he might be a glass half full man (or full to the bloody brim) but rothers has hardly been "smug" has he? if he can be smug about a 2-1 defeat to plymouth i want some of the stuff he's taking.
At the risk of sounding like a doom and gloom merchant....
Teams seem to have sussed us. They know if they get about us in the middle then we'll struggle. Pards needs a plan B quickly.
At the moment our midfield four has no bite. Semedo (as does Holland when he's back) will take up good defensive positions but we don't have one player who will close down and win the midfield battle. ZZ for me is a 1 good game in 3 player and seems to need space to be effective. It says something when Jerome Thomas comes on and seems to add strength!
Reid seems wasted on the left without an attacking left back to get beyond him and give him options. I've got little confidence in any of our centre backs. We've got options up front but if we can't control midfield they'll always be living on scraps.
The fact is Pardew's honeymoon period is well and truly over and for the first time he really has got to prove that he deservses the hype.
Having said all that, I'm still enjoying this season ten times more than the past 3, If it's a choice between having to walk down Floyd Road past celbrating Plymouth fans give me that over gloating Spurs, Gooners or Man U any day.
i'd like to add.... Is it a good decision to play Mcleod? He is a really naive footballer. Perhaps ike Sam, he needs a season or two in the reserves..... then maybe and only maybe he can get into the 1st team. Reid was good, but he was a closed man from the outset. Dare I say it, JT had an interesting cameo, with some almost finished products to his crossing. Why didn't he start over mclown?
I would have liked to see JT for Todo rather than mac clown and flooded the midfield with some forceful wingplay fom JT and reidy. leaving big chris up front... and especially considering zz had a stinker for us last night... our defence tonight was poor.... sodje wsa a lot more commited into challenges than fortune, with our FB's being absolute puddsy from the whistle.... was it too little too late from pards? Was there, is there a B plan ?
would the game have been vastly different if the officials weren't the worst performers on the pitch?
i'm sounding critical from two losses, but once sam's back, I think we are in for a few games where the players stepup. this could be their kick up the rectum they perhaps need.
[cite]Posted By: golfaddick[/cite]spot on Leaburn.
i posted on here after saturday's game and got shot dow in flames that we were "unlucky to lose" and "that was a tough away fixture - just you wait until we play at home"
still cocky now eh lads ?
At the moment we are pony. There are only a handful of players who can hold their heads up tonight (Reid, Mills, Thomas) and pardew has somehow got to find his main 11 and stick with it. None of our strikers could hit a barn door with a banjo and we are trying to walk the ball into the net at times.
5 points off par and counting.
Not cocky at all, fully buying into your thought processes, and expect us to be slogging it out with the dead men in the bottom 3 by the end of November, and relegated by early March.
The problem is Golfy, is that you don't post when we're doing well, the posts were few and very far between when we went 8 unbeaten, yet 2 defeats and you're all over the site like some smug know it all.
'yet 2 defeats and you're all over the site like some smug know it all.'
LOL !!!!!! That made me laugh. You should hear his(my) Dad. Golfie x 10. You should sit next to them. It's embarrasing at times.
In the cold light of day we all know that the majority of successful teams are built on a strong defensive back four and goalie. We do not have a strong back four and the only reason we have got away with it before the Barnsley game was the poor opposition. When we play teams who have a coordinated mid-field and attack we will loose until AP manages to sort it out with either improving the current players or bringing in a loan player who is good enough to be picked every game not just for cameo appearances.
Welcome to the Championship lad's no games down here you will win in a "canter" its the toughest of all divisions and your older supporters should remember that! You have a good side probably the best talent wise but you have to work hard clsoe down quickly and fight for everything and grind out results.A lot of people become unstuck against certain sides i love it because we are considered little owe Plymouth and teams are surprised to see that we can play match and beat them! You will play alot more sides like this so Pards will have to change the way he plays against them! Good Luck Anyway i have my few quid on you guys going up.
Its early days, all the praise/criticism Ive read in this thread is pretty accurate....got to believe it will all come good though.....as someone said, roll on Saturday
Been a few comments on here I agree with, but the main one is the midfield and I'll extend that to a leader style player. In a nutshell, we don't have one. Andy Reid is a class act, but a midfield general, he aint. List the others we have at our disposal and only perhaps Holland would come close and regrettably he isn't close enough.
When all around us was falling apart and panic setting in, an enforcer, (like Mills but with brains), would have got the players going without screaming at that nob of a ref and got the crowd on the side of the players again instead of us all venting our collective spleens at some egotistical graham poll clone.
It was a failing last season as we descended down the premiership without so much as a whimper and it's happening again. I don't buy this harder in the Championship lark either. Regardless of what league you are in, there are times when you have to just roll your sleeves up and dig in for a scruffy win or a hard fought point. Who in our side at the moment could you guarantee to do that effectively week in week out.
You've heard it from other fans, technically, we would piss this division, but it isn't about that. Plymouth, Wolves and Barnsley have scrapped against us and we haven't coped. Yet all three of those sides will drop points against other teams capable of doing the same.
We are in danger of becoming pretty failures!
This isn't meant to be doom and gloom and I believe and expect us, to remain in the shake up at the end, even as things stand. But if we really want to make a mark and cement a place in the top two, we have to be able to compete at all levels and at the moment we're not, because we don't have the right blend of players to do so.
Our trio of Reid, ZZ and Semedo should be a mix of flair, guile and grit, but alas as good a players as ZZ and Semedo are, neither of them fulfill the hard edge style that is required.
Of course the centre half pairing is shaky and you can't legislate for the amount of ineptitude witnessed last night and yes it needs looking at, but whatever mix of players you put in there, if they are constantly under pressure because there is little of no cover in front of them, then they will struggle against sides who operate as Plymouth did last night.
