That was an absolutely pathetic showing, probably made even worse by the demonstration of attacking play some of our creative players are capable of. This defence is just appalling, and we are so mentally weak it's laughable, and Gracia's substitutions are universally terrible. Every time they are made, our entire gameplan and shape goes completely out the window and we offer nothing from that point on. Starting Deeney was an odd decision against Burnley of all teams, as his crappy wrestling moves would have even less effect that usual, and he can't exploit their lack of technicality. Not replacing him with Gray at any point is madness. It's not any different to Silva or Wally or Quique's inexplicable absolutism when it comes to certain players, and it's certainly not helpful. After another collapse and another negative result, I have to ask how we have improved, initial dead cat bounce aside? We're lucky to be safe, but apart from that, they're making it more and more clear that there's nothing left in this season for us. Really doesn't appear like anyone's motivated for a top half finish other than the fans.
The only decent thing we have at the club is the midfield. Doucoure anchoring it, Capoue who has shown a bit more in recent weeks, Will Hughes is full of immense potential, Pereyra looks like he is getting back to his best and Femenia too. And such a shame Chalobah has been missing with injury too. Come the summer we need new striking options and an overhaul of that defence and someone who can organize it. All successful teams at whatever level need a competent defence. It is extraordinarily rare to find teams winning titles or doing well by simply outscoring the opposition. Burnley are an utter dung heap of a team. Overhyped for what is to all intents and purposes a very limited team who have been fortunate with many of their results this season as at their dump when Richarlison was denied a clear penalty.
This team is as mentally weak as any I've seen. Whatever you think of Bournemouth, they are the polar opposite. Fighting and believing for the whole 90 minutes and getting the rewards. When Burnley equalised, I turned to my son and said we'll lose this now. We are predictably pathetic when challenged and that it is so depressing.
We played all the football but you don’t win games with a tissue paper defence. Mapps will get slated for the second goal but Prodl was ******* woeful. He plays like his hair these days. Hughes was class again. I’m not ashamed to say, I love him and want to make babies with him but I can’t because I’m a bloke and so is he.
People crying about Burnley need to get a grip. Dyche is a winner. He's built a side that play to win football matches and Burnley are everything that we aren't- united in spirit, hard-working, committed to the club and evolving each season. The irony shouldn't be lost on anybody that he was the first person fired by the Pozzos and that every middle-of-the-f**king road European also-ran that's taken the reigns since hasn't managed to achieve a fraction of what he has. The sour grapes and infantile whinging about the style of football sounds even more f**king pathetic when we ended up basically lumping the ball to two big gorillas up front by the end. We're hardly a total footballing side, are we? Are Holebas or Deeney somehow bastions of professionalism and sportmanship all of a sudden. No. The fact is that Burnley play to their strengths and win games. We have been playing the same turgid formation since Gracia came into the club and aside from a freak result against a Chelsea side who were clearly in the middle of a nervous breakdown, results haven't really improved. Our whole defence needs to change. None of them are good enough. Deeney is NOT A LONE STRIKER. He's not good enough to play in this formation. Okaka offers nothing. Another season of mid-table nothingness. And the worst thing is that this is what we've got to look forward to again next season. Gracia will be replaced by some random coach we've barely heard of from some Mediterreanean backwater. We'll sign 35 players and loan 32 of them out. The other three will be exciting sounding foreigners who will look brilliant in the first 3 games and then fade into mediocrity for the rest of the season. We'll show promise up until November and have everyone talking about how effective our model is before crumbling and whimpering through the rest of the season afterwards. F**k it, this is bullsh!t. I feel so angry today.
Mapps and Prodl should be nowhere near a premier league team Complete garbage the pair of them For the love of god can we bin them off next week and have Cathcart and someone else instead
Hughes is too bloody nice though. Trying to pass to others during the build up, just run with the ball man! You're better than all the dross surrounding you.
