Moses Livermore Davies No reason to change the starting 11 after the way we played on Saturday. I suspect Meyler didn't come on as he will be a definite starter for Saturday with Hayden being ineligible and Livermore being saved for Ipswich away next week. Too many players below par tonight (Diame, Snodgrass, Clucas, Robbo) but I'd take our position over anyone else's in the championship.
Odubajo Huddlestone Dawson (although his usually decent passing was way off) Thought everybody else was way below their best. Livermore and Hernandez were on totally different wavelengths, Diame looks toasted and needed to come off after 60 minutes. Meyler should've come on, but I don't really know what difference it would've made because the game wasn't a midfield stalemate, it was because there was no penetration in the final third. Brucey admitted that they went 4-5-1 and he wasn't expecting it, we should've gone with Chuba and Abel from the start because when he came on, Brighton started to look stretched.
It's always easy to blame players, but if Bruce is tactically out-thought and doesn't change things quick enough then it's going to be hard to get a result. Repeating the same team obviously didn't work at all, because different opponents have different tactics. Sometimes you just have to admit you are wrong and change things way earlier.
I've said this for most of the season, Bruce is a big fan of keeping a winning team regardless of formations and doesn't appear to change once a side wins. But then, nobody thought the 3rd place team in the Championship would turn up and play for 90 minutes looking for a point and given how well everybody played on Saturday it wouldn't have made much sense to change it around just for the sake of it. What we need to get better at is how to unlock teams when they come to frustrate us. We could've gone 3-5-2 at the break and see how they matched up against it, or maybe more prudently, stop the ridiculous over-reliance we have on crosses and start playing a few through balls down the middle.
The problem with crosses or high lobbed balls in is that they aren't attacked so the opposition clears or the header is bad (Hernandez recent game, and Akpom this).
Then when Bruce changes a winning team and it doesn't work, people on here are moaning that you should never change a winning team!
If it doesn't work it's because he's got the tactics wrong. It's way too simplistic to say don't change anything. The main thing anyway is to change things during the game when things need adjusting, that's part of the reason of having substitutes. Great managers change things even in the first half sometimes.
Odubajo Livermore Dawson How can he **** did Clucas stay on the pitch, we might as well have played with ten men, Snodgrass and Robertson lost the ball far too often and Diame was just having an amble. Bruce is ****e at breaking teams down when they set up like this, where was Maloney, he'd have been ideal for a game like tonight's?
Clucas and Robertson both had below par games, but Brighton were dangerous down their right with Knockaert and that bald bearded guy, To take one or both of them off (and replace them with whom from the bench?) would have made us weaker defensively.
Moses Jake Daws As well as Moses played I was mystified by the decision to bring Hayden on as the first sub. It looked like Elmo had been given instructions to come on then for some reason it was changed to Hayden. I'd have kept Moses on but I'd have brought Elmo on earlier than the 82nd minute. Brighton had a 34 year old right back playing at left back, Elmo needed more than a few minutes to have a go at him.
Just wondering how much people would be willing to risk for more adventurous and offensive football? It seems like most of us to one extent or another would like to see it. But games like tonight's (from what I hear) are a good example where such tactics often come undone. In a tight game like this we could, and nearly did, go down to a late goal. They are no mugs. You can't argue with the success so far, we are still top with as good a chance as anyone. We might think we could have romped it or a least done better with a more direct and aggressive style, but we could equally be in a desperate struggle to reach a play off place. Or worse. I know which would be most exiting position but I think the financial differentials re prem status next season would lead me to accept the current cautious success. Sorry, wrong thread,
Davies Odubajo Livermore Clucas was gash, Snoddy kept losing the ball, and Hayden, like Meyler, cant pass - we could have won tonight but Brucie was totally out thought - he said at the end of the match that he was expecting 4 4 2 but they played 4 5 1 and he thought that was difficult to deal with - Brucies answer is to defend and build very slowly from the back - frustrating but a point isn't the worst result