Roll on January, or a loan, or an out of contract signing before then.
What we perhaps need is a striker with a bit of confidence in front of goal...unfortunately, he seems to be on loan at Gillingham at the moment.
Have seen next to nothing of Dickson, but for all his rough edges etc, would he be less effective than McLeod et al?
The margins between defeats, draws and wins are very small - we missed some good chances at Wolves and last night and had they been put away we'd be at least a couple of points better off.
Pardew knows what he's doing, but it will be interesting to see what Dickson might be capable of if/when he gets back.
I'm sorry but it's all my fault actually, my son (aged 8) decided to take his Harvey cuddly toy to the Wolves game on Saturday for the first time. I knew it was a mistake to take the the toy again last night. I'm truely sorry. Don't worry, we can't go on Saturday as we'll be in France (Euro-Disney) so it'll be OK.....;-)
Comments
Hope we never see 4-3-3 again.
You are *always* smug, which also comes across as patronising.
Good work Fella!
Smug about what? Really, not a smug post on here, churlish, yep, loads of it.
Teams seem to have sussed us. They know if they get about us in the middle then we'll struggle. Pards needs a plan B quickly.
At the moment our midfield four has no bite. Semedo (as does Holland when he's back) will take up good defensive positions but we don't have one player who will close down and win the midfield battle. ZZ for me is a 1 good game in 3 player and seems to need space to be effective. It says something when Jerome Thomas comes on and seems to add strength!
Reid seems wasted on the left without an attacking left back to get beyond him and give him options. I've got little confidence in any of our centre backs. We've got options up front but if we can't control midfield they'll always be living on scraps.
The fact is Pardew's honeymoon period is well and truly over and for the first time he really has got to prove that he deservses the hype.
Having said all that, I'm still enjoying this season ten times more than the past 3, If it's a choice between having to walk down Floyd Road past celbrating Plymouth fans give me that over gloating Spurs, Gooners or Man U any day.
Anyway, rant over, roll on Saturday!
i'd like to add....
Is it a good decision to play Mcleod? He is a really naive footballer. Perhaps ike Sam, he needs a season or two in the reserves..... then maybe and only maybe he can get into the 1st team.
Reid was good, but he was a closed man from the outset.
Dare I say it, JT had an interesting cameo, with some almost finished products to his crossing. Why didn't he start over mclown?
I would have liked to see JT for Todo rather than mac clown and flooded the midfield with some forceful wingplay fom JT and reidy. leaving big chris up front... and especially considering zz had a stinker for us last night...
our defence tonight was poor.... sodje wsa a lot more commited into challenges than fortune, with our FB's being absolute puddsy from the whistle.... was it too little too late from pards?
Was there, is there a B plan ?
would the game have been vastly different if the officials weren't the worst performers on the pitch?
i'm sounding critical from two losses, but once sam's back, I think we are in for a few games where the players stepup. this could be their kick up the rectum they perhaps need.
roll on saturday.
'yet 2 defeats and you're all over the site like some smug know it all.'
LOL !!!!!! That made me laugh. You should hear his(my) Dad. Golfie x 10. You should sit next to them. It's embarrasing at times.
You have a good side probably the best talent wise but you have to work hard clsoe down quickly and fight for everything and grind out results.A lot of people become unstuck against certain sides i love it because we are considered little owe Plymouth and teams are surprised to see that we can play match and beat them! You will play alot more sides like this so Pards will have to change the way he plays against them!
Good Luck Anyway i have my few quid on you guys going up.
When all around us was falling apart and panic setting in, an enforcer, (like Mills but with brains), would have got the players going without screaming at that nob of a ref and got the crowd on the side of the players again instead of us all venting our collective spleens at some egotistical graham poll clone.
It was a failing last season as we descended down the premiership without so much as a whimper and it's happening again. I don't buy this harder in the Championship lark either. Regardless of what league you are in, there are times when you have to just roll your sleeves up and dig in for a scruffy win or a hard fought point. Who in our side at the moment could you guarantee to do that effectively week in week out.
You've heard it from other fans, technically, we would piss this division, but it isn't about that. Plymouth, Wolves and Barnsley have scrapped against us and we haven't coped. Yet all three of those sides will drop points against other teams capable of doing the same.
We are in danger of becoming pretty failures!
This isn't meant to be doom and gloom and I believe and expect us, to remain in the shake up at the end, even as things stand. But if we really want to make a mark and cement a place in the top two, we have to be able to compete at all levels and at the moment we're not, because we don't have the right blend of players to do so.
Our trio of Reid, ZZ and Semedo should be a mix of flair, guile and grit, but alas as good a players as ZZ and Semedo are, neither of them fulfill the hard edge style that is required.
Of course the centre half pairing is shaky and you can't legislate for the amount of ineptitude witnessed last night and yes it needs looking at, but whatever mix of players you put in there, if they are constantly under pressure because there is little of no cover in front of them, then they will struggle against sides who operate as Plymouth did last night.
Roll on January, or a loan, or an out of contract signing before then.
Shame Arter isn't a couple of years older!
What we wouldn't give for a Kinsella or Parker right now.
Have seen next to nothing of Dickson, but for all his rough edges etc, would he be less effective than McLeod et al?
The margins between defeats, draws and wins are very small - we missed some good chances at Wolves and last night and had they been put away we'd be at least a couple of points better off.
Pardew knows what he's doing, but it will be interesting to see what Dickson might be capable of if/when he gets back.
Almost nothing. They mean more than should of's, would of's & could of's which really do mean nothing at all whatsoever.