Pleasure to meet you too Nuts. My knowledge is definetely nothing special. I like to think I am dedicated but there are others more dedicated. There were a lot of dedicated people in that pub yesterday. Maybe you should ask the club for 5 minutes with some of those players? I would have faith in you telling them as it is.
It was a pleasure to meet you yesterday nuts. Your a top man and that was a top heartfelt post. All of you lads deserved better than that after your efforts.
Cheers Col Puts another angle on what i saw. Agree with most of that except the last line. Granero and Cisse not caring?...Not sure i agree wth that mate. I think they are both frustrated with service and tactics, Havibng said that, i think that is Graneros worst performance for us to date. Expect better from him next week.
Yepp, I saw that one big empty hole right in the best seats. Reflected the big empty nothing response to the obvious and urgent need to replace the Manager, blatantly obvious since West Ham, at least.
Thanks for the write up Col. Stoke and Southampton were the first games I seen live this season, the first was very frustrating because we had the chances to have won it, Saturday was diabolical. I don't know what is in the heads of the players, who is really trying and who is not. Mackie obviously makes the right gestures, wins lost balls, but does blow hot and cold, though a lot of hot against the Saints. Maybe some of the others are trying as hard as him, but in different ways not so noticeable. But all those players are I'm sure capable of far better than that, and the person responsible for not getting anywhere near adequate performances out of them is the Manager, who TF seems will stick by whatever. Desparate times. The only player who seemed to me to come over far better than I seen before on the TV was Nelsen, though maybe he just played better these last 2 games. He was about our only defender first half Saturday, and really the only positive surprise.
I echo Nines' comments, Nutso. And all you guys put in huge effort to get over to see the match and deserve much better than the gutless performance that was served up. It's got to get better soon, because fans won't stand for it. Col, reading your excellent write up was bl**dy depressing but a true reflection of the game. My only comment is that I personally would take Cisse out of the section of "Don't care's". I think Cisse does care but, as you point out, he's just not getting the service. Actually, on the (very) few occasions when he did get a chance, there were flashes of the Cisse of old - certainly better than early in the season. Granero should be the engine of the team - sticking him out wide to make room for Faurlin (nothing against Faurlin) was crazy. He looked unhappy all game. Hughes is not getting the best out of the guy. And he's in the position that's crucial to our success.
Mourinho said that Granero was the best in Real Madrid at playing at the point of a midfield diamond. Unfortunately neither they nor we play that formation, but obviously he should be in the centre going forward.
Col, I agree with almost all you say, particularly the quote above. I like your team selection too, although there might be space for Dyer at right back, with Fabio moving to LB, as a result of Traore not looking particularly interested. I also think your scores are way too high in some instances: I think today's Times had it about right: Cesar 6 Bosingwa 2 Ferdinand 5 Nelsen 6 Traore 4 Diakite 4 Faurlin 2 Granero 2 Taarabt 7 Hoilet 5 Cisse 5
P.S. I was amazed how disorganised we became as the game wore on. We seemed to switch to zonal marking when defending corners so that Taarabt, who has a known hatred of heading that nasty, heavy round thing, seemed to be picking up their two centre backs. Also, like when I was an 8 year old, we didn't bother to put a man on the half way line to hold the ball up should we manage to clear it. Yet Hughes strongest suit is meant to be his organisational ability!
