We beat millwall at home and go top and already checking out pubs for away fans at the Emirates, we lose to a struggling championship team who had a bloody good draw against wolves on Saturday, with. A new manager at his first home game, it was always going to be difficult, I would have been happy with a draw, suddenly all doom and gloom, let's see the reaction by the manager, that is the real test, he probably learnt a bit about players he had not used yet, ipswich is a very tough test, I would be very happy with a point, people saying we should get 6 points from those two games are not on this planet in my opinion. Hopefully won't go into the break with two defeats.
I may be missing something, and please correct me if I am, but can someone actually tell me what McGugan brings to the side? He has a fierce shot on him, sometimes. Other than that he has onetouchtoomanyitis, his passing is often shady at best, and I don't really remember him making a great tackle or dispossession.
First choice 11 Gomes; Parades, Angella, Bassong, Pudil; Munari, Toszer, Abdi; Fessi, Deeney, Vydra. Half our team were unable to play. So we had our first choice centre backs injured, the two who are actually decent in the air. We had two out of three midfielders out, including our most creative player. Did anyone think that Fessi, Deeney and Ighalo weren't good enough to win the game? Especially as Vydra limped off on Saturday. So you are taking about two players. The Anya experiment clearly isn't working. But with so many injuries, and with Andrews only just returning from injury himself, it was him or Murray. Murray and McGugan are not good enough, and i see how he thought Anya could put in energy, close players down and break with speed, even if it never happened Then there's Doyley. Pudil has been looking more and more tired, and even slower than previously. He needs a backup who is good enough to rotate with. In fact so does JCP. I don't think we have a full back in our squad who can put a consistently good ball in from wide. Conclusion. Our squad is struggling. Possession football without Abdi is like swimming without water. Their game plan was to stop Toszer as he was the only creative player in the team, and to lump it to our centre backs, who were poor. For the second time, the international break cannot come fast enough. With the above team though, even with a little squad rotation, we will be completely fine this season. With two new full backs and a centre mid on loan (perhaps funded by the sale of McGugan and Anya) we would be a force.
First game we ve deserved to lose all season , so from that point of view , it's not so bad . If we get a point against Ipswich and come back from break with a CB pairing of Angella and Bassong drilled in the art of defending crosses and a midfield 3 of Abdi , Tozer and Munari , vydra and deeney starting eery game , we ll be top two
Well that was awful, plain and simple. We've got 2 massive games coming up and I could see us getting nothing out of either of them. Last night was the one where you would have said 3 points here. Let's face it, last night could have been a lot worse. Birmingham had at least 2 gilt edged chances I remember, that they completely ballsed up prompting the "that's why you're going down" chants. I doubt Derby will be as charitable. I know we have injuries, but I don't hold with this strongest squad in the league talk. Our defence is pants. It can't defend crosses and it seems to part like Moses and the Red Sea. Midfield is only strong with the first choice 3. The only area where things are right is up front. Reckon the Pozzo's will have to do some squad strengthening come January.
I would wholeheartedly agree that the defence and midfield needs strengthening in January. As soon as those one or more of those select few CM's or CB's are taken out of the equation, we seem to struggle.
Did anyone else have a nightmare of a journey up there and back? It's apparently 65 miles from my abode and it took 2 and 3/4 hrs. With numerous diversions and traffic jams. Coming home was just as bad 2 1/2 hrs. Mind you it took 40 minutes to get out of the car park!
If you think I'm overreacting with that comment, you must be pulling your hair out at the majority of comments on this thread. Our full backs are easily exploited and cannot cross. We lack creativity without Abdi. Hoban and Ekstrand had poor concentration and we need to be better aerially. We were right to rotate but we don't have decent options in crucial areas. McGugan and Murray are poor. You're boring. Pretty basic stuff, that I am sure most on here agree with.
Dire, turgid display. What the hell was Jokanovic thinking making so many changes? No problem at all with rotating if players have knocks (Bassong) but I can't understand the logic behind dropping Vydra (in good goal scoring form) and letting a clearly unfit Troy Deeney toil around for 90 minutes not really doing a great deal. I understand he's regaining match practice and fitness but he didn't shine last night. Paredes was hopeless last night. After a solid start he seems to have regressed into just another Championship level full back. Our midfield were useless, too. Anya was about as much use as a paper m*ché suit of armour. Far too many passengers and in my opinion it could've been more than 2 we shipped. Fair play to Birmingham, they wanted it more than us. Rowett done a great job of firing them up.
Hey, remember that time in the Summer when Nani said we needed more midfielders and everyone laughed? Go and apologise.
