WooJung

12 minutes ago, Villarocker said:

We played well today. Our downfall was two horrendous errors. Mings had an absolute braifart for their first and Martinez just completely looked hapless for their second. 

Our forwards should have done far better with their chances today. We had by far the best chances in that game - enough chances to have even made up for the two crazy go's we gave away. They are not on Gerrard - that's the players. 

But, my god did he kill us as an attacking threat with his subs. When we had just gone two down why on earth did he take Bailey off? That should have been McGinn or Ramsey. 

I'm one of the last to defend Gerrard and I do agree that the subs made us worse (the team was working fine and if subs were to be made, I only would've made them for fitness reasons), but I feel the drop was due to them scoring their second goal (completely against the run of play) and we wouldn't have recovered regardless. But yes, the subs didn't make much sense, especially bringing on Coutinho after he already brought on Buendia. I had absolutely no idea as to what the shape was supposed to be by then.

How Gerrard looked at him and thought "yep, captain material" is one the most baffling things I've seen under Gerrard. And there's a lot to pick from.

Shambolic decision, he's getting worse and worse and at this point I feel sorry for him, any other player would get dropped, get relieved of all the pressure, get a clean slate to work hard and hopefully earn his place back.

Nobody is benefitting from his unstoppableness. Other than Gerrard saving face after making him captain. Except he isn't saving face.

8 hours ago, DCJonah said:

Would it be better if we moved him out wide? 

 

I doubt it, his technique just isn't there, nor is his decision making.

At best, we'd get something similar to what Trez had to offer, lots of graft and dynamism, but that wouldn't solve our attacking issues.

Is it just me who thinks that, just like Grealish, he'd benefit from playing further up the field?

He goes missing in crowded midfields, defending isn't his strongest attribute, and his biggest strength is running at and past players, which would be easier to do if you have one less line of players to run at.

His finishing is also very good, and he'd certainly get more chances to do that. Come to think about it, start him up front ahead of Watkins

To think he only played because Kamara is injured. 

Enjoy him while we still have him, he deserves better than what we are offering him career-wise.

21 hours ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Technically Coutinho is the better player but Buendia offers more defensively.

I'd drop Bailey and play Buendia with Coutinho, we can accommodate both.

Ings up top.

Buendia offers more not just defensively.

He gets more involved than Coutinho and makes our play more fluid. He retains possession better than Coutinho. He has a much better vision than Coutinho. His passing is better. His pressing is better. If you remove Coutinho's first games for us, his numbers are better, even though he's played a lot less.

And he is more consistent.

Coutinho possibly gets into better scoring positions, but that doesn't amount to much, as he's only scored one goal in the last 6 months.

Coutinho gets picked over him because he is Gerrard's mate, as well as his marquee signing, which Gerrard is desperate to showcase as a success. 

Very much improved yesterday, I am hopeful he continues like this but doubtful that he will.

I really wish he'd stop shooting every time he's outside the box though, he's almost as unlikely to score as Watkins is on a 1 on 1.

8 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Somehow halfway down page 4 

Anyway, I'm probably being a bit petty, but it looked like he had time and space to take a touch or two for that long-ranger. Not saying it was easy, but. 

He definitely rushed it, poor focus. Shame, a goal would've done him a lot of good

Not sure what people are impressed by.

Credit to him for making that run that won us the corner from which he scored.

That's about it. A few fancy flicks that led to nothing. Ran into defenders a couple of times.

End product isn't there. Doesn't offer an out ball. Isn't impactful in keeping possession. What does he actually do?

9 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

He did really well as Strasbourg last season, surprised they couldnt cough up the 3 odd million it would have taken to sign him

Even more baffling, that nobody else could, or would.

He's definitely more than good enough for a bottom half top flight team in France, Italy or Germany, would've been cheap and by all accounts eager for a move. Wages might have been a slight issue coming from the premier League, but I doubt they're anything extraordinary...

33 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

As our most technical player... I think he needs to be rested whilst the rest of the cloggers do the ugly stuff

 

He's hardly our most technical player though, is he?

