You yourself have only awarded 2 players with points and one of them only played half a game. I have, on other occasions, awarded no points as there was no player that put in a shift (imo). Yesterday was no exception with Aluko playing like his @rse was on fire at the beginning and then disappeared. To me, MOM awards are for players who made an outstanding contribution to the Club and played above and beyond their normal game. There was none, again imo, who did this but to be fair they gave it their best shot. I am disappointed that the Tea Lady didn't get a start.
Quinn Chester Huddlestone Aluko misses out for me, did look dangerous but wasted good opportunities for me and went missing completely in the second half. Pissed off by Bruce's fiddling about in the second half, Maguire at the back, then up top, then at the back, and I feel sorry for Figgy after a MOTM performance is left out, and our centre half is put at right back and our right back at left back. Baffling.
I could not agree more, once again, too many square pegs in round holes when it was not needed. Elmo should of been on the right and Figgy on the left. We did not have to play Chester and Elmo out of position, however Chester did very well, despite being played out of position. (He may of been played there to nullify Cresswell, who I barely remember doing much apart from a free kick that went wide in the first half) Quinn - Usual endeavour and work rate, however not much end product. Aluko - That first half performance he gave was amazing, back to his usual self, apart from refraining from shooting all the time. (Which isn't like him, he's usually a greedy bastard) Second half, we showed no desire to continue playing football, we kept losing it and being sloppy. There was no service, and when Aluko did get the ball he was crowded out by West Ham, no support from the midfield and Fat Sam obviously knew he was our main threat and had Alex Song sit on him in the second half. Chester - Despite his early withdrawal, he settled in to the right wing back role with ease, just shows how good he is really, to be played out of position and not look out of place. It was a toss up between Chester, Elmo and Livermore for third, as they were the only other players to come out of this game having not played to badly. Livermore did give the ball away a few times, but when you're in a midfield with a headless chicken (Meyler) and a fart in a trance (Thudd) you're always going to struggle, but he closed West Ham down when needed and then hit them on the counter attack trying to find Aluko/Quinn/etc. Meyler, Thudd, Davies, Dawson, McGregor all need to book their ideas up. They were shocking, if it wasn't for injuries I would drop them all from the team for Newcastle, but we don't have enough fit players to do so.
Apparently, Figgy wasn't deemed fit enough to start and the aim was to not use him at all(I can't remember if it was illness, or a knock, but the commentators mentioned as issue with him ahead of kick off).
I was referring to his days back in the championship, when he danced past players like they were not there. That would explain it, but surely the logical thing to do was go 4-5-1, play Ince and Elmo on the wings, then a back 4 of Chester, Dawson, Davies, Bruce. (I'm sure Bruce has played at left back previously in his career)
1. Aluko 2. Chester 3. Quinn There have been some pretty harsh comments on this thread about Thudd but I'm afraid I'm starting to agree. WTF is it with him? As for the comments about general team performance, we were playing a second string, very good championship standard team who for the most part did their very best but were found out in the second half. Has there ever been an injury list like our current one? Obviously that's a rhetorical question because somewhere at some time there must have been, but someone at our club (probably Allam), has really upset the football Gods!
I'm not voting this week, I can't based on our second half performance, it would have been far easier if we'd had a Twat of the Match thread.
Another for whom the mist is beginning to clear. As someone else quite rightly pointed out Livermore, yesterday, was trying to do the job of all three central midfielders, Meyler was back to his headless chicken/Dean Marney-esque self, although at least he showed effort! Huddlestone on the other hand...
Aluko; comfortably our best player in the first half, Chester; things went down hill rapidly after he went off Quinn; Showed effort and talent on the ball, basically what you'd get if you combined Meyler and Hudd at the moment
Did you miss this, Roo? The Tea Lady did make an appearance; on the Match thread, quite Funky really!
