Watched the WBA game again this evening and a couple of things really struck me. Firstly,Ii was amazed at how little Onuoha ventured forward during the game, Taiwo also rarely went past the middle of the park. It was as if the fullbacks were instructed not to pass the half way line. Secondly, for a team that was one nil down pretty early on, we really did not throw the kitchen sink at them. We did not shown passion, determination or even desperation. It all looked very mechanical. Thirdly, in hindsight i really don't think that Diakite, Barton and Derry should have started in a game that we needed to get something out of. Although they are different types of players, neither of them can be classified as creative midfielders. Finally, after watching the match again it really stood out to me how little genuine pace we had in our midfield. Neither Barton, Adel nor Mackie can be described as pacey. Considering that we were playing with a lone forward, Zamora often looked disconnected from the rest of the players as most of his team mates could not make the ground up fast enough to support him. We have had many games this season that have been called must win games, but this weekend is a concrete MUST. Anything less than 3Pts and realistically we are down. We must beat Spuds and Stoke at home and pick up a point at Chelsea. IMHO that will be enough. We all know that MH is a cautious manager and that has been evident in our play recently, including WBA. I really expected us to throw the kitchen sink at them in the second half but it never materialised. In many ways we are unlucky at having spuds this weekend. On form they can be devastating. They have genuine pace in VDV, Lennon, Bale, Defoe etc etc. It will take a huge performance to get the result we need. But here is the hard question for MH. Do we play 4-4-2 and put two up front or do we stick to our 4-5-1. Do we set our stall out for a win at the start or keep it tight and try and grab a goal at some stage. Having made the above initial points i really think that our team selection has to be right on Sat. For me, Young has to come in at RF and get forward as much as possible. That may mean Onuoha taking Ferdinands place at CB. Traoire must also play instead of Taiwo giving us genuine pace on the left. I would leave Derry on the bench and play with Barton and Diakite. The difficult part of the jigsaw is puting more pace in the midfield. I think that is why he put SWP on last weekend for Derry and it was obvious even to me that our midfielf needed that injection of energy. Don't be surprised to see Cisse starting and maybe even in a midfield 3 to add energy and pace. MH has some hard calls to make but he must get the team selection right and IMHO we must setup to win and not setup to not loose. If we win on Sat we really have a decent chance, anything less than 3Pts and we will have too much left to do. Thoughts!!!!!
Nuts. This is almost spot on. The time for keeping it tight has passed. Ferdinand and Taiwo are arguably no better at defending than Young and Traore and certainly a lot slower going forward. I do wonder though whether Ferdinand has finally started to feel more comfortable in the middle in the presence of Clint Hill. SWP is fast in the way I imagine a headless chicken would be. He really has done nothing at all to warrant even a place on the subs bench. We need to put the foot down at the start and blow Spurs away. Their confidence will be fragile at the moment. If we concede, there is a risk that it will be our confidence that drains away completely. I would replace Derry with Cisse and look to bring him on if we can get a two goal cushion in the last twenty minutes. However it is important we maintain the creative spark. Therefore Buz on in the second half to play alongside Adel and not instead of him. If we need to bolster the midfield tacklers I would drop Mackie back as he has the drive, the bite and the energy to get up and down the pitch where needed.
I think everybody expected Arsenal to beat Wigan and with your superior GD it was worth an extra point. I'm sure the manager and the players (wrongly) would have gone into the WBA game thinking "A loss here won't be a disaster as Wigan won't pull ahead", when in truth the reverse happened and Wigan turned the relegation battle on it's head last night.
