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Jim Smith

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Jim Smith last won the day on January 24

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  1. He’s always been a good player but he’s not a natural holding player, nor is Sara. And that was our problem earlier in the season. Both are best when getting on the ball, being given a bit of freedom to roam and to play incisive passes. Kenny also very good at CB as he can see the whole game in front of him. Nunez and Sainz coming into the side has really improved the form of both Kenny and Sara.
  2. Injuries obviously offer some mitigation for Wagner for the run earlier in the season but they do not excuse it entirely. He should have been able to adapt better to keep us competitive and it also should be remembered that for quite a while he was choosing not to play Sainz and Nunez who are now integral cogs in our new set up. So I will give him some credit for persevering and managing to find a system and shape that now works for us when we have our best players available although it’s also relevant that those players are very good and will have too much for most sides at this level going forward. if there are two cautionary notes they are that spells at QPR and Blackburn plus the Boro game show what happens when we let our intensity drop and do not press and play on the front foot. This side is not good enough defensively to let the intensity drop. Also as good as we were when attacking, I thought there was some really, really poor defensive marking at times v Stoke and a better side might have got back into that game. As ever, complacency our biggest enemy. Let the workrate drop and we will still concede chances.
  3. Stacey is indeed much improved although he had such a dip in the middle of the season I can’t see him as a POTS candidate. He was really, really poor during that spell. Another one who is better attacking than defending which seems to be the way with modern full backs.
  4. I like both of them and they both have different strengths and weaknesses but I’m not unhappy about the prospect of McCallum having a run in the side. I think he gives us added threat with his crossing and aerial ability. I also think there is potentially a really good player there so it will be a shame if we let him go in the summer as I think a bit of decent coaching could see him worth quite a lot of money. we all know his weakness is getting caught up field and being too slow to get back. That can be worked on. I like Dimi also but he has been making quite a few mistakes which have cost us in at least a couple of recent games. Blackburn’s equaliser ultimately flowed from him messing about with the ball and giving it away and I’m not sure quite what he was attempting with Boro’s first goal.
  5. As was always going to be the case if regard was had to what the actual laws say, something that seems beyond most pundits and journalists. good news, doesn’t give us back those three crucial points though as others have mentioned
  6. That is not a sending off offence though as has been explained. I’m not sure there was movement anyway (at least not deliberate movement) but can you honestly say with a straight face that what contact there was involved excessive force or was brutal?
  7. I think the common factor is the intensity of our play. we often play at high intensity but then drop off after going in front, stop pressing and start sitting deeper. We aren’t good enough to do that as our defence is cr*p so we end up making errors and conceding. Similarly we often end up increasing our intensity when chasing the game if the opposition scores or equalises. It’s a bit different when he drops Barnes and plays the extra midfielder as we have a bit more control of midfield but basically this side, set up in his preferred 4-4-2 formation only really works well when we play a high intensity, pressing game and win the ball back up the pitch. As soon as we stop doing that (or when we don’t start doing it) we get into trouble. Even last night we dropped off a bit after we got the goal and had started playing too slowly with some loose passing at the back.
  8. Club have confirmed it’s been appealed.
  9. All good apart from the fact he didn’t actually kick him, let alone kick him with the force required for it to be violent conduct. The ref had plenty of options. a free kick and a ticking off, yellow card, yellow card to both, red card for Howson. Have you watched the replay?
  10. I do think there is something in the point about Hanley not being vocal enough on the pitch to be captain. I’ve long thought it’s one of the reasons why our defence does not appear to be well organised. They do not seem to communicate well with each other during the game. We don’t seem to have many that do. Barnes does but then he also gets embroiled in stupid spats and I’m not sure how much calm he is bringing to matters. I’ve always rated Hanley generally as a player although it must be said he’s been iffy since coming back from injury which I put down to match sharpness. I must say though I look forward to next season and hopefully a refresh of the defensive line. The current pairing do not fill me with any confidence. it’s questionable again from Wagner in my book that having deployed Kenny at CB so successfully a few games ago, he immediately moved him out again to accommodate Gibson. I feared that was what he would do and we’ve not looked as good since. Nunez is back now so I hope to see Kenny restored to the back 4 on Saturday.
  11. Well if the ref tries to claim there was violent conduct then the panel should laugh him out the door. Perhaps he will say he thought there was violent conduct but having seen the replays it was not quite as he thought. You never know. In real time, at the game it looked like a tangle and then he had Howson hopping around in his face claiming he’d been savaged.
  12. We have to appeal this out of principle. If the club has anyone worth their salt acting for them they will get it overturned. it’s certainly not a “frivolous” appeal if we do it so if an extra game was added on it would be an utter disgrace.
  13. What frustrates me is the number of people, including most pundits, who don’t actually look at what the laws say. They just say “there is contact” and “he’s left his leg there” so it was justified or won’t be overturned. it’s similar to the “there was contact” so it must be a foul brigade in the national media as indeed was echoed by Howson himself. FTW had excellently summarised the law on offences deserving of a red card. If this red does not get overturned then it’s utterly laughable.
  14. I’m a bit frustrated by Wagners recent treatment of McCullum. I think he’s looked genuinely promising in some of his recent outings. And yet since he started to look good, Wagner has dropped him and is playing Dimi, another player out of contract this summer. of the two, the one with future potential and who we would be likely to be able to keep is Sam so I really don’t understand what Wagner is doing in this area.
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