I suppose clean sheets is better than narrow defeats? I reckon Tella and Lulu would have offered more but weren't on the bench. The nearest thing to go in to the net was Che's head, how was he allowed to play on without a proper check?
We struggle to break down teams that put 10 men behind the ball. Nothing new there, except that more teams do that against us now. Incidentally, when we beat Liverpool next Monday, can we please refrain from thinking we're Bayern Munich? That way, there won't be so much gnashing of teeth when we lose at Leicester the week after.
We'll be fine. I think it's easy to forget the recent and substantial changes forced upon us. I know they should all be ready to go when called on but the team, pre-changes, was a confident unit and even though we are a squad, it still takes time for new faces to pick up and gel with the rest of the team. Ralph missing from the touchline is also a major factor especially for the younger guys. I've every confidence that this different phase of our season will, in the long run, be a massive learning phase for the players, management all improving the results. Keep the faith and a Happy New Year to all.
Our playing strategy is not designed to be playing 2 games a week. Ralph likes to avoid rotation and its obvious the players run themselves ragged for him. Once a week is about perfect i reckon. It isn't sustainable playing too many fixtures in a short space of time. That is not to be overly critical; it works bloody well when there is some breathing space between games.
Indeed. If we don't let them play then how do they get up to speed? There are very few finished players in our side, 90% of the team is working and improving and changing. Its a process.
I'll be signing off for my annual holiday. Given we've had 2 0-0s and probably 2 decent defeats incoming, I think I've timed it perfectly.
Two more observations. We are very shy at diagonal passes into space. I saw several occasions where the pass was on but we went sideways into the centre. Secondly, Walcotts shot from distance was the only one I can remember (forgetting Berties effort into row z) and I cant remember any from Fulham. We are so focused on playing our way into the box and are too shy about pulling the trigger outside the box atm. How JWP can put so many screamers into the top corner from a deadball but can't hit a moving ball is beyond me. Losing the ball isn't a problem for us as we are setup to win it back so a few efforts from distance would keep the opposition guessing a bit about what we might do.
Stats say we had 62% possession, 8 attempts, 3 on target (9 - 3), 474 completed passes (237). Also Ings didn't have any possession in their penalty area. At least we didn't do a Wolves in Fergie time!
Well he did score but I take the point. He wasn’t involved in our attacks. One positive was Walcott moving centrally to be available for a pass between the lines. But he should then be turning and shifting it wide to KWP to cross or playing one-twos with Danny and Che centrally. He tended to just turn and run and give it away if he made any progress.
It says a lot about where we are as a team when our opponents seem to be more intent on nullifying our attack rather than going for our throat from the off, and try to catch us on the break. The biggest issue, for me, is that we don’t get the ball to the likes of Theo, Redmond or Armstrong quickly enough to enable them to have a go at players, before getting crowded out. Early first half, tonight, we WERE finding Theo very quickly giving him time to gather the ball and run at their defence/midfield and create panic. As the half/game progressed we stopped getting the ball to him as quickly, allowing them to double up on him and get settled at the back, nullifying him. Not going to knock the skipper but I think he could be a bit more adventurous with his passing, at times. Great at dead ball delivery, but can be very restricted with his passing from open play. Because I think our crossing is poor, I am not going to go off on one about it, other than to say that Jermaine Jenas said what @fatletiss said recently. We are trying to pick out players instead of just hitting it into areas that might cause problems. A draw is better than a loss, so onwards and, hopefully, upwards.
That really surprised me too, between that and instances like David Luiz playing almost a full half after that Jimenez collision in Terry Butcher mode it really is starting to look like clubs and the PL are still not taking head injuries seriously, despite all the talk. I mean he got up and moved off ok, but for no one to even come on and have a look felt wrong imo.
Think we need to remember that we lost both games against them last season. So at least one point is an improvement
Aside from Leeds no team has scored more than one goal in this round of games. This suggests teams are tired. We also could have won both of the last two if runs were fractions later. It would be great if some of our other players took the shot on.
Good point - I noticed this earlier. A lot of pow scoring games and draws over the past few days which is no surprise considering the fixture congestion. I'd say this would affect us more than most.