Had time to chill now.... I think our biggest problem is that we have a half fit team, and Vlad came in with fixed ideas of how we would play, regardless of the skills we have amongst the squad. Our defenders are not natural ball players, they really just want to bang it long but are currently trying to impress Vlad and its no good. Then it's the old chestnut of how you move the ball into and thru midfield, and right now the only outlets are Capoue or Chabs in the middle or flick it down the wing to Sarr. Caps and Chabs are donkeys in this type of league, they are too slow and Caps is miles off full fitness. Then from those two being so deep there is nobody near to pass to, so we ping a few tippy tap passes and lose the ball. Accordingly they ended up banging long ball up to Sarr or Sema. They run forward and find there's no real support. A big annoyance for me is the number of times our midfielders put several passes together, see somebody closing them down so they turn back and pass it back to a defender, who then pass it back to Foster.... And so on. Now I'm not saying we need to bash it forward all the time, but Vlad needs to find a way for us to play that suits our players, and Barcelona we are not. I truly think we are a decent/bullying centre midfielder short for this league.
We lack anything in the centre of the final third. Nobody to be a focal point of attack nor anyone who is far enough up the field to pick a pass. Our entire midfield is defensive and workmanlike bar two kids in the shape of Garner and quina I don’t understand some of the views on here about shots on target. A shot that rolls through to the keeper would be on target but offers no threat. Cleverly and Wilmot were both in dangerous positions and have to hit the target. There were also a couple of scrambles in the box we fluffed, both Chalobah from memory. For all his defensive screening he is ineffective going forward and with a back 3 uneccessary as a protector and a waste of a shirt if Capoue is in the team. Our creativity yesterday was average. Not good enough but not disastrous either. As for other teams ripping defences apart. I watched the Norwich game. Bristol City defended atrociously. The were caught out time and time again by the middle centre back dropping too deep. It’s not good attacking is poor positional play. Sheffield Wednesday who ‘should be much higher without the points deduction’ were comfortably held off by Wycombe yesterday. Blackburn have now lost two in a row. Reading lost to Coventry on Friday. Once in a blue moon someone storms this league but mostly it’s grinding out one or two goal wins, or a stifling draw that see teams promoted. We’re not great but let’s not dress up the rest of the league as world beaters.
I certainly don’t think we have the best squad in the league either with the players we have now in the squad. Sarr should be the best player yes but is out of position and there is potential with others. Bit the midfield is average and striking options limited. That is not to say we shouldn’t be doing much better against the likes of Wycombe and Barnsley from a performance point of view though.
Lots of good points here I believe. It's sad to see the decline of Chalobah. I suppose the fact that he is playing is a success in a sense but what might have been. So much promise. Your last paragraph is for me the most frustrating aspect and is almost a repeat of last season's debacle. The myth portrayed by $ky is that the PL is omnipotent when infact it is very average and to have been relegated was so negligent as we all recognise. The Championship is of the self same and not to take advantage of it,even at this early stage is galling. I hope to goodness we improve for all our sakes but given what has gone before from Gino downwards I'm beginning to lose faith.
Ivic has two choices: Either play 5 at the back, with two wingers upfront, so as to avoid using a left-back, or use his favoured formation, with our best players in their best positions, but with a left-back slightly unfamiliar to the role. Baffles me as to why he has decided to persist with the former.
Agree with a lot of this, though I disagree about Chalobah. He's come on a lot since the start of the Season defensively and is putting his body on the line a lot more again. Cleverley I agree more with. He has the desire but not the ability. Chalobah is the perfect option to rotate with Capoue, while Cleverley should only be from the bench, played behind the strikers to harrass the opposition. At the start of the Season it made sense and brought results. We now need to move away from it. Femenia LB, Ngakia RB. Sema is wasted in the current role he plays.
That Wilmot chance came from exactly the same corner that we scored from after ten minutes of the season against Boro. So why haven't we seen it again before now? We're just going to get it out once every eight games and spend the rest of the time getting the ball headed away from the near post? Very frustrating
What gets me is that our poor corners almost always go to the near post and are headed away by defenders who have obviously done their homework. Can't we do a bit of homework on ourselves and stick someone on the near post?
Completely agree about the Prem. The bottom 6-8 clubs are dogsh't for well over half of the season but scrap their way to survival. We went down by one point and you can point to more than a handful of fine margin moments where we lost out, in the main through our own ineptitude or ability to handle pressure. The 3 game sequence of Villa/Everton/Brighton, Arsenal hitting the post in the Villa game. Doucoure missing a sitter against Arsenal, the penalty on Deeney against palace. Handballs at Newcastle and Soton, Alli's goal at Tottenahm Naturally, I'm probably forgetting a few where we benefited, but in all that we still went down by 1 point and we'd all agree we were terrible.
Well despite the result it wasn’t as bad as the Wycombe performance but that is not saying much as Barnsley will be finishing bottom with the possible exception of Sheff Wednesday. There were brief signs of us trying to move the ball a bit quicker but as the second half wore on we resorted to slow passing and zero threat. Whilst we still didn’t look much like scoring when we switched to 433 when Hughes and gray came on we must surely play this system even if we need a bit of a square peg in a round hole at left back. Have Sarr and Pedro taking up more wide positions where they are more effective and play Gray or the returning Deeney through the middle. You are often given lifelines in defence in this division by poor finishing but to pose next to no threat going forward is unforgivable. So go for a more attacking formation and sacrifice a defensive player (or two). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
