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claretspice

Not sure I would pick him out especially - I thought the entire midfield 4 was terrific after we got a toehold in the second half.

But he was excellent, as they all were.

claretspice

First 10-15 minutes he was on the pitch, he really struggled - giving the ball sloppily, getting beaten one v one fortunate more than once that City didn't take advantage. But he grew into the game and he showed exactly what he does give us - that quality in possession, especially in attack. The cro...

claretspice

A wonderful afternoon of football. Pope - 7 - A couple of good saves and his handling under pressure was sure, but in truth he wasn't extended many times by City. Bardsley - 6 - Thought he stuck to the task pretty well in the first half, and actually for the first 15 minutes he wasn't on the pitch, ...

claretspice

Great problem to have. Pope has done brilliantly, but its not contradictory to point out that at the same, time, he's got away with a few goals against that would have seen previous keepers - Jensen and Grant for two - knocked for. But its good he's had that patience and goodwill. The biggest thing ...

claretspice

Be brave and press high, but don't give too many fouls away in the process. Save your fouls for when you need them, when they get a yard on you.

Basically, what we did to them at the Etihad in the cup, just without switching off at a set play to let them into the game.

claretspice

Wednesday was Westwood's first league action of the season. He deserves some slack. He's entitled to a game to get back into the swing of things. He and Cork didn't look clueless at City in the cup, incidentally. In fact the trio of him, Cork and Hendrick did very well in that game, against a strong...

claretspice

Why is it an opinions based thread, yet people are questioned when giving their opinion? Some posters can give 5's to certain players and it's accepted or deemed the correct score, others give 5's and it's beyond belief, or agenda driven. You can certainly tell the players who cannot do wrong in so...

claretspice

Personally, I'd bring Lowton in for Bardsley, although clearly Dyche sees a reason for leaving Bardsley in situ so I suspect that is one change that won't happen. Other than that, I expect Lennon to come into the side which to my mind would leave the fight for the final place being between Arfield a...

claretspice

Noone is saying it automatically means defeat, but the fact is you lose to those sides more often than not. The top 6 win 2/3 of games against teams below the top 6. If you bet on a horse who is an outsider, you can't complain too much when it loses out to the odds-on favourite. It appears that's ex...

claretspice

And how do you rate Swansea’s performances in their last two games? The opposition is only one factor in many that have to be dealt with on match day. Blimey, we're now being critical of our failure to beat the likes of Liverpool on the basis other teams have pulled off an upset? Good grief. Perhap...

claretspice

And how do you rate Swansea’s performances in their last two games? The opposition is only one factor in many that have to be dealt with on match day. Blimey, we're now being critical of our failure to beat the likes of Liverpool on the basis other teams have pulled off an upset? Good grief. Perhap...

claretspice

Disappointing news, real shame for Defour in particular, who has had a very good season. But fortunately, its probably the position on the pitch (and arguably the player on the pitch) for which we have the best cover, because Westwood and Hendrick have both proved themselves at this level and are we...

claretspice

10 days to prep, 2 new speedy wingers, so of course they are on the bench. Bloody hell Sean you're a stubborn bugger The idea that Dyche is being stubborn is bizarre. He signed Lennon. He signed Nkoudou. He did so because he wanted them. Nobody forced them on him against his will. There's no battle...

claretspice

There are some right drama queens on this thread

claretspice

MACCA wrote:
I would say every aspect of JBG attacking play is better the Hendick's.

I'm sure you would

claretspice

He played lots of times for Charlton behind the front man. He was a goal threat. He isnt really a goal threat for us out wide. Lennon can provide width and supply on the right. JBG would get a lot more goals than Hendrick in that position. If JBG has shown a weakness for us at this level, its been ...

claretspice

I wasn't including Anderson - he's not a first team option - and what I meant is 3 centre backs if all are fit. My assumption is that Tarks' injury is relatively minor.

claretspice

Dyche has already virtually said that Westwood will start tonight if Defour doesn't, as expected, and given that is the way we lined up at City that is what makes the most sense. Westwood is a really solid player who has waited patiently for his chance and keeping players like him happy (which is im...

