Did the players have an 8 hour shift in the office before the game? Hopefully a lesson to them. You've got to put the effort in or you will be beaten. I highly doubt they will learn.
I think that reinforces that a fair part of our last result was due to how horrendous Stoke are, because we didn't play that different today but Swansea showed some resilience in the second half as opposed to Stoke just collapsing. I was surprised not to see Louza in from the start, and failing that he should have been subbed on at half-time, because even though I really like Asprilla as a prospect it was pretty much like playing with 10 men out there with him on. Aside from the chance he had in the first half he simply wasn't involved in the match whatsoever. He lost out on a 50-50 in the lead up to their equaliser as well (although Gaspar and Kabasele didn't cover themselves in glory after that for the goal either). Despite that, we still could have got a much more positive result from that game, but the stoppage late in the second half really killed our energy and momentum when we were appeared to be finishing on the front foot. Having to finish the game with that back 4 due to our absurd injury situation didn't help matters either. Our attack in general looks dangerous when we get it to them, but our biggest problem today as with vs Stoke was playing the ball out of defence. We were just so sloppy in possession all over. Once we eventually do get the ball in the opposition half we look threatening. If we could play it out from the back like Swansea, but with our front line to find at the top half of the pitch we'd be very good.
I think maybe Bilic was lulled into thinking it's as simple as the Stoke game. We'll see what he does now.
It does look like there is a lot of rebuilding required, and therefore don’t have high expectations. Think we will do well to make playoffs
Did you go or listen to the game? Swansea could have put 4 or 5 past us . We weren't even on the same pitch as Swansea. The commentators were complaining that it was an embarrassing performance
Tbf in terms of the first XI, I think it's just a RB we need, but we desperately need another LB, at least 1 CB, a CM and probably a winger on each side for depth as our reserve options are so poor
Jury is out on Hause. We haven’t seen him and Villa were happy to let him go. Ngakia has done naff all. Ditto Choudhury. Jury also out on Davis for me. Sierralta hasn’t looked good for a long time. A lot of these players have reputations beyond what they actually do on the pitch to date. We have a very good attack and GK for this division - but I maintain the rest is average. (Louza obviously is very good - but there’s a number of CB’s and CM’s I’d take from this division over what we have)
How much can Duxbury and Pozzo be blamed for: Hause, Sierralta, WTE, Cathcart, Ngakia and Gaspar all ending up injured at the same time though? It's an absurd situation! Clearly there's something going wrong behind the scenes for that to be happening, but it's difficult to know where exactly to pin the blame for it without knowing who'd be responsible for such things.
I agree I've got tickets for Blackpool but after that I just can't be arsed anymore I just don't have any interest in this current squad
When you see the team written down it’s possible to think “yeah, that’s a very decent side and it should be challenging for promotion”. But then you actually see them on the pitch and what we get is half-paced, walking football. There aren’t any leaders. For all he is capable of match-winning moments, Sarr strolls about looking as if it’s all too much bother. The midfield is misshapen and can’t move the ball or themselves forwards or wide quickly enough or with any sense of cohesion. The defence is just a mess. Short on confidence. Indecisive. Clumsy. The next calamity just an underhit pass away. And up front there’s no one who looks like they would barge their granny out of the way to get a shot at goal. It’s a collection of players doing an impression of a football team. The second half at Stoke was the exception, not the rule. Bilic might be the man to sort it out but I suspect he’ll be reliant on the whims and fancies of a core group of players who just haven’t got the heart, soul or steel for the job.
Most predictable result of the season. Did anyone genuinely think all our problems could be resolved by sacking Rob Edwards?
As an aside. How is the “Kayembe is an utter beast at this level and a great signing” going currently? Useless sack of dung.
It also exposes several of the myths we tell ourselves when the premier league gets soul destroying and miserable - The championship isn’t a fun romp where we’ll win loads of games. It’s a slog where absolutely everything has to be fought for and the sight of 450 away fans celebrating a midweek away win in the Vic Road end happens on a semi regular basis - young / British / homegrown or academy products are only a good thing if they are good enough. If you end up finishing a match with two of them in defence it doesn’t necessarily show what a great conveyor belt of young talent there is waiting in the wings. - playing twice a week is only fun when the results and performances are good. Otherwise, two days off is not enough.
I didn't, but I did expect us to try for more than one game. It doesn't matter who the manager is - our players are mentally weak, unfit and too injury prone. That goes all the way to the top. Since our five year stint as a PL club we have done nothing but go backwards. Next steps are League One and possible Administration.
