When you get one point from your first 4 PL games after finishing 11th and reaching a Cup final the previous season, he was probably under the most pressure to start well of all the sides that season. Brighton easily beat us, Everton hardly broke a sweat and Spam pushed us around. I did like Javi also, but he had clearly run his course when we started that season with f-all preseason fitness and it showed. Since then, take your pick. I actually quite liked Edwards and despite us not playing well we did care going into games and he brought the group together. Something we have not seen under CR70, Woy or even Xisco. Less said about QSF the better.
Watch Bachmann's positioning for the 2nd goal. It was the same as Spurs away last season, the same as Millwall away - one step to the right when the ball comes in and the ball drifts into the far corner. He is a shocking keeper. "he made some great saves" I hear you say? He's a pro goalkeeper, they all make good saves. I'm not blaming the defeat on him at all, it was dreadful all round at a shocking yet unsurprisly pedestrian pace. No fight, desire, determination and all the usual buzz words but nothing new compared to the last 4 years.
A fair comment probably, I might be impartial because I really liked Javi as a person. As I said, he seemed like such a nice guy. I quite liked Ranieri and Pearson at first, but for what ever reason, they both seemed to have lost the dressing room quite quickly.
How negligent is it that as a club, year in and year out we ignore set pieces as a means to hurt teams. We bash in the routine corners and meaningless free kicks, week in and out for years, when investing a small amount of time and money could yield 5 or 6 goals a season. And how have we had the number of players through the club that we've had, without a single, decent set piece expert appearing since Toszer or Abdi? Basic recruitment and coaching flaws that have been repeated time and time again.
Well that was thoroughly miserable. I wish I'd stayed at home and played with my new socks and underpants
Yup, it's currently the low hanging fruit of football. Relatively easy to improve on quickly for a low cost. Then if you want to take it to the next level you can fork out for someone with good delivery and a targetman. Millwall looked for Cooper with pretty much every set-piece today, just like they have for the past 4 years and it's still effective
I like to think that most of our players were ill and have turned out today because of their loyalty to the club. I don't necessarily believe it, but I like to think it. Gotta get your pleasures where you can.
You should of come on wearing them. Anything would of been better than that total no show. Actually, seeing a passionate fan wearing just socks and underpants might of inspired the squad to actually play football.
It’s not even like the skill is that hard to come by. Sure, a Beckham-like talent is generational. Even Toszer was a bit of a freak when it came to his finishing from direct free kicks. But what we’re really talking about needing is a player with the ability to consistently put the ball in a danger area and have a player or players ready to exploit it while others make dummy runs. That’s it. I know that’s oversimplifying @reids work a lot but it’s the fact we don’t even seem to have accurate delivery most of the time that pisses me off. There’s no semblance of a plan. And that’s before we get to the direct freekicks which time and time again end up off target or lamely chipped to the keeper.
We've tried hard and ultimately come unstuck against one of the better teams in the league. The ref gave us nothing and needlessly sent off our best player for handbags and Sarr got no protection all match. Can't fault the application and effort from the lads. 4 games in 5 we've kept a clean sheet which ain't half bad.
Please, let's not rewrite history to delude ourselves that things weren't heavily in decline well before he moved on.
Which letter of the law is that? Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I only thought shoves are red cards if they're on the head, which Kamara's wasn't.
Looks like the push is to the face from the clip @Cude>2< shared? Edit: just watched it again and it looks like he makes contact with the collarbone area first and then momentum takes at least one of his hands into the opponent’s face.
Absolutely spot on. You look at a team like Millwall - no so-called stars, but a well organised team of players who know their jobs and get on with them with the minimum of fuss, who seem to have genuine desire and pride in playing for their club......and have outplayed us from the first minute twice this season.
I don't know how you can see that, looks like all the contact is on the collarbone. The rest just seems like the camera angle as the player is falling.
On reflection, they’re not especially. Think I was just annoyed as I left the ground. There were some naughty tackles, plenty of sh*thousing and the like, but that’s pretty standard these days. Their fans are wrong’uns though.
A performance that typified this squad. Players that have shown glimpses of talent but looked so half arsed today. Sarr was a waste of time Davies was dreadful Kamara was thick and rubbish, again. Dele Bashiru isn’t very good but comes from the same school of weird unjustified hype that Quina came from. Not a chance this squad goes up. Overhyped and outworked in every department.
Incredible stuff. We have some fans whose first priority after watching that display, is to take a swipe at other fans.
I’ve never been more relieved to see the opposition go 2-0 up as it meant I could get the f**k out of there. I’ve not seen such a mass exodus in a long long time, beyond me why anyone stayed to the end. Utter sh*te.
I had the Millwall commentary on my stream for the 15 minutes I could stand watching today, and their broadcast team couldn’t believe that despite every set piece they have being aimed directly at his head, we had nobody willing to challenge him in the air when the ball came in. Literally mocking the fact we didn’t have a single player with the balls to try and compete with him at dead balls. Embarrassing.
So they can go home and say "well I stayed and clapped them all off, not like the other 'proper fans' who left early..." Only time I ever left a game early is Coventry when we lost 4-0 in the PL. I didn't want to but it was bloody freezing and I kept coughing. I feel though, nowadays it's getting more and more common. @wfcmoog said he left at HT today as he was sick of the state of the play out there. More and more fans' are coming to terms with the state of our club now more than ever. Less bums in seats mean less income for the owners... maybe it's the only way they listen.
Either Julian ****s has had a character transplant or his message is not getting across yet. He would, from my recollection, rarely put in such an insipid performance as our players did today, when he was playing. We show no aggression in the correct way. Petulant reactions resulting in a red, is just unprofessional. Half ar$e closing down is not aggressive, it’s just trying to pull a con. We may have some talented players, but they lack heart and drive. I’m afraid Sarr is the biggest culprit. He just doesn’t want to know. Gaspar is a waste of a squad number. Becuna didn’t have a contract for a reason. Kabasele looks like he has slipped back after some solid recent performances. I acknowledge that we do have a serious injury list, worse again after today, but we need to explain to the players that the club and fans are worth fighting for. I do not blame Bilic. I would say that Bilic is as frustrated as we are, and between him and our new recruitment team, perhaps a few genuine competitors, who can also play, may be acquired, because, as matters stand, our squad looks like a cheap Christmas toy with the batteries running very low.
In theory it should be possible. It'll also depend on what the ref claims they saw though. It doesn't matter too much though for future games as Sema has seemed just as good at LB as Kamara (albeit that leaves us a bit light in attack, especially if JP is out for a bit).
I was hearing yesterday about French fans who left a bar where they had been watching the World Cup final at half time ....
