I agree. Fine margins and all that. I just don't think this team has got enough clean sheets in it to survive. Defensively we're not even close to being good enough imo.
Are you confident that it will be then? Or do you think we'll outscore enough teams to survive? Hell of a risky strategy for survival.
Sarr looked kind of ok while he was on. Certainly fast and skilful. Difficult scenario to come into when the game is already lost. Looking forward to his next cameo.
L L L L L L L You probably already know that's our last seven results - but I had to print that - it gets the pain out. Spineless and soulless second half defensive horror show. Good goal from Gray, after the most awful start. We deserved to be level at the break. Saw Sarr…. just after it was three to one. I'm so depressed at that backline. We can have the best midfield in the leauge, but when you defend like a bunch of Sunday leauge players, you are going nowhere. We are going down this season. I have never been so certain of anything before, but this is a sad fact. That backline would struggle in the Championship. It's a tough one to take - it really is. That scoreline flatters the Spammers because we were not terrible going forward, created chances and looked generally O.K. The problem is, when the ball goes the other way, there is a massive panic attack. Defending starts from the front and goes towards the back so they say// what back? We may as well brick the goal up - less chance of conceding. It's so frustrating. Every attack they had, I sat there thinking they will score this. I should not be thinking that - but I am. It's men against boys. Nothing is ever going to change. Holebas is passed it, Mapps/Dawson is Championship at best. Cathcart is alright now and again. I am really am genuinely worried. This is a nightmare start - we are now rotted bottom since saints showed how you beat Brighton. And yes I know it's only three played, and the performances have been better since Brighton, but it doesn't matter how good we are going forward. because I strongly believe we have the worst back line in this division. Till January at the earliest. That scares me half to death. We are going to have to score four goals per game at this rate to get a point. What the hell goes on in defensive training? It's getting to the point that either Gino invests and sorts this out - or we're down. On another positive I guess at least we scored a goal today. I am not usually so negative but this is beyond a joke now. Will we beat Coventry on Tuesday? Probably. Will we beat Newcastle? Nope. Sheff Utd? Doubtful. We are not a terrible side, but we are in one area. And it needed fixing two seasons ago. Rant Over.
In December? Yes. Before then we're obviously limited to what we have (unless we can find some useful free agents, which seems unlikely). We'll never outscore the likes of Man City, but you don't need to over the course of a season. It's a perfectly viable strategy against everyone outside of the top 6, though.
Gracia out now, **** knows what our supporters were doing singing his name at 1-1. A compact 4-2-3-1 is the way to go with Welbeck, Sarr and Del all able to swap positions with Pereya in the middle. Leave Caps and Doucs as ball winning midfielders to protect the defence.
Doesn't matter if you sign a winger for 30 million or an ex England striker because if you cannot defend its going to be a long season. . We actually did ok in attack till we went 2-1 but even so the West Ham goalie wasn't over tested .
If Hughes scores we win that game. The confidence would have got us ove the line. Javi has been played a dud hand by Gino with our defence.
No panic people.. the super computer has our backs. "biggest opening day defeat" Ok one goal out but near enough. "fans panic as Watford take three games to even score" Wow! how did it know?! Only one win in first 6 games.. ok perhaps it's a little optimistic! Anyway sit back.. relax.. and get ready for the Emirates and the steady climb up the table. On a more serious note i wonder how the cup final drubbing has played on the players psyche. Granted it was only the FA cup and nobody cares right? But the mind is a funny old thing and sometimes things play on you even when you dont know it.
