poitier

12 minutes ago, av1 said:

Not even close for me. Hourihane was embarrassing and Marvelous was poor. Luiz wasn't great by any means but he was head and shoulders our best midfielder today imo. 

He wasn't head and shoulders above anyone. Another anonymous performance.

10 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

I understand what you're saying, but I just don't buy it. We'll be significantly worse when Jack leaves us, and there's nothing good about it.

Norwich probably felt the same with Maddison.

We are currently the worst side in the division by a long way, this run against the other strugglers has come at the worst time for us. But I look at the players we have, and I'm not sure we would be doing any better with someone else in charge. A lot of them had a bad day at the office today, I'm not sure any manager would have got a tune out of them.

Having said that, familiar problems like conceding from a corner, conceding within ten minutes of the second half, suggests that known failings aren't being addressed.

How the hell can he lose every header to Shane Long? Played like an absolute bloody novice today.

I think he would be better utilised more centrally, when he gets isolated on the wing he is no use.

He was possibly our best player overall tonight, put in more effort than some and is arguably a more creative passer than Grealish.

Where the hell was he for the first half? He picked up in the second half, but it was a poor 90 overall.

Happy with who is getting game time and who is rested, bit concerned about the lack of pace though, only Trez can go faster than a canter.

He didn't seem to drift in off the wing much so was starved of the ball. Whether it was just our lack of cohesion didn't allow him to I don't know, but it was just a sh*t show all round.

I'm sure lots of people were poised in the match thread ready to post 'he's only been on the pitch x minutes and he has already done more than Wesley' before eventually just smashing their keyboard to bits in annoyance at his failure to have any sort of impact on the game. (I didn't see the match thread, maybe someone did post that!)

As bad as we were, they needed a back heel and an overhead flick to beat us. We just can't compete with that sort of FIFA-type fantasy football.

Dreadful game but better defensively. Will be happy with a point.

6 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Thing with these young players is that they don't cost their actual ability, but their potential. 15million for Douglas doesn't seem so bad considering his potential but there's no confirmation he will get that good although I trust Smith to at least be able to get him to the level of a 15mil player.

I'm not overly impressed with him so far, but I think as far as business goes it was a great deal. Even if he doesn't set the world alight while he is here, I would expect us to at least double our money on him when he moves on. 

If Mings is out I would go Hause plus probably Engels. He is possibly more of a direct replacement than either Engels or Konsa.

Disgraceful foul today, should have been off for that, lucky not to do some serious damage. And he seemed to think it was funny.

I've never been a fan of Elmo but I thought he was actually one of our better players first half. 

Very poor ill-disciplined performance. Only consolation is we didn't concede 9 goals or finish the game with 9 men.

That performance impressed me more than any other game he has played for us.

I thought he was excellent in the first half, great fight and some fantastic passes.

He is 6'3 but no good in the air, built like the proverbial brick outhouse but has the most powderpuff shot I have ever seen. He can't dribble and falls over a lot.

I'm not really sure what sort of potential we are expecting to unlock with him.

He has made virtually the exact same mistake on numerous occasions, to such an extent that I think the opposition are now targeting it. 

8 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I actually thought he was really good, and his mistake that led to the goal was obviously bad but he did half a dozen other things really well. I still think he's vital for us.

Yeah, I'm not disputing that, but how many times this season has he got us into trouble by delaying the clearance, it seems to be happening every game now.

I think he did quite well given that he was often isolated with a couple of defenders on him.

He can't impose himself on games where we aren't dominating. I was surprised he didn't get the hook for Nakamba, he was looking very weak in challenges towards the end.