The issue isn’t that he’s “playing centre midfielders as left wingers”. It’s an extremely common tactic to have a creative player out wide in defensive situations, but tuck inside and use the overlap from the wing back in attacking situations. Many top managers employ this tactic. The issue is that Masina has been pretty rubbish (/passive) since his return and isn't committing to the attack. This strands Hughes on the wing where he is ineffective.
Really? Did the team do soooo much better in the last 30 mins or so creating lots of chances and scoring goals? He is probably 3rd choice now anyway until Perica is back (and then its up to Xisco).
Sarr had a shot from about 8 yards their keeper just kept out with his feet before it went under him. And I think Sarr hits it much more convincingly if it didn't take a huge bobble off the pitch just as he went to strike it, forcing him to readjust and wait a second before shooting. Gray hooned his shot from near the penalty spot into row Z Gray misplaced a cut back to Deeney which ordinarily would have resulted in a shot Hughes shot from distance Plus there were two or three set pieces other than the one you mention or crosses we put in where Millwall managed to smuggle the ball away from in and around the goalmouth. I agree with HB1 that it was about as good a first half of football as we've managed away so far this season. We suffer greatly though from not having a striker who can sniff out and convert half chances.
We don’t have any guile or creativity .... our most creative player is Deeney .... who can’t create a goal for himself. We need two players in - a creative midfielder and a striker ..... it’s pretty clear we don’t need a like for like Capoue type of player as that part of the midfield is ok for this level of football
Yes I understand the tactic. I'm saying we don't need to do it in a league where 90% of the teams are going to play very defensively against us. Just play one of Sema/Pedro/Zinc (all of whom would walk into any team in the division) in that position. Masina has never been an overly attacking left back.
If Gino does not rectify our goal scoring issue before the end of this window, then my heart will sink as it's clear we will not score the volume of goals we need in order to win the total amount of games required for promotion. We probably need at least another 43 points. That will give us 87 points which maybe enough to claim 2nd spot. 20 games left. That's 14 more wins. It's a big ask when your team is so economical with scoring goals. Pedro and Sarr are chipping in with a decent goal ratio for their position. Both are on target for around 10 goals this season. But Deeney, Perica and Gray are not scoring goals. Murray is not being used, and Success will not improve the situation either. So you're getting nothing from your central strike force. Where else are the goals coming from? Sema doesn't score, the central defenders don't score, the wingbacks don't score, Cleverley is the only midfielder who seems to get on the scoresheet. It's a huge problem. We've scored just 30 goals from 26 games. Let's not forget 7 of those are converted penalties. So that's only 23 goals from those 30 games. That's way under where we should be. We've relied a lot on refereeing decisions going our way this season too. The penalties against Barnsley, Stoke (home & away), Birmingham & Coventry all helping to give us victories in tight games. We need to be far more productive in the attacking third. We are not a team who possess goal scoring threats. Only Pedro, Cleverley and Sarr are chipping in with decent quotas and that's nowhere near enough.
Can we please just for the love of god, rename this entire forum and every single thread within it WE JUST NEED A ******* STRIKER!!!!
I bought a BMW sports car, and after a few weeks/months I realised it was not as fast as I thought and had all sorts of problems with its performance, kept breaking down and frankly doesnt do the job I want it to. But the car cleaned me out financially and loan repayments continue to burden me. I can not simply purchase a new car, I have to persevere despite it making me rage, feel sick, wet the bed etc. I'll have to hope my workhorse UK made (longbridge) daily runner keeps going as its all I've got, I keep getting penalty notices in it though and it dont run as well as it did 5 years ago. This italian fella I know let me have one of his fancy italian cars recently, but it keeps breaking and seems no better. There is a chance I can part ex with my old Golf turbo, with the dodgy northern garage I got it from, but alas I dont think they're going to want to take back the car, so I'm lumbered with it for a while yet. Maybe it'll put a smile on my face soon, stranger things have happened.
Boring game of football. Troost Ekong has Keith Dublin levels of passing ability. We still need a striker and a creative midfielder for games like this when patience and creativity is required.