20 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Whilst I don’t think McGinn should be captain the rational of taking it off Mings was so he can concentrate on his game. So far he has played very well with no errors. So surely it’s a good move so far ?

I'm not sure I buy this.

Granted, I don't know the dynamics, this is just my take on it and I could be completely wrong.

But to me Tyrone looks like the kind of bloke who will do what captains do regardless of weather he wears the armband or not.

He will still bark orders, put in heroic blocks, miss the target nearly every time when we have a corner and have his occasional blunder. Just like he did when Grealish was captain.

And for where we are right now, I'll definitely take it!

1 hour ago, dublinvilla2014 said:

Bit odd loan out hause take bednarek on loan rather hause tbh 

If Hause does well I'm the championship he might gain value and we might sell him for a half decent price. Bednarek covers for that short term, might be a better player (haven't seen enough to tell), and come the summer we will be able to assess how he fits in and how Diego Carlo is doing fitness wise.

I can see the logic. Hopefully it also works out.

The options aren't just "Cash in on him now" and "lose him for free in the summer".

There is another transfer window before his contract runs up, and although we would get less than what we'd get now we would have time to look for an adequate replacement.

Sure, there is the risk he might get injured, but that's less of a risk than going on through the season without one of our best two midfielders.

15 hours ago, ozvilla28 said:

Another one who since Smith left gone backwards.

I want Gerrard out asap but he's arguably the only player (along with Ramsey) who has played his best football with us under Gerrard.

Before that he was all energy, poor delivery, and a penalty waiting to happen.

At least his end product has improved. Weather that was just a good run of form, time will tell.

But he was abysmal for their second goal and should be dropped on principal for switching off like that.

The way he completely forgot about Martinelli for their second goal is inexcusable.

3 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

I'm not defending Gerrard, but

TELL ME HOW THESE PLAYERS ARE GOOD... WHICH ONE OF THEM IS GOOD?  None, not one of them is a good PL player. We're so awful on so many levels it's not even funny.

 

This is mostly the same squad that was 5th by Christmas 2 season ago... Digne for targett, Buendia for Grealish and Bailey for Traore...

And while one definitely is a downgrade, you'd argue the others are upgrades .

Dreadful from Martinez but Ramsey completely lost his man.

Gifted them a goal 

Is it fair to say he's the most disliked manager we've had in at least a decade? I'm trying to think of competition and I mainly think of Bruce, Garde and McLeish.

McLeish was rubbish and had the blues connection, but came across as an honest, humble and nice bloke.

Garde was rubbish and unpleasant, but pretty much took an impossible job.

Bruce could be very unpleasant, was rubbish and underachieved, but to his credit he did steady the proverbial ship and did lay the foundation on which Dean built our promotion on.

Gerrard is rubbish, he is unpleasant and unlike all three has actually inherited a good squad, and he's greatly contributing to a massive regress not only on the pitch, but apparently off it as well. 

Selling him would be wrong, as that would leave us without any wingers at all and you can expect Gerrard's successor to be planning to play with them, regardless of what you think of Bailey.

Knowing the manager with his performance he's just earned himself an early appearance from the bench next time things go down south (which let's face it, will more than likely be against West ham)

Their number 5 is everything we're not - big, strong and mean.

Sign him up

6 hours ago, The_Steve said:

He only managed 187 minutes last season. Only fair he’s shipped out. 

And won us a penalty, which in my book is worth a goal contribution and is basically an assist, if the penalty is scored

3 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Signing Sarr doesn't necessarily preclude us from signing other players. I'd be surprised if we didn't get another CM in. Regardless, none of this has any bearing on the signing of Sarr. We should be worried about whether he's a good player.

It does, really. Maybe not this summer, but with the amount of attacking players we have and the incoherence of their respective skillsets, some of them will be frozen out, weather it be Ings, Bailey, Buendia, Coutinho. They will become deadwood we won't be able to shift, and THAT is when it will probably be money we won't be able to spend (not to mention how it affects FFP). And it's all money down the toilet, because there certainly is enough talent there. What we need is an effective way to play them.

1 hour ago, 1974Centenary said:

People should watch the game make your own minds up,Buendia did nothing to justify starting next game.nothing.

Who did though?