Richmondfox

A spine of Soumare and Ndidi passing back at every chance for Faes and Coady to give the ball away. Ruud will pick those donkeys again. Daka once again unable to make basic passes, then actually does something resembling a football, falls over his own feet again. JJ rubbish as usual. No matter what position he plays he seems to drift to the cb position leaving huge gaps. JJ, Soumare, Coady, Faes and Ndidi need binning.

They both either fire the ball backwards without even attempting to turn, slowing down any chance of an attack and then disappear, not moving to receive the ball so the cbs either pass around and backwards until they give it away.

And Ndidi and Soumare controlling the middle of the park. The both pass back at every chance and then Ndidi stinks it out when he gets involved at the top of the pitch.

More like sniffing lead paint. constantly slowing down going forward to pass backwards and then sideways and backwards until the press forces Mads to kick it out.

Can Ndidi pass forward? He keeps sending it back to the useless defence who cause more errors by playing out slowly. Soumare blasts it to Bilal who was marked by two players Absolutely brain dead team.

I can’t wait to never see JJ, Faes, Ndidi and Soumare play for us again. Work the ball forward to VK who has time to cross, the donkey turns back. Useless wet rag.

That sums up this team, no urgency or awareness.

Ruud must like what the Ndidi & Soumare partnership offers in midfield. Where would we be without their defensive structure and attacking attributes. I expect Ndidi to stink out any attack where he is involved and Soumare to get around 8k steps in tonight.

For Daka to be useful, his first touch would need to be his shot on goal. Did you see him at Man City? Skins the defender then trips over under no challenge.

Sadly it will the usual donkeys across the pitch playing the same way with Bilal the only one pressing and tackling as well as trying to get the ball forward. I can understand playing Soumare and Ndidi in midfield if you’ve never seen them play, but after 5 months what is it Ruud thinks is worth sticking with? Another game watching idiots gets to the half way line, stop and pass backwards between the defence until Mads ends up punting it up the pitch back to the opposition. Either that or Soumare not looking where he is passing and giving it away.

Yes, more support will make JJ pass forwards instead of backwards, make Ayew not choose to fall over constantly, Daka be able to not trip over his own feet, Faes to use his brain and Soumare to stop watching players run by him and want to track and tackle.

More chance of Soumare hitting his 10k steps on his Fitbit.

3 solid CBs listening to the dominating and out going goal keeper, all looking to pass the ball quickly to our wing backs. JJ & VK, as soon as they get the ball to bomb down the wings and never look back. Soumare, our box to box destroyer, reading the game and stopping the opposition all over the midfield, before they know what’s happened Ndidi has threaded a defence splitting pass to Daka who controls it and slots it into the net.

That’s his reason for not picking him for the Man City game. So what’s his excuse for not picking him and carrying on with the donkeys Soumare & Faes after countless poor performances and mistakes that cost us goals

And then losing the energy, press, tackles, goals and assists of KDH and replacing it with Soumare is one of many, but to me the biggest contribution to our demise.

I fully hit the acceptance stage last night. I wasn’t even fussed about watching the game properly while at work, I did my job instead.

Every game with Ndidi & Soumare in the middle and Faes at the back will get the same results. For the first goal did Ndidi realise which way they were attacking? His poor first touch made it look like he was about to launch towards our goal. Thomas stutters and doesn’t help so he doesn’t leave his player but gets skinned anyway. Faes and JJ standing still while Soumare jogs slowly back to Grealish, who he could see was unmarked but put zero effort in to reach him. 2nd goal, Mads has to try and defend against Faes and Man City. Ndidi stunk out the game, ruined everything he was involved in. Soumare offering nothing yet somehow plays every week. Daka reminding us why he’s a crap footballer. Skinned a player in the box then tripped over himself under no challenge.

£80k a week for an evening jog.

Ndidi stinking it out no matter where he is in the pitch, Daka is giving him a Soumare run for his money through.

Combination of crap players on too much money, lazy/weak players on too much money being led by a manager who isn’t very good.

He also has midfielders in front of him that tackle and track. At times it seems our cbs are caught off guard by the ease that players make it through the middle.

In hindsight, what we thought was raw has turned out to be the ceiling of his ability. No amount of training is going to make him any better. If he can’t control a ball after several years at top flight football, he never will.

The problem would then be that we are stuck with the dross that he brings in.

He’s not the most adventurous player but he is the least of our concerns. I guess his frame doesn’t do him any favours as a defender and he’s never in the managers tactics to try and get forward. It’s pointless playing them together, VK drifts too close to Thomas yet somehow doesn’t help him defend and leaving space to overload. Not sure if you noticed but several times when Thomas had the ball to play out the back, VK stayed in line with him and dropped back almost like he didn’t want the ball. When he got the ball closer to the wing, VK was static so he ends up passing backwards, forced to stink it out. I noticed this with Soumare too, he wouldn’t drift into space to receive the pass but stay still waiting for the opposition to move. These two and JJ killed any attack from being so static and unadventurous.

I’d rather watch Soumare, Faes and JJ curling than watch them play for us.