Ngakia is indeed the relative weak link still (albeit you can still go up with a player like that, Masina was more competent than a superstar at Championship level 2 years ago), but Choudhury does a job as it is, and will surely look better next to someone who can actually pass the ball. Sierralta hasn't looked as good as he was 2 years ago, but overall he's still a very good Championship defender and I think half the reason for his relative struggles is because those in front of him can't grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Davis has had a good start, but similarly, he can only do so much when there's not an awful lot going on behind him, though I guess I agree with you on Hause--he's looked our best defender, but in a very limited sample size!
Choudhury is completely fine at this level, surprised by the vitriol. If you’re criticising his passing, fine but that’s still not his job. Kayembe, Kabasele, Gaspar, Gosling, Cleverly, Bayo, Manaj all far higher up on the problem list than Choudhury,
Bayo and to a lesser extent Kayembe do a job (albeit nobody should want to see them as regular starters), but the fact that the others are anywhere near the first XI is damning
3 of those didn't play tonight. Choudrey isnt good just because Kayembe isn't. Choudrey also had a good laugh at how **** one of his shots was and was having another good chuckle with the Swansea players and staff at the end.
And he did admit in the Sunderland program that he hasn't got a lot of skill so probably just does what he can well. So how many defenders do we have left fit? Seems to be one going down every game now.
Tom Cleverley - 33 Kabasele - 31 Cathcart - 33 All three are still first team regulars when available. Age isn't the be all and end all I know that, but none of them should be here. We should of never have blown £35/40 on Sarr. You can surely get at least a few decent players for 10M a pot, but then again if the player is not in Mogi's little book we are not interested. Nothing will change until the ownership leaves.
Kabasele has been here for 6 years already, will almost certainly make it 8 by the time his contract is up by the end of next season, can anyone recall single memorable (for the right reasons!) game from him?
Easy way to solve that - make Bachmann captain then he hasn't got a almost certain chance of playing. But he will, because we have nobody else bar the youngsters who will never get a full game.
Combined with training sessions without the correct balance of intensity. We know head coaches have been sacked in the past for not giving training sessions the intensity Pozzo likes, could it in fact be that his required level is actually too intense for our players to handle? We have had a bad track record with injuries since the regime change.
We were exceptionally lucky in under QSF MkI with almost no injuries of note all season, but since then, it's been a shambles. Some have been players rushed back from injury (or being allowed to stay on while clearly ****ed), some seem to have been genuine dumb luck, but some are genuinely puzzling--is JP just a crock or are we not managing him properly? He surely doesn't have 'transferitis' at this stage in the season!
And not played more than 140 games for us either.. I mean my maths isn't great at all but doesn't seem to be a great ratio tbh? Been injured or dropped more often than not.
He's never been an automatic pick even when fit, and considering our continual problems in defence since about 2016, that's not a good reflection on him at all
What are you punishing him for there? Being slightly self-deprecating maybe? Greeting ex-team mates? Put Louza next to Choudhury and recruit a decent #10 and he looks far, far better. Put Iniesta & Xavi next to Kayembe and he still looks shyte. That's my point. He's an automatic pick for me. He breaks up play really well.
That was woeful. We started slowly and didnt get any better. We looked a disjointed shambles at times in that first half and our passing was atrocious. If we did somehow get the ball up to the front three the first thing they did was turn back to our goal and play it backwards. Sema especially took every available opportunity to slow play down before passing it backwards. That was worse then either the West Brom or Blackburn games, I guess the Gino apologists would label it an embarrassment. Atleast West Brom and Blackburn played well in those games. Swansea werent anything special, but they where organised, their players looked like they knew what their roles were and they could actually pass the ball. We scored from the one moment of quality and after Aprilla saw his chance blocked I thought we would come out second half much improved. God knows what was said at half time because we started just as poorly as we had the first half. Your right, we havent looked any better and tonight it was arguably worse then it did under RE. Which does beg the question of why we sacked him. Fair enough its only been two games, but most of the criticisms that were laid at RE were on show tonight and present during the first half against Stoke. Ok we scored 4 in that game but Stoke rolled over and gave up after the second went in. Hopefully Blackpool will do the same at the weekend. I agree, it would be a very good championship side and it should be performing alot better than it is, but the key thing is if we can keep them fit. Which we cant. I just dont get it, every season without fail we end up with an injury list as long as my arm which never seems to get any shorter. As it stands of our 5 senior center backs, 4 are injured and now both right backs are injured too. No other club seems to have the issues around injuries that we do every season, I can only assume it must be something we're doing behind the scenes in terms of conditioning and training.
