Wow, Smudge criticising Ngakia - that's really a once in a blue moon moment. Things have really got to be bad for it to come to that.
I think its unfair to say the whole 90 mins was wrong. We were working hard up until the subs and although they were having more of the ball their chances were more difficult. It was the subs that killed us, it was easier for them to cut though us once Cleverley was replaced by Pedro, i.e. replacing a workhorse with a luxury player. We couldn't get hold of the ball after that sub and just invited pressure. Was so obvious watching it, yet an experienced manager like Ranieri just watched it unfold without remedying it.
How on earth are we still talking about WTE costing us points when people paid millions of pounds per year to run the club and make decisions sit there and nod their heads in satisfied self abuse as he goes from pillar to post, costing us 150m of revenue? It's not only hima admittedly, but he's so, so far out of his depth it's cruel to see him still even within touching distance of the pitch. How has this happened? How does a club start a season in the premier league, with this guy asna 1st choice centre back? It's absolutely stunning.
Ngakia was hopeless. Totally out of his depth, but I don't blame him, I blame our idiot senior leadership team for failing to invest in a few decent defenders like most of us with a brain said in the Summer.
I don't want to be too harsh on Ngakia, not only is he inexperienced, but he's playing in a position where he looked uncomfortable in the Championship. Kucka was terrible, I know Louza isn't exactly Pirlo reincarnated, but what did he do so wrong to be dropped? The defence were looking so solid for 82 minutes, I should have known it was too good to be true! I suppose if I could take any, ANY crumb of comfort from this, it's that the Pozzos absolutely CANNOT ignore the defence any longer
Hold on. Kucka and Louza are miles better than Hughes and Chalobah. I’ve been told that by the idiots on here so just be true??
That was true against Brentford last season as well; whenever we play them they show up that usually our central midfield is as steadfast as a chocolate teapot. It was what highlighted to me that we needed a proper defensive shield/DM/no.6 in the summer, which we didn't really get.
That was a terrible defeat. Confidence will be at a new low. Wins for those teams below us will real dent our slim hopes of survival. WTE should not play again for us. If he and Cathcart are the best we have available then we are f**ked. A shocking defeat...
Troost is paid to be a professional footballer and is captain of a highly ranked international team. Why? He will clearly be disappointed, but he has got to understand that he is costing us so dearly with such stupid decision making. He really bluffed his way into a contract with us. Ranieri please put him and us out of our misery and do not play him again. Sell him to a championship club next month.
I think people need to apologise for lumping Troost and Cathcart in with each other when talking about our **** defence. Cathcart is head and shoulders above him along with every other defender in the league.
Yep. I also blame a senior England international for being so fat that he cannot be played and a young lad has to fill in out of position instead.
None of the ****-ups until now have cost him his place in the team, will this one be any different, especially as the only viable alternative is average at best?
Got that Villa away feel to it from the relegation season . Trying to hold on. Bad subs Silly late error for the winner .
Our team just melted. Brentford played with so much more intelligence, inventiveness, effort and fight. Ranieri looked utterly p**sed off, but why replace Cleverly with Pedro. The attacks contained too many dainty, smart-aleck touches and not enough directness. Too many passes went astray, especially needlessly. It's easy to blame WTE for that penalty, but just look at the build-up to it.
That was... beyond bad. We had a massive chance to grab three points before everyone else plays - we generally do alright on a Friday in the past. Today? Nope. Good goal from Dennis when we were starting to get on top - held out well till the break but what the hell did Claudio say at HT? If he said press for a second and kill the game then water must of gotten into their ears. Bachmann had his usual 50/50 game for us - good in the first, at fault for the equalizer and well, an easy penalty to save surely? I cannot really defend us tonight. You can take the Chelsea and City losses and say, "ok, played well against the top sides", however, how can we even begin to defend that? I have been a big fan of Claudio so far but he got it totally wrong tonight. Our shape was dis-jointed, and why wasn't Louza playing? Subs were poor - I mean Ken Sema? Did nothing playing on the wrong side of the pitch with a right foot. I think we are all done with WTE at this point. Good talker, good arm around the shoulder guy - utterly woeful footballer. That challenge for the penalty was abysmal - he knew it was going to be given and I really, really hope the other players let him know how stupid that was. We could of escaped with a point, but now we have to sit through all the other results tomorrow and pray that none of our rivals win and capitalize. I'm not angry, it's more of an acceptance. How many more defeats can Claudio have in a row? That's four on the bounce. Lose to Burnley mid week that could be it. A feel good factor and a good attack cannot paper over the cracks. It wasn't purely on WTE that we lost - as a team we hardly played like a side needing three points. If I was a fan of Norwich, Burnley or Newcastle I would be leaping for joy at this result, which I am sure they are. We will very likely be in the bottom three Saturday night now. Even had we drawn that point would helped us. Massive improvements are clearly needed in defense, but overall the attitude was just wrong tonight.
Please tell me: -How Ekong continuously gets in our starting 11!?(Kabasele is not the answer, but is miles better). -How Kucka gets back in our starting lineup!? (When Louza had shown real promise) -How Sema is a professional football player !? We’re in massive trouble, and there’s no chance for us if the above 3 continue featuring heavily.
If you mean they played with some of those things and we played with none then yup. But let’s not big them up. They were droppings too.
Blah blah blah, sign defenders in January to save our season. We could be more or less finished by the time we get to ******* January. Then half the squad leaves for AFCON and we struggle through that too. When does our season start? Mid February when we play all the better teams again? ****s sake. If the owner doesn’t want to financially support the club or can’t, the he should **** off. ‘Football people’.
Ffs turned the match off just before they equalised as I thought a Brentford goal was inevitable. Saw that it was indeed 1-1 at 90 minutes so felt slightly peeved but thought at least it was a point on the board. Literally just popped onto the BBC website to look at the news headlines, only to see that we ******* lost?!! Sometimes I hate football.
Well that was shi*e . What a disappointment . Thought we were ok until we scored and then it all went downhill and we were not in it at all . It wasn’t just the defence , we had No controlled possession in midfield whatsoever . What exactly has Louzza done to be dropped for kucka . It felt inevitable they were gonna score . And why does WTE still get selected . He’s just not good enough. . Why is Kabasele not being given a go . A massive massive blow to our hopes of staying up and after recent displays had given us lots of Hope . I still think we can do it , but we’ve got a hugely uphill task now .
I do accept that. In recent years I've tried to be less melodramatic and more optimistic but it feels very much like Villa away in the relegation season. It's a result like that which can either crush a team or galvanise them. I hope it's the latter but fear it'll be the former
At this stage the rest of the team need to stage an intervention and get WTE out of the team, I’m not even joking. I mean can you imagine what his performances must do to morale? Game after game after game he makes a catastrophic error, we were **** today, but what does it matter how you play if you have him in your team? You can’t continue to field a player who is incapable of doing his job for the entire 90+ minutes, it would be less damaging for morale if we just kicked it in the opposition net from minute one and got it over with.
It really is testament to how terrible WTE has been that he now makes Carthorse, who was already our worst CB when we got relegated 2 seasons ago, appear vaguely competent.
Oh dear. I think I dodged a bullet by having something to do tonight and not being able to watch the match. I thought we were going to take the 3 points until my phone buzzed. 1 point would have been nice... Then my phone buzzed again. Bloody phone
