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Didn't have time confidence to knock the ball past a slow and ageing Kompany and played to kompanys strengths.. surely he has the confidence to knock the ball into open space?
Not sayingbhes useless or starting a witch hunt, I've constantly defended his work rate when he hasn't scored goals, but now he needs a few games rest..and a sit in a dark corner to think about his performances!
Maybe it's just me, but he always seems to look like he'd rather be somewhere else. Probably sees City as no more than a stepping stone to 'better' things..Originally Posted by dembethewarrior
His form has dipped since the last transfer window. Maybe he is sulking?
Agree mate. He looked very disinterested yesterday and has for a while.
Apart from when he turned their defender in the first half and had acres of space to run into..when the ref blew up.. I don't think he did a lot.
There was no anticipation of where the ball was going to be played a few times..and not just him..
He looked absolutely gassed not uninterested.
The forward position always gets criticism for lack of effort.
Patterson was having a go at him. When it is far harder chasing down four defenders as a long striker than in centre mid. Endless shuttle runs with little hope of achieving anything
Patterson gets the ball? Just dump it off top the nearest player. Zohore has to counter attack all on his own at times.
Patterson yelled at him because rather than pressing as the others were doing, Zohore turned his back to a defender and ambled away. That meant others work was wasted because Zohore had given their player a simple pass to make.
I don't doubt he was tired but let's be blunt, what we've seen recently is the Zohore that was on his way out of the club, not the Zohore who had a kick up the arse from Warnock last season.
Zohore's hold up play is exemplary, he isn't built to run all day but he gives it a go. Compared to someone like kenwyn he is the energiser bunny. Could obviously do with a few more goals, a very high percentage of goals are stunners, I don't think his movement in the box gives him much of a chance of the kind of tap ins a 25 goal a year striker gets.
I haven't knocked his work rate.
Ken looks about a couple of stone heavier than he was at the start of the season,he is nowhere near proper fitness and done next to nothing yesterday. Time after time he let Kompany stroll past him with the ball without challenging him. Pilkington should have come on at haif time.
He wasn't anticipating passes or making runs..we looked flat because of it..
He pressed without any intensity which is why he looked lazy but I suppose that was because the manager told him to conserve his energy for 90 mins, though I think he lasted around 70.
We looked far more dangerous when Pilkington came on
I'm gutted Ward is out for the rest of the season, he was improving every game
Spot on there. we have missed Ward big style.
Spedger
I feel a bit for Ken. We dont seem to be able to give him the right ball so that he can turn the defender and run at them. Obviously defenders know he can be unstoppable if he turns them and mark him accordingly but the service doesn't help.
He had it once lastnight early on and the ref blew up for something (couldn't see why from family stand) other times he wasn't anticipating the ball so the midfiwld/wingers could hardly play a decent pass because he simply wasn't making the run.
Ken looked good first half. He held it up and linked well with NM-L on a couple of occasions but was then chasing shadows for much of the rest of the game.
He was knackered and the time when they were knocking it round at the back when Patterson had a go at him, cheeky fecker, I felt for him.
He was getting criticised from some know-it-alls around me and it was all I could do to keep my powder dry.
You play a lone striker and the rest back off, it's tough.
Pilks looked better when he came on because he was fresh, able to run lost causes.
It's is true though, we do need a striker through the door as cover, along with a centre midfielder but running out of time.
I agree with that bit of what you've written but what Ken didn't do was make the runs to draw the defenders away with him. He was too static when we were attacking and was therefore easy to pick off. I think he's carrying a bit too much weight after his injury and plays as if he is still not completely sure of his ankle. We can't wait much longer for him to start looking interested in harrying the other team's defence again. Paterson was well within his rights to have a go at Zohore if we were meant to be doing a full pitch press.
Nothing's changed.
http://www.ccmb.co.uk/showthread.php...-for-best-deal
Also wouldn't be surprised to see Grabban on loan & signing on McGoldrick
He was pretty much trying to cover half the pitch I don't know what else he could've done. Kompany is one of the best defenders in the world he's just been unfortunate with injuries you don't just knock the ball past him
Nah you keep it close to him where he can nab it off you a lot easier.
I know Ken ran a lot, his work rate I will not slag off.
First half he had an open pitch to run the ball into because he beat his man by dipping his shoulder and reading the pass (ref blew up)
Second half he was flat footed making it hard to pass the ball to him and expect anything to come of it.
Surely they work on things in training so should know between them what is coming as they break up the wing..
He looks a little bit too laid back ATM for me. He was smiling to all and sundry in the tunnel. I would have like to have seen a bit more of a game face on him in a big game like that.
Probably a load of bollox like but it did strike me when watching him come out that he just didn't really look focused and fired up like some players do.
He does seem to be playing without that desire to really impose himself on a game. I really thought he'd want to show the world what he could do against Kompany but he didn't even force him to break sweat...
That was the most disappointing part of Zohore's performance for me. As I mentioned in my blog, there were two chances for him in the first half to go on the sort of run on which the reputation he gained for himself before his injury was founded (unlike some others, I thought his performance levels were fine until he got injured in October) as we found the right type of pass for him after all of the dross he has had put his way since his return just before Christmas, and he seemed to either not trust his body enough or not have the confidence to really go for it.
One thing I would say though is that it seems unfair to me that Zohore is being singled out after Sunday's game - yes, he should have been thinking "today is a great opportunity for me and I should do all I can to take it" beforehand, but shouldn't the other ten who started the match have been thinking the same as well? For us to have had a chance, we needed about eight of our team to be turning in eight out of ten performances or better - I don't think anyone deserved such a marking.
Zohore, and most others in the side, was worth six out of ten at best. Who can anyone think of who had a good game? For me Etheridge did well, but it tends to say something about a teams display when the keeper gets singled out for praise, Richards and Morrison played okay, Hoilett had his moments and, fair play to him, Feeney was lively when he came on - as for the rest, I believe they should all have been thinking "I could have played a lot better than that" yesterday.
If I remember correctly there were 2 possibly 3 defenders strewn across the back with the keeper the additional "sweeper", and Big Ken the lone forward. They were passing it sideways, then back, then sideways, then forward, then sideways..... (this for 2-3 minutes)... with the whole City team expecting them to eventually come out and attack us. Well they didn't.
So you have a lone striker, forget the fact he isn't quite up to full match fitness and has ran himself to distraction with very little service, expected to chase them down single handedly in the hope of nicking the ball.... against the current best side in the country.
You cannot play a full pitch press 3 or 4 against one
If we were playing that system, then others weren't picking up their man and thus was Paterson out of order to have a go at Big Ken.
We weren't actually playing a press at all though, as if we had they would have torn us to shreds as they have others.
No, by this time, we were more than happy to play damage limitation but at that point NW put Pilkington on as it had started to look embarrassing. That is when Pilks did the chasing across the back and they actually couldn't take any chances and came out a bit.
Either that or they took pity on us.
At the point Patterson yelled, Hoilett, Mendez-Laing and he were all pressing through. Zohore turned his back on the ball, walked away from defender giving them an easy ball.
Don't disagree with the rest of your points but at that time, we did press and Zohore had given them an out. Patterson was in the right then.
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