I thought our first half display was more tham decent and we caused a good Prem defence some problems. I did how ever think our defence was living on a knife edge. Would like to see Gorkks back asap. Cricket was good today.......
I didn't say he was our "best", i said he was no worse than anyone else especially. He did get roasted for pace a few times, but there were no blatant errors. Don't get me wrong, i'm not heaping praise on him, but he didn't stand out for me a particularly poor performer. We didn't have any shape in defence in the 2nd half collectively, it's hard to single people out.
I thought Derry, Faulin, Smith and Bothroyd did pretty well. All the rest were quite poor I thought, particularly in the second half. Taarabt lost possession too often, and One Size had a nightmare. I was in the School End right behind Paddy in the second half, and I've never seen him more angry and exasperated with our defenders.
I don't know, maybe I just have him as my personal scapegoat but his positional sense always seems dire. He also backs off far too much, at one point he was almost at the corner flag while petrov, who was running at him, was near the corner of our box still. He's also terrible in the air and tends to just launch the ball forward rather than getting his head up and picking out a pass.
"He also backs off far too much" I agree with that, i think the whole team do actually. There weren't nearly enough tackles going in during the second half, everyone just backed off and tried to cut out angles for passes etc. Its as if the ethos is to "make it hard for them to pass" rather than "tackle them before they even get a chance to pass" It worked in the championship because the opposition were generally pants, but standing a few foot off a prem player won't work- they only need a few feet play that killer ball
Yeah, IMO he put some decent passes together and spread the play well for the first half hour at least, although I'll admit that as the game wore on he seemed to feature less and less, and probably should have been subbed. I actually thought Dudley looked quite lively early on too. I don't think any of our players played particularly well in the second half though, and the last half hour was just a total mess.
bolton scored 1 great goal & 2 bloody deflections yes we need more quality players in we also need some of the ones we have to pass the ball (does tarbs have tunnel vision) its only 1 of 38 games so i will wait a bit longer before i join the i told you so's
Some might call it smug (re Eamon) but how can people be expected to sit and read stuff like the above and not want to grab a hold of them and give them a good shake (although in Wubba's case its more than a shake he needs, more like an AA meeting). Yes, indeed, we lost 4-nil at home to a Premiership side - our first top-flight game in 15 years - because WE (not the established top-flight side) just presumed we'd turn up and win! You couldn't make it up.
Part of our problem is that we have no one to bring on if either Derry or Faurlin have a bad game. I did think that we showed some decent signs up front when Buzsaky came on.
I think we should of replaced tarbs with buz earlier on. I didn't like how the fans supported Adel after one of his less dazzling performances with a hearty round of applause- yet when he walked off he didn't bother to do likewise to them. This is coming from a big Tarbs fan.
Agreed. We do need more options in the middle of the pitch. I also thought Buz looked lively, and probably should of been brought on earlier, maybe at half time.
The other point to consider is whether the 4-2-3-1 formation has had its day. Bothroyd won sufficient headers in the first half, but his knock ons were going nowhere. Maybe playing Jay and DJ together up front would help, DJ looked a happy runner. 4 - 4 - ****ing 2 (to quote Mike Bassett) may be the way to go.
At home I think 442 with dj and Jay has got to pay off. Away at everton I can see the wisdom in 451 and nicking the points but to be fair warnock is the manager and I'm not