We have a poor defense and below average front line. If we could get signings for those areas equivalent to the standard of our midfield, we'll do well. We were by far the best side until we all but gave them a goal. The one silver lining about the ending is that the squad didn't give up after going behind and were clearly putting the effort in, which they would not have done in times past. I don't blame Gracia for the unbalanced state of the squad, although the tactical shift to high balls at the end v Burnley was probably not the best plan. Still, at least he TRIED to change it up, which is far better than some of our recent head coaches.
First hour good I thought. The only negative was we should have had more than 1 goal ahead and had wasted a ridiculous number of dangerous set pieces without troubling Burnley. They were time wasting even then. (I thought the ref had let them get away with it but fair play, he added on 5 minutes and then played another 90 seconds because of their spoiling in added time too.) After that Gracia got his pants pulled down by Dyche. They were only ever going to throw more lumps on and we didn't react remotely quick enough or even better, anticipate it. Mariappa at fault again for another opposition goal and for their second no one went back in with it, leaving a Burnley overload and inevitable goal. Then the response was straight from the Gracia textbook by bunging Okaka on. That acts as a signal to the rest of the team to go long and against Burnley you might as well pack up and go home if you're trying to beat them at their own game. Deeney is probably still in Kevin Long's back pocket. Also think a comment someone made above is spot on - we're more than prepared to give away stupid fouls to break up opposition attacks, but then can't be bothered nor good enough to defend them. I've got another one for @hornetboy1 , hot on the heels of his last minute goal research last week. How many times have we conceded a brace of goals within a few minutes of each other? It's another soft and weak trait that seems to have been around for ages. We've done it three times this season that I can easily remember - Swansea, Palace and now today.
We are far more of a footballing side than Burnley will ever be. Take the interplay between Pereyra-Hughes and Femenia for instance.
Saw this same criticism from someone on the shoutbox, but the thing is, he just doesn't have any other options. Gray is utter toilet and the slowest fast striker you'll ever see, Sinclair, Oulare and Success obviously haven't worked out...we have nothing as options for the front line. Like it or not (and it's not for me) Okaka is the best we have to bring on.
The defence is as bad as I’ve seen in the Pozzo era. The fact we are mid-table in the PL is a total anomaly and if it isn’t given urgent attention this summer, it WILL be time-up. As a follow on to my earlier message, if everyone takes off their positive/negative hat for one moment and answers this one question honestly - ARE WE ANY BETTER UNDER GRACIA? I would say we are - but by nowhere near a big enough margin for him to carry on beyond this summer. If you take the Chelsea performance away (which increasingly looks like a swallow in summer...), we are terrible. Sure we’ve been the better team in a couple of games but we haven’t won those games. WBA and Everton were turgid games. We have an average GK, the worst defence in the PL, a great midfield and terrible strikers. When you have that kind of squad profile, you need a manager to bind it together cohesively somehow and Gracia, one game aside, has not done that. We were given the idea that we’d be harder to beat but I just don’t see it. But the biggest issue is the over-investment in time and patience in defenders who cannot defend. Or don’t want to. Or think they are bigger than the club. Or don’t want to learn. And the under-investment of defenders who want to do the opposite of all of the above.
Should have won that, we were playing well but the defence always looked vulnerable. Feel as angry as I did after swansea. Petulant players giving away silly fouls and not doing the basics. Also I'll sound bitter but Burnley are the anti football however I'd probably take their season over ours. As usual it feels our players have no desire to push on and are mentally fragile. Deeney was my villain today, what did he actually do that was positive?
