Brady - excellent. Got better and better as his confidence grew. Toward the end of the game Blackpool had 2 defenders on him and they still couldn't stop him. Will grow and grow (hope United don't know how good he is!!) Dudgeon - That was his 3rd professional game......WOW! Perfect replacement for Daws. I watched him closely and when he was in front of me in that first half he was superb, he out witted Taylor Fletcher every time. Now for the NEGATIVES!! Gulasci - Oh Dear, awful at crosses. Hope Corrigan has him practicing all this week, cos if that continues we are going to ship a load from corners this season. Adebola - Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Don't nobody say it was only one game, either. He was shyte at Wembley, he'ss been shyte since, he is 36 he aint gunna improve. McKenna - slow, out of position to do his job to break up play. Would rather have had Harper after that performance. Jack Hobbs - "Don't panic, Don't Panic Mr Mainwaring"!! Cairney - The big problem he will ALWAY have is that he has absolutely NO PACE. Fryatt - Miles off the pace last night. NP - Why oh why didn't he bring Jay Simson on sooner? I couldn't believe it when he brought on Nick Barmby early in the second half. Yes, Simpson missed a sitter but he has pace and power up front and looked dangerous for the 10 mins he was on. Was he an injury worry? If not, poor decision by the manager IMHO. Should have won that game about 6 - 3!
I think the centre midfield pairing was a problem. Both are slow 'sitters' and we really lacked legs in there making lung-busting runs. It was shown when McKenna tried to burst into the box - he really shouldnt be doing that but he probably thought he had no choice. Im happy with either of them in there, just not together. I'd still like Koren and McKenna in the middle with the former supporting the attackers every time and McKenna just sitting.
I thought Brady looked really good last night but he starts to think he Messi. He needs to learn when to run with the ball and when to pass. If he balances that out a bit more then he will be a great player for you. Tom Cairney impressed me and Matty Fryatt was same old, either scores for fun or cant hit a cows backside. You keeper doesnt look very confident in himself or in the air. Apart from that a few more games and you may of won last night. And Adebola was crap
Here we go with the "all our players are crap" b@llocks. Cairney looked mobile and usef the ball well. Adebola looked strong and had some great touches, his lack of pace let him doen once or twice when he beat the defender but couldn't get away. The ENTIRE defence looked organised and defended well. 1 poor header from Hobbs doesnt make him sh!t. If dudgeon hadnt come inside even that would have been fine. Mckenna started well but drifted out of the game after half an hour.
Wow, a central midfielder does not need pace! He just needs to be mobile, that doesn't always mean fast. Playing Cairney alongside Evans will work alot better. Cairney was way more impressive than Mckenna last night. I can't believe people actually want to drop our best technical player because he isn't as fast as Walcott. ****ing morons.
Adebola looked strong with some great touches???? It is no coincidence we created a shed-load of chances once Adebola went off. This was because we started to play in wide positions because Barmby was getting into the box to get on the end of things. That didn't happen when Adebola was on the pitch because we were satisfied to simply lump balls up to him. Sorry but with Gulasci's flaps and Hobbs rushing in everywhere, I felt far from secure. Blackpool were good at passing but had very little up front. That defence will ship a load more than last season if nothing changes. Also, try not to lie on your posts regarding what others say. Where have I said, "all our players were crap"?
My thoughts on last night are as follows: Adebola was a real positive last night and did everything we could have asked for. He held up the ball and helped link up play, we looked a far worse side when he came off. McKenna is great and just what we needed, he is far better than Harper. Cairney has all the ability but he's too slow and doesn't give us any intensity. He doesn't pressure the opponents but he can pass. I would say that he's more of a luxury player and he'll be best in a 451. Hobbs is a very solid defender but he can't pass. Koren was non existent, if Qatar want him let him go for £1m. Fryatt, if he'd have scored the first then he would have scored the second, but Simpson shoould have also finished his chance.
Do you mean me there? With the collective 'morons' I'm assuming so. If that is the case, where did I say drop Cairney because he lacks pace? I CLEARLY said I'd be happy with either Cairney or McKenna in there, just not together. And by the way, it's a great debating tactic to say "****ing morons".
Resorting to statements like "phuking morons" simply shows you have lost the argument. Don't worry, anyone with an ounce of sense knows this.
Adebola is an impact player off the bench for me, am disappointed we didnt start Simpson as even though he might not work as well with Fryatt, he has more of a goal threat and maybe if we had started it might have been a different result. Gulascsi was nervous but it was his first appearance.
Now I'm not one for slagging our own players, especially ones who were making their debut in the first game of the season after a long summer....however I'm also not one for throwing superlatives at our own players who did very little to deserve such lavish praise: Adebola - completely static and unable to jump higher than 3inches off the ground (a problem for a "target man") leading to him being beaten in the air by Cathcart and Evatt an inordinate amount of times. Up until his substitution we were giving away possession, humping long balls over what seemed a none existent midfield and our retention of possession was minimal. Bringing Nicky on brought more fluidity to our game - more movement up top, more of an attempt to play a passing game that involved our midfield (especially the excellent Brady on the wing) and we started to take control of the game and was very unlucky not to take one of the guilt edged chances that came about because of this play. To say we looked a worse side when he came off beggars belief - we offered virtually no threat on goal from open play during the first half, it was no coincidence we started to control the match and had 3 or 4 clear cut chances once he came off. McKenna - I honestly can't remember noticing him during the first half. For a ball winning midfielder the game passed him by all to easily - he needed to be harassing and nipping at the heals of their 3 man midfield partnership but was too off the pace to do so leaving Cairney isolated and jumping into stupid challenges leading to a number of needless freekicks. I honestly saw nothing in his play that Ash or Oli couldn't have done better, or Harper could have done the same. To be fair to McKenna, he wasn't dreadful and Adebola did have some good touches on the limited amount of times he won the ball and made it stick however the praise heaped on them in your post was absurd.
I think the bigger impact was Brady and Koren swapping wings. Brady had a lot more success down the right flank. I believe this happened at half time but might be mistaken.
Yes, they swapped wings when Barmby came on. But I think the movement of Nicky over the complete staticness (sic) of Adebola that made the real difference.
It was aimed at every idiot who keeps talking about centre midfielders lacking pace. The thing Mckenna lacks is change of direction, this is why Evans should be in there.
i thought McKenna had a decent game. Don't think NP bought Adebola to start games but due to McLean being injured he had little choice. Simpson will never cut it at this level I think NP also needs to tell Hobbs to pass it to either full back, James Chester and just be a defender.
I don't think that Simpson was fit to start or play much more than 20 mins and thats why Nicky came on just after half time. I'll be interested to see who plays on Tuesday.
