The first one on Pereyra was a booking all day long. But agreed, the ref had no choice but to book Doucoure for that foul. He showed some discretion by not following up with a 2nd yellow when Doucoure ran 40 yards to shove Zaha in the chest twice for diving.
Don't understand the praise for Mariappa. I really had hoped that at rb he'd be a solid option but he was a liability over and over again.
May 27 but Hereford and Wocester,county match,May 20,away. Zaha threw the ball back behind him in the second half but not as aggressively as PVA did. Let's hope we can keep Kaba and Kafka fit as they looked superior to any other combination we've seen all season,not that I can remember Kaboul!
Deeney is probably out for the rest of the season, so will be interesting to see how Gracia reshapes.
Be interesting to see how Deeney reshapes without 90 minutes of cardio each week. Probably be like This:
An Instagram post of his doing the rounds on twitter seems to suggest so, his foot is in a protective boot. That’ll be him finished for the season I expect.
Don't they always have those on as precaution? Mind you with our medical team Deeney will be out till Christmas!
Yet Gray has still scored twice as many goals from open play as Deeney in 2/3rds of the minutes.... Sure.
Oh bugger... he's just getting his excuses in early as to why he'll fail a medical at whichever Championship club we hopefully try and offload him to in the summer. Indeed, he'll be even harder to budge when he can't even fit out the canteen door. He's really lingering like a bad smell.
You shouldn't overlook Deeney's contribution. He changed the match from the bench at home to Arsenal. He also inspired a near comeback against United. He was the reason we lost at Chelsea after he was taken off. He won two close encounters with well taken goals against Everton and West Brom. Gray has scored a goal at Swansea which we went on to win, and the first goal against Southampton that we went on to get a "lucky" draw. I think Deeney is a player who will be missed more when he's not playing. If we play Okaka or Gray, or even both, we would look even less likely to score. Gray has a lot more "big misses" to his name than Deeney. I remember one at Palace which cost us a win and of course the penalty at Arsenal. Gray has missed plenty more. The two 1 v 1's at Newcastle, a bad miss at Bournemouth, a 1 v 1 at home to Swansea which cost us a win, the swing and miss at home to West Ham which fortunately Hughes scored from, and I'm sure there's more if I thought about it. The thing with Deeney is, and this is what fans have to understand. He's not a goal scoring centre forward in the Premier league, but he does other things. He get his head to the ball, he beats up defenders, he leads the line well, and is involved in a lot of interplay. He put in the best cross of the match for Okaka's to hit the crossbar yesterday. When Gray plays, he's just so ineffective. He ball is played all around him and he gets nowhere near it. The only game he can play, is on the shoulder of the defender, and run on to a through ball. This is very limited. He doesn't even have the composure to take a chance when he's through on goal anyway. There have been times when Deeney's deserved criticism, like when he allowed himself to get so out of shape, some of his comments are not too helpful either, but overall he's still an asset to the club, and is the best we have in his position.
I know its quite difficult but isn't he the one that went straight to the medical centre after a day-trip to Southampton!
I don't think anyone's opinion of Deeney is based on a comparison with Gray. Both are woeful and need to be gone, along with Okaka.
We can look forward to Richarlison being put in the Deeney role for the next few games. Gray still wont get a look in.
We are only likely to get anything at our game Home to Newcastle, anything out of the other two is a bonus!
I see Elton's back Yes in the GT Stand. The EJ stand hasn't got the corporate facilities to host such lofty visitors.
An enjoyable match overall I reckon. Best atmosphere in ages and some great football in the first half. Pereyra my MOTM and the central defence looked good. I was really involved in the phoney rivalry we have with palace, it gets the blood pumping and pantomime villains like zaha are great. This match was proof that, when everyone's fit, centre forward is absolutely the most vital position to strengthen. With a half decent striker we'll get 50 points next year. We just need to pick up an ace but out of form striker on the cheap. Ideally a grotesquely ugly one with a massive adams apple...
I don't know why we don't just shift Holebas further up on the wing with Feminia in behind as a left back. Holebas looks pretty good going forward but is useless at tracking back so just drop that from his responsibilities.
If Deeneys injured, there' a greater chance of Sinclair starting than Grey. He is the missing piece of the jigsaw
I’ve constructed quite a precise psychographic profile of Harpenden over the last two weeks & I don’t like the picture I’m seeing.
