Great win. We’d have lost that 3-1 as soon as Kamara got sent off last season. Still clearly a work in progress but good signs. Thought bayo and asprilla looked like they could have a good impact, and Hamza a very welcome addition. Clear that we need another CM still though as Gosling was pretty awful. Bachman obviously brilliant but he also needs to not be so rooted to his line. Teams are targeting us with crosses because of it. Thought Kayembe really stepped up in the last ten mins and loved Bayo playing RB to cut out the diagonal for the last 5 mins. Really like Edwards and everything he stands for but agree with others about his subs. Sarr coming off didn’t help us at all and it’s clear we still have issues with getting the ball up the pitch. Overall a great night though and enjoyed the new chant. Something funny about hearing grown men signing ABBA..
The clear scoring chance send off should be different to the EPL. In the championship it should only be for a tap in from 2 yards and even then it’s 50/50
Three games against top Championship teams, all of whom will be “in contention” for promotion. Seven points, one goal conceded. Luck? Or resolute defending? (I refer you to our defensive record last time in the Championship).
Kamara's red card was actually a really smart way to mitigate against them equalising when Vimto-inho was definitely going to score the one Vs one against Daniel Bachmann. Did enjoy the 'Youre just a **** Ben Foster' chant only for Bachmann to carry on his decent form. 3 games into the season (toughest start of fixtures as well). I don't think we've even got out of second gear yet. If this is the best we can play, then we finish outside the play offs. Despite that though, it was refreshing not to see us utterly capitulate through cowardice.
Bit surprised that people are so negative about the actual performance itself, thought we had a 20-25 minute period where we look destined to score, some nice football too. All with a really limited / defensively minded midfield three. I think there were some really promising signs in the performance, I wouldn’t want that to be our team September 1st but given there’s a fair chance it gets stronger (Davis, Louza etc) I was really happy!
did you enjoy our win tonight LaClu? Albeit rather fortunate but slightly less fortunate than our draw on Monday .
And yet we won. Like we got a point against WBA (and were a missed penalty away from a win). Almost as if numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Not really massive chances, and we didn't need to produce, because we were defending a lead. To give away 0.56 xg when defending a lead for 50 mins (15 with 10 men) is damn good going. Similar to Sheff Utd, well deserved win.
“Burnley were very average.” Thank goodness for that. Because if they had turned up we wouldn’t have coped. We may have the same luck as Liverpool, who have the extreme fortune of no team ever turning up against them, and every one of them putting in an average performance. Alternatively, an evolving team has just taken 7 points in three games against promotion rivals, conceding a single goal. A defensive record not unlike when we last were in the Championship. Could it possibly be that we are good at winning games against this level of competitor?
I’m a happy clapper and so can admire your work with observation of a purist . But even I’m struggling to say we deserved even a draw . God maybe I’m losing my mojo and becoming a BW
But we have. Conceding a single goal. Against teams that are expected to be challenging at the top, and therefore our equals. Do you not think their fans are saying exactly the same s as bout them?
I don't think it was a dominant performance from us, but we took our lead with a well worked goal, and backed ourselves to keep them out with a solid defence. Which worked, until an unfortunate red, after which we had a couple of close calls.
It’s funny having watched the highlights their onslaught didn't look nearly as scary as it did at the time behind the goal .
From the Rookery TC's finish looked decent, but when you see it on the TV replays it's actually superb!
If Brum get a penalty will be interesting to see how Bachmann handles Deeney’s almighty wellie straight down the middle
Started slowly, but after about the 25th minute, we largely controlled the rest of the first half, and managed to put together a few decent moves through sustained possession. I thought it was a promising sign, and with the extra midfielder, we found it a bit easier to build from the back. Deserved the lead for my money. Lovely to see us hold on and show some proper grit at the end there. Definitely enough about us today that gives me hope we’ll continue to improve. Choudhury looked good. I think once he’s capable of playing 90 minutes, he’ll become a real driving force. Combative, full of energy, and looked comfortable on the ball. How nice was it to see a midfielder capable of getting about the field and making challenges high up the pitch? Sierralta showing how criminal it was that he didn’t get a proper look in last year. Loved seeing him going toe-to-toe with Barnes, and come out on top thanks to some superb shithousing. Pedro started poorly. Too slow on the ball, but you can’t fault his effort and desire. He’ll have better nights. I said it before the game, but it’s really disappointing that RE has had to abandon the system he spent all summer working on because he’s not been provided with the personnel to make it work. Granted, we’ve got a couple of weeks to add to the squad, and yeah we’ve picked up some good points so far, but it does make a mockery of the claims made by Pozzbury that RE would be properly backed. Credit to RE though, he’s made the atmosphere a lot more positive, and he’s easy to warm to. You can tell he cares and wants to do the right things. I hope he does get properly backed. Still, there’s plenty of time to worry about that. For now, it’s just nice to sit here having seen a team of players give everything for the cause, and feel like there’s a bit of hope for the months ahead.
