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18/19 Race for Promotion


KJT123

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38 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Main worry for me going to final is most of our attacking players are doing disappearing acts at key stage of the season again.

Tonight Tammy had his worst game of the season so seems the shoulder injury has impacted a bit. Green waste of time and we simply couldn't get Jack on the ball enough so Leeds will be taking note of that, McGinn also struggled to get into either game. El Ghazi was good though so can see Leeds trying to wind him up again (I fully expect them to comfortably finish the job tomorrow although would be delighted to be proved wrong).

This time last year Lewis Grabban tailed off and Adomah and Snodgrass weren't great either so our only attacking threat in the final was Jack. He played his heart out but not enough to beat a very decent Fulham team.

To win the final we're going to need all our attacking players to be of good standard and that rarely happens for us in Wembley finals.

Edit: Personally I'd start Kodjia in the final. It could go wrong but he's a wildcard who'd give Leeds plenty to think about. Adomah is a very safe selection which feels a bit Steve Bruce to me in just wanting to keep things tight and give opposition the advantage.

 

Yes, I agree. The echoes are there for all to see. We had a really good run in the early spring last year too, with players popping with goals all over the place, but ended up limping through to the final with every attacker out of form, and it looks exactly the same this year. Has to be a worry that at no point tonight did we really even come particularly close to scoring. 

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21 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Yes, I agree. The echoes are there for all to see. We had a really good run in the early spring last year too, with players popping with goals all over the place, but ended up limping through to the final with every attacker out of form, and it looks exactly the same this year. Has to be a worry that at no point tonight did we really even come particularly close to scoring. 

Albert late on....

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6 hours ago, hippo said:

Albert late on....

Not meaning to take anything away from a decent shot and a very good save, but it was fairly close to Johnstone's body. 

But okay, let's say that we got close to scoring then. That's once in 120 minutes, and only after they went down to ten men. 

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5 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Not meaning to take anything away from a decent shot and a very good save, but it was fairly close to Johnstone's body. 

But okay, let's say that we got close to scoring then. That's once in 120 minutes, and only after they went down to ten men. 

Over the two legs it probably isnt much better.....

Despite the results this over ponderous play has been creeping in the last few games. We are no where near the level we were at when we played derby a few weeks back.

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Not sure it matters who we get in the final. Has always been about us and how we play when the pressure is on. There was a serious wobble yesterday at about 60 mins, but this team cannot progress without learning from those exact sort of moments and I can't help but feel that they won't underestimate the opposition in the final. It will be so cruel to lose again, but the way I see it is that these players, well the ones we can retain - will never want to go through play-offs again and I think we'll hit the ground running next season in the championship if we stay down.

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12 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Not sure it matters who we get in the final. Has always been about us and how we play when the pressure is on. There was a serious wobble yesterday at about 60 mins, but this team cannot progress without learning from those exact sort of moments and I can't help but feel that they won't underestimate the opposition in the final. It will be so cruel to lose again, but the way I see it is that these players, well the ones we can retain - will never want to go through play-offs again and I think we'll hit the ground running next season in the championship if we stay down.

I really couldn't disagree more. I think we'd go into a match against Derby as reasonable favourites, and against Leeds as real underdogs. I don't mean to sound defeatist, but Leeds are a much better footballing side. Last year, we were played off the park by a team like Leeds. 

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19 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I really couldn't disagree more. I think we'd go into a match against Derby as reasonable favourites, and against Leeds as real underdogs. I don't mean to sound defeatist, but Leeds are a much better footballing side. Last year, we were played off the park by a team like Leeds. 

They are more physical, more direct, more dirty, and perhaps more tenacious, but no way are they a "better footballing side". We simply have more quality, we just need to show it. If it's them in the final, it's gonna be a tough game.

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I'd almost prefer Leeds. There's too much danger of complacency against Derby and its hard to shift gears as we've seen over the last couple of games. Everyone would know they have to perform to beat Leeds. 

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2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Not meaning to take anything away from a decent shot and a very good save, but it was fairly close to Johnstone's body. 

But okay, let's say that we got close to scoring then. That's once in 120 minutes, and only after they went down to ten men. 

I mean, it does sound like you're trying to take something away from Johnstone! It was an astonishing reaction stop. 

Albion defended fantastically well, no disputing that and we struggled to break them down. It doesn't suit us. I'm not going along with all this arse flapping though. Bring on the final, open the game up. Let's play some football. 

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1 hour ago, vreitti said:

They are more physical, more direct, more dirty, and perhaps more tenacious, but no way are they a "better footballing side". We simply have more quality, we just need to show it. If it's them in the final, it's gonna be a tough game.

Don't think Leeds are quite as good as Fulham given how they stumbled over the line but wrong to say they can't play football. At VP they were cutting us open at 2-0 down. They have tricky technical players in the final third, Pablo Hernandez, Klich (should be banned) and Allioski (injured for the season) who can play quick 1-2s and get defenders out of position.

Our back 4 done well last three months but we can be cumbersome and ball watch too often when opposition has the ball. Norwich have similar and for a nothing game they opened us up a few times although that was a different back 4 at least.

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1 hour ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

I mean, it does sound like you're trying to take something away from Johnstone! It was an astonishing reaction stop. 

Albion defended fantastically well, no disputing that and we struggled to break them down. It doesn't suit us. I'm not going along with all this arse flapping though. Bring on the final, open the game up. Let's play some football. 

arse flapping?  😁

monty williams GIF

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1 hour ago, rubberman said:

I'd almost prefer Leeds. There's too much danger of complacency against Derby and its hard to shift gears as we've seen over the last couple of games. Everyone would know they have to perform to beat Leeds. 

Nope Derby all day and night long, there is a reason we beat them 7-0 over the season, their midfield of Bradley Johnson and Huddlestone couldn't get close to even McGinn's athleticism.

Leeds is different match up and one I'm not convinced we have a great answer to.

Way I see it we could win play off final if we played like last night v Derby (in extra time). We'll lose 2-0 if we play like that v Leeds.

We need all players to step up and that dosen't seem to ever happen for us in Wembley finals.

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I think the two week break will do wonders for McGinn and Abraham et al, hopefully they come back roaring for one final match.

I think I'd consider Elmo on the right wing with Tuanzebe at RB and Hause in the centre.......as a solution to our right-wing problem.

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