stupid challenge by Chico today but as Bob says he has been good all season. Cañas had a poor game and JDG blows hot and cold but I wouldnt want to replace any of the players on the pitch today. our real problem lies with strength in depth, we need a big clearout of squad players and get people in who are good enough to really compete. thats been our big problem this season
I agree. I liked the look of Canas and Britton as holding midfielders but we are still leaking goals. In addition big gap between them and AM and neither Britton or Canas are particularly good in opposition half. The AM needs to have engine to go box to box or we swap Britton or Canas with someone who will do it. Neither DG or Shelvey seem to be prepared to do that much running.
Lets get some perspective here shall we. We were away against a team we have never beaten in over 100 years whether home or away and they are a top 6 team. We were very good today and never looked out of place or crumbled when they went ahead through a penalty that was one of those that some refs give and some dont. Everton have quality all the way through their side where we are lacking a prolific striker who will take the chances that bony seams to squander quite a lot and our defence is nowhere as constant as they should be. Our work rate and football is very good and there is confidence in the team that they can win but sadly if you cant finish then we will get punished. Everton were odds on to win at home and rightly so but the game showed that they had to work very hard for the win as they have had much more comfortable wins at home all season. Monk has got the team playing good football again and with two or three new better players we wont be playing well and losing but playing well and winning. I dont see a team struggling like fulham and cardiff out there, I see a very good side short of a few quality players that can make a difference between winning and losing against any big side...
Been camping swan, what an experience that was. bloody snakes everywhere and spiders and bugs that would frighten the best. I enjoyed though but my missus is not ready to come home yet and will be staying with family for a couple of more weeks yet.....What happened in the WBA match ? How the hell did we lose that.?
Dai we lost the game in the second half because they upped the tempo and we did not compete anywhere on the park. Monk could do nothing to change it. Plenty of seats will be available next year in the Championship! 1 win in 9, Monk out!
I think the problem recently has been that we play very well against top teams (Liverpool, Napoli, Everton), but then crumble against easier teams (West Ham, WBA, Palace). We don't seem able to raise our game against lower teams. Maybe the players still think they're too good.
People forget that Chico is far and away our best defender in terms of the number of passes made, tackles, blocks, headers, interceptions WON. He also features highly in the number of successful passes made in the OPPOSITION half. Seems to me he is doing a good job for the most part and can be forgiven the odd rush of blood. I might add that his stats place him pretty high in the list of defenders in the entire division. Keep Williams or Chico? Chico for me, hands down. I always said that I would have been happy to see Williams leave when it looked a possibility and put the money towards Caulker. That would have given us a choice of Chico, Caulker, Bartley and Amat (great prospect) at centre back. That would do me.
