I'm still concerned about Jonjo. Didn't do much again today and can be a liability as he does stupid things in dangerous areas,
If that is top draw for you Dai, it explains a lot. We got away with a poor performance today and clearly work needs to be done. Shelvey not on his game and I'm surprised he stayed on to be honest. Need to step up a level next week.
This is true, Burnley were in our face and disrupting our passing game, they would not let us settle on the ball, plus they had plenty of bodies behind the ball most times we attacked, this type of game we have a history of struggling with IE: West Ham, Norwich, etc!................. Garry Monks doing alright for a Rookie, has Huw scored again!.............
"Top draw" has to be a joke. I don't accept the Gomis v Bony comparisons as Gomis had zero support when he came on and had to deal with long balls lumped up to him. When he got it he had no support at all but this was symptomatic of our second half display. Glad of the three points but Burnley will trouble a lot of teams this season on that performance. We were terrible second half and that's the worst game I've seen Shelvey have for anyone, let alone us. Hardly any of our players can say they played well in that second half. Nice to see the Pole in The Goal dominate his area again and I suppose that was encouraging. Sadly, this is a familiar pattern from last season - decent first half then a dramatic fade-away in the second and Monk needs to get to grips with this asap. As has been said, a better team would have buried us by 3 goals easily. Having said that, I thought we were a little more organised defensively but I'm clutching at straws maybe. Must improve if we're to keep up this good start because that was poor today. Anyone who thinks otherwise is entitled to that view but they must be wearing glasses with the rosiest tint.
Good win today, but the performance was very poor at best. But they say good sides win when they are not at their best. I thought our midfield were very poor today and we were so slow moving the ball around. It looked like they either were disinterested or the win from last week had gone to their heads and didnt show Burnley enough respect thinking it would be an easy win. We just were not able to up the pace today and that is a worry. We have to get in another central midfield player as others have sadi Shelvey was off his game today but there was no midfield quality on the bench to replace him. I also thought Siggy was anonomous today. Still a win is a win and I will take every one we can get no matter how we play. There is still a lot of work to be done on the training pitch. 11 more wins to go.
Top draw in respect that Burnley were unbeaten in their last 12 away games and they gave chelsea a good game last week plus they are the newbies who always play above their station. we controlled the game and limited them to just a solitary shot on target and came away with the 3 points. If you think that any team let alone us will get to play the same every week then you will wait a long time. every team is different and every team sets us a challenge and we dealt with that challenge fantastically and earned another 3 points...top draw stuff from the lads in doing that....
Were you at the game? I accept Burney were very decent and gave us a real test but "we controlled the game" is sooooooo way off the mark. First half, maybe.
Apart from the first five minutes we never really took the game by the scruff of the neck which was disappointing. It was a hard watch most of the time, but you can't deny it was another 3 points in the bag. On to the next game..
I agree aswan - the points are easily the post important thing here - but we need to improve. This is a tough League.
I think that was the root of the problem today. Shelveys passing was all over the place and you could see him, KI and Sigurdson having words. It looked as though the midfield three lost the plot and the team just didn't function in the second half. It didn't help that twice Dyer turned and went backwards after beating his man - which meant we rarely threatened the Burnley goal after half time. I wouldn't judge Bony or Gomis from todays performance - they rarely received the ball in the final third. To take Bony off after 60 minutes was a criminal offence, unless he was injured. Fair play to Burnley, they played some good football, pressed us hard and can count themselves unlucky not to get at least a point. Six points from our first two games is a magnificent return - but I can't help but being deflated by today's performance.
The game today was lost in the midfield, and you can blame Shelvey for that, his passing is poor, and today was another example of that. When Leon is back I expect competition for Shelvey's position, with in my view Leon and Ki as our strongest midfield currently, but hopefully we will sign a quality midfielder to give us some depth. To win today when losing the midfield, shows how good we defended, and Williams was solid and at the heart of everything good we did defensively, Taylor had a good game too, and Amat is growing into the position, which can only be good for competition with Fernandez now in the squad!.......
http://www1.skysports.com/football/...eas-defensive-display-in-1-0-win-over-burnley Monks view of the game. At least he acknowledges what we have said in that second half we were poor, but the defensive display was very good.
Agree PGF and Phil. If we manage to get Stambouli, Jonjo's days as a starter are numbered. He's too slow on the ball for me.
It's his thinking ability, or the lack of it, if only he could get up to speed mentally and make the right choices, he would give himself less pressure and more time on the ball, Monk needs to give him far more passing drills, especially the short passing and move!............
