Jamaal Taylor and Karl Spencer

Shades of Saylor from JL again tonight.

Shades of Frank Spencer from Darlow again.

We simply have to cut out these costly mistakes.

JL's confidence is shot. I'd give Hanley a run for a bit over the next few games.

I'd also let Elliot have a spell between the sticks.

Sometimes you just gotta break some eggs to make the omlette blend better.

Lots of games coming up so perfect opportunity for some discreet changes....

They'll come goon long term but we cannot afford dropped points from cock ups with the upcoming fixture list.

 

But if we were 2-0 up, then what? Missrovic as guilty as these two and not for the first time.

 

Mitro won lots in the air tonight. He had a good game. The lad needs a run.

Darlow and Lascelles have had a run and just need a breather.

They will come back stronger.

 

Rafa doesn't seem to be afraid of dropping players after a bad game so I wouldn't be surprised to see Elliott come back into the side on Monday night. That was an absolute shocker from Darlow tonight.

 

Jesus Christ. He's against Norwich, he should win a header or two, but when he gets three clear chances to score plus an opportunity to play Atsu in weve got to see something better than this.

He's costing points mate. I will have a striker winning fck all headers 35 yards from goal but scoring one in two or three chances any day. Points come from goals, not winning headers.

 

Rafa dropped Mbemba after a balls up and he hasn't been near the team since, and he's proven he's not afraid to drop Laecelles.

Hmmmm Darlow....2 very costly mistakes recently against QPR and Norwich which have cost us 4 points, he was outstanding vs Brentford, but recently he's bringing to mind his nightmare debut against West Brom, ie when he tried to clear a ball and kicked it backwards for a corner, and then caught a header and dropped it into the goal and lost us the game.

Elliott needs to go in for the next game, Darlow has to learn his lesson and know he'll be dropped if he keeps ballsing up like that.

 

Shouldn't be dropping Darlow, yes he has made a couple of mistakes in recent games but to me he has been our most consistent player. Just a quiet word would suffice for me.

Lascelles, yes he needs a few games out and get his head right again. Though I think his goal may have saved him.

Why people are having a go at Mitrovic is beyond me - he needs a proper run of games and these silly misses will turn in to goals. Him and Gayle upfront!

 

Darlow still isn't filling me with much confidence. He is scary when crosses come in, he just seems to be guessing.

Lascelles had a poor game but he was imperious against Wolves. I'd like to see one of two things sooner rather than later. Mbemba alongside Lascelles to rediscover their excellent back end partnership from last year, or trying a back three with Lazaar replacing Dummett.

--------------------Elliot----------------
------Mbemba---Lascelles---Clark------
Yedlin----Hayden----Shelvey----Lazaar
--------Ritchie--------------Gayle------
--------------------Mitrovic---------------

That would be my preferred line up, especially at home. Away I'd drop Mitro and revert to our 4231 counter attack. Regardless it was a good result in context last night. We are long way from where we need to be but at this level we are getting the job done. Our away form is outstanding. I wouldn't jump off the deep end with Lascelles personally, this is a good learning curve for him. Clark can help him having been through similar struggles at Villa.

Mbemba is our best defender in my opinion though.

 

This campaign against Mitro from some is laughable. The guy has been very very good. His goal record stacks up. He is bringing loads to the team aswell. I think Rafa is starting to realise he needs him and is using him a bit better. We got more support to him last night and he was very threatening. I can see Rafa finally unleashing these two at home before long and I think you will see both score a lot of goals to take us away in the 2nd half of the season.

It must be obvious to Rafa now. Plus I think Rafa has clearly been tough with him and he is responding. I think he is trying to educate the lad.

 

I prefer this formation as well! Other than Darlow in goal. To me Ritchie is not a winger and is better more centrally and should have the freedom to support either Yedlin or Lazaar. I would also partner Mitro with Gayle.

 

Gayle and Ritchie cutting in off Mitro and picking up the knockdowns would work a treat! Fully agree at home we can afford to put out a more attacking line-up.

Still top of the table though and thats all that matters! HTL

 

The good thing about that is Ritchie can easily slot in behind Mitro and Gayle pushed up or Gayle can drop in when we are under the cosh. We can rotate to different formations with ease. Both Mbemba and Clark can play full back, both Yedlin and Lazaar can be pushed into wing roles. So switching to variations of 4 at the back is easily an option.

I just think at home we are predictable and teams are latching onto it by sitting in.

 

Gayle is an out and out striker, he definitely needs to be played at the front rather than behind Mitro, though I'd love to see them both in a front 2.

Is there any chance of both Ritchie and Atsu on the wings? They seem to both only be capable of the same side, if we had them 2 on the sides feeding Gayle and Mitro we'd be pretty unstoppable.

 

It's not a campaign against Mitro! It's just comments on a forum, mate, you need to gain perspective!

