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Thanks Paul as always the best read in town , having watched Brighton , Hammers , Southampton, Burnely , I'm becomming to think this is going to be Warnocks finest moment if we stay up ,we've/he does not have the tools in our armoury.
An expected defeat may be no big deal but what is more concerning is the consistent under-performance of some key players. Morrison is struggling at this level and where has Junior gone this season?
Regrettably the performance of Zohore was as dismal as the weather, such poor first touch today and his attempts to head the ball could only be politely be described as uncommitted. His display was exemplified by Arter angrily shouting at him to close down as he ambled about the pitch. He’s a far better player than this.
Onwards and upwards Burnley here we come, hopefully last season’s Cardiff City will come out to play.
We were chasing shadows today, I cannot see us doing that against Burnley!
If we make an assessment of our early season (shall we call it late First Summer?) then I think we're already missing key components of a survival campaign: home advantage, luck with injuries and Warnock magic. The NML long term injury has meant Murphy has been brought back safely and therefore Hoillet hasn't has a needed rest, for example.
If the second part to our season (Autumn?) is going to be more successful then those three elements are going to have to become more apparent. 4 home games from next 6 and if they can produce an unbeaten run and a couple of wins then things look a lot rosier.
From Bobsy's article: 'After today, only Huddersfield are below us in the table with the reason for that being that we have scored one more goal than them...' That's untrue. Huddersfield are bottom alphabetically.
Sadly I didn't see much chasing. But we were completely outclassed and nobody expected us to get anything out of this game. Burnley seem to have hit some form so next week we will be playing a side on the up while our players must be down but I cannot criticise any of them (except possibly Zahore)as we were completely outclassed. There is no crisis as we are where most football fans expected us to be. However, this is possibly the first game that we have been so uncompetitive and I can't think of a single match in the many years I have been supporting the club where we have been so well beaten.
I did suggest that Cunningham would play beforehand for that very reason. I guess Bennett's injury forced Arter to be played there out of position. Hopefully he will revert to CM against Burnley.
Don't think there's much to chose between Bennett and Cunningham. May be a case to retain the latter, if only to give Bennett a rest.
Arter doesn't have the pace to play in a position like that though - to me, his best position has to be a tackling "continuity" type player in front of a defence, but he isn't used there even when we play with three central midfielders, we seem to want to play him further forward than that. Camarasa looks the best attacker out of the three central midfielders we have been using, while Arter looks the best suited to playing a deeper role, but, for whatever reason, I don't think we've played with them in those positions yet.
I would look at playing the both of them-the lack of mobility at centre back is causing us all sorts of problems .I would try Cunningham alongside Manga and leave Bennett at left back at some time if we continue to leak goals like we have been.
Having said that after watching Brighton and Burnely they also have some good fast footed forwards , that will still test us , some have been established Premiership players for a time ,.
I think we need to step back to the tactics that go us draws and we played okay ( not great ) against Bournemouth as were becoming exposed ,our midfield is being overrun our defenders are turned easily .
I would only put on the field the players who can hold and pass and hold a ball, bench the rest .
Our squad is so limited for choice , Gunnerson in perhaps , Murphy has to start , Zohore as he can hold the ball ,but we must stop trying to get in onto his head as a first option ,play to his strengths ,Zohore hitting the net a few times and regaining confidence could be the key .
I'd drop Junior , rest Morrison .
Revamp the back four with Cunningham and Manga at center half' Bennett and Jazz as fullbacks.
Have Reid play deeper as a 10
Gunnerson in perhaps if fit .
Need a revamp to help raise the spirits .
It's not a crisis yet, but if we keep getting outgunned in a 4-4-2 it will be. But there again how can it be a crisis when everyone expects us to go straight down and even City fans think that's a possibility or even a probability.
I think Warnock needs to start getting the players to believe again as the confidence seems to have drained and it's usually very difficult to get. Plus the fact some of our stalwarts like Hoilett, Morrison and Bamba are off form.
The two things that worry me is Warnock trying 4-4-2 and losing heavily, and the chopping and changing or players when things don't go well. Rotation is Ok when things are going well but not when things are bad.
I'd go back to the team which was doing Ok in the first three games, even though some are not playing well.
Etheridge, Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett, Ralls, Camarasa, Arter, Hoilett, Zohore, Murphy. WIth Murphy, Richards, Connolly, Paterson, Ward, Reid, Cunningham or Madine.
I would play the side that did OK against Arsenal.
Altogther to teh sounds of country roads :
" take me back, to the place, we were born , the championshippppp, sloper rooooad , take me back to to the championshippppp .
Gunnar is injured. We have to try and beat Burnley, if that means going back to grinding it out, that means we have to grind it out. If it means playing Ward and Reid up top, so be it. I'd drop Reid, play Camarasa furthest forward in CM, Murphy and Reid/Hoilett wide and Ward up top. Hoilett looks absolutely devoid of confidence though. So many of our players have just seen the confidence drain from them. It's too big of a game to fiddle and tinker too much, Cunningham isn't a centre half either, he'd get bullied by Wood, Vokes and Barnes.
Agree with that. I wasn't trying to justify it, it's just why I thought he was out there. Completely off topic but it was nice to see Guardiola look for Arter again at the final whistle. Good to see the reception the Man City fans gave Peltier too as he was wheeled past them, Ederson clapped him off too but he was probably just looking for a chance to warm his hands up.