“it’s really disappointing that RE has had to abandon the system he spent all summer working on” Another way of looking at this is that we have a pragmatic adaptive manager. One of the concerns raised when he joined us was that he was absolutely wedded to a particular formation which was found out towards the end of last season. Maybe he’s more tactically flexible than we gave him credit for.
Goal from Cleverley. Assist by Sema. Sky MOTM Kayembe. Clean sheet and excellent game by Bachman. All of whom got massive disrespect here pre-season, dismissed before they’d played. Fair play to all four for showing they’re not quite as bad as some may think.
Yeah, no doubt it’s encouraging to see that RE is capable of adapting and making adjustments. The performance tonight, given we had a couple of days at most to work on the shape and patterns of play was decent enough. That he’s capable of making adjustments doesn’t make it okay to leave him with a squad that isn’t capable of playing the system he’s spent the last 6-8 weeks trying to bed in.
Don’t disagree in an ideal world. But no world is ideal. Very rarely does any scenario work out as planned. You can do your best to get the right players in, but sometimes that just isn’t possible. And at that point a good manager moulds what he has into an effective team. And RE is showing signs of being a good manager.
Not been able to go to the first two home games due to small person, which is a story in of itself where I’ve seen a grand total of one home win in 18 months live… not reading anything into that. Honest. There’s so much to work on, but… Rob’s giving it a good good go and we’re grinding things out. I think the fact we’ve got through 3 tough games with 7 points gives us confidence and the foundation to build upon a style against some of the lesser teams in the division. Hopefully pick up plenty of positive results and performances heading into that game in October.
There's so much to chew the fat over after the first three games. Last night Burnley were tidy but slow and predictable. Trying to be Man City without the players to do so. In fact I thought they looked a little man city u19s. Watford clearly had another gear to click into, Burnley didn't seem to but they'll stick to their principles and finish 8th. Sema, Bachman, Cleverley all did well. We know their flaws, but at this level, it's almost like saying Paul Scholes isn't any good because he can't tackle. Asprilla and Bayo were promising. Asprilla especially for a young lad built like a 12 year old girl, it's amazing how much spirit and confidence he seemed to have. Definitely one to sell to Everton for £75m in a few years.
The Good Choudry keeping it simple. Encouraging and clapping other players. Real captain material from this first showing. Cathcart eating negativity and pulling another 8 out of 10 defensive showing. Sierralta schooling Barnes on how to deploy the dark arts of housery. Pedro. Love him. Absolutely everywhere again. Have to keep him this season as our play is built around him. Bachmann solid and communicated well. The Bad Kamara with the ultimate brain fart for the red - strange he got applauded off by most of the Rookery, if that was Troost it would've been pure vitriol. Gosling playing like he's one of the players he called out in the Wobby. Didn't really do anything well at all. Overall the good ship HMS CORE sails on defiantly. Onto Brum with a yo ho ho and a barrel o rum me good shipmates!
Great result, you can see that we are a team still in transition and appear to be working from the back forwards. The change in formation massively benefitted us as that extra body in midfield helped us gain control. Hamza so far looks to be the player that we have been crying out in midfield for but we will need another body in there even with Cleverleys injury. On to TC, thought he was poor but scored the all important goal with a lovely placed finish. SEMA was imperious and Sarr I thought a bit too narrow at times. Pedro grew into the game and played an absolutely beautiful cross into Sarr who decided to try and clear the pigeons from the roof of the Rookery. Thought Bayo looked promising in his cameo appearance but will need to see more of him when we aren't down to ten men, same for Asprilla. Gosling was bobbins. As others have said, we aren't playing great and still churning out points from a difficult set of games. Burnleys best player was their LCM who seemed to dictate the game from midfield and was always in the space between Sarr and Gaspar. It will be interesting to see how we set up against Brum with no Kamara. I imagine we will revert back to 352.
The reality is that we've massively rode our luck so far, none of our results have come from dominant performances. But the players have dug in, and that's a massive departure from what we saw last season. I do think RE has done a great job of getting us back on side. Reminded me a lot of big Beppe's last game in charge. That season was a doozy
Well, l was surprised, but l will take 3 points. We are riding our luck a fair bit and we all know that eventually you meet someone who will stuff you. For now, it has been a much better start than my 0 pts from 3 games prediction. I have read that Bayo was a total joke to that he ok on the pitch. How did he play?
Indeed we have. Defensively we’ve ridden our luck with some glaring misses, great saves and the bar coming to our aid. We won’t gain points with too many goals from our own half and in games where we only have 5 attempts on goal in 90 mins. Despite still having Sarr and Pedro, it’s the strikers and attacking midfield which is causing most concern at present. Maybe Davis will be the answer though his goals stats aren’t the best part of his game.
