I was unfortunate to go to the game and can honestly say we were s&&t, probably one of the poorest games ive seen for years. Kisnorbo started the game off well with the fans chanting his name but second half he just didnt have the legs and its been mentioned before that he has lost more than a yard since his recovery. Aidy White was dreadful, the first half he was caught out of position with sam not tracking back and there was alot of confusion between them. He was then pushed up in the second half on to the wing which could of been effective if the ball was played to feet but we continued to play HOOF BALL. I feel we missed howson in the game with nobody holding the ball up in the middle of the park and clayton looked lost. Claytons touch and passing was shocking and I cant believe how he got to stay on the pitch. Snodgrass done sod all for the entire 93 minutes and the second half looked as though he didnt have a position. Keogh!!! WTF. Based on the performance of that game he shouldnt be looking at getting a start against reading same thing as clayton touch and passing dreadful. Becchio didnt get with the game but to be fair he was pretty much up the top on his own trying to compete in the air with defenders much taller that could jump. When Mika and Ross came on i thought it was going to turn around for us as the first few touches from mika seems impressive playing down the right wing with snodgrass which converted to a beautiful cross in the box, i would like to see him start against reading. Ross tried hard when he came on tracking back to get the ball but it just wasnt going our way. One more thing to add is Pugh is not a CM and he went missing for large parts of the game. The biggest problem was the back 4 continuously played the ball long even if there was time to push up and create an attack, watford were first to every ball and pressed us throughout the game and they deserved the 3 points but luckily for us we got a lucky last second lifeline.
Welcome LeedsMOT, and thanks for a very insightful first post! It's a shame to hear about Pugh and Clayton not working out. I thought that would be a real goer. Do you think it's something that might improve with time, based on Saturday's performance? After all, every new partnership on the football pitch needs some time to gel properly. I'm very worried about Reading after what they did to West Ham and our dreary performances at Elland Road of late, so central midfield will be a bit of a dilemma. Our players do tend to panic when they get chased down, which is obviously a problem which Watford played on. Fair play. If Vayrynen can sit deep and show for the ball when the defenders are in possession to stop them hoofing it, and can be composed himself when the opponents are bearing down on him, it looks like he might be the answer. Link up the play a bit. For me though, 4-4-2 just doesn't work against teams that can be bothered chasing the ball. 4-2-3-1 gives us another midfield outlet (usually Howson) which means the other two can sit deep. Hopefully McCormack will play behind Becchio in that formation on Saturday.
Would like us to line up 4-2-3-1 against Reading, this is our best formation, with McCormack in the Howson role & Vayrynen getting a prolonged run in the side.
Thanks for the welcome 18, I cant see them (Pugh/Clayton) forming a good partnership, Id like to see brown and mika in the middle with snodgrass on the right with pugh on the left, I think clayton needs a wake up call and to sit on the bench for the next game. Ross looks hungry again so id put him up top with becchio. From what i heard about the West Ham/Reading game was that Reading was struggling throughout the first half and that West Ham looks like they were going to get a comfortable win until the sending offs, it goes to show it doesnt matter how you play in this league at times all that counts is picking up the points. I feel positive about the weekend but unless we start spending some money i think the PL is a long way off.
That was a very good post LeedsMOT. I would say that from where i was sitting you had to resort to Hoofball because you were not getting past our midfield or our two center backs. We have had the same problems before and Hoofball is certainly not the answer. Our new CB partnership is one of the best i have seen for a long time and they are really steadying the defense in general.
When I said biggest I was talking Watford. Newcastle will always have the largest they have most fans posting.
Babyhornetdan, I wouldnt say it was because we couldnt get through your midfield, it was just our back 4 panicking without even thinking. I will have to say though it will be a different story when you come to ER, but i dont think you will be anywhere near the drop come the end of the season.
Yeah, i do fear that will be true. I was having the Taylor Vs Noz arguement with a friend at HT before i came over. I said i would rather tell Mirfin to walk, and keep Taylor on the bench, IF Noz's wages could be sorted as i imagine he is on more than £5000 a week. Also there is the issue of Premiership bench warming vs Regular Championship football.
we have to wait and see what happens in the January window before we will know if we're going to keep playing as we are right now. If we can keep this team together, we won't be going down..if not, who knows!
Thats fair enough, but IMO for the 2nd half we were winning more 50-50 balls and closing you down so fast you could not put that decisive ball through which kept play in the center of the park or your half.
We may have to give David Mirfin some matches soon or he may want to go, so at the end of Januar we could have no Nyron Noseworthy or David Mirfin.
What cannot be proved is whether we were just awful on the day or whether Watford had us under the cosh, and made us play badly.
Outside of perhaps four clubs (and Chelsea certainly aren't one of them) your fanbase is as big as anyone's. But when fans believe that their club should be in a bigger pond, that can sometimes work against the team at home.
To give you some idea about Reading and West Ham. Watford got turned over by West Ham in Watford by 0-4, we then went and beat Reading 0-2 on their patch, admittedly they were not playing at all well, but neither were we. And now Reading have given West Ham a bloody nose. Topsy-turvy doesn't describe this league.
the only thing we can say is that since our team have settled and started playing as a team, quite a few teams have said they played badly when playing against us. We like to think that not every team has an off day at Vicarage Road, and therefore we don't allow our opposition to play