Best performance of the season so far which is the worst part of the day. Dominated the ball for the large part. Formation change was welcomed. Dawson is somehow worse than Mariappa which I just don't get. All three goals were preventable. GD a constant menace which was great but lacking end product with the ball. The straight-up blatant cheating of the FA rules regarding going off the nearest touchline is just a total farce, they might as well just play with their hands? Could not believe what I was seeing. Andre Gray was flipping fantastic. We were shy to pull the trigger. Hughes should've scored. Cleverley battled really well and triggered the press, not his fault he's not technically excellent. Team much better without having the default "lump to Deeney" option. Holebas fallen off a cliff. Good crosses from Femenia but he can't defend AT ALL. Doucouree poor. Maybe carrying a knock or mind elsewhere. Never seen us create so much, never seen us leak so much. West Ham ordinary just like Everton but beat us, Palace result against United worrying. Not actually time for Javi to go yet but the Newcastle game is MASSIVE now. If we can't beat them then we're in serious trouble but Javi changed stuff today and the players ran for him. The defence isn't the worst we've had in the Prem yet it's the worst performing, maybe bring in a defensive coach? However, HE MUST MAKE SOME ******* SUBS AT THE RIGHT ******* TIME. IT IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. If he don't fix that he can leave for all I care, shocking how long he left it to change things.
I am actually more confident than I was before the season started. We are too good to go down, and I don't mean that in an "entitled" way, but because our players are just better than the other teams that will find themselves near the bottom. My biggest worry is the poor game management from Gracia, but I think the players will overcome that over the season. Neither of the last two games have been poor performances. People just don't seem to appreciate the fine margins between us winning and losing the last couple of games, both of them could have been wins for us, and the opposition wouldn't have felt hard done by, if we had just had a little luck. We have also got a couple of months to build around Welbeck and Sarr instead of Deeney, and they will be very effective for us. We are gonna be just fine.
I thought we looked really good going forward and were the better team for 70% of the game. The fact is others are accountable here. Sarr and Welbeck not ready for crucial games and the defence is slow, incompetent and old. Over 3 or 4 windows the recruitment team have failed comprehensively to upgrade the area despite it being obvious. Sarr is clearly exciting but was that really the priority rafter than 2 or 3defensive additions for 10-12 million? We still have Gomes as backup keeper for heaven’s sake behind an ageing declining Foster. If we sack Gracia, I’m not sure what a new man could do with such substandard resource in the defence. I’d rather sack Giraldi. Gracia would just be a scapegoat for others failings.
Also, Richarlison had two free headers last week and West Ham had two or three today I think? Including Felipe Anderson hitting the post. No idea what's going on at training defensively.
Just heading back into London after the game so will give detailed thoughts later... But immediate comment is that Gracia is losing control tactically very very quickly. He’s getting out-thought. And the defence is unspeakably bad...and rotten with players not good enough, who will likely see the club relegated. There’s so much about the club to like and be positive about. But the defensive unit and mindset is nothing less than a dereliction of duty now from the powers that be. It’s not good enough and it’s time it’s acted upon. I’m beyond shocked that the club were so inactive in the window just gone. We are surpassing ourselves for where we are, compared to the size of the club - but the mindset is PL from midfield and attack, and Championship defensively. Or lower. Gracia needs to urgently address this or we are gone. (Was meant to be brief when I started, hence first comment! But got carried away and couldn’t stop venting!)
I cant see how we can win games when we cant stop teams from scoring, or even make it difficult. We are fundamentally weak. Plus our tendency to miss chances is a long standing weakness in many of our players, rather than a temporary confidence blip. These guys are always missing sitters. If we are fine, it's because a new manager comes in and pragmatically injects some solidity in for a while, not Javi with his suicidal formation, which leaves a slow, weak defence, horribly exposed and outnumbered.
Lots of people here very concerned about our prospects this season and to be honest I share them. Whilst we could be ok having lost our first three, losing at home against Brighton and West Ham just puts the pressure on us to get results in other games which on paper appear more difficult.
Only positive was that the atmosphere was really good after we equalised. If the players play well, the fans will chant. Play poorly like they did in the last 30 mins, the fans will replicate it. Football wise, defence and substitutions cost us... Again... It’s a bit of a re-occurring theme really. Bringing on Welbeck and Sarr after we’ve conceded our third goal is almost a complete waste of time, especially for Sarr who needs kickstart of confidence to find his feet in the Prem. Ahhh well, bring on Coventry.