A frustrating evening for so many reasons. How bad are the referees in this league? Not just for us either, the standard is terrible. The pitch. I appreciate we've had snow and a fair amount of rain but that was horrendous but it works in there favour as it means teams resort to hoofing it to their big center backs. Gray. There can be nobody left that can justify him starting another game. One glorious chance ballooned over the bar and one easy cross to Deeney mucked up. Gives us precisely nothing. I know the pitch was bad but for the love of god stop lumping the thing towards their two big centre backs. it clearly was not working. Having said that, Millwall don't lose many, don't win many either and while it is frustrating not to win any game we may look back on this as not the worst result ever. 10 points from last 12 is still very good and we're in the pack Bachmann - Once again he didn't have a lot to do but what he did do, he did with the minimum of fuss Femenia - A quieter game for Kiko but at least tried to get forward Masina - Absolutely pi55 poor. Had nothing to do defensively but does not push forward and his crossing is completely aimless at best Ekong - Nothing wrong with his defending but christ he is poor with the ball at his feet The bloke from Chile - A huge plus point from this season. Another impressive performance Cleverly - Can't fault his effort and passion but struggled last night not helped by the pitch Chalobah - Still feel he is too slow with his passing as he sets the tempo it's an issue Hughes - Better than the last game but still feel it would be better to have him in the middle Sarr - Would really like to see him run at a defender more but he kept trying Deeney - Not great but some of the service was awful, unlucky with the overhead kick Gray - Waste of time Zinc - Not great when he came on but he was trying to make things happen which was good to see. Needs to start Pedro - No service to speak of Still would prefer us to play 4-2-3-1
But using others poor performances isn't a defence for Gray! This is the route you now seem to increasingly go down because even you realise you can't out and out defend the bloke anymore. Nearly every other member of the side can point to a recent decent performance and suggest that last night was a dip in their form - they have all performed to varying levels this season when selected - but Gray stands alone as having been poor every time he has played. And yet, he is still picked which raises serious questions about the selection policy of the club/manager. You seem to think he was picked so we could rest Joao Pedro - even though there's been evidence shown to you that don't suggest that. And why is he only rotating one player....others aren't tired? You have to admit your reasoning is very weak. But then, when isn't it?
Think Zinckernagel is easily a creative midfielder - his stats show that. And he has shown glimpses in his appearances so far that thats what he will bring (apart from last night admittedly) - the issue is, he has been here for 4 league games now and not started once, and I cannot get my head around why.
I'm probably just desperate for any kind of entertainment, or perhaps because I watched it with Tommy Mooney on mute, but I really enjoyed last night's game. Two teams slugging it out on a pudding of a pitch, some robust challenges, plenty of long hoofed passes, no VAR.... magic!
I have to agree with you on the VAR point. The refs in this league are laughably atrocious... but it's still so much better than VAR.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me you're not so much defending Gray but defending the manager and his decisions to play him? If you were manager would you start him in 2 games time (when Pedro needs his rest and if Perica is not back)? As for the youngsters not up to it - I'm struggling to see what the worst that could happen to trying them? Missed chances in good / reasonable scoring positions, misplaced passes, poor ball control - not trying to be funny with this, but why would that be any different? Plus what if they were able to do 2 or 3 of those things? Nothing to lose and certainly something to gain no?
If we do go up we’ll get absolutely destroyed as we won’t be able to afford the 15/16 influx. If we don’t go up we appear ****ed financially. Meanwhile, we amble along in the worst championship season in recent memory. What a time to be alive.
Its fair to say that we are not going to agree on Gray isnt it. So there is no point in going over this with you.
I agree. However, I reserve the right to reply when you state more nonsense theories about Gray and find more and more obtuse ways of defending what he brings to the team/club.
I just want to be clearer on this point. And what I am about to say is what other managers would think about too so it isn't anything out of the ordinary. The last 4 dates of games have been 16,19,22,26 Jan. Pretty congested. Watford have the following fixture dates coming up... I Feb 6 Feb 13 Feb 16 Feb 19 Feb As long as he is ft and healthy and still in good form, I would play Pedro in the next 3 given the choice. Next match isn't until next Monday, then 5 days until the next one and then 7 days until the next one. The 16 Feb game is where I may look to rotate and where Xisco might. Will leave it to Xisco of course, he is closer to the players than me.
But this leads on from your suggestion than Gray has played in order to rest JP. But why have no other players been afforded the same rotation in order to keep them fresh? If we’d rotated Ekong for Wilmot, Femenia for Ngakia, Cleverley for Garner and Sarr for Zinckernagel, I’d agree with you - but that hasn’t happened at all - so your theory more than falls down and looks far more improbable than probable. Yet you say the opposite - why? On what grounds or evidence? Genuinely interested to hear.
