Unless we improve our striking options we will struggle again this season. It's no good ignoring the fact we have a very, very poor strike force and can't score goals. I don't see whee the goals will come from in this team tbh. A striker was a priority in the summer but we put everything into Borini and no plan B. I just can't see 20 goals from Fletcher, Wickham, Altidore and Graham combined and that's scary. Our strike force is marginally better than Burnleys but worse than every other team in this league as it stands IMO.
Good to hear Bri! I was working today so missed the game and to be honest I thought Swansea were going to beat us.
Don't get me wrong, loads of room for improvement, but nobody let us down and it's the best we've played this season by miles.
The improvement in performance yesterday, and on results compared to corresponding fixtures last season is good reason for optimism, but Cest is right to be alarmed at our strike force, we have to stick with Whicks until the transfer window and go for two new front men (not Borini Gus) as an absolute priority and say goodbye to two of the current "strikers".
anyone know when the contracts are up for: Fletcher Graham Altidore whickham is obviously up in the summer.
That was the thing that stood out all match. It's obvious the players are adapting to the new style of play and it's taking a while to click. I noticed we were getting behind their defence, time & again, which is encouraging. The crowd are going to have to resist the urge to demand we hoof the ball forwards, every time we did we just gave away possession. It was frustrating but I left the ground looking forward to next week
11 v 11 when he made the sub. 3 minutes later he'd have left Wickham on. He even said that himself. Poyet cost us nothing today. I can't understand how you can say this. If he'd taken the midfielder out chances are Swansea would've controlled it in there 11 v 11 and probably beaten us. I agree with bri about Larson mind. Everything stopped when it got to him. Rodwell wasn't having a great game but he was moving the ball quickly. Cattermole looked 100 times the player Shelvey the dirty bin dipping **** is (worst foul of the game and just got a little telling off - 1 foul from Catts and he gets a yellow!). Best performance bar none and a little luck and it would've been all three points
by the way, good progress. but i'd like to see only one of Rodders/Larsson in the middle alongside one of Alvarez/Gomez/Giacc. i wouldn't change the rest of todays team.
They only had ki & shelvey at cm with sigurdssen further forward in a 3 with dyer and routledge behind Gomis. We should have at least matched them and hooked Larsson off for Alvarez. The 3 holding midfielders is the reason we havent won a game. Its leaves us with 3 attackers going against 4 defenders and two holding midfielders, pretty hard to score goals with that.
I can't get to so many games these days, but I'm pleased to hear these comments about Alvarez. It isn't always easy for S. American players here - theirs is a much more skill-based game and much less rough-and-tumble. For example, I think Scocco is a terrific player, and Christian Riveros was one of the class acts of the 2010 World Cup. When a S. American does fit in, they're usually excellent - Agero, Suarez, etc. Right now, we've found Vergini and Alvarez and both seem to be getting into the swing. That can only be good for us. The English game isn't the highest standard, skill-wise, and these guys can be a real asset to us.