A much better showing from the midfield and forward line. On another day we could and should have scored 2 or 3. How did Hughes miss? But my god that defence. Dawson and Femenia in particular are just terrible
It's just upsetting to watch. 5 seasons and the defence is still terrible and incredibly limited players like Tom Cleverley are seen as a solution. This is it. We're at the point where we've got old unsellable players on big, long contracts. Relegation could destroy the club.
Talk of fine margins but a goal difference of -6 against 3 mid table teams in not a fine margin. Foster had a great game and kept the score down. A lot of possession but generally a quiet afternoon for Fabianski. Overheard two West Ham fans talking on the way home who were spot on, saying that they were surprised how easy it was but that if you don't invest and continue to strengthen in the premier league, you will get caught out eventually. The club has made a massive mistake in letting us end up with a geriatric, championship defence.
Oh also GD had an age to get a shot off when 1v1 and just delayed it and got fouled. So frustrating, that along with the Hughes miss does not help Javi.
We have scored the same number of goals as Everton, but they have 4 points and we have none. The back four is so poor as a unit, I honestly think I would play 3-5-2 with Janmatt and Holebas as wing backs. After a run of poor games I don't understand why Kiko is in that back four. Honestly Dawson is no b tier than Marriapa. Kabasele and Prodl must be given a chance as Cathcart has also looked vulnerable. For me Delefou is now looking a bit of a luxury. Grind out a few 0-0 results. Big Sam already writing the dossier on how it's done.
If we had won that it would have papered over Javi's idiotic tactics. You cant give a defence as bad as ours that little protection. Sure we make wave after wave of attack, but spurn all the chances, but right now we need to inject some solidity from the back and build from there. Players like Deolefou need to be benched during spells like this. For all the brilliant runs and flicks, there is no end product 90% of the time and he's not making is stronger. We need to take a pragmatic approach and should have done so already, to stop the slide. Pick a side and line them up to not concede. Keep your luxury players ok the bench and then let's get a point on the board. Playing the way we are playing we are being well beaten by poor/average teams. It doesn't take man city type excellence to sew panic in our defence. Doucoure is ****.
With this result, Soton winning, CP winning at MU and L**** winning away I'm going to take a break from footy for a bit. 3rd wicket has just fallen in the cricket. Guess I'm giving that a miss too. See ya !
Our defence is to slow, Kabasele needs to play alongside Cathcart or Dawson, I’d prefer Cathcart as Dawson is not setting the world alight with his start. This pairing of Cathcart/Dawson won’t work they’re to similar, Dawson hoofing it forward today was just a waste he must realize gray can’t hold it up and with no Deeney that tactic just doesn’t work. Play that back four against any team with pace and were hooped. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I wasn't there so can't really add anything other than that I'd be surprised if Gracia makes it to the international break. Something in me died at the cup final and this start is not helping my football psyche. We cannot ever be what we were under GT. Survival is the only real goal these days, unless we make some Faustian pact with horrid oligarchs or other dubious entities. Maybe Gino has neglected the defence but I'm pretty sure some organisation and communication from the coach could make it less brittle.
What a game. For us to put up such a fight against a bigger team that had spent so much in the summer is testiment to how far we've come and we should be appreciative of the effort. We improved on the scoreline from last season and it's small steps and we should be happy with that. It's not Gracia's fault if we miss chance after chance or can't defend to save our lives. Also, it's not his fault that when making reactive subs to going 2-1 behind that they score again from yet another set piece. These problems have been there for years and Gracia can't be expected to coach these players to become better. It speaks volumes that we can leave players like Sarr and Welbeck on the bench and we should remember that. Respect to the 1881 for going completely silent at 2-1 so we could hear the West Ham fans embarrasingly celebrating a win that should be so easy for them. Confident that we won't break Derby's record and as such we should just enjoy the ride and remember that we weren't playing the big boys in 1880. What a game.
