@drcongo said:
I’ve always thought of Stoke as a dirty team, and that confirmed it. Nasty bunch.
I usually don't actually hate other clubs, but Stoke did show they have carried on where they left off in the PL - nasty club, nasty players, whoever is in charge. I guess it's just their ethos.
@prufrock_91 said:
Stewart also should forget that one, he's had a fantastic season, but could've cost us 3 times trying to be smarter than he needed to be.
Easy to forget he’s playing out of position considering how brilliant he’s been recently though.
Horgan MoM for me. Or maybe Knight. Or Grimmer. Could have been Macca if he’d been able to stay on.
the problem is that we cant either break quickly on the counter or break teams down that are defending deep, which opponents will do when we hoof the ball up to Bayo all the time,,,
@Wendoverman said:
Until the goal l thought we were still in it. Defence are really good but I'm not sure why we don't seem to be able to create more chances with the likes of Horgan, Wheeler and Fred on the pitch.
I think it often needs two great players anticipating each other’s thoughts to create the best chances...Bayo & Kashket; Joe and Bayo etc. Horgan and McCleary get on the ball but they need a player making a clever run off the ball or else all they have is the general cross to the six yard box. We saw it once or twice tonight but not enough...and Fred disappointed for me tonight,
I thought we were in for a hiding when I saw the team line-up, so being this frustrated is encouraging in an odd way. We need to be cannier if we’re going to compete at this level long term. The lack of attacking cohesion is a real concern now.
Having all our 1st choice midfield missing was always going to be problematic for us. In the circumstances we didn't do to badly, but creating chances and scoring goals is clearly an issue.
It's aimless cross after aimless cross to Bayo who's too deep to play a dangerous knock-down, especially with Stoke midfielders crowding round him. We played much better in the first half when Wheeler was the target man. As Phil said, he's more mobile, and in my opinion much sharper and better at directing the ball. We just lose our shape and rarely get close to the box when every player is instructed to get the ball into Bayo.
Sorry we just do not look like scoring. You have to score to win games. Clearly we are defending well but somehow Ainsworth needs to find a way for us to be threatening at the other end. I know today we had our main midfielders out but creating chances has been common problem.Even with good wingers we still don’t look dangerous.
hard to beat but don't look like scoring, don't think we have scored more than 1 goal in any game this season ....Uche being injured has killed us, do we have any idea at all on when he is actually due back? Bayo is massive for us however he can't be expected to play all matches
@floyd said:
We tried playing Wheeler up top against Forest and it was awful.
We also played him up front against Norwich and it worked well and brought about a goal. It wouldn't have worked tonight against aerially dominant CBs though.
Is Samuel acting on Ainsworth's instructions to go down at every opportunity because set pieces seem to be our best option to score. Quite frankly its laughable how easy he goes down. Embarrassing.
@floyd said:
We tried playing Wheeler up top against Forest and it was awful.
We also played him up front against Norwich and it worked well and brought about a goal. It wouldn't have worked tonight against aerially dominant CBs though.
He played wider against Norwich tho didn’t he? He’s too valuable in the middle with his feet to play that far forward anyway.
@floyd said:
We tried playing Wheeler up top against Forest and it was awful.
We also played him up front against Norwich and it worked well and brought about a goal. It wouldn't have worked tonight against aerially dominant CBs though.
He played wider against Norwich tho didn’t he? He’s too valuable in the middle with his feet to play that far forward anyway.
Possibly later in the game, but it was him and Kashket up front in the first half
Comments
I’ve always thought of Stoke as a dirty team, and that confirmed it. Nasty bunch.
Stewart also should forget that one, he's had a fantastic season, but could've cost us 3 times trying to be smarter than he needed to be.
Ah frustrating. We didn't quite do enough on the night and Stoke probably just deserved the win.
Fantastic to hear the fans. Great atmosphere!
I usually don't actually hate other clubs, but Stoke did show they have carried on where they left off in the PL - nasty club, nasty players, whoever is in charge. I guess it's just their ethos.
Easy to forget he’s playing out of position considering how brilliant he’s been recently though.
Horgan MoM for me. Or maybe Knight. Or Grimmer. Could have been Macca if he’d been able to stay on.
We have got to stop throwing ourselves around like that as well. Yes they were dirty, but we were embarrassing.
the problem is that we cant either break quickly on the counter or break teams down that are defending deep, which opponents will do when we hoof the ball up to Bayo all the time,,,
When you think we lost our defensive midfielder because of an off the ball throw to the ground, leaving us more exposed, it is even more irritating.
Either way, our problems with putting the ball in the net makes 0-0 feel like the best case scenario there. McLeary instead of Fred next time, please!
I think it often needs two great players anticipating each other’s thoughts to create the best chances...Bayo & Kashket; Joe and Bayo etc. Horgan and McCleary get on the ball but they need a player making a clever run off the ball or else all they have is the general cross to the six yard box. We saw it once or twice tonight but not enough...and Fred disappointed for me tonight,
I thought McCleary added some class near the end but otherwise thwacking aimless ones to Bayo wasn't close to working.
We're not scoring any goals at to give ourselves a punching chance
I thought we were in for a hiding when I saw the team line-up, so being this frustrated is encouraging in an odd way. We need to be cannier if we’re going to compete at this level long term. The lack of attacking cohesion is a real concern now.
See my separate thread...how are we going to score more goals? It’s a pressing problem now
Having all our 1st choice midfield missing was always going to be problematic for us. In the circumstances we didn't do to badly, but creating chances and scoring goals is clearly an issue.
It's aimless cross after aimless cross to Bayo who's too deep to play a dangerous knock-down, especially with Stoke midfielders crowding round him. We played much better in the first half when Wheeler was the target man. As Phil said, he's more mobile, and in my opinion much sharper and better at directing the ball. We just lose our shape and rarely get close to the box when every player is instructed to get the ball into Bayo.
Sorry we just do not look like scoring. You have to score to win games. Clearly we are defending well but somehow Ainsworth needs to find a way for us to be threatening at the other end. I know today we had our main midfielders out but creating chances has been common problem.Even with good wingers we still don’t look dangerous.
I think Parker will get his chance soon
hard to beat but don't look like scoring, don't think we have scored more than 1 goal in any game this season ....Uche being injured has killed us, do we have any idea at all on when he is actually due back? Bayo is massive for us however he can't be expected to play all matches
We tried playing Wheeler up top against Forest and it was awful.
We also played him up front against Norwich and it worked well and brought about a goal. It wouldn't have worked tonight against aerially dominant CBs though.
Is Samuel acting on Ainsworth's instructions to go down at every opportunity because set pieces seem to be our best option to score. Quite frankly its laughable how easy he goes down. Embarrassing.
He played wider against Norwich tho didn’t he? He’s too valuable in the middle with his feet to play that far forward anyway.
You don't seem to have much confidence in that Ainsworth bloke or some of his players do you @davecz?
Possibly later in the game, but it was him and Kashket up front in the first half
I'm not sure we'd have made it count, but I'm still absolutely baffled how that wasn't a red for them. Leg-breaking stuff.
Was it really? I’d totally forgotten that then. But I think my point still stands.
I feel for McCarthy who was having a good game. Pity Powell cannot be punished retrospectively. You keep hoping for Fred to really deliver but...
@floyd Yeah I agree with you, but he's versatile enough to play further forward in the right situation
I have total confidence in Ainsworth but quite frankly what Samuel is doing is embarrassing. Falling over all the time .