Apologies for this thread as I don't have time to go through the match thread, but was Hernandez rested or picked up an injury? Did Dawson get an injury or was it the yellow card that made SB take him off? I missed their goal as well as I was trying to get an Internet feed but couldn't until late in the first half after they had scored, so did Dawson going off have anything to do with the goal? I saw the 2nd half & thought we dominated in every way, but it's difficult when the opposition put 11 players in the box most of the time! It really showed us to be a good team, but we didn't have the key to unlock them until the goal. After that we managed to spread them out. I really thought that we'd get a penalty at some point due to the amount of players in their box, but we were always round it.
Hernandez was rested. Dawson came off injured, so the suspension is probably academic. We were poor first half, better in the second (mainly because they were happy to sit on the 1-0), it's two points dropped.
It was this time, but there's plenty of times today (and in other games) where we're guilty of being overelaborate. We keep trying to prove our class to the opposition, but we should be trying to do the simple stuff. Feels like we've gone back to the side from mid september.
I'm just trying to think, was there a feature of our team at that time that we got rid of, got much better, brought back in and reverted to type? A midfielder maybe. Someone slow, laboured in his play and a bit of a passenger. Name escapes me.
Curtis Davies. He's a defender. Huddlestone didn't play slowly at all today, although he's been guilty of it in previous games he was alright today. He's never going to be the most mobile of players, but his passing was great today and he managed to pick out our wide men on more than one occasion. The rest of the midfield were a bit of a let down in my opinion, we were running balls out of play, letting balls roll under boots (Elmo did this at least 3 times). This isn't Tom's fault, anybody trying to pin today's failings on him is a moron.
should have won we had much the better chances I thought Akpom was poor missing a great chance and he seemed to give the ball away every time he got it, A point away from home is decent but should have been three, The worst thing today was losing Dawson and Robertson for the Derby game in fact Dawson for 3/4 weeks along with the Myler injury it must disrupt the team. A big game Friday night lets hope we get back to winning ways
We look a better team when Huddlestone doesn't play, anyone who can't see that is probably the moron.
Bollocks. I've never seen a player as easy to go past as Huddlestone. Players seem to walk past him. He's a liability in midfield and had Hayden come in today I would have been confident of a win. Akpom also can't play up front on his own.
I`m more inclined to think anyone who didn`t see the fact that Thudd`s inclusion slowed us down, changed our dynamic, lost our pace through the middle and watched what appears to be a totally different game to anyone else a moron tbh !
Given that most of our play didn't go through him directly, I'd argue that it was more down to individual errors than one player simply being on the pitch. We had plenty of pace through the middle, from Diame, sadly he was supposed to be playing up front.
dead ball deliveries from set pieces - shocking slow build up play opposing teams catching him in possession countless times putting pressure on our other midfielders and defence tackles like my nan and she been dead 50 years opposing players running past him like he wasn`t there He wasn`t solely responsible for the dropped points, but his inclusion makes us a different team, and certainly not the table toppers we have seen recently. Our success has been down in part to the energy and fight in the middle of the park, Thudds inclusion changes all that.
I don't think you can play Huddlestone and Diame together, and when you have Hudds Diame and Livermore we are too slow. Logically we can't drop Livermore and Diame so Hudds needs to be left out. My only excuse for Bruce today is that Hayden must be injured or ill
If Hernandez had been on the end of the crosses missed by Akpom, (a shocking miss, he didn't attack the ball), and Clucas (another weak attempt) today, we would have won the game comfortably. Akpom needed a strike partner and Diame didn't get in the box often enough to support him. I thought we were pretty good today, always looked comfortable, but we lacked a cutting edge.
That free-kick was horrific and after the early card he got you half expected another clumsy challenge and he would be off, I think the ref saved him by having a word
Hayden's neither ill nor injured, he was on the bench, Bruce just prefers Huddlestone, it took eighteen months of poor performances to get dropped in the first place.