JimJams

Marti has been dealt a bad hand on the striker front. We haven't got one worth a shite, and that's a big problem. However we have at least 3 (2.5 if we factor Mavs form) wingers who can beat a man for fun. Fatawu and Monga are excellent runners of the ball and can take a man on at will, often beating them, but aren't generally in effective positions once they do that. Knowing this I think MC should have done more to try and get these 2 or 3 into positions on the pitch where beating their man leads to dangerous situations, but it doesn't. That's because they're getting the ball after a turnover in which we've passed it around so much we've allowed the opposition to get back and reset, or they're playing too far wide meaning beating a man at best puts you in a crossing position. We've bizarrely taken to only playing one of them in games which means it's a piece of piss to shift the defence across to double up, sometimes triple up on the man on the ball. People are getting frustrated with Abduls end product now, but that's partly to do with what I've just mentioned. Once he's gone past a player, he's rarely in the box, he's still well out of it and our solo striker is marked by 2 and the opposite winger hasn't made moves into the box. So it's a speculative shot which mostly ends up setting off someones car alarm or it's a cross to nothing. Monga tends to play the safe pass back once he's run out of limited options. They'd have more options if we had fullbacks in support offering them an outlet or a decoy for defenders, but we don't have fullbacks that get forward. Our fullbacks are cowardly really. They don't get forward in support at all because the onus is on recycling the ball in order not to turn it over and be out of position on the transition. Which kills your attacking impetus. We also don't use the b2b 8's that Enzo used to play off on the inside/underlap that worked to a degree. You need to use one of these to make the wingers more effective, otherwise you're just hoping one of them pulls a rabbit out of a hat every game, which isn't sustainable. Less so when you only play one of them. I suppose it just comes down to me thinking he needs to set up to get the best from our best players rather than setting up to mitigate the weaknesses of our more limited players. Though having said that I don't think he's actually doing the latter either. Anyway I'm bored of typing and you're bored of reading.

I think regards to these though, we should be trying to create these situations from the start but we invariably only do so once we're chasing a game. We have a rather cowardly way of playing. It's keepball with little intent.

229 minutes 1 goal 1 assist. A goal involvement every 115 minutes. He is our most productive player after Ramsey!

I don't think a lot of them do care because we've got players who want out and players who are in their final year who likely won't be here next season, so largely don't give a shit where we are as a club by then.

In theory the Bilal money will see us be able to buy JJ. In theory.

He's played every game so far, bar this so I wouldn't worry just yet.

Lazy...

I'm 100% sure you've got this wrong. Tell me you've got this wrong?!

I was briefly checking the Norwich forums during the match to see if they were as down on their team as we are, and Skipp was mentioned as a shadow of the player they had on loan. He's not the player he was, even at this level.

Reid can play 10. Monga sees himself as a 10. Sorted.

Apparently Alan Smith went 70 games without a goal. At Man Utd and Newcastle. That's the Premier League record.

There are goalkeepers who haven't gone that long without a goal.

Fxxk that. The problem we have is when something isn't a sure thing we pass it back and recycle the ball until the opponents resets and we inevitably lose it. Nearly all of our players have no bollocks, I'm not having Fatawu turned into a fxxking eunuch as well.

He was ill a couple of games ago. Maybe he's not been training at 100% so he's only on the bench as a precaution. If he's up to speed though I don't get why he's not starting. Or at worst swapping with Mav who also didn't get a start.

None of our strikers score goals. Carranza and Daka occupy defenders, Ayew occupies midfield. Whilst Carranza and Daka occupy defenders, the Argetine does it by standing still and being easily marked out. Daka, to his credit, does move a bit and so defenders have to move with him which in theory creates space for others and opportunity. He also works hard off the ball to close players down. It's just a real shame that the one thing you have a striker in the side to do, he's absolutely shit at. Don't think you'd miss much with Reid at striker or with no striker at all at times. All options are incredibly sub par. Really would be nice if we could work a false 9, but given we often play like we're playing a false 11, it's too much to ask.

The way games go reminds me of Cooper in many ways. Essentially Cooper set up to keep it 0-0 for as long as possible, and when that inevitably went to shit his gameplan went out the window and we'd attempt to get forward. Sometimes it worked, it often didn't, but it was in spite of the game plan. Marti isn't setting up to keep it tight., but he is just setting up to play possession for the sake of it, and we often concede as a result and then the gameplan goes out and we up our tempo. Which is the tempo we should be playing at from the start. But it's often too little too late. If Norwich don't score, or at least don't score with half an hour left, they get a result because we don't start playing until we're behind.

Jokers

6 minutes. Despite the fact we've just been delayed for 5.

Get Faes on for Okoli. I reckon a Vesty and Faes partnership could be the way forward!

Fats has fluffed it but we should be creating these sorts of chances all game. It's pathetic that it takes us to go behind before we try and lay a finger on the opposition.

Reid can be though.

Pile on Reid haters...

You don't score goals you go down.

Elliot making the point we've burst into life since the goal. Question is why the fxxk does it always take a goal or 2 against before we do?