I hope you wiped your feet and washed your hands before you came back over here. I seem to recall that statistics also prove that Barton has the second best passing completion rate in the universe. Second to Karl Henry. I like Carroll, or at least the idea of Carroll, just like I liked Granero. But for reasons beyond my comprehension players like this do not seem to thrive in our team, and the average R's fan does not have the patience for their type. Actually, I think I know at least part of the problem - players like this need to play in fast, fluid midfields, where people are constantly on the move, space is being created and the objective is to pass through the opposition. Arsenal/Barca esque. We haven't been like that since the 70s. We are pretty static, we don't like to commit players forward at speed, and our objective is to keep the ball, minimise risk. And we are winning games, so those who have no interest in the way we play are quite within their rights to say 'so what?'.
Superb report col & I also agreed with nearly all of sb73's reply. I have no problem in believing that if we were to play fast, fluent attcking football we would win the majority of our games. It would also be more enjoyable to watch! Pleased to meet you yesterday & seeing Roller, Nines, Wandle & Finn again.
Pretty much as I saw it as well. I just couldn't make sense of the selection, putting 2 up front but having nobody in the midfield of the park who was going to get wide just didn't make any sense to me, made us a very one dimensional team, easy handle. I was pleased to see us push on to get the win, in the second half it didn't look like anyone else was going to get the win however the first half was the opposite, don't forget we hit the post twice as well. Every game is tough, the beauty of English football but I still think we should winning some of these home games a little easier. At the end of the Day we went second and the transfer window still open so hopefully a couple of changes, so can't grumble too much.
Bloody hell mate, you're beginning to sound as cynical as Mr Wittingham! Things I disagree with there: Firstly, to blame Henry for us being over-run is to completely miss the reason why we were so stretched. No hard working wide players and in fact, only 3 in the midfield for the first 20 minutes were the reasons why. Schweinsteiger at his best would have struggled to contain that amount of free space!! The other obvious problem was the lack of pace in the centre backs. Traore.........has been praised by Harry for his overall improvement, has a very good first touch (something sadly missing from a few others) and will get up and down the left flank delivering dangerous crosses. Completely disagree with your assessment of him as he is today. Carroll WAS worse than anyone else, giving the ball away far more and easily being our worst player on the day, closely followed by O'Neill. I do agree that Carroll will be a good player one day and would benefit from having better players around him and a bit more time on the ball. AJ looked a little rusty, but worked his socks off and cleverly made Austin's first goal. At the moment I can't think of anyone else that we have to play with Austin in a 4-4-2. I have been unhappy with our performance at times this season too, but if we played the rest of our games in the manner in which we played the 2nd half yesterday I wouldn't be unhappy. Harry just needs to decide on his best line up and believe in the players a bit more imo.
Awh COL don't start this AGAIN! When you put up a match report and invite opinions, some people are going to express a different point of view. How can you not understand that?!!!
Don't bother with the personal digs swords. Stick to the football (I know it's a struggle for you). So, when someone puts up an opinion on a thread that I've started, I can't come back with a counter argument? What bollocks!
To be honest, I think it would be a good exercise for you to put up your match report and then allow the thread run for a day or say, three pages - whichever comes first - before you rejoin the conversation. See how difficult you find reading through the thread without being able to reply. The measure of difficulty you experience would be a good indicator as to whether or not the claim I make against you is valid. The claim is this: Every week you post up a report and every week I say your responses to (inevitable) disagreements are overly aggressive and they give the impression of a man within a hairs breath of blowing his top off. I think you are unsuited to this type of debate as you put yourself in the firing line by the very act of posting up a match report with a range of strong personal opinions on every area of the game. You still don't seem to get that this act alone is, by its very nature, going to be controversial and will attract disagreement because no two people view a match exactly the same. You then appear to take any dissenting voices almost like a personal attack on yourself. Honestly, I can't think of anyone on here more unsuited to this particular kind of arrangement. I don't mean any disrespect here, its just an honest observation. Make of it what you will.
Please just do us all a favour and try your best to understand that this is a forum where people exchange views. They disagree with each other. It's what happens. Now.................**** off!
Whatever. If you would be happy with the second half performance for the rest of the season you are more easily pleased than me. Traore and Johnson earn (sorry get) £40k a week. The average Championship wage is £5k a week. If you believe they are providing good value, fine.
With respect, what we as a club have decided to pay players is a completely different issue as to whether we rate those players or are unhappy with our style of play. From that point of view I would agree that very few of them are giving us "value for money". Separate issue imo.
