As I say I think its telling that Jones missed pre season. All of a sudden we look a bit unfamiliar with the tactics from second half of last season. Certainly defensively. I love that suddenly Woodman is over hyped, there because of his dad, not ready etc etc. Funny not a peep before Saturday. One bad game and now he's been awful all season, overrated etc etc. Put a defence in front of him that functions and then judge him. Give him some time, he's had 4 games. He is in the toughest role on a footy pitch bar none. As I say its not our first rodeo with snap judgements on young players. Its been alluded to by many young players over the years, many other pros who've been here. They know its a tough gig here, particularly with this owner running us into the ground meaning that you don't exactly get the possible work done before you hit the pitch.
And when we continue to defend like we are, Darlow and Dubs will struggle. So we will just have to discard them too. We will just crack on with that nonsense and then wonder why we get nowhere and no one wants to play here. Great plan.
Short memory mate. I distinctly remember him having a tough time after Xmas one year. He split one against Lukaku when at Man U which decided the game with them winning, not long later he let one slip through his body against Spurs costing us a point, and then not long after that cost us 2 points against Wolves. It was a tough spell for the lad. But as I said at the time this can happen to goalies, its a tough life. He bounced back from it because we showed patience and faith. **** happens to goalkeepers. He obviously had a fairly high profile one against Spain too, but I'm sure Slovakia didn't jump off the deep end and kept the faith. I think it falls under the category of support and having the foresight to see the long term picture with players. Dubs is funnily enough the perfect example of why we need to be fair with Woodman.
A tough time my arse he got player of the year. He made over 100 more saves that season than the next best and you want to focus on a small number of errors amongst a sea of amazing match winning saves If you're a defender you want him there not woodman simples
( He did indeed. The following season (Rondon was POTY the season before). Thank you for further backing up my point about showing faith in people.
When you have as **** a defence as we have, who are slow both physically in speed and mentally in reading situations, and who the manager has lost trust in - See Hayden getting game time in defence ahead of a recognised cb and Kraft being used there ahead of a recognised cb as examples, plus Ritchie and Murphy being used as full backs ahead of Manquillo and Lewis. Why the hell persist with this sit deep and invite pressure on and hope to counter tactic? Why not say our attack is our strength lets go at teams?
I like Dubs a lot, he has done well for us and I'd consider him one of our leaders. But there is no doubt in 2018/19 he had a tough spell in the second of the season. The thing I like about him then with all three games, and the Slovakia game with Spain, he fronted up after, apologised and said he'd bounce back. He did. His comments after the bad run were excellent and should show the fans how important support is. I bet he will be the first one to sympathise with Woodman after his clangers at the weekend. "I’m a human being, I can make mistakes. I obviously try not to make mistakes but it’s not about doing them in the first place, it’s about how you react. When you are down that’s when you see who your real friends are. Everybody has something to say and it’s easy to criticise but I’m very lucky that I have great people around me, great team-mates and they support me through everything. That’s very important psychologically. It’s so tough being a keeper. When I made a mistake against Tottenham, that’s the goal and everyone talks about it. But if a striker or a midfielder make a mistake, there’s still people behind to stop the other team from scoring. That’s the life of a keeper. For me personally I prefer to play the next game as quickly as possible. The next one is always the most important. The last game was not perfect because we could probably take three points. But we are here and we are playing a quality team. Others have a chance to show themselves."
Darlow did better that woodman so far and here's the issue I have. Fans saying woodman should get support and time.. Erm hang on what about Darlow? There was a debate whether Dubs should get no1 back... I said Dubs all day of course
I reckon Woodman will play Friday night as don't think Darlow will be 100% fit yet. If it was me I'd go 4-2-3-1 Woodman Dummett (full back not wing back) Fernandez Schar Manquillo (full back not wing back) Willock Longstaff ASM Miggy Murphy Gayle He won't though and it will be same **** system as normal. Sitting back just waiting for the goal and the heads to drop. Waiting for that mint centre back trio of Krafth, Hayden either side of Lascelles.
Welcome to the board btw mate I forgot to say that yesterday I was too busy. I've been engaging in several battles against stronghold areas across the not606 front.
Dubs>Darlow>Woodman definitely. Dubs is our best keeper by a mile. Darlow did well as was unfortunate to be dropped for Dubs but fact is Dubs is our best keeper. Woodman is 24 and seems very raw still. He has over 100 professional games under his belt albeit not at the top level. And that’s where I think his level is. Just under the top level.
Cheers, I've noticed you have a few differing opinions to the norm at times, but different opinions are what makes this basketcase of a club fun to support. As for me do I think Takeover will happen? - One will eventually, PIF one is hanging by a thread I reckon and depends on CAT verdict this month. Steve Bruce - He's **** and out his depth, should never have got the gig in the first place but cant see anyone that would come that would make me go "wow" at the minute. Rafa - Loved the man as a person and as a coach, he got the club and organised a team wel,l and improved players, would have him back as a technical director in a heart beat but thought his football was ****, his transfer dealings were **** (in the main) and a second spell is never as good as the first. Ashley - Is the cancer at this club. Charnley - ****ing joke but what do we expect? Fans attending games - After 15 years of living away I gave up season ticket 10 years ago. I moved back to the region and thought - **** it I'm going back, would kick me-self if takeover goes through and there's a 25,000 person scramble for 10,000 tickets. Each to their own (What the hell happened to Idols?) Squad - We've under invested for years and years and it bites us on the arse every time. Ashley thought he could bargain shop and get loans forever - problem is loans go home and leave you short of numbers. In all honesty if some dream takeover happened I reckon there's only ASM, Wilson, Willock and Dubravka would be kept.
Spot the common denominators,our defence for our 4 games Woodman Manquillo Hayden Lascelles Clark Ritchie Woodman Fernández Lascelles Schär Woodman Murphy Schär Lascelles Fernández Ritchie Woodman Murphy Krafth Fernández Clark Ritchie
Agree 100% apart from Darlow wasn't dropped for Dubs straight away, he made a few mistakes and was then replaced.
There's an even bigger common denominator........ In all those games the defensive positioning has been shocking, marking has been shocking, closing down has been shocking, communication has been shocking and reading of the game has been shocking. All things that a manager and his coaching team could spend a few days with the defence in a video room pointing out where things have gone wrong, pointing out individual errors and then working on during training, and perhaps an international break may have been the ideal time to start this process rather than spitting your dummy out and flying your fat arse over to Portugal for a few days.
Clubs a mess from top to bottom mate. There’s no way we survive this season under the current circumstances.
I think we could survive if we used a different approach. This squad is not built for 5-3-2, its built for 4-2-3-1. When your best players are at the opposite end of the pitch I don't get this idea of sit deep, pass the ball to ASM, hope he can dance past 9 players and when he does lay it off, prey its Wilson in the six yard box and not Joelinton with an open goal. The club have a skeleton staff at best in all departments so money is not going there, its not going on the stadium, its not going on the academy or the training ground its sure as hell not going on transfers so where is it going? I can't fathom how a guy who can make money from selling utter ****, can't have a professional sales team employed making commercial sponsorship deals and partnership deals to enhance the clubs coffers. When we do announce the occasional deal its like NUFC are delighted to announce a 5 year £150 a season deal with ebay user: ladiesman217. I swear to God Ashington have better commercial deals than us.
