Quote Originally Posted by life on mars View Post
Perhaps we are back in the Toshack transition era where ageing talent was phased out , to bring through very young future talent ,I seem to remember he took a bit of the same criticism, perhaps like Toshack he is laying the foundations.
We've got the talent, they just aren't clicking. James, Lawrence, Brooks, Wilson, Bale etc all up front. The problem is, they're all up front when they're playing. It's like we're playing a 4-2-4, and Joe Allen and a.n.other left to try and knit it all together. The last two games we've been dire going forward and an absolute shambles at the back. We've finally woken up when they've scored. We'll create stuff because we've got good players but there's no plan, or if there is, it is so far away from working it's unbelievable. Defensively, we're an absolute joke too, they could have won by 3,4,5 last night and we couldn't have complained. Let's hope he figures it out and pray Ramsey is back to play behind a front 3. If he plays Rambo alongside Allen...

Bale, also, is a massive, massive worry. His confidence is shot to bits and if he's at Real Madrid in September, we might need to have a serious discussion about whether he plays. He's completely lost the love of the game, he's not haring about or trying to get on the ball. He needs to go somewhere where he loves his football if he wants to keep playing. Maybe I'm wrong and it all clicks, and I hope it does, but I think it's far more likely if he's playing regularly where he feels appreciated. He's 30 in a month, so it's going to be really, really difficult for him to come in, rusty as anything, and turn in a half decent performance. I'm far from blaming one of (if not the one) our greatest players for the defeat but he's a shadow of the player we've been used to.