Disappointed not to win yesterday but after them scoring on 85 minutes was mightily relieved and happy to take a point, 8 points out of the last possible 12 is a lot better than our earlier form and with two games against strugglers coming up we have a decent chance of cementing a mid table position. little mention of Ngakia yesterday, or his effort to score at the start of the second half, I haven’t seen it back yet but it was a good run and deserved what would be his first goal! I still don’t think V.I. knows his best 11 or best way to play them but he is slowly learning! Lastly Rajovic looks at times as if he has won a competition, but he certainly has the physic for a CF, older fans will remember Ross Jenkins who was a record signing in 1972 £30,000 from Crystal Palace, didn’t score for something like 28 games, was nearly shipped out to Huddersfield ended up scoring 118 goals in 339 games. Some decent coaching and you never know we might have a player!
Amazing how we can read the game so differently. To my mind Lewis is very poor - each time he attacks, he checks back and loses momentum. giving the defenders an opportunity to cover. For a reputed £38,000per week (Capology) he is a luxury we cannot afford would rather play Morris, and spend the money on a prolific striker.
Arguable, but as the team`s highest earner on close on £2,000,000 per annum - I send him back today, and would spend it elsewhere.
Yeah, agree absolutely with the first bit. Almost every single time in the first half he seemed to check back and slow up play. He was a bit more direct in the second half but still felt like he was playing with the brakes on. Not sure there's much between him and Morris, which is disappointing.
No doubt we're on the hook for his whatever contribution we're making to his wages until at least January. And given the Hause deal and Pozzo's inability to learn lessons most likely until next summer.
The subs didn't work out brilliantly yesterday, I agree. BUT, now we have an injury free squad for the first time, in like, forever! is the constant rotation around the 60 min mark a big part of the reason for this?
Yes it’s a shame we can’t have rolling subs with subbed players coming back on, although I guess many would say that could lead to more injuries, and the transport schedules would need to be re-timed!
Unless something pops up before the next game, we will have no injuries or suspensions at all I believe. Be interesting to see if Andrews comes back, Ngakia has done alright in his absence, and Andrews was hardly an established first choice to begin with
With the greatest respect Forza even the Hermit of Hemel Hempstead, attending to his juniper berries,knew this. Persephone remarked on it to me pre match,via a series of meows that others may have translated as requests for Dreamies.
I'm really surprised by Lewis's constant checking back when he has a chance to cross. When he was at Norwich I thought he was over-praised as his ability going forward masked his crap defending. Now he's very limited going forward.
One positive from a bang average season is that we are scoring late goals which is always a good sign as it means that you are the team piling on the pressure at the end of the game .
Maybe he is checking back because of a lack of bodies in the box ? Just a potential reason from your observation
I like your optimism but nothing can be done about his pace, ok maybe a bit but omg he is slow, but he can finish.
I'd say Ngakia has done way more than "alright". He's looked full of energy, overlapping runs, tricks and <cough> improving crossing. I don't know what Vi told him, but he was roaming all over v Milwall at times. Like a no.10 through the middle. He's done very well and there's no way he deserves to be dropped for Andrews.
He looks very hesitant and somewhat lacking in confidence to me but, as Lubaduck says, it could be because he finds no-one available for the killer pass. He was alright yesterday, I thought, but overall I've not been at all impressed with him.
Fair point. Though i felt we were on top b4 the subs, anyway, that wasn't where i want go with this! I like the rotation policy if it keeps our injurys down (thats the point i want to make!)
Yes, quite! I agree with the checking back being a frustration but I think he did make some good forward runs and delivered a couple of decent balls. Looked steady defensively too. Each to their own though of course
I agree about Louza, but disagree about Bayo.... No he's not prolific, but he's not going to score while our back 2 are playing to me, to you, to me, to you for way too long, letting the opposition get all their team in position to make attacks difficult.
Got to be honest I was outside the ground, angrily typing a very naughty word into my phone when we equalised. Heard a massive cheer then had to wait to see which set of fans were cheering.
But for me that's a symptom, not a cause. Some of it's a symptom of things our side do / don't do (not enough players showing for the ball from midfield, not enough decent wide runs, pisspoor hold up play on the rare occasions we go down the middle) and the rest things the opposition do (pressing effectively or like on Saturday where for the whole first half Millwall effectively shut down Hoedt's favourite left to right long passing channel by having a man block it). I noticed on Saturday for the first time there's a bunch of people at the back middle of Rookery who were very unhappy and vocal about the passing around the back. But I didn't think it was as bad as in previous games and generally Livermore, Kayembe and Kone made a better fist of dropping to collect the ball and then make forward runs or passes with it. The criticism I thought was legitimate was where we'd break Millwall's press, get between the lines and then usually Lewis but sometimes Ngakia too would check back inside and momentum would die. That's the bit where I think we're not giving Bayo a chance from. I could see him making runs but no one's passing to him.
