Sorry bud, I thought you were talking about Kiko. But to cut it short, who are the players that you think absolutely don't need to improve, to cut short a lot of guesswork, and why?
Well to be honest it was strange question you asked; " who absolutely does not need to improve " It's football, they are being coached everyday to try and get better, even Pablo said he had continued to learn and improve as he got older. Bielsa said Pablo was teaching him things. Hopefully that's a satisfactory response, but I can continue if my position is still unclear.
Kiko has only concede 5 in 9 games - just saying In my opinion Philips had a poor game on Saturday, as did Costa
The question is though; Would you drop Kiko, Phillips and/or Costa ? If you drop Costa for example (after one game), would you expect that to inspire or deflate him ?
What he should and will do is play the same team, apart from Forshaw who will return in place of Shackleton. Hernandez will be out as I've never known him shake a muscle injury off in less than 4 weeks. It might seem boring and predictable but we're playing well, if you believe in what you're doing then you wait for results to correct themselves rather than chasing your tail.
To be fair, because our defence has been outstanding, the opposition have been reduced to having very few chances, probably an average of 2 clear cut chances per game. So while conceding 5 goals in 9 games looks good, conceding 5 goals from 18 clear cut chances doesn't look quite so impressive. Also, whilst I can recall him making a few routine saves, no outstanding saves spring to mind (the sort you see from opposition keepers every game against Leeds )
Costa did not play well as he hasn't had much game time, and probably over tried. Same goes with Nketiah. Klich has not contributed with many goals yet, I think one pen. Hernandez, although good, is not as good as last season and I would not use him every week. I like Alioski but now that Ayling is fit, I'd like to see Dallas at left back and Ayling at right back. Bowyer said in his post match presser that he planned on using a back 3 against us and it worked. Bielsa has to change tactics now and again. Whatever we do, I think we need two strikers, and we need Nketiah and Bamford to learn each others game.
I agree... But other than yesterday which of the other 4 goals conceded do you think he was at fault for ?
Matt, can you mention in the Breakfast Debate that the Birmingham (H) tickets go on sale tomorrow morning. As it's the Centenary match they will most likely sell out very quickly. Cheers
Reasoned debate which adds to the forum. Surely better than just criticizing our players who at the end of the day are all desperate for us to succeed.
Well I can only remember the Swansea goal (which obviously wasn’t his fault) and the Bristol City goal (which a good keeper would have saved, luckily it was only a consolation). He’s been flapping at crosses as per usual, punching instead of catching or vice versa trying to catch instead of punching - most of the time he’s been bailed out by his defenders. He’s still prone to being overconfident with the ball at his feet, too cocky. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect perfection at this level (or any level) but for £35k per week I do expect a degree of competence which is sadly lacking in Casilla.
The goal yesterday was very poor keeping, the Bristol city one wasn’t great, he actually got his hand to the Derby goal - not a mistake but some keepers would likely have saved it. He’s been better this year, but the saves he’s made have been routine, still a big ? For me.
This thing re criticising players - my take is it’s a forum - we’re discussing the side, the form of players etc. It’s fair play... if it’s balanced and contextual. It’s the over-dramatic we’re brilliant when we win, rubbish when we lose stuff that does me in, but that’s football fans. Yesterday we controlled the game without looking sharp... they defended well and rode their luck at times. We were below par but still deserved to win. We’ll be saying the same numerous times this season i’m sure. Be interesting to see if bilic brings the baggies to play or defend.
