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grefstad

Howson survives - again

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Don''t know what it takes to get this man out of our team. When he is not performing, just give someone else a chance.

But AN sticks with him, again, again, and again.

I don''t get it.

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[quote user="Alex "]I''m sure as soon as Mulumbu is (match) fit, Howson may well find it harder to get in the first 11.[/quote]

I think so too. Howson is very good, on his day, but when he is a bit off form, like these days, he seems very sluggish, slow, and is just not good enough.

Sadly AN thinks he deserves to start any game.

Mulumbu/Tettey is likely our first choice defensive mid setup, but it will still be some weeks before Mulumbu is ready.

Our problem now is that there seems to be almost a collective loss of form. Wes is suddenly gone off the boil after AN benched him after his brilliant national team exploits. And Redmond is to much of a threat these days either, running into blind alleys, crossing is questionable, etc.

Can´t see many more ways out of this than trying to shake it up a bit with other types of players. VOO is the obvious player to call for, imho.

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@Grefstad despite my gripes with your seemingly only interest in posting regularly when we''re not playing well, I think you have a valid point here. I would not be surprised to see either VOO or Mulumbu start against Everton mid week - infact I think it''s a certainty. 2 very very capable midfielders IMHO, and there''s places up for grabs now - and I don''t mean just Howson''s.

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Agree on that, Alex.

I also think AN need to revise his tactical setups.

4-5-1 (or 4-1-4-1) is not always the right choice.

Against WBA there was certainly a case for playing 4-4-2 from the start, as it was pretty certain WBA would be playing a defensive 4-4-2 setup, or a defensive 4-5-1 without much attacking threat.

For much of the game we seemed to carry an ineffective midfielder too many, a midfielder that did not penetrate the WBA defense or support Mbokani properly, and as such, we did not make the midfield superiority count.

Surprised not to see AN make a bolder switch of system and personnel after going 1-0 down in a must-win home game.

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Howson make too many solo actions and is not hard with this play to loose ball a bit often than others.

Problem with midfield incl. both Mulumbu and Tetey is that we will create even less or simply start play old school very direct game,with our strikers who need 5-6 chances for 1 goal we simply cant score enough...

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Needs to be dropped, have never seen what he brings, completely anonymous again today, other than the odd goal on occasion, would play Dorrans instead, or Ofoe ( I know Becchio syndrome but would like to see what he can offer) . Laffs needs some time too, used to high pressure games, give him a go. Having said all that, not strengthening defence is killing us, has has all been said before.

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I still don''t think he was used in the best way today but he is clearly not playing at the top of his game.

I wouldn''t object to him getting a rest but I''m not convinced we have a better available.

Mulumbu will be a boost but I''m not sure he''s as good as people hope he is.

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[quote user="GJP"]I still don''t think he was used in the best way today but he is clearly not playing at the top of his game.

I wouldn''t object to him getting a rest but I''m not convinced we have a better available.

Mulumbu will be a boost but I''m not sure he''s as good as people hope he is.[/quote]
I''d say swap him with Dorrans but he''s been struggling for form too. Mulumbu isn''t a step above the rest of our midfield but he does give us the option of playing 2 more defensive players to break up play in the middle. Which if we''re going to keep pushing our full backs so high might not be a bad thing.

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Howson has been one of my favourite players for quite a while now but like Tettey ( in my opinion ) and Martin has been playing crap for a few games now. Howson wandered around yesterday looking dazed and with his head down and really didn''t look as though he wanted to be there. Also there was no leadership there, no one geeing the players up.

Last week in the under 21s game we had three senior players who are ready made replacements for them in Mulumbu, Odjidja-Ofoe and Wisdom. If AN is as ruthless as he''s reported to be ditch them players and bring in players who want to play. Even with the bench these players are better than we had there. We were saying yesterday who on the bench could AN bring on to change the game, maybe Dorrans but really there was no one who could change things.

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