claretspice

I agree with Socrates and Lancaster here. I'm pretty positive about the work we've done in the transfer window in bringing in NKoudou and Lennon, and if we could get a centre back I think that, overall, the squad would look tremendously strong (leaving aside injuries, which are really outside of the...

claretspice

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Correct, we can’t necessarily predict injuries, but we do know that they will happen. If they happen to back up/fringe players, fine, no issues, but when they happen to our core, we need to make sure the depth of the squad is good enough. I don’t think we ca...

claretspice

Depth? We have 2 injured strikers, 1 that's unproven at this level and then 2 others. None of the 5 shout goals at You, even less so the 3 that are left. Number 10? We don't even have 1 who is comfortable there, never mind any depth. CB? We have Kev Long who has done Ok when called upon, but we are...

claretspice

This is the bit that concerns me We have a bucket load of them You can't legislate for that, though. Centre half aside we now have good depth in each position with cover for all but the most dramatic injury crisis. You can only build a squad that covers for realistic scenarios - once you've got 3 c...

claretspice

It would be a disappointment if, for the second window in the row, we failed to bring in a centre back when clearly that is a real area of weakness in the squad. We may have 34 points, but its really important that we kick on - we saw West Brom fall away alarmingly after being the success story of t...

claretspice

Sam came on as substitute at Southampton, so he can have an impact as sub. I agree he needs games to be at his best but the team is not really set up to use him. He is an outdated mode of forward and Dyche is trying to move us on in our style of play. Mobility is now the key requirement. That's non...

claretspice

Last season, he scored 10 league goals from 21 starts and 16 sub appearances, or a goal every 200 minutes he was on the pitch (10 from 2055). This season he has 3 league goals in 5 starts and 13 sub appearances, which again works out at roughly a goal every 200 minutes (3 from 595 minutes). So stati...

claretspice

Barnes is the best in the league at what he does, he doesn't score enough goals because we hardly create any chances for him. City away stunning finish, Swansea at home stunning finish,Stoke at home stunning finish I don't understand why people underestimate Barnes, absolutely invaluable to us and ...

claretspice

Has it occurred to you that the reason goals are in short supply is because we've got Barnes playing upfront? I accept our strikers don't get much service, particularly since Brady got injured but if we want to progress Barnes can't be any more than a squad player in my opinion. Easy to underestima...

claretspice

Tough shout this. One the one hand, for my money Barnes is the weakest of our 3 forwards overall. But that's not so much a criticism as a reflection on the fact that Wood and Vokes are, for me, really good options at this level. Vokes is a better footballer than Barnes: his lack of game time this se...

claretspice

agreenwood wrote:It would be unlike Dyche to throw a young defender in without the benefit of a month or so of adapting to “the framework”. More so Holding, who looks pretty raw still and has had some very public criticism for some of his performances.

Can see that argument AG.

claretspice

Would Holding come in as immeadiate 3rd choice? You could argue that Long did enough at Man U and Huddersfield to maintain his place as next in line, at least initially. One for Dyche, but having seen him a bit this season (admittedly not at United) and given that he was bumped down the conveyor be...

claretspice

As a player for us to target, he makes a lot of sense. It's in a similar mould to Keane. I agree the loan thing is odd - it's a bit different to NKoudou because he can get lots of game time off the bench. Even if it was with a view to a permanent deal, you can't imagine Holding would be too smitten ...

claretspice

Not saying we should ditch Wood, but he's not much use to us on the treatment table is he? Not convinced he's much better than what we already had either on what I've seen so far. You see, this is often the problem in football. Players and managers are judged ludicrously quickly and in the rush to ...

claretspice

So how long in your opinion do we give them before we take action and buy a new striker ? We have lennon now and that lad from spurs plus the rest of the midfield to start feeding the strikers so there shouldnt really be any more complaints Long enough for them to prove themselves one way or the ot...

