Wigan on Sunday

ruiseal

After tonight it's the Intertoto or 7th In the Premiership.

Mustn't drop points against Wigan!

SuprSi

Yep, must win game. I don't know if the team has the mental strength to pick themselves up from this one though.

el diablo

another dodgy defensive performance but at least we were able to come from behind three times. I think 5th place is out of the question now, with Everton's last minute win today..

Dublin Spur

3-3
2 team's that can't defend for ****.

galinka

Another 3-3 thriller but what a shambles at the back. We can't defend high ball at all - glad to see Ifil given a chance on his wrong side - but what a mess trying to head a ball a foot off the ground when he could banged it into the top of the stand. Same bs with Malbranque on Thursday.
Not sure if Robinson could do anything with no. 2 but he seems to be beaten a lot from long range rather than close range - eye test?? Seriously.

Dawson struggled manfully not sure what to make of Rocha, made one great tackle in fairness. Chimbonda could have won it.
Tainio and Lennon could have gone at ht - netiher in the game. Tactically i would have played Ghaly - i think Malbranque is of no use whatever and was dreadful on Thursday night.

Berbatov and Keane were splendid - if we could get a full back and a destructive midfielder i feel we could challenge for CL place next season. Jenas was superb - about time!

Big game against the Arse next Sat -not very confident - we score 3 they get 4 - but very entertaining!!

Sad endictment of a top club that we do not have any spare defenders when an injury crisis occurs. What is reserve team football for?

browbrow

Wonderful attacking football on show by Berbs and Keane yesterday.
Berbs goal was of particular quality i felt.

I dont know about you guys but everytime a cross comes into our box my heart is in my mouth. We dont seem to be able to stop crosses at the source i.e full-backs getting a block in. Ifil had a fair game i tuaght, but he appeared to be scared. Suppose thats natural for a 19 year old waiting two and a half years to get back into the first team, he certantly looked more comfortable than Tainio at full-back which leads to questions around Thursday nights selection

My main concern is the middle of the park. When your midfield is getting out-run by a combination of Scharner and Kilbane somethings afoot. Zokora was brought in to replace Carrick to presumably sit in front of the back four to protect. Yet he doesnt seem capable of sitting there for a whole 90 mins and is forever allowing attacking midfielders to run in behind him and exposing our defenders. He also lacks the conviction to be a great attacking midfielder capable of getting 10-12 goals a season, sure he makes great surging runs but the end product leaves a lot to be desired.
I think Tainio is the best for this crucial holding position. When we went on that fine run circa March right up till the cup q-final exit i believe a lot of it was down to Tainio, he has the discipline to break the play up that both Zokora and Jenas lack.

therecklessone

galinka wrote:

Sad endictment of a top club that we do not have any spare defenders when an injury crisis occurs. What is reserve team football for?

Don't know about that Andrew, 5 first team defenders missing through injury and Hudd as emergency cover also missing. Ziegler (as LB) is still out on loan.

Dervitte is still out injured and Ifil is a poor replacement at either side as full back IMO. Charlie Lee made it to the bench for Wigan and Seville. There's three from our reserves who would feature (as Ifil did) if required.

I'd like to see Jol use the kids more in the Carling Cup next year, I know he wants to prioritise competitions next season and I think we should use it to blood some of the reserves like Barnard, Barcham, Peckhart, Alnwick and so on.

therecklessone

browbrow wrote:

Zokora was brought in to replace Carrick to presumably sit in front of the back four to protect.

Don't know if thats true, we were after Zokora for a long time before Carrick left. I think we'd hoped to pair the two in CM which IMO would have been a good choice.

Hatch99

I tend to agree with Ronan with regards to our defensive situation. We have played half of the season without arguably our best defender and skipper. How would the likes of Chelsea have coped if they had lost Terry since 26th Dec. You can bet they would'nt have picked up as many points as they have now. Losing King has been very bad luck but thats football.
I find it strange that we sold Davenport when we did. I am by no means his biggest fan, but we give him a run in the team and he starts doing ok'ish.... and then we sell him while we had little cover as it was at the back.
Rocha is decent but is he good enough to get us were we want to be !! Id sell Gardener during the summer and bring in another top notch CB to use with King (assuming he's fit) and Daws.
10 million for the lad davies seems a lot for me !!

Also agree that we need to blood the youngsters in the league cup next season... how will we ever know if they are up to it if we dont play them in the 1st team, because for me, the reserve league is crap !

galinka

Agree with you Ronan - LC should be used to do it, if they are not good enough get rid of them.

Robinson still frustrates me . why not try Cerny for a few games- i don't know why Jol prefers Malbranque to Ghaly i can't see anything positive in him. I agree on Tainio as destroyer in midfield - Zokora will never be scoring MF though - i liked Jenas on Sunday, but he is a different type of player - also Lennon was poor in last 2 games and left on far too long.

Roll on saturday - just watched Arsenal eventually getting better of Man city - but they gave them a good run, hope for us yet.