It will come, they have been starvedfor service all season so are snatching a little bit. Some goals will come and they will loon class
It will come, they have been starvedfor service all season so are snatching a little bit. Some goals will come and they will loon class
We played longish balls in the air to TP today. We didn’t really play those passes under RM. So it’s not exactly a surprise he didn’t see much use for him.
Definitely ran out of gas second half and West Ham seemed pretty comfortable for the most part. Was a good game to watch though which has been a rarity this season so no complaints really. The timing is just so frustrating. Not only was it clear that Martin was out of his depth from very early on, but we're now in a situation where we've brought in a manager who plays a high energy style during the busiest point of the season. Means there's barely any recovery time between games and not much time on the training pitch either. Suspect we'll struggle with second half drop offs in performance for at least another month.
Yep, thought TP was fab.Gave WH a torrid time. Sharpen up his finishing he walks off with the match ball and we win 4-0.Most upbeat I have been for months
Oh and also, Sulemana is a terrible terrible footballer. Absolutely no idea what people see in him. Twenty five ****ing million. Let that sink in.
I think it's clear half the problem is with the (former) tactics, the other half is that 95% of our players are really, really ****e. Cannot wait for the season to be over
What about our fa cup win. A team relegated sometimes get to the final.# clutching at some positive thoughts
Nothing new there. Some of us have been saying that for years whilst others are still creaming themselves over him
Yeah it was so nice to see the intensity in the first half in particular, however I was sat there at about 20 mins gone going, we need to score during this period because not a chance we can do this for anymore than 60 mins. We do have a complete lack of quality in the attacking third too, but despite all of TPs misses, no other striker we have would have had the headers to miss. Wonder why Archer didn’t get any minutes given that he is our best finisher. Think over this busy period, we will have to be a bit more pragmatic with our use of our energy. But overall, a much more enjoyable performance. Even if quality is severely lacking, it’s so nice to simply see intent.
Others have no doubt said this, but so frustrating the board waited so long to sack Martin. I think Juric was sacked by Roma in November so we could have had him a month or so earlier. Happy enough with the performance in general, particularly first half.
It's not often I feel like this after a football mach. That's the best we've played in the PL for a long time. We absolutely should have won that game - Onuachu could have had a hattrick in the first half alone. So I should feel gutted at us losing that. But I don't. Equally though, I don't feel any enthusiasm or optimism about what such an improved performance could mean for the rest of the season. And the reason for that is because we're already down in my eyes. So I don't really care that I saw green shoots of recovery, nor that we missed a great opportunity to pick up three points. Instead, I'm just thinking that I saw a decent game. End. What a shame we didn't sack Martin 15 games ago.
Three defensive points that I noted from the game. First, the obvious one. No suicidal passing around the penalty area. Second, following a West Ham corner. KWP was at the near post (on our right) the ball broke into space and he was first to it. Seeing he was being closed down by two players he hit the ball into the crowd then turned and sprinted across the pitch to get into his left back position. Under RM he would probably have tried to keep the ball and risked losing it. Third. Towards the end one of our attacks broke down giving WHU a counter attack. All three of our CBs were spread out in a line across the pitch in a disciplined manner causing the man on the ball to slow down his approach. Under RM we would probably have had just one CB back.
I'd suggest we'd be around the 12-14 point mark of the other two with a proper manager in charge from the start.
On Solent Adam was saying something like it was the first time this season we actually looked like a PL team.
The best and most noticeable thing about today for me is that we weren't a nice team to play against. West Ham knew they were in a game which hasn't happened anywhere near enough this season. Again, basics.
Yeah, it's not very often this season we can say on another day we would have won that. Can say that today.
Feels like we could have picked up some more points had the decision been made earlier. But really the oversight seems to be that the original Martin contract likely had a clause guaranteeing an extension in the event of promotion. Granted I am sure something like that is hard to not include but we need to try and negotiate a break clause in future because there have now been several rock solid examples of managers that simply can’t cut it in the premier league when sticking doggedly to a system. Just like some players (Armstrong) simply can’t cut it in the premier league either
