Williams, Andersen and Kitching back 3 - the 2 new lads are dodgy to say the least… I’d also start Martin on Saturday for one of the 2 wide men. 2 points dropped tonight.
Can’t see Duff making wholesale changes to be honest, no need for knee jerk reaction. Really don’t rate McCarthy though, I have to say. Cole apart, I just don’t know where the goals come from. Thomas is great til he gets anywhere near the box and Aitchison is an intelligent link up player but with no goal threat. It’s a difficult balance but at least Duff has a few more options. We’ll have plenty of ups and downs this season I reckon. Squad looks mid table, no better, no worse.
Surprised about your comment on Martin. Other than the one effort that was brilliantly saved, I didn’t think he did anything to impress, and his role in their equaliser was dog$hit
Start Martin? After he lazily stood and waited for the ball to come to him on the corner of his own box tonight, as though at one nil down with less than ten mins to go there wouldn’t be a man near him, I wouldn’t even have him on the bench. He’d be a liability. That goal was so avoidable. Basics. Attack the ball. You can’t be passive defensively on the edge of your own box. But no he stood prone still and watched the lad run past him and play the ball out right, cross, header, goal. He compounded it by walking to the halfway line and having a go at someone else as though it wasn’t his doing.
Dino Zoff in his prime would struggle with those new lads in front of him. Cundy and McCarthy both have looked useless so far. Kitching needs to get back next to Andersen. We are really struggling for clean sheets and on another day Port Vale could have had a handful.
I think there's a decent player in there too. But not today. The amount of times he gave the ball away when there was a simple pass on was ridiculous. Need a big rally for the next match.
Didn't take our chances and second half you could see ref get under their skin. A break away goal following poor decision, you could see lads letting frustrations get to them. Ref was awful. Every 50:50 going the way of Port Vale. But going back to original point, we had chances and didn't take them. Thomas, Kitchin and Cole all could and should have converted. Can't knock creativity and work rate of lads up top but we need a Goal Scorer!
Yeah, King Ronnie looked a bit off the pace in his early appearances. Give it time. Keep faith in Duff to get some of the new lads up to speed. It is a shame we didn't get another striker though. Cole is putting in a shift, but I'll be surprised if he tops 10 goals this season. Jury out a bit on Norwood, we'll see.
Our three best chances we didn't score with were Cole straight at keeper from the Kitching pass, Cole straight at the keeper with his turn that was saved for a corner and Martin from range which was straight at the keeper who made a OTT save.