Gray was constantly thwarted by Barnsley's 12th man, Karma, who played a blinder much to the Wastrel's chagrin.
I think "in training" has about 5 levels at least.? Strengthening training in the gym / training alone with a trainer / basic fitness training with the team but no contact / back in full trading but miles from match fit / nearly there but tweaked something in the shower, finally fit and ready for falling over...??
Bachmann has only had to make 2 proper saves in 2 games. Our defence really looks pretty solid against all but the best in this league. Barnsley surprised me a bit - Hive Live billed them as a skilful bunch of players, but they looked very ordinary to me. Their strength was energy and keeping the ball alive for half-chances and pressing hard and scrapping for everything. I thought we looked a class above. But we need to put away our chances - this may have been said before... When there is only 1 goal in it, 1 mistake/bit of bad luck can spoil everything.
The thing that particularly impressed me tonight was the way that when the subs came on they all slotted seamlessly into the team and we continued to look dangerous. Perhaps our famous strength in depth in the squad is coming to fruition. Shame that we couldn’t score a few more goals which would have been deserved. Barnsley: enthusiastic but limited.
If you attempt to play on the shoulder of the last defender, being caught offside is an 'occupational hazard'. Not just Gray gets caught out like that. People still being surprised when he gets into good scoring positions. It's what he does. If he does it enough times some of them go in. But you have to generate a ton of chances for him because his conversion-rate is so poor. Having said that, I thought that today was not a particularly good example - the Barnsley keeper played well against him. If Sarr's cross had been a couple of feet further from the keeper and nearer Gray I think we would have had a goal. The only time I would definitely criticize him was when he was dozily offside before putting the ball into the net.
Troy shouted out "Who wants Trifle" and the Barnsley defender was just in the process of raising his hand up when the ball hit him. It was jelly nice of him to oblige.
I can see where you're coming from. But he looks a good player to me, who hasn't got to grips yet with the pace of this division. But he is a very positive player with good skills and pace and I think he'll add a lot of zest to our attacks.
Bournemouth got beaten by Derby so the “National BW League For The Promotion of Forum Hysteria and Hyperbole “ has put out a call to arms to all members to help deal with the inundation of spamming required on the “Up The Cherries” forum tonight . That is why .
My twopenny worth. The game was actually quite a good listen on 3CR with Mr Derek on good form whereas I'm finding the constant MooneyBalls on Hornet Hive to be incredibly irritating. It did sound that despite Barnsley's enterprise around the pitch they were completely toothless up front and I didn't get the sense that they would trouble the scoreboard. After, a tentative start, it sounded like Zi-Ni grew into the game and contributed well with some very nice touches and good movement. He must start the next game. They were very complimentary about Deeney but he needs to be putting this kind of effort into his game most weeks, not the one good game in five we've been mostly seeing these last 2.5 seasons. Along with the Derby game, this was probably the least stressful 1-0 win of the season. I will not mention a certain wasteful striker here as I want to keep my blood pressure down before I retire for the evening.
Agree, we should give him the odd few minutes if we get the chance, using Deeney and Gray instead as they have these seasoned Championship defenders in their pockets - banging in goals and creating chances left right and centre.
I liked Jon Marks's comment in the second half. "I think the cameraman has fallen off the gantry, but the good news is that we are still getting our pictures." That's the spirit, Jon.
At least it was a much more enjoyable game to watch than those under Ivic. Good to see the blond bombshell back and playing a full 90 mins. He made a big difference in midfield with his battling and ball winning. Has a bit more 'presence' about him than our other midfield options. Thought Masina did well too. He's really getting back up to full speed by the look of it and his throw ins are a useful addition too. Barnsley couldn't handle Sarr at all. He was my MOTM. Deeney did well with diagonal balls to pick him out quite a few times as did others such as WTE. Bachmann was great again. Calm and confident performance from him. I like the fact he'll whack it downfield when needed too. Foster seems absolutely 100% determined to always play it short to a full back irrespective of anything else. I'm also quite glad to see we've stopped playing the short corner every single bloody time. Opposing teams knew very well about that and had obviously been briefed about it. There was one lovely corner which almost landed on the goal line and we were unlucky not to score from. More of the same please. On the subject of corners, thanks to Barnsley for the crapppest corner of the season towards the end with that one which went straight out of play. Ha ha ha. And I'll drink-a-drink-a-drink to Phillip the Zink-the-Zink-the Zink. He looks like he's starting to settle in and I like his quick feet and thinking. He deserves a start on Friday I'd say, perhaps in place of King Ken who's been a little bit off the boil in the last few games. Full marks to him also for getting in quick and leading Sarr away from getting even more involved in the handbags at the end. Saved a possible red card and 3 match ban there. On the downside, Gray was quick and speedy and made decent runs, but as Tommy Mooney pointed - too bloody early! Constantly offside. Rubbish strolling back out for his offside goal too. I really can't see any redemption for him. I'd be very happy if he was moved along in this window. If not, he's got to go in the summer. I'd also like to see MUCH more effort to cut out crosses. I don't get this standing off them and allowing them as much time as they want to pick out their cross. After we scored, we started dropping too deep and their midfield sometimes had acres of empty green space to wander forward in to with the ball at their feet. An opponent with a bit more quality will certainly take advantage of that.