I think it is best that we ignore Manat. It is trying to argue with a flat earther that the planet is indeed an oblate spheroid. As for the match. Disappointing not to win. Dominated Millwall, pressed them into their own half and rarely threatened mainly from our own giveaways. Wallace is their best player by a distance. Both fullbacks particularly Masina were culpable of not providing sufficient width or getting deep into the final third to provide crosses or overlaps. As compared to Stoke Femenia was far deeper and only had that one tumble into the box when he attacked deep. Cannot really blame the surface we strung some nice passing moves in and around the area. A sumptuous pass from Pedro again to find Sarr and some nice interpassing between Deeney and the midfield. A certain player conspicuously failed in this and we all his name unfortunately. We can certainly blame a complete lack of getting the ball on target and crucially the final ball. Deeney was very good again. Held the ball up well, won a free kick or two and worked hard in bursts. Set up Sarr and then would have set up the imposter. The imposter who pretends to be a footballer however lacked that attribute which is crucial to a good striker. Anticipation and blithely let the ball roll past him. To compound it when set free by Sarr his pass into the box hit wildly without any technique was behind Deeney. Had it been in his path that was a goal we have seen Deeney score many times. It's just not that he is terrible in terms of ability but also commitment aside from the one effort which Deeney found him with a header in the second half. You could see him jogging about rarely trying to close the opposition. And as mentioned before not getting to the ball first to make things happen. Masina who had a sketchy game still found a lovely ball in the channel in the first half. The imposter dawdled allowing the defender who was further away to get to it before him. Can we not get Junker in for instance ? It must confound everyone who follows the club apart from a few nincumpoops that Pedro did not start. We are always playing with ten when this moving turd starts in the line up, Set pieces aside from the stood up corner from Zinckernagel were poor again after looking better at Stoke. Zinckernagel looks a little weary still so give him a few games still to get up to speed preferably starting matches. His corners were apart from that one poor. Let us hope he has not contracted the same issues as our other set piece takers. Xisco needs a kick in the pants. He was doing a great impression of a performing seal again. Far too slow to bring on Pedro and Zinckernagel or get Ngakia on to bring some dynamism down the right with Kiko looking flat. Ngakia does need to learn to get to the byeline though. Two valuable points dropped. We will just have to hope the teams around us hurt each other and have fixture pile ups and that we turn them over in the reverse fixtures. We won't do it with the thing upfront.
I am amazed after seeing Wilmot put in two excellent performances especially at Swansea that he was dropped and has not started since. He is a far better passer from the back. Has the confidence to take the ball into midfield and knows to get it between the lines. Keeps it simple unlike TE who dawdles on the ball either losing it, passing it sideways or playing hoofball. It sends out all the wrong messages. 1. Players are not picked on form. 2. Seniority is more important not form. 3. Yet again stifling the development of a player who will be key going forward
Absolutely. Millwall played for a draw throughout the second half, on a pitch with which they were familiar and in a way which they frequently do when at home. They and the pitch prevailed; and Watford showed that (a) they desperately need a decent striker, and (b) they haven't finished responding to the changes being encouraged by Munoz to promote attacking play. And yet we still came back with an away point. I'm not saying everything in the garden is rosy, but if you've* never seen a decent side dragged down by terrible physical conditions before, then you haven't seen much football in England. * Not you personally, LondonOrn, of course - I meant some of the others on this thread, you will understand.
The rotation of the squad is up to Xisco, not me. I'm just giving my viewpoint on what I think has happened during this busy period in respect of the strikers because it was a topic of conversation on this thread. Only way we are going to know for sure is in the upcoming fixtures to see whether Pedro plays during a run of games. If you think Gray is going to still alternate with Pedro that's fine, I'm just taking a different view at this point.
Noone should ignore me. I make sooo many valid points on this forum it would be madness to ignore it. I give the forum a good image when forum members from other clubs pop in too , they know that there is at least one calming, reasonable, more optimistic influence in here like me to offset all the whining.
The thing with Troy now re-moulding himself as a number ten is that he seems even less inclined to get into goal scoring positions, which isn't helping our goal scoring issue out. He's ok at it, but he's hardly a creative force like other teams have in that position and he isn't contributing goals either. Pretty telling when he has to big up a pass he made to Sarr to make sure everyone knows he's still a great player. One goal from open play this whole season for our number one pick up front in the Championship is awful. As long as there is no new contract for him and Gray then what will be will be for now. Frustrating though isn't it.