My point - and I doubt I'm alone - is that as a £13m striker he should be putting chances away in this division. Yes, he battles, grafts and does offer some useful build up play. I like his passion, his commitment and he's a bit of a mini-icon. I'd LOVE to see him succeed, so it's not a campaign to get him out!!! FFS. But as it stands he's Emile Heskey-lite when we need Diego Costa-lite. And this is an ongoing theme. Villa last year to help us go down, we're nearly 12 months later and it's the same old Mitrovic. Being good at hold up in the Championship isn't helping us get the points we need.

In contrast, I find the staunch defending of the guy a bit OTT. He's not reading this and everyone - even his fiercest critics - will be behind him on matchday. Every Toon fan wants a successful Mitrovic. But on a forum let's just be honest - he's not been good enough save for a 15 minute cameo against Norwich the whole season.

 

I wasn't focused on your one comment fella. I see regular comments across this board and on other forums just jumping all over him for every missed chance. As I say in my opinion its laughable. He seems under more scrutiny than any other player for whatever reason. I suppose our fans do love their strikers and unless they put every chance away, they're not good enough. His goals to minutes ratio is very good whichever way people want to dress it up. Perhaps also people just keep forgetting he is a 22yr old young man who is not really first choice, and not really getting a run of games. I think this is probably his longest spell under Rafa - and in terms of performance it is paying dividends. I'm not the sure what the relevance of someones pricetag is once they've been bought. After that they are just a squad member like any other. Personally I think he is developing very nicely indeed.

We clearly see this very differently (and you're obviously wrong).

It matters not anyway as Gayle is returning to fitness so we'll probably see very little of him over the next few weeks unless Rafa finally realises he needs to tweak things at home.

And settle down, you're all "FFS" and exclamations, its only a forum and opinions

 

I did consider this about Gayle but I reckon he could actually play deeper also. I would have been interested to see how Armstrong and Perez behind Mitrovic or Gayle also. Of course Ritchie has been so good you can't really drop him, much like Gayle. I like young Atsu also. I feel he should play away more for Rafa, his pace on the counter useful. However I do understand why Rafa goes for the industry of Gouf. Away form wise I'm happy for Rafa to keep the status quo - you can't really argue with results. At home we need to adjust things to stop this sit in tactic we keep getting caught with.

 

It's the type of mistakes he's making, if it was one of them in a season it would be just about forgivable, but in his last 5 games we've had:

Rotherham - loses the ball in his area to a striker, luckily the striker doesn't take the chance or we'd have been losing to the worst team in the league.
QPR - lack of command and communication gifts QPR an equaliser and loses us 2 points.
Norwich - he's gonna be appearing on YouTube worst keepers ever compilations and What Happened Next for all time after that, once again we lose 2 points due to him.

All the above mistakes were different and expose different weaknesses that he has - lack of command in the box, lack of concentration and lack of judgement.

We all know he's talented, he just needs some time out to sharpen up his game, cos he can't keep costing us points like this. Elliott is decent and proven and deserves a chance now, Sels should never be anywhere near the first team.

 

Just seen the highlights...

Mitro's 1st chance looked reasonably difficult on his weaker foot. Have to give the keeper credit for pushing it just past the post with his legs. The header was also unlucky, maybe he should put that either side of the keeper but won it cleanly in the air and in the right place which is positive. Hit the bar too, so can't have been all bad...

Jonjo has an easier chance than any of them and scuffs it past the post... but again on his weaker foot.

Just one of those days at the office by the looks of things, 2 mistakes cost us and Norwich created nothing else of note judging by the stats and highlights.

 

Really good signs from Mitro and Perez. Got into some great areas. We created plenty and had some good opportunities. Also impressed with Yedlin, his pace down the right offering the overlap is a massive bonus. Darlow and Lascelles have dropped almighty clangers truth be told. Trying to look at Mitro's missed chances, Perez, Shelvey or Ritchie is just looking for issues. We scored two goals away from home and looked really threatening. I think it is safe to our forward line was operating as it should be. If they don't drop the clangers the misses are not even discussed.

 

I think all the discussion around keepers proves one thing - we don't have a stand out option. I thought Elliot did ok last year (not as good as some like suggest). I'd say him and Darlow is a close run thing with Elliot just edging it. Krul is top class in some departments but as a modern day keeper, I can't deal with his distribution. Sels needs time - he has struggled when seen. However our best run came with him between the sticks strangely. It was just the Wolves game which did for him and Mbemba as far as Rafa was concerned.

Young Woodman we will have to see but very highly rated.

Realistically I don't know if any of them are really of the class you'd like at some stage. There is not a bad keeper amongst them, they just don't stand out. They all have their issues. Elliot and Darlow are comical on crosses with Darlow slightly worse I'd say. They just guess which must be tough on the defenders.