I still have hope for him. If he can stay fit and on his feet! He has shown so e promise playing as a striker.
yes I’d agree he’ll probably have a shocker at some point but he is making some really good decisive interceptions/blocks at the moment when there are moments of danger.
Great team effort that. I'm going to start with the negatives, we still don't look like scoring with Gray and Deeney up front but to be fair to them, they were better today, especially Deeney playing more like the captain and more like we know he can play. Sarr, Hughes and Sierralta my picks but everyone to a man were much better, more commitment, verve and intensity generally. The real test now is if Munoz can get them to sing away and Stoke is a real test to our credentials.
Thought we played quite well, better than any boring Ivic performance. As ever, if you play Deeney and Gray you ain't scoring from open play, hopefully Xisco drops Gray completely on Friday. Hughes makes a world of difference in central midfield, class above the rest. Zinc looks an exciting player, hopefully more to come. Sarr and Sema on the wings is a joy to watch, must be frustrating that any ball into the middle is fluffed. Watched on ifollow, no annoying Hive Live analysis or commentary, was a throughly pleasant experience.
Boring, lucky 1-0 home win from a freak penalty. No open play goals once again. What more to add. We're working on out next campaign for friday which will be a bloodbath. Expect quality content before, during and after.
Quite surprised that some people didn't enjoy that. We're not playing free flowing tiki taka football but there was loads of goalmouth action for us and they didn't trouble us at all. Think if we were all in the stadium we'd have walked away happy with a good night's work but thinking we could have been a lot more comfortable if we'd taken one of our many chances.
I only saw the second half but I thought we looked pretty comfortable. The only thing really not clicking at all the moment is our finishing - we look pretty solid at the back, we looked better in midfield with Hughes roving around and the creative players served up several decent opportunities a blind person could have put away. Zinc's whipped cross into the six yard box was a pearler and Troost's scuffed finish was an insult to it. Others have already rightly picked up on Gray's lazy offside from the parried shot. 9 goals in our last 10 games simply isn't auto promotion form and if Xisco can't sort that out then we're looking at the play-offs at best. Overall from what I saw the most pleasing thing was we seemed to be up for the scrap with Barnsley. They were committed to every 50/50 and so were we for the most part. Though Sarr seemed to lose the plot completely near the end - he seems to have that in him and it'll end up in a red card probably when we can least afford it. Could really do with Brizzle getting something at Carrow Road tonight. Brentford haven't lost in 10 either.
They are very limited, but exceptionally well-coached, they were dead and buried last season before Struber came in, now Ismael has more or less come in and taken over where Struber left off
So’s delusion. No comment yet from you about Gray’s miss when it was easier to score? Or his catapult-like first touch? Or complete lack of awareness to be offside for a simple tap-in when just the merest hint of thought would have had us 2-0 up? But he started! That’s when he’s at his best as you reliably informed us? Or are you going to eulogise about him running about a bit?
I asked my brother a question on about 80 minutes - if you were scouting us for Stoke ahead of Friday, how would you describe our play and tactics? It looked to me like two sides who just belt the ball across and up the pitch and chase to see if they can get to the bouncing ball first. We did put in a few serviceable crosses, to be fair, from Kiko, Sarr and Punpernickel, but there was very little 'football' being played. Xisco's job seems to be to just not completely stuff up the starting 11 (though he did try to with Gray) and hope they somehow grind something out. The way our season has gone has been as though we play our home games, like a great away team. Restrict the opponent to few chances and grab either a penalty, or a well worked goal, but create little else. Our away games are, by contrast, played like a League 2 team playing at the Etihad in a cup tie. Damage limitation and hope to salvage pride. It's absolutely astonishing that we are in the promotion hunt and testament to the worst Championship in terms of quality that I can ever remember.
Fortunately i dont possess that trait, regardless of whether delusion is actually bad for the soul or not.
Love your optimisim and positivity. May be OTT but a great natural balance for all the forum misery. Supporting a club is supposed to be fun, not a prison sentence, esp when we are 3rd in the league
Not sure if you're the only one but there can't be many, he came on last night, drove forward at every opportunity, beat players, nearly set up two goals, all in about 25 mins. I would say he is more than ready
