I'm still hopeful for Idah. At least he is able to keep possession of the ball, hold it up and bring others into play. As I said earlier, I'd actually quite like to see him and Hugill or him and Pukki together upfront. Everyone fit, an interesting lineup would be: Krul Aarons Omobamidele Hanley Giannoulis Sara Hayden Mclean Cantwell Idah Pukki (Hugill)
Strange reaction from the Jock press etc this morning. Having read a few articles and watched a couple of videos,they seem extremely excited about their team, the result, and the performance. You would think they had just beaten Barcelona!! Were we really that good? Or is Jock football still crap?
I think most of us are hopeful , Ireland have been incredibly patient with him too . That cup game where he scored a hat trick seems a long long time ago . This season he needs a run of games and some goals
Problem is you win and people over-emphasise the positives, lose and the opposite happens. Truth is in all games there is good and bad, even in the best and the worse teams. The best coaches are never a 100% happy no matter how well their teams do.
A few good players but they really did not pose us any problems apart from an offside goal and a rash pass by McCullem. Cannot remember our keepers being unduly troubled.
On the whole I though we did ok considering it was a pre-season game and I don't doubt Smith got a lot of what he wanted out of the game. Clearly their first goal should have been disallowed that coupled with Hanley going off effected us. The fans top priority might have been the result, but I very much doubt that was top of Smith's list of things to get from the game. I suspect the team that started against Celtic won't be the team that starts at Cardiff. We have another game today and I very much doubt that it was a case of playing all our starters yesterday and all our non-starters today. Smith would of split the squad strength across both games. I expect a lot more experimentation today and more positives and negatives to come from the game, the result unless it is by more than 2 or 3 goals either way is irrelevant. Whilst I agree with some of the negative comments in relation to some of McCallum's contribution I also think he made some positive contributions as we, Smith will have learnt a lot about him from this game. A lot of fans over-focusing on his mistake that led to the second goal (despite others being at fault as well). The same will be true of every player, although he won't have learnt as much about the players that featured regularly featured last season.
The Gulf in class between the Championship and Premier league is enormous. If we were going into the Premier league with this squad then it would be certain relegation. In the Championship we have a good chance at winning the thing again . I'm amazed we didn't sign a permanent striker or centre back last season or in this window.
I agree. Take out the offside Goal and that unfortunate pass by McCullum and it probably would have ended 0-0. In terms of squad numbers, if we add Gibbs and Tomkinson to those returning from loan, we have about the same squad size as last season, but it's over balanced towards attacking players, especially considering Hayden's absence until September. We need the PLM replacement urgently as an injury to McLean would leave us very thin and Hanley's knock shows just how thin we are in defence.
& yet in those 10 years we've been promoted from the Championship 3 times (twice with record points), been a PL team for 5 years and spent the rest of the time in the Championship.
Yes McCullum's pass contributed to the second goal, but there were other factors in the mistake, Celtic's pressing and lack of viable options. Once the pass was made others should have done much better to try and rectify the error.
To look at the positive side of McCallums game yesterday, he made some very good interceptions and drove forward with the ball well, often leading counter attacks. His first touch was very good, plucking the ball or of the air several times or taking it in his stride when making interceptions nicely. Overall and I think understandably he just needs time, in his career so far I think he has primarily been a wing back in a back 5 and it shows. He’s still young and I think he could learn
PP scored for Birmingham against Rayo Vallecano in their pre season game and was deployed as a left wing back with more license to go forward than defend
Yes, but it's hard when a player gifts the ball to the opposition anywhere near your own penalty area because the team is set up in a formation that is expecting to go forwards and suddenly they have to readjust their positions and their thinking. (I'm not saying this as a stick to beat McCallum with - I've seen most of our players hand the ball to an opposing forward at some point in the last few years! I remember two particularly egregious examples from last season - one by Byram and one by McLean. Neither ended up being punished, but that was more to do with the opposition failing to take advantage than our other defenders reacting swiftly and nullifying the threat.)
Krul did it several times , as did Gibson , Kabak , Williams, Rupp Handley and probably a few I missed
Gozo asked what Sargent brings to a game. If he contributes to us scoring three goals, irrespective of exactly how he contributes -- a wayward cross, capitalising on an error, winning the ball back deep and initiating a counter-attack -- that's not "nothing" by any stretch of the imagination. As for his cross, tell me who in our team regularly puts in pin point crosses? Max Aarons, who is regularly lauded for his attacking play, is just as inaccurate with his crosses from wide. We won against Marseilles by pressing them out of the game; Sargent played the first 45 minutes, contributing hugely to the success of that strategy. You have a view about what Sargent "is in the side to do". I'm more interested in what DS wants from Sargent when he selects him, and whether he, Sargent, delivers on that.
