Wasn’t there, so appeaciate a nice subjective post ta. As a minimum was was hoping for a ‘new manager effect’. Sounds like it’s not looking good...
Thiam ran hard and really tried to make something positive happen so in that sense he did have a good game. But at times he barley looks like a footballer triping over the ball and stumbling about. I really can't make up my mind about him. P
Against Wednesday isgrove stuck to bye line and caused problems putting crosses in resulting in at least two good bradshaw chances. Yesterday issy and hammill spent more time coming inside leaving yiadom trying to take four men on with no alternative to lay it off too. Whos to blame for that tactic. Morais saw the Wednesday game so why change it
I was hoping for a Minority Report! As you are always against the herd I thought you might have reckoned we played brilliantly and were just unlucky. Clutching at straws now
Agree with all of that. Re: Thiam I kind of think that had someone turned up into the crowd at half-time and not known what had gone on in the first half they'd have thought he was a trier with limited ability. For those of us that had witnessed the first half it just seemed that relative to what had gone before he was like Pele in his prime.
Might be - took Georgi a year to adjust and settle and then he got his bad knee injury. To me, Thiam looks like someone who if he gets 1 or 2 goals, his confidence might increase and he might to start believing in himself. He seems to lack that belief and confidence. That is not to be confused with lack of skill though. He wins a lot of balls that his height suggests he shouldn’t - that’s down to his upper body strength. He just needs game time and a goal or two and I think we’ll start to see something more of him. I also think his left foot needs working on, as he’s clearly right footed, however he does have some power in that right leg - if he smashes one on target with that right leg, it’s going to take some stopping. It’s always difficult in your first season abroad though, so you’ve got to cut him some slack on that basis - the club knew this when he signed - you can’t blame the player for that.
Great assessment. Think Thiam is plainly not a winger (and it’s scary that he was our best choice for dead balls out of the XI), I’ve not had chance to see him have a proper go as a target man yet despite attending fairly regularly. Think he’d do a better job watching the ball drop out of the sky and getting pushed about by centre halves than Bradshaw will ever do and given that that’s the full extent of Bradshaw’s contribution for most of this season it’s perplexing that it’s been allowed to continue.
Thiam isn't a target man or a winger If he plays he'll play as right or left side of a front 3 or play just off the main striker. There will be no place now in the team for hammilll Bradshaw mahoney isgrove. Hedges may work out in a front 3 with his height and pace instead of Thiam. We don't know yet as we have not tried our players yet in the 433 or 4231 formation as we have been stuck in the 442 or worse 4141 dark aged with chuffing hecky for so long. Let's hope the players pick up Jose way of playing up quickly.
A good summary Jay and I largely agree with all of that. First half was as bad as I can remember, and difficult to judge the second half - we certainly had much more possession but against a 24th placed team (at the time) defending a lead you would expect us to dominate possession with any formation! What really bugged me was the apparent lack of cohesion between our players. The manager might not know the players that well yet, but most of them should certainly know each other. No-one seemed to know what to do when they got the ball, no-one wanted to receive the ball and no-one could distribute the ball without punting it into the stands. I thought the starting XI looked ace on paper, two wingers, two up front, combative midfielders, two strong wing backs ... oh how wrong was I! Trying desperately to draw positives and look forward - Pinillos looks decent, Williams or Gardner (but not both), Davies back in goal and McBurnie clearly a threat if used properly. Whether or not that's enough to keep us up remains to be seen. As for Thiam, I can't make up my mind whether he's **** or ace. Certainly seems to be a creator rather than a scorer. Kiefer Moore - he's very tall. All very worrying. AIRTyke
It's all a bit of a mess, and the blame can obviously be laid at the door of the people that have been here since Christmas and last week. For the first time I think we could get relegated, that 1st half was, well, a joke. Looking for a reaction on Saturday.