We are in exactly the same position as we were 2 years ago, almost to the day. A decent bunch of players bemused and confused about how to implement a recently appointed left-field manager's curious system, and therefore not able to win games that, quality wise, we should be. This team is currently slipping towards the relegation zone. Like 2 years ago we need to appoint a manager who realises that you cannot just say to a team in the Championship 'oh, just go out and play in the style which currently only exists in my imagination', you need to do the basics correctly then move gradually towards your vision. Like our previous manager did. Built a team which, while it wasn't perfect, was at least competing before it was dismantled. I think Walter will be gone by lunchtime. Then the merry-go-round starts again.
Agree completely, the longer Tim stays the worse we get, it needs a fresh start, whether Acun agrees is another matter.
On Pedro, the Portsmouth game was pretty damning. He scored from the first and only decent ball in he got. Supposedly the striker's role in this system is to be on the end of crosses, rather than having lots of touches all over the pitch. He did that perfectly, but then the balls stopped coming in after that. What can he do?
Belloumi put in a number of decent crosses last night, Pedro was ahead of pretty much all of them. If he had a couple of the chances that landed to Slater, Simons or Palmer, it could have been a totally different game. That being said, they're all professional footballers and all should at least be getting those shots on target. In some respects I do feel for Tim, he can't manage for that stuff.
The clue is in their fragility. Sometimes it's half time, sometimes it's only part of a half, but they can't put a performance together over 90 mins and they fall apart at any adversity. We didn't see that last year or the start of this.
Most of our airborne crosses were easly dealt with by their 8ft centre backs. 2 of our best chances came from low balls to Omur first then Bedia.
I was only a young lad at the time, but I recall going to Brighton away. We were absolutely ****e, got smashed 3-0, and the fans were pissed off to the point that there were signs etc. We were behind a goal, and the ball ended up coming into the stand and landed with the guy next to me, he stuck a decent sized Fish Out, Dolan Out sticker on the ball and threw it back.
Sorry but that's plain daft. Belloumi will leave us for the PL, or at worse a promotion chasing Championship side, for a lot of money. Probably next summer (although at this rate he might want out in January! They'd be takers).
Bruce won promotion to the Premier League with a top scorer who got single figures, a midfielder at that. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
We had some great games in the Championship under Bruce but he also ground out some very boring victories.
Did you think Bowen, KLP, Greaves, Philogene etc were all not very good as they weren't already Premier League players?
Yes I do, absolutely. Just turned 22. First season in England to prove himself. We took the gamble. It will pay off handsomely.
Totally agree about belloumi, he is going to be some player, he is without doubt THE most exciting and quality player in our squad. He cannot do it all himself, some of the crosses he put in last night would have definitely been converted by better strikers. The chance Omur had, bellouni would of flicked it over the keepers leg and scored, instead Omur struck it against his leg, yes a decent save but in my opinion belloumi buries it, that is the difference in class.
The thing with Belloumi's potential is you can see how often he almost bangs an absolute beauty but maybe overhits it and it flies over. He hits it in a way that just seems a cut above the average player at this level and you can absolutely imagine that one day it will click and he'll be scoring several of those types of shots a season. He'll probably score two or three this season. Bit like Andy Robertson's crossing when he was here. He didn't get loads of assists but you'd see him whipping them in and no one getting on the end of it and it was clear he had some serious quality about him.
I don't gamble, but if I did I'd bet you £10 right now that he'll never play in the English premier league in the next 8 years.. If he does I'll send £10 to Dove House, promise.