Now I have calmed down this morning I think I’m more upset at myself for believing all the hype AGAIN rather than the **** performance I witnessed last night On the drive up we were also talking about which of our players were good enough for the premiership, etc., talking as if we were already promoted, I remember having these exact same conversations with my mates in Zola’s first season and looked what happened then! When will I (we) learn !! FACT: We are an above average championship side, no more, no less. The same can be said for 6-10 other teams in this diversion. On that basis, top 10 is expected and a promotion will be a (big) bonus
We won't play that badly again against Ipswich. I'm confident that this team is good enough to get over a poor performance straight away.
Difficult to shine when the ball very rarely makes it to you. He was running the back line all evening yet so often we either booted to nowhere or checked up and played a two yard pass backwards or sideways.
Well we will need to be better against Ipswich. SJ talked about how we were too slow and undone physically - well the Tractor boys are just that so need to be wary.
If it makes you feel better I was out of the car park at 10pm and home in Berkshire, 110 miles, by 11.30! Did take 3 hours on the way up though.
Does anyone know what happened to Munari? I heard he was injured. If all's well, we'll have the same team against Ipswich as we did against Millwall.
I feel like we were crying for a player like him last night. Coming short to get the ball, turning and looking forward. Birmingham would give Hoban 30 seconds to pick out a pass but absolutely nobody moved so he hoofed to Deeney. Repeat. Doyley has the ball, BEGGING Anya to make that run. I can see it, everyone else can see it except Anya but he stayed static. DOYLEY RAN PAST ANYA. I've only ever played Powerleague and even I can see that's not right. This was all in the second half when Anya was more wide by the way, first half wasn't his fault. Then he finally gets the ball and does step-overs whilst staying in the same place!? Isn't the point of a step over that you confuse the defender then move past him? After about 7 step overs inside the Birmingham box he runs the ball out of touch. All he had to do was swing a leg and put a ball in the box. Anything but what he did. Idiotic. Appalling performance last night from Anya it really was.
It was simply the wrong formation for the players he picked. You either go 4-4-2 and sack off Mcgugan, player dyer and Andrews, or 3-5-2 with Anya and Parades as full backs and Doyley as the third centre half. Otherwise as you say Doyley and anya end up on the wing standing next to each other.
I'm afraid you boys just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We played 1000x better than we have done all season in front of a larger-than-usual and far more animated crowd. I took real encouragement from that performance, and for the first time I really think we can pull away from trouble. A great night (I fully understand you won't agree). As for Watford, I left thinking "is that it?". Didn't look like a Premier League side in waiting to me; we've been beaten by plenty better. I like that Paredes, though; hadn't come across him before. Well done also to your travelling support: not particularly loud but a good turnout midweek. I'll leave you all in peace now, but I might pop back for the return fixture in April - could be crucial in deciding which one of us gets that last playoff place
Don't think anyone can argue you didn't deserve the win. Your team was up for it more than us, with our manager making his first tactical mistakes since taking over in terms of set up and personnel.
Only just logged on so I don't think I can add anything that's not been said before. I feared for us last night and posted as much beforehand..it just felt the wrong time to play Bham, just as it was the wrong time for a side to play us after Zola quit after 5 straight home losses. What I did NOT expect though was for us to play into B'ham's hands with our team selections. Do we never learn? Rotation cost us promotion 2 years ago. So what about keeping everybody happy? Play your best side, get the game won, then rest. Did Bournemouth or Boro rotate last night? We have one of the best pools of attacking players in the Championship. But our defence continues to be our achilles heel. Only 4 clean sheets so far, out of 16 games. We never seem to have that solid base at the back. We can't defend crosses or set plays. Frankly I feel we have a high number of very average defenders, however hard we try to pretend otherwise. Not helped by constant injuries I know, but where's the equivalent of the Page-Palmer or De Merit-Mackay partnerships that were the backbones of our last two promotions. It really needs addressing and I hope J can. Let's hope we keep up our good record at Ipswich, and with B'mouth playing Boro, a win should take us back into the top 2.
Here come the Brummies to bang on about how good they are. Absolute tinpot team from a tinpot town who only played well because they were up against the best and biggest side in the league. Even the bigger attendance tells you all you need to know. They came to watch us. I'm glad we didn't play well and didn't entertain the great unwashed that attended with their mutant offspring. I look forward to them going bust. *******.
Living in bicester we got train from mk. Got the 22.10 train so was back within the hour. Cost a fortune though due to Steve the train ticket collector being a massive c.