Not sure I can completely blame Gracia today, we played some nice stuff but what the hell are you meant to do with Holebas, Mariappa & Prodl in a back 3? They are Championship players. No leadership in the back at all, a ball drops into the box and they are SO slow to react. Last three goals at home all due to the same error. Karzenis gone to poop as well. However, his subsitions were poor again, which is why I'm not sure if he's the man to take us forward. If there's any game Andre Gray would be up for, it's this. He brings on a lump in Okaka again to go with our other lump up top and just completely kills the momentum. Okaka fouls SOOOO much it ruins all the attacking momentum and allows the defence to reform. At one point, we had the ball whilst Deeney and Okaka were more interested in showing Tarkowski how 'ard they are. It's just pathetic. grow up and put the ball in the net you pair of wallys! As for Carillo, why bother!? He doesn't want to be here! He was the first one off the pitch as well, pri&k. How many appalling corners today as well? Like what the **** is that about? That's BASIC stuff. Will Hughes is a bloody tremendous footballer, I love him and he should be going Russia. Capoue actually decent, Doccoure average. Femenia excellent. The only players from today's starting lineup I want to see starting next season are Hughes, Femenia & Doccoure. Burnley are well drilled and "cheat" very cutely. I'd much rather be in League Two than to watch Chris Wood, Sam Vokes & Ashley Barnes up front though. No salty at all, honest. Newcastle have climbed above us now, with a game in hand which is just appalling. Six points have become one in a matter of what - 4 minutes of football? Shocking. For the third season running, I can't wait for it to be over and to be totally honest, I am quite bored and disengaged with the whole Premier League journey overall. *Atmosphere was good again. *Pereyra in a great run of form and starting to look like the player we thought we had signed.
So take off Deeney and bring on Richarlison and have another runner from midfield. Try something radical, make them guess. There's no point playing with one sub-standard target man against Burnley. It's never going to be a winning tactic. Even when we were winning it was because of runs from midfield and neat interplay really troubling Burnley.
Gracia's initially seemed tactically flexible, but he's fallen into picking favourites and telegraphing his subs Wasn't he supposed to come here and play 4-4-2? Really we might as well have kept Silva as he's changed absolutely nothing about the side
It’s so ******* annoying Hughes lookes superb, Bobby P looked good, Kiko looked good, we were attacking and looking in control then we ****ed up properly I don’t understand . Why can’t we defend I like Deeney but he doesn’t really fit into our squad and isn’t really used by Doccoure , Hughes or Pereya I don’t want to have a go at the manager , but why take off Hughes he is our number one playmaker The season could have been so different if it wasn’t for a load of injuries and a snake of a manage
The much-lauded Pozzo scouting model needs to stop looking for the next big Honduran 15yr old who may or may not make it, and start looking for the next Watford defence who will be ready come August 2018. Because these defenders will see us relegated next year.
We desperately need a striker who will run in behind defenders when our very talented midfielders have the ball at their feet. Gray is our best option right now if we are all honest. I don’t dare mention the striker (MV) but can’t help but wonder how many goals he’d get if we had kept him....I’d certainly pick him over the 3 **** one’s we have now.
As bad as that capitulation was...11 corners by JH & each one as bad as the other. Same issue the whole season & management hasn't addressed it. Please can someone else have a go.
Oh dear - we really threw that away with some rank awful defending and quite frankly looking clueless when we were behind . Shame as thought we actually played well till then and should have scored more! Goalie at fault at for first I think and who knows for the winner ! Burnley certainly game managed well from then on!
We have some bl**dy good players but the sh*te ones are dragging them down to their level, for the 3rd season in a row. Thank f*ck I'm not renewing, good luck to those of you who are.
Positives: Hughes, Kiko, Janmaat, Capoue, Bobby and the fact we didn’t deserve to lose. Negatives: Our utterly substandard centre backs. Deeney who was absolutely dire. Dreadful set pieces. Having to watch our opponents “manage” the game. Can probably just cut and paste that for the final 2 games.
Mariappa's back header landed right on Vokes' toe. Karnezis would have had to be mind reader to get there first.
Oh look what a let down again. As soon as we went one nil up our head drop. No confidence or ideas of how to manage the game again. Deeney has got to go at the end of the season. He won one header. He didn’t even look interested. Karnezis played the same way he did against Everton away. Burnley literally just scored 2 goals then that was it. If they get into Europe there is hope for us all.
On the bright side, lose at Udders and then at home to CP and we may genuinely have something exciting to play for again this season !
All 3 of our strikers are garbage, but today Gray was the obvious choice. Deeney didn't have the pace to run in behind, and wouldn't win many headers either. God knows why he has a free pass into every team its getting beyond a joke now.
