oldtype Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Need a new striker, now. None of the current lot will get anywhere near double figures. Guess how many strikers playing for bottom half teams got into double figures in the league last year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcmk Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Shola shouldn't be anywhere near the first 11. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Barton and Routledge look like they've played football before. The rest were average. Guti as usual non-existant. He'll do the odd run up a blind alley in games and people will think he's alright etc... We need a proper mobile striker who can finish, someone who can get 12/15 in the PL or we're really going to be struggling for goals. I think Rangers would struggle to finish in the top 8/9 in the PL. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Zaius Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Pros Some excellent passing and progressive football. Barton looking like a decent player. Routledge is dangerous. Heads didn't go down too much despite goals coming against the run of play. Cons Nolan was largely anonymous. Not good considering he's the first name on the teamsheet. Distinct lack of quality in the final third to go with our general play. Lack guile around the edge of the penalty area. Potential injuries to our most important players. f***ing hope Carroll and Enrique are okay. Perch looks worryingly pap. Overall we were pretty good all things considered IMO. No we wern't. We still largely struggled against what is poor poor opposition. We looked blunt up top and that's against a back 4 containing a 40 year old David Weir and Sasa fucking Papac. Defensively we weren't fantastic either. I dont think you can take many positives out of this, especially considering our season starts in 7 days time. I must admit I'm worried. I have absolutely no faith in Ashley to spend some money on a much needed striker and I simply cant see our current crop of attackers getting the goals needed to keep us up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Need a new striker, now. None of the current lot will get anywhere near double figures. Guess how many strikers playing for bottom half teams got into double figures in the league last year. Everybody says that but most of the other mid-table average sides have better players all round than we do, that makes up for it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistle17 Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 A shame to lose, but its best get it out of our system before the serious stuff starts. If we signed a player in the Ben-Arfa mould and/or a quick strike partner for Carroll then we'll be looking in good shape for the season ahead. Otherwise, we could struggle. James Perch is looking like a poor signing. If we need another LB then we either bring someone else in or play Kadar there. Perch's positional sense was shocking when he moved to LB, continuously going AWOL. Not good. Barton looked good when he demanded the ball, Guthrie at times as well. Routledge is looking good, imo. Bags of speed but we don't have anyone that can put a decent ball in consistently- and with a striker like Carroll we need someone to do that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Had a bad feeling about Perch when a lot of people were bigging him up. Didn't see nowt special in the Championship about him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shak Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 A fair few positives to take from that for me, at least. Aye, there's definitely some cause for positivity. We look like we're going to try and keep the ball and play it on the deck a bit more, and with a midfield of Routledge, Jonas, Guthrie and Barton I'd be confident we could play some good stuff at times. Up front is a really big concern though. We looked positively toothless in the final third until late in the game, Nolan and Carroll as a pairing up there was painful to watch. We need another striker to be brought in or we're going to really struggle to stay up, simple as that for me. Carroll is good enough to lead the line up there, and Shola is passable as a back-up for him. But we so badly need someone with a bit of pace and movement to play off Carroll, unless we get that then it won't matter how well we keep the ball or pass it around. As it stands Lovenkrands is one of the first names on the team sheet for me, he's the only one who even comes close to fitting that description. But I'm not sure he's really good enough, we need someone else to compete with him for the place starting alongside Carroll. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Pros Some excellent passing and progressive football. Barton looking like a decent player. Routledge is dangerous. Heads didn't go down too much despite goals coming against the run of play. Cons Nolan was largely anonymous. Not good considering he's the first name on the teamsheet. Distinct lack of quality in the final third to go with our general play. Lack guile around the edge of the penalty area. Potential injuries to our most important players. f***ing hope Carroll and Enrique are okay. Perch looks worryingly pap. Overall we were pretty good all things considered IMO. No we wern't. We still largely struggled against what is poor poor opposition. We looked blunt up top and that's against a back 4 containing a 40 year old David Weir and Sasa f***ing Papac. Defensively we weren't fantastic either. I dont think you can take many positives out of this, especially considering our season starts in 7 days time. I must admit I'm worried. I have absolutely no faith in Ashley to spend some money on a much needed striker and I simply cant see our current crop of attackers getting the goals needed to keep us up. We were the best team by a mile in the first half man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcmk Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Had a bad feeling about Perch when a lot of people were bigging him up. Didn't see nowt special in the Championship about him. Maybe his name isn't foreign enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keefaz Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 I always thought Perch was basically our bench player in that he's a sub who can (just about) cover 4/5 different positions. The bad thing is beyond Perch we still haven't got a good RB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbers Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Didnt think we played that