claretspice

I haven't suggested we 'toss him aside', I've suggested an addition to the squad if he's likely to be out for a considerable time. He might not be. I suppose it depends what you view as a considerable period of time. There's no suggestion he's going to miss the rest of the season or even close to i...

claretspice

So what you're saying is, but for the striker we spent a club record fee on, we've got the strikers we previously had. The point is we did sign Wood. Just because he's injured for a few weeks we shouldn't toss him aside and replace him. That sort of model isn't sustainable. Incidentally, one of thos...

claretspice

A young centre half who can be groomed for the future and this will have been a top, top window for us. As for the suggestions we need another striker and/or number 10 - really, we don't. The players we have to fill those positions have done fine so far, and no doubt they'll be helped by the additio...

claretspice

Is there anyone at the club capable of coaching Hendrick in the role he's being asked to play? Telling someone what they expect and actually coaching them are entirely different things. He's frustrating the hell out of me at the moment and I'm trying to be as objective as I can. Are you sure your e...

claretspice

I think most teams that play with three central midfielders be that 4 5 1 or 4 3 3 have at least one central midfielder with an attacking creative focus. None of our current squad is suited to that role. We have had several in the past including Kevin McDonald and Wade Elliott in his latter years. ...

claretspice

We can't win with a perminent transfer with Nkoudou with no deal being in place, as if he pulls up trees the fee goes up or he could go go elsewhere. If he's no good we won't want him. Loans with no to buy option is only a short term fix IMO Exactly the reasons why selling/loaning clubs rarely agre...

claretspice

I'd be flabbergasted if this were remotely true, respectable player though Barnes is.

claretspice

Willing to bet that we line up at Newcastle with Lennon (assuming he signs) on one wing, JBG on the other and Hendrick playing as the third central midfielder. NKoudou definitely has something. But he's raw and hes got the most to learn. For now, he's a great option to have off the bench. But he and...

claretspice

Number 10s that spring to mind: Danny Ings Robbie Blake Jay Rodriguez Adrian Heath Coutinho Lalana Ferminio Stirling Barkley Ali Not sure Alli is a number 10. He's just an orthodox goalscoring midfielder - if anyone at Spurs is a 10 I'm style it's Eriksen. I'd also say Ings and Rodriguez are really...

claretspice

Lots of tactical things tgat could be said but the basic difference between the two sides I'd is that when we made a mistake and allowed them to break on us, they had the pace and power to mdke it count. When we got similar chances, we didn't.

claretspice

Having just seen it on MOTD, I'm not sure there's a lot in the push on Mee, which was also my reaction at the time. Seen them given, but certainly seen them not given lots, too.

claretspice

He was decent, particularly in the first half and he got played in a few times with nice balls from Hendrick and they linked up well. The only thing that I'd say is that as the game went on, in truth his desire to come inside and take the ball to feet, coupled with Barnes wanting the same thing, mea...

claretspice

Don’t care what the average age of the team is, pretty irrelevant to my point. We don’t have a single player in, say the 20-23 age range, that is anywhere near the first team (current loan signing apart). If we’re spending relatively big money it’s this sort of age range we should be looking to tar...

claretspice

I tend to agree that NKoudou might have come over 10 or 15 minutes earlier. I take Tony's original point that you have to be careful of opening up against top teams to early, butI'm not sure it would have involved opening up too much to bring on NKoudou for Arfield (or one of the central midfielders...

claretspice

scouseclaret wrote:got the ball in some really promising positions but never drove forward which is surely what he should be doing in the role he's playing

Never drove forwards? Not once? Really? Not even on the occasion that he left Matic for dead? OK then.

claretspice

Pope - 6 - Thought he might have done better with the goal, where he appeared to commit himself to going across goal and was effectively beaten at his near side, but it was a good hit and other than that, he was absolutely fine. Bardsley - 6 - Solid defensively, but I didn't think he was great going...

claretspice

Sorry but there is no witch hunt here. Jeff played well in the first half today and was very involved. Of course its more natural for him to play better in a game where we are doing better going forward. However, whilst he wasn't amongst our worst performers he let the team down a number of times w...

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