We are suppose to be a 'footballing' team

pete_tong1

Was until the Director of Football finally got his way and sold Andy Reid.

People on here having a go at all our strikers not scoring well they wont with two holding midfielders, Holland and Jose in a four man midfield !! Thomas and Ambrose are not creative. ZZ is a box to box midfielder not creative we sold our best creative midfielder and didnt replace him.

Fancy leaving Phillips of all players free calmly slotted home.

Plays who came out with credit today was the usual characters Weaver, Mccarthy, Holland maybe Semedo. Not a usual character Thomas had a good game and tried finally ball still not there though i.e crosses.

Lee Cook looks like a kid compared to the West Brom players in size.


I hope our defenders can score enough for us to sneak into the play offs. Clutching at straws.

nolly

its over.

pete_tong1

Nolly did you wear a blue baseball cap today ?

carly burn

[cite]Posted By: pete_tong1[/cite]Was until the Director of Football finally got his way and sold Andy Reid.

People on here having a go at all our strikers not scoring well they wont with two holding midfielders, Holland and Jose in a four man midfield !! Thomas and Ambrose are not creative. ZZ is a box to box midfielder not creative we sold our best creative midfielder and didnt replace him.

I hope our defenders can score enough for us to sneak into the play offs.

And just think.If we hadn't had that decentish run at the start of the season we'd be staring relegation in the face.

drawnablank

Who here really expeted to beat the baggies??? We came away with a point so it's not all doom and gloom like some suggest.
I for one thought we were going to lose so a point in the bag i'll take, regardless of how the performance was.
We all know this team isn't good enough. We miss Reid but he is gone so it's pointless going on about it every single week. The best we can do now with the team we have is sure up the middle of the park, battle hard and try and nick a goal here and there. Not how we want to see our football played but we are not Premier League anymore. We aren't even a top 1st div side. I thought today was as good as we should expect from what we have.

nolly

yes pete.

pete_tong1

'We miss Reid but he is gone so it's pointless going on about it every single week.'

Why not it wasnt Pardew idea to sell him. Since Pards has been getting the stick recently.

LoOkOuT

Bejesus, Reid is gone! Great player on his day, but in the couple of seasons he was with us, he only played about half the games, and even then he was still fat! Based on his fitness track record, if he was in the squad now, there's no guarantee he'd have played today. And even when "fit" he blew hot and cold. Think the idea that our main problem is missing Reid is just a convenient excuse.

The player's that we have just aren't doing it. ZZ's technically gifted enough to play the cutting ball, as is both Thomas and Ambrose. The whole club, from management to fans are low on confidence. That's not the only problem, but that's one of the main.

JohnnyH2

Since Andy Reid played his last game for the club on the 15th December (West Brom away) we have only won 4 games. We simply do not have a player who can create the chances for the forwards to take. Our forward play has become too predictable and making us looking an average side in the division as opposed to when we had Reid when we looked better than average.

Carter

Do you not remember the games when teams marked Reid out of it and rendered him ineffective? He is a class player on his day and in a decent team he will shine. Personally the best game I saw him in was Southampton away and that was after Semedo got sent off and he had to graft. You're right he is a world class player but he had to be carried in the same way Murphy did.

And as has already been said he spent half the time he was with us on the physios slab. Lets try getting used to where we are and pack in looking back eh?

JohnnyH2

Totally agree that we need to look forward. The point does need to be adreesed by Pardew that having sold our most effective attacking player, we need to try a like for like replacement in the summer or change the system of play. I'm a big fan of Holland Semedo and Zi but they are simply not that sort of midfield player.

ShootersHillGuru

Think JohnnyH2 has got it spot on.........We must get in a creative player that makes the team tick and sets tempo of play for next season. Won`t be easy though.......Who is around that we could afford ?

pete_tong1

Your missing my underlying point regading getting rid of Reid. Nowt to do with Pards which I think is worrying.

ThreadKiller

against palace,we played them off the park without reid.this is how i am sure pardew must have figured we would be playing from there on in.but for reasons best known to himself we haven't.we can and do play very good football,but we just have to remember how and very quickly.

pete_tong1

Palace were shyte that day play again tomorrow i doubt if we would beat them.

ShootersHillGuru

We just havn`t looked like a team all season. We have good players who I am sure would be in the team if they were playing for the clubs that are currently sitting above us. Quality is not always enough. The reason why teams like Plymouth, Bristol etc are above us is because they are a team we as yet are not. Next season will be better - won`t it ?

Oggy Red

Bang on SH Guru.

We're a collecton of mostly very talented footballers.
Except we're a collection of players that hasn't gelled into a 'team machine'.

Curbs' over-achieving teams were usually labelled ".... the team is greater than the sum of the parts."
That's what we are seeing also with teams like Stoke, Bristol City and Plymouth, for example.

They have no real stand out stars. But they do have a team that is balanced and functions in the true meaning of the word 'team'.

And that's what we're presently lacking.

ISawLeaburnScore

remember a weaver goal kick that iwelumo nearly picked up on inside their 18 yard box yesterday and was through 1 on 1... says it all!