badly, had shedloads of the ball but our end product was a bit crap. Perch looked a bit dodgy tbh, hope it was just an off day. We are lacking in the same area's as we were when we got relegated sadly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 A fair few positives to take from that for me, at least. Aye, there's definitely some cause for positivity. We look like we're going to try and keep the ball and play it on the deck a bit more, and with a midfield of Routledge, Jonas, Guthrie and Barton I'd be confident we could play some good stuff at times. Up front is a really big concern though. We looked positively toothless in the final third until late in the game, Nolan and Carroll as a pairing up there was painful to watch. We need another striker to be brought in or we're going to really struggle to stay up, simple as that for me. Carroll is good enough to lead the line up there, and Shola is passable as a back-up for him. But we so badly need someone with a bit of pace and movement to play off Carroll, unless we get that then it won't matter how well we keep the ball or pass it around. As it stands Lovenkrands is one of the first names on the team sheet for me, he's the only one who even comes close to fitting that description. But I'm not sure he's really good enough, we need someone else to compete with him for the place starting alongside Carroll. Agree with all of that. The problem with getting a decent striker is that is the one postion where they are overpriced. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Why do people think Carroll was taken off because of an injury worry? Surely he's going to be playing 90mins on Tuesday night and Hughton didn't see the point in giving him longer today when Ameobi needs some game-time, non? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
womblemaster Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 shola was crap when he first came on, but latter on he held the ball up well and did some ok passes. I missed first 30mins, we looked very bland in last thrid. Where was jonas playing? we seemed to wander around the midfield in a random manner. We looked like england nothing down the left and lop sided. Hard to see how the goals will come amto. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 If Enrique's injured I wonder what chances are of Van Aanholt coming back on loan are. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbers Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 A shame to lose, but its best get it out of our system before the serious stuff starts. If we signed a player in the Ben-Arfa mould and/or a quick strike partner for Carroll then we'll be looking in good shape for the season ahead. Otherwise, we could struggle. James Perch is looking like a poor signing. If we need another LB then we either bring someone else in or play Kadar there. Perch's positional sense was shocking when he moved to LB, continuously going AWOL. Not good. Barton looked good when he demanded the ball, Guthrie at times as well. Routledge is looking good, imo. Bags of speed but we don't have anyone that can put a decent ball in consistently- and with a striker like Carroll we need someone to do that. Was much the same at right back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 We should have scored with the Guthrie chance and the Lovenkrands one from Shola. If we had, I reckon people wouldn't be as disgruntled. At the end of the day, it may be just a week til the season starts but it was only a friendly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistle17 Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Carroll's playing for the England under 21's in a couple of days time, that's why he was taken off early. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 I always thought Perch was basically our bench player in that he's a sub who can (just about) cover 4/5 different positions. The bad thing is beyond Perch we still haven't got a good RB. I thought he was reasonable, nothing to write home about but nothing shocking like we've had in recent times (Huntington, Ramage, Babayaro, etc.). Good to see that he can be just as average on either flank, looks like he has a decent motor so CM/DM seems another reasonable position. Pleased with the passing and movement at times; much, much better than in previous seasons (even last season's home stretch). Just hope we can build on it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Had a bad feeling about Perch when a lot of people were bigging him up. Didn't see nowt special in the Championship about him. Maybe his name isn't foreign enough. Or maybe I didn't see anything that made me think he'd be a good buy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ponsaelius Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Surely he was jus resting Enrique and especially Carroll consodering he'll be with the U21s Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Aye, there's definitely some cause for positivity. We look like we're going to try and keep the ball and play it on the deck a bit more, and with a midfield of Routledge, Jonas, Guthrie and Barton I'd be confident we could play some good stuff at times. Up front is a really big concern though. We looked positively toothless in the final third until late in the game, Nolan and Carroll as a pairing up there was painful to watch. We need another striker to be brought in or we're going to really struggle to stay up, simple as that for me. Carroll is good enough to lead the line up there, and Shola is passable as a back-up for him. But we so badly need someone with a bit of pace and movement to play off Carroll, unless we get that then it won't matter how well we keep the ball or pass it around. As it stands Lovenkrands is one of the first names on the team sheet for me, he's the only one who even comes close to fitting that description. But I'm not sure he's really good enough, we need someone else to compete with him for the place starting alongside Carroll. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 We should have scored with the Guthrie chance and the Lovenkrands one from Shola. If we had, I reckon people wouldn't be as disgruntled. At the end of the day, it may be just a week til the season starts but it was only a friendly. Can't see anything but a tonking first game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Carroll's playing for the England under 21's in a couple of days time, that's why he was taken off early. This. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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