one positive…Placheta

[rock bus 1,059]

That was an awful and depressing performance but in an attempt to find a green shoot…though Placheta was excellent again.

Really didn’t rate him before but was again our best player with pace, strength and technique.

Dont rally know why Smith took him off…they said he was tiring but he was still looking by far our best player .

[Big O 287]

And Sorensen for me 

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,261]

We'll probably loan him out in Jan because he doesn't fit our player profile and bring in another number 10  type player who's very good at passing the ball 5 yards sideways at 5mph and play him on the wing instead

[Grumpy 147]

Sorensen for me.

As for Placheta,I am not sure where you see all those attributes.Agreed,a good bit of pace but other than that I haven't seen enough to impress me yet 

[Six Pack 105]

35 minutes ago, Grumpy said:

Sorensen for me.

As for Placheta,I am not sure where you see all those attributes.Agreed,a good bit of pace but other than that I haven't seen enough to impress me yet 

Phacheta was our only threat tonight. Only player to worry Villa !

Sorensen made a couple of tackles but should never play in a Premiership midfield again - slow, passes backwards & sideways, any forward passes intercepted. OK at corners, set pieces. I initially thought he could cover at CB but way too slow. For the "clueless" who think he's real composed - yes stays that way right up till when the opposition striker has scored !

Rupp badly missed tonight, 

[Big O 287]

3 minutes ago, Six Pack said:

Phacheta was our only threat tonight. Only player to worry Villa !

Sorensen made a couple of tackles but should never play in a Premiership midfield again - slow, passes backwards & sideways, any forward passes intercepted. OK at corners, set pieces. I initially thought he could cover at CB but way too slow. For the "clueless" who think he's real composed - yes stays that way right up till when the opposition striker has scored !

Rupp badly missed tonight, 

Pretty harsh to judge on one performance in a pretty awful overall team effort. I thought he kept his position well, stopped Emi getting in the pockets to hurt us and made a number of interceptions and tackles. His passing was a little laboured but then it didn’t look like he had a lot to hit 

[priceyrice 133]

I think excellent is overstating it but for me he was the only player creating any sort of threat tonight. 

[Alfie54 83]

12 minutes ago, Six Pack said:

Phacheta was our only threat tonight. Only player to worry Villa !

Sorensen made a couple of tackles but should never play in a Premiership midfield again - slow, passes backwards & sideways, any forward passes intercepted. OK at corners, set pieces. I initially thought he could cover at CB but way too slow. For the "clueless" who think he's real composed - yes stays that way right up till when the opposition striker has scored !

Rupp badly missed tonight, 

Interestingly I don’t think that Placheta should be playing in the premier league and that Sorensen had a great game, I guess that makes me clueless!

[Six Pack 105]

5 minutes ago, Big O said:

Pretty harsh to judge on one performance in a pretty awful overall team effort. I thought he kept his position well, stopped Emi getting in the pockets to hurt us and made a number of interceptions and tackles. His passing was a little laboured but then it didn’t look like he had a lot to hit 

He was plain too slow Big O. Against the quality Villa had we needed busy midfielders like Rupp buzzing around.

[Six Pack 105]

2 minutes ago, Alfie54 said:

Interestingly I don’t think that Placheta should be playing in the premier league and that Sorensen had a great game, I guess that makes me clueless!

If you think Sorenson had a good game and you think he is suited to the Premier league then you set the bar pretty low - the level of league one !

[Capt. Pants 5,008]

Sorensen was better in defence. If and when we have more midfielders fit I don't think we'll see him. A stylish player but is too slow, lacks a killer pass. Will look good in the Chumps but in the EPL.

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

Absolutely right! And Sorensen too as others have alluded to.

But as @Ken Hairy rightly pointed out on another thread, its as much a damning indictment of the state of the rest of the team as it is a positive for those two. 

Yes we had 8-9 players out today, but why is it that our best performers were out 5th choice central midfielder and 6th choice winger?

Where were the players that we actually expect to do well in the first team; Cantwell, Gibson, Aarons, Gilmour, McLean, Pukki? 

[paddycanary 579]

I'm starting to wonder which of our players look good in the EPL? 😢

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

9 hours ago, Six Pack said:

Sorensen made a couple of tackles but should never play in a Premiership midfield again - slow, passes backwards & sideways, any forward passes intercepted.

Cantwelll seems to get forever to find fitness after a month out... Sorenson gets criticism for not pulling up trees in his first start of the season. Fair!

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

8 hours ago, paddycanary said:

I'm starting to wonder which of our players look good in the EPL? 😢

Normann, Omobamidele, Just them so far.

[Jambomo 215]

9 hours ago, paddycanary said:

I'm starting to wonder which of our players look good in the EPL? 😢

They all looked good enough for the EPL on Saturday.

I know this was a really bad game but it’s pretty clear that the last minute call offs really did the damage, they looked like a team that had not played much together - which is the truth. We started to have what looks like a settled first 11 and then they get injured/ill etc. 

I think the performances will go back up but the main concern is lack of decent striking options, it’s really been the main problem all season. 

[OTBC06 55]

Do we even use his pace effectively? I can't remember any ball played forward into space for him to out run anybody for (especially as a quick counter attack), and burst into the box. All to often we played a slow a ball to feet, rather than into forward space to pick the ball up on the run. I was screaming for those sorts of balls to played. 

[Google Bot 3,932]

He's not only about the pace, his delivery and passing ability is excellent.  Needs to be given more game time, as learning to run that line would really tap into the potential there.

He sits quite high up, and that means he comes back wanting it played to feet when we have the ball wide, he needs to be coached/encouraged to sit a little deeper out wide and make timely runs behind players when we have possession, we could really maximise his abilities with a run in the team to establish familiarities.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Google Bot

[paddycanary 579]

9 hours ago, Jambomo said:

They all looked good enough for the EPL on Saturday.

I know this was a really bad game but it’s pretty clear that the last minute call offs really did the damage, they looked like a team that had not played much together - which is the truth. We started to have what looks like a settled first 11 and then they get injured/ill etc. 

I think the performances will go back up but the main concern is lack of decent striking options, it’s really been the main problem all season. 

Probably wallowing a bit in the misery of such an abject performance last night. It was hugely important to not lose last night. Of course there was a context with player unavailability. It was pretty grim viewing though.

As the season pans out, it has all the hallmarks of yet another relegation. Losing to an understrength/out of form Leicester, Arsenal & Everton, losing crunch home games against Watford, Leeds & Villa, failing to capitalise on good performances/opportunities against Brighton, Wolves & Newcastle...leaky at the back, fundamental errors, struggling for goals & confidence, hard luck stories, injuries...

It's getting increasingly difficult to see how we dig our way out of this hole.

For me, the positivity from Smith & Shakespeare's initial arrival has been shredded by losing three in a row & this injury/illness crisis to these central players. We really need to somehow win 2 or 3 on the bounce to get back in the race. Last night has sadly made my glass look half-empty.

[vos 176]

8 hours ago, OTBC06 said:

Do we even use his pace effectively? I can't remember any ball played forward into space for him to out run anybody for (especially as a quick counter attack), and burst into the box. All to often we played a slow a ball to feet, rather than into forward space to pick the ball up on the run. I was screaming for those sorts of balls to played. 

Exactly. Most of his passes were rec'd deep in midfield and although he played with a bit of enthusiasm was never going anywhere. He is "allegedly" very pacey. So why was he not wide being fed with these balls instead of Williams who on occasions had plenty of space and room but never made use of it - because he is a defender !!!