always ends up ninja-kicking thin air as a result if I wanted to critically analyse his game but the inevitably ridiculous backlash from people just wouldn't be worth it. My overall assessment was that he did his job by scoring a bloody good goal in signature Koren fashion.
