I would generally consider Gosling over Kucka right now - Kucka is blowing out of his rear after an hour. Gosling is not the answer to the problem, but he could probably last longer than Kucka - who to be fair hasn't looked brilliant since the Villa win.
Whilst I want to continue to slate Troost theMong (and I will), I do agree with everything you’ve just said. Our midfield was pathetic today. No composure at all and was constantly yelling at the TV for someone just to get on the ball and pick a pass out to someone in yellow!! Anyway, back to WTF - what a ****.
Baffling that after such output, great tactics and decent formations in the last few games against far superior opposition, we have such low output, so poor tactics and such an awful formation tonight against equal to lesser opposition. That team out there tonight vfrom the first whistle were a shadow of the team we've been watching recently. I just cannot fathom the dramatic drop off in basic ability and competence tonight.
Just got back, really low quality game. Would not be surprised if that’s Brentford’s last win of the season. Only really went as had not been to the new stadium. A bit tinpot, not the atmosphere of Griffin Park. I would comment on the match, but we deserved nothing out of that game with our second half display. Some very poor performances across the team. Kucha was poor, Ngakia is not a makeshift left back. Cucho and Pedro dented their reputations. Only Ken Sema played to his normal level. Best part of the trip was the walk back to South Acton, lovely lights on the office business park.
We just have to accept it was very Watfordy. We’ve seen this script many times before. There’s nothing new in tonight’s non-performance.
I've not read a single comment on this thread tonight as I can imagine it won't be pleasant reading, so here is my take on the game..... Even when we were winning 1-0 I was thinking this has been our worst performance for some time, but then it got even worse I thought we were nothing less than pathetic tonight, FFS we could not even beat that shower of **** without their talisman and quite a few of their regular 1st team regulars. I know we are without a lot of our better players too, however I had high hopes that we would start our push for safety tonight, but that was possibly our worst performance of the season so far and after that pile of dung I am now really fearing for our PL survival. Tonight has really got to me and I really am as low as I have felt for a very long time.....
Alternatively, Louza could play in replacement for Kucka, which he was doing and doing well in the previous 3 games. He was then rewarded by being dropped. Gosling might be very very marginally better than Kucka, if at all , but he’s certainly not going to be our midfield saviour. Kucka > Louza WTE > Kabasele Didn’t Ranieri try the Pedro in midfield experiment against Southampton and it didn’t end up going too well? Not sure why that was attempted again this evening.
Small point, but Bachmann was miles off his line when the pen was taken. Would have definitely been retaken if he had saved it.
I keep saying it, but we need to beat the teams around us. Can we beat the teams around us? Right now, that answer is a resounding No. We were poor against & outplayed by an almost second string Brentford side. Ranieri decided to change the team. He must have thought that we were too strong for Brentford after our performances against City and Chelsea. He forgot that you start with 9 men when WTE and Cathcarthorse play. These games are our Cup Finals and we keep failing to turn up. We are on course for relegation.
Our last 26 PL games: 0 clean sheets and 18 defeats. I'm not sure what lesson it is that Scot thinks he and Gino have learned but it doesn't seem to be the right one. All 4 of our victories this season have been against teams in car crash mode. We're lucky to be on 13 points really.
Certainly proves that Championship clean sheets are irrelevant in the PL. I'm sure that Sierralta and Nkoulou will improve the defence but by January it is too late. Clean sheets are how you get results and Burnley will get enough of them to stay up. They'll probably get one on Wednesday in a professional 2-0 set piece masterclass.
The worst thing is that if the morons that run this club had finally pulled their head out of their arses and signed a couple of proper centre backs and a proper left back in the summer, then we'd likely be more or less safe already. We've scored the joint 6th most goals in the league, yet we're on the verge of the relegation zone. It's absolutely ridiculous and it is literally all Pozzo and Duxberry's fault because they refuse to learn and refuse to change. As per.
Poor all round tonight. Ranieri really got things wrong. I think the JP sub was supposed to help us keep the ball better, as we were starting to get pinned back. Fair enough, but it had to be accompanied with King going centrally to hold the ball up. Pointless when we continued to bypass midfield and smash it long all night. Dennis was isolated and we had no response. We were crying out for a midfielder who can put his foot on the ball, make some space and play the ball forward into feet. Can see that King was out left because of his defensive work, but with their wing-back pushing on, he found himself far too deep eventually and we had no real ability to press them or keep the ball in their half once we’d cleared it. Bachmann particularly shocking with his distribution tonight, and a couple of brainless sweeper keeper moments helped contribute to the general sense of pressure/confusion amongst our defenders. Should have sold him last summer. Kiko was decent on the cover, but we know he’s a good Championship player. How unfancied must Rose be that Ngakia plays out of position over him? Shocking indictment of how badly that signing has gone. WTE had one of his better games until the final 10. We’ve seen it time and again though, he’s just capable of the most inexplicable decision making at times and it has cost us again. At this point; it’s really not fair on the bloke to keep sending him out like a grape into a blender. Plenty of blame to go around tonight. AL has been feeding us the usual crap about the club being on the lookout for defenders this January. If they fail to improve our defence in 3 weeks, then it’s clear they’ve no interest in being properly competitive this season. Oh and 2 keepers on the bench? Ranieri making a point about the lack of depth? I hope so. Whether Gino takes the hint is another matter.
We need to sign 3 defenders in the window to have any hope of staying up. If we only sign 2 and 1 of them gets injured or doesn't work out we're fooked. We have no way of knowing what Sierralta will do when he's back so we can't bet our survival hopes on him.
The most important takeaway from this game is Manchester United fans will be happy to know Ralph Rangnick wouldn't allow his side to collapse the way we did, and if Eddie Howe brings in some top players in January he should easily be able to overtake this Watford side. Be sure to catch the newest episodes of House available on Sky Atlantic on demand, and classics such as the Grinch on Sky Movies Christmas.
Woeful and so typical of this squad. Up against a patched up home team and we churn out that. Sema on the right. He ran off the pitch with the ball twice.... Kucke absolutely pants Troost. Mindless stupidity Pedro in midfield with Tufan on the bench.
Technically due to Danny Roses weight we've signed 2. Only just realised that's why we only did a Prem squad of 24 players
Realistically it's going to be bargain bin defenders coming in on January 31st again. Possibly a loan or two. Big offer for Dennis and he's off too. I don't blame him either
Even having gone to another plain Cesare would be an improvement on Woeful William. There is a lady player,now the Hertfordshire rep on the LTA council. She is a decent player,played seniors for GB but is an habitual choker. I know when I play her she will choke,she knows I know. She always does, usually on a forehand volley but she does find new an interesting ways to **** up. Sounds familiar doesn't it William? Message to CR,never remove your workhorse in midfield so say 14s football coaches I'm told.
I said it in the other thread, add up our total spend on defenders since Gino took over, then decide on two things: A) if you think that amount would be enough to sort out our defence our in January, and B) even if it is do you think we’ll spend 10 years worth of budget in one January window. Once you have your answers you’ll probably feel a lot more at ease with the inevitable outcome of the season.
Also, three of our four wins have come against teams who have subsequently sacked their managers and Benitez can’t be that far away. We can only get results from teams that are playing below par and not really playing for their managers. As soon as we face a team with some organisation and a little bit of togetherness we’ve got no chance.
I agree to an extent but what about our recent games against the likes of Chelsea and City? We looked like we knew what we were doing in those games. Last night we were just set up wrong and the subs made the situation worse.
