No communication, no commitment, no impetus, no tackling, no formation, no chasing, no cover in the middle. Who's holding? If we could have controlled the ball (again), we would've been good, but nah. JFH is clueless. We got lucky with the point, clear handball, Wolves were as poor as we were. We're mid-table Championship for a reason. We'll be here for a long time at this rate.
We lack a proper midfield general, someone who controls the pace of the game and can pick a pass and be the go-to player. Our midfielders treat the ball like a hot potato, passes are poor or downright giveaways and they can't cope when pressed or are under pressure. Even the Dutch players who are supposed to be comfortable on the ball are poor at retaining possession. Faurlin is the nearest we've got to quality but his form is suffering from his injury history and playing with such a poor passing team...
I agree, he was sitting on the bench, so JFH had that choice to bring him on when things were obviously not working in our midfield.
That was last season, he's been a lot more influential for Burnley this season doing the simple things like winning tackles and passing to a team mate.......there again he has Dyche to answer to.....
Our problems in midfield have been building for years. Every manager in the league must know that if you press QPR hard in the middle of the park we really struggle. It's become a self-fulfilling prophecy in many ways, a vicious cycle that's damn hard to break. But for sure the one thing that won't help fix it is to use the kind of long ball tactics we saw yet again today and to leave our best passer sitting on the bench. JFH needs to look beyond what brought success to Burton in the lower divisions.
If Wolves had had anything in midfield themselves we were there for the taking in that regard. Very little protection for the defence and equally no presence from the middle in the way someone like Diame can bulldoze his way through. Enough has been said about Henry. The bloke just isn't a presence when he should be.
Just to answer Mr Peters post about my view of the game.......I did only get to watch the last 20 minutes or so due to work commitments but what i saw was the midfield being passed by due to hoof ball up to Hoilett!!!!!.....Smithies made 3 very smart saves in a couple of minutes......we didn't need a midfield enforceer because the ball was not under contriol in midfield by either side......we could have/should have won it when Chery hit the post' they could have won it with the chances they had in the last 10 minutes or so........ All in all it was a poor advert for Championship football but then I'm not sure what we expected, this seems to be the standard fare in this division.......
Indeed. Wolves are a bog standard team at this level and as good or bad as we are. However, I see some green shoots under Hasselbaink.
I would have kept both Barton & Dunne for this season & tried getting rid of some of the others but too late now. We've lacked leadership, passion all season & think they'd of helped particularly with having fairly young, inexperienced additions coming in.
If we'd kept Dunne, he'd be even older and slower than last season. Hill can do that role. We may well have not got Hall had we kept Dunne. Same with Barton. If it freed up some cash for Luongo I'm happy. I think Henry had to be offered a deal based on how many games he played last season.
You didn't see the handball, which could have changed our fortunes, so Chery's shot on the post was justice
We could have, should have changed formation to 4-5-1 and stuffed the middle but we played like it was 4-2-1-1-2 with no presence there and had to keep flipping it short and wide with no options. It was hard to tell who was supposed to be in control. Without some heroics by Ned and Perch, we were done for
For me its our most ineffective group of midfielders since the George kulscar,Steve morrow era...totally devoid of a playmaker and so slow they actually resemble wax work models!
Ramsey and Henry shared far too many candlelight dinners and strolls on the beach for him to be dropped over something as petty as a half a million quid contract.
Unfortunately the sort of playmaker/midfield general we need are too few and far between at this level. Faurlin for obvious reasons can't play every game and without him we don't have anyone who can pull the strings. I would have kept Barton, despite his ability not being what he thinks it is he is still a leader on the field and we don't have a single one of those in the starting 11.
