kiltorken

From a defensive point of view if you actually watch the work he does off the ball covering space, cutting off channels he's actually quite effective and his passing is nowhere near as bad as people make out. Another one consigned to scapegoatism here. 

Either way he will be replaced in the summer regardless of your opinion of him so constantly ripping into him serves no purpose. If Dean Smith reckons he's good enough for the first team at the moment then he must have something about him unless of course you think Smith is a moron who has no idea what he's doing. 

24 minutes ago, praisedmambo said:

We were better because of Grealish, I agree.

I only said the first thing because TRO had said, Whelan's type was essential—and I was being anal, messing around a bit, and trying to point out that in our best run of results we didn't have a Whelan type in the team at all. Hourihane wasn't really a DM but more of a deep playmaker. Therefore a Whelan type isn't essential.

The thing that lets Hourihane down the most is his pace, and I don't agree that we need a Whelan type at all—I just think we need someone who is quick enough to stop players gliding past them as if they're not there (a problem with Hourihane, Whelan, BB and Jedinak), while also being able to pass the ball forwards.

 

 

To be fair it's most successful teams in the past few seasons operate with a designated DM,

WC 2018 – France – Kante

Euro 2016 – Portugal - William Carvalho

Prem 2018 – City - Fernandinho

Prem 2017 – Chelsea – Kante

Prem 2016 – Leicester – Kante

Champions League 2018 – Real Madrid - Casemiro

Champions League 2017 – Real Madrid - Casemiro

Champions League 2016 – Real Madrid - Casemiro

Bit jealous of West broms 3 signings Johansen, montero and Jacob Murphy 

Jesus Taylor 

1 minute ago, fightoffyour said:

The French guy didn’t sign because he didn’t want to play Bruceball though!

Yeah I wouldn't blame him to be fair but that's beside the point. 

To be fair wasn't a promising French centre back flown in to sign and later changed his mind, then he tried to sing that Scottish lad Mckenna but was rejected as it was too close to deadline day for motherwell (I think) to find a replacement, obviously should have kept Elphick on but to be honest he was shite any time he played pretty much. 

I think peoples views are too clouded by hatred of the man to give a balanced view of the overall situation. 

20 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

and another of his relentless pursuits in Mathieu Berson, who only played around 10 or so games for us.

I was so disappointed he never made it, really had high hopes for that fella. I'd say most of those 10 games were only short cameos from the bench as well. 

6 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Valcav Drobney 

I think he died a few years ago in skiing accident. Poor chap. 

I also think that confidence is a big factor, lessor teams are regularly making us look shite. Firstly by outfighting us and secondly due to the lack of protection on the flanks. The full backs have looked appalling at times recently but the wingers/midfield offer little or no protection as far as I can see anyway and opposition have sussed that out. The fact that we're cut open so easily must be having a negative effect on confidence of the team. It's a big task for Smith to sort this out but he'll have to. 

Donkeys 

1 minute ago, pintpotvilla said:

But it wasn't though was it?We had Grealish & Tuanzebe then, what a difference  they make!!

Clearly they were two man demolition jobs yes 

3 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

well, to be fair, the statement should just be "most of the squad is literally shite", and leave it at that.

It was a good enough squad to hammer Boro and Derby and outplay West brom not so long ago though. 

Saw something on twitter that Kodjia is going for a medical at Nice. 

5-1 now 

Looking very good now. Great finish by Cox

13 minutes ago, Stratvillan said:

May work out best in the long run. His eyes and those of the owners have seriously been opened to the lack of quality in a pretty poor squad. If you go through our squad, and look at which championship teams would take our players.(not loan)

defence - Chester to a top half team? 

Midfield - mcginn and grealish to prem. Lansbury and  Thor top half team. 

forwards - kodjia /adomah to a top half team?

it doesn't look that great. 

I think that's why he's not throwing the kids in. They'd disappear. 

Poor squad me arse. At the the most Conservative view they're above average for the league. 

Fact of the matter is we are conceding goals regularly at an alarming rate. We have Elphick back now and he has January to sign some reinforcements as well. 

The old "Bruce left him with a shite defence" won't hold water much longer . We have the same defence as last year now less Terry more or less, which was a reasonably solid defence. 

Even Jokanovic who basically blew the championship away from November last year got sacked after 2 or 3 months in the prem as he couldn't organise his defence. Its obviously way too early too early to call for change. 

I like Smith, if he doesn't disgrace himself this season he 100% deserves a fair crack at the whip next season with a few of his own signings

Its an old clichê but it's true, good teams start from the back. 

Ah christ

Shite

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

What. Elmo is **** at fault for that and 3rd

Re watch the first goal and tell me Elmo was the only player at fault. 

I thought he had a good game in general but he definitely made a crucial error for the first goal . That can be excused by inexperience, I wouldn't hold one mistake against him. 

3 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

He didn't do anything bad or good. Should start at RB.

You didn't think not closing down Clark to give him a free shot on goal from 10 yards out for the first was bad? 

Just now, StefanAVFC said:

Need a whole new defence. Bruce should be sued for gross negligence leaving our defence in the mess it’s in

Any chance we can stop referring back to Bruce after every bad result? So boring at this stage. James Bree and Elmo with two total brain farts cost us two goals but we were largely outplayed all over the pitch for most of the game and Leeds had a makeshift defence with a lot of kids thrown in. 

Bjarnasson was way off the pace. Poor.