Its a pity, but didn't feel for one minute in the second half that we'd get something out of the game.
We look short on players with confidence and ideas, and a lot of our play is wasteful.
Westwood & Hendricks are back up players if you ask me, and Lennon was really poor (especially second half).
Very poor deliveries when Barnes & Vokes came on.
In truth, they spent 100M and we did 30M, and you saw the difference in quality on the pitch.
Let's hope we get some valuable players back soon, but is clear what the gaffer was on about when he said he wanted one or two more players in.

Ah well, there's always a next game on Thursday and the WE, so onwards and upwards I guess.

UTC

Belgianclaret wrote:.
In truth, they spent 100M and we did 30M, and you saw the difference in quality on the pitch.

UTC

15 of it on the bench and another 10 or so not even in squad........

I think we have not made the keeper make a save in either of the second halves v Watford and Fulham

Don’t care how much they spent. We won’t play a team who were as open as they were. We just had zero quality to take advantage.

Brady Defour Cork JBG

I await the day we see that again.

warksclaret wrote:I think we have not made the keeper make a save in either of the second halves v Watford and Fulham

I struggle to think of a single save either keeper made, did Fulham's keeper make a save in the first half?

KRBFC wrote:I struggle to think of a single save either keeper made, did Fulham's keeper make a save in the first half?

No. We only had 2 shots on target all game.

we look like a championship team rather than one that finished 7th last season

Our thin squad can't cope with current demands. Woody and Lennon have started season poorly but they are in every Prem game ...

Now the results are drying up the performances are becoming clearer. We got on the right side of a lot of small margins last year, last ditch blocks etc. So far we've conceded some good long range shots that wouldn't have gone in last year. But ultimately, we don't look much different from the side last year, we're just not getting the points. Worrying.

At the moment we look like a newly promoted side all over again!

We’re certainly not short of keepers.

Slurpy wrote:Brady Defour Cork JBG

I await the day we see that again.

I hope you are patient.

Totally agree with the OP, we are playing very poorly. Today was the first time I hve seen the players shout and scream at each other for the majority of the game. Tarks and Hart especially vocal, this could be because they’re not getting the cover needed from the midfield or because there, and whisper it, there could be genuine strife in the dressing room. I’m not suggesting that it’s malicious, more a competitive response to players not pulling their weight.

What money have we spent in reality? Ben Gibson comes in to replace Tarkowski as back up really. We never replaced him when Keane was sold.

Joe Hart replaces Pope who won’t play for the majority of this season.

Vydra replaces Marney. I’d say that this is the only signing which potentially brings an improvement. We’re yet to see of course, but we’ve only spent £10m improving the team in my eyes.

We are too slow to break from defence. We are too sloppy with the ball. We are too slow making decisions*, and we are not accurate with our crosses.

*Changing the team so much for the European games is a possible reason as different players make different runs. We are missing Brady and Defour so much.

If we had an ounce of creativity we would have got at least a point today despite conceding 4 - they defended worse than we did for the most part but we had no pace to take advantage - something the majority of us have said was an essential requirement in the summer

Slurpy wrote:Brady Defour Cork JBG

I await the day we see that again.

Defour can’t play in a 4-4-2 though. Apart from those games when he showed he clearly could.

I’d be making plans to spend big in January and rebuild the midfield.

Loftus-Cheek is the one I’d break the bank for, and then build around him with Cork et al.

I its a shock knowing how many clean sheets we kept last year and how many 1-0 wins we recorded

Not looking forward to next Sunday v Man U

Danieljwaterhouse wrote:I’d be making plans to spend big in January and rebuild the midfield.

Loftus-Cheek is the one I’d break the bank for, and then build around him with Cork et al.

Loftus-Cheek ! Yeah, I can see that.

Well no you can’t see it now, because he would stick out like a thumb in our team. Yet we have to think bigger, smarter, and want to improve. Yes we might have to pay 30 million but that’s the next step. Today we looked like a Championship squad, Dyche is struggling with that difficult second album!

We're having to play a reserve team in Europe and now we've got to the point where our reserve left back is having to play left wing in the league. We're looking very 1-dimensional with no pace and not much in the way of creativity. I really hope Brady, Defour and Vydra are close to being fit for the first team or it could all start to get a tad embarrassing. And if none of them are, we've wasted a massive opportunity this summer.

I think the whole mentality has to change to be honest. Yes we all know we are little Burnley, but we've really got to stop using it as an excuse. We are trying to nick results without attacking, again.... I had hoped this season would have seen us trying to bully newly promoted and lower mid table teams, but our confidence is clearly not there at the moment and with number of goals we're conceding I can't see where that confidence is going to come from.

Hopefully a change of mentality on Thursday when we are going to have to chase the game from the off followed by a "Big" game that no one can feel they can afford to coast through will provide some sort of spark to the season. God knows we need something or its going to be a fell of a slog to claw back once we start getting cut adrift.

Last season it was small margins (both ways) this season so far we are far from that. We can talk about lack of signings and injuries, but we need a way of finding points with what we have now, at least until January. I for one would be looking who is still without a club who might provide an option even if only until January when we can look at it properly. No stone should be left unturned.

I think this last window was a bit if a shock to the Chairman and SD, unfortunately we missed out and because of that I think we are going to struggle this season.

beddie wrote:I think this last window was a bit if a shock to the Chairman and SD, unfortunately we missed out and because of that I think we are going to struggle this season.

We lost out because we tried to do our business at the very end of the window, and without much of a disaster recovery plan. Same as 12 months ago, 24 months ago........

Barry_Chuckle wrote:We lost out because we tried to do our business at the very end of the window, and without much of a disaster recovery plan. Same as 12 months ago, 24 months ago........

We lost out because we appear to swim in such a self-restriced recruitment pond. How much time did we waste on West Brom ? We seemed to have about five first choice targets and lost out on all of them.
Why do we have such a mistrust of the foreign market ?

Time to make the call to Ya Ya

Hard to bully a newly promoted side that has invested so much in it...

Claretmatt4 wrote:Hard to bully a newly promoted side that has invested so much in it...

Couldn't disagree more. They are new players bedding in, while also bedding into a higher league..... there is no better time to play Fulham. Fulham will be a lot stronger in a few weeks. Belief is everything, if we as a club don't believe we can win a game, how the hell can we expect the opposition to?

They had Andre Shurrle and Vieto on the pitch. We ended up with Charlie Taylor playing wide left.

Bakary Sako is still a free agent. So is Ben Arfa. So is Nasri. We need some creativity. Is it worth a try or do we accept what we have?