itsbeautifuloutside

Match Report

Despite some people saying 'same old same old', I didn't really see that today. I saw Rickie, at least in the second half, much more proactive and much less Reactive (although there was one bit). Their goalie had a cracking game and on another day we would have won this 3-0.

Saying that, there are a few points I picked up.

Lallana was active and proactive although still scared to run at people, wasted a very good chance but made several more for others. however, according to people near me he is completely shit, I think this is the best start to a season I've ever seen Him have, so I guess that's me told…

Dani Osvaldo did a couple of absolutely brilliant things but didn't score a goal… Therefore, according to everyone sitting about me (apart from a couple) is completely crap and certainly not worth £15 million… I ask you!

Personally, and I suspect that I am not the only one, I'm rethinking my big Victor theories. Up to this point I've been very impressed, a couple of not so good moments, but by and large he looked like a bargain, but today and not really for the first time, but mostly for the first time in quite such overt examples, one after the other his first touch is currently a liability in the early parts of games, although admittedly it gets a little better (but not good enough) as the game goes on.

Schneiderlin as attacking midfielder, despite the wonderful scissor kick (and it was bloody good, fair play to the goalie because that was a cracker of a shot) doesn't really do it for me, I can't help feeling that we are wasting one of our most talented midfielders in a position, that means for 75% of the game he is nowhere near the ball, or at least nowhere near affecting the game. This is more stupid, than being wasteful in my opinion.

This is not because Spiderman isn't trying, it's because what we are doing is completely bypassing where he is on the pitch. I don't get it…

J Rod, he's the only pace we have almost anywhere in the squad, except for fullback (and don't get me started on them), and yet I keep thinking 'Burnley are still amazed they got that much money for him from us'. He has a lot of potential, but it's just not going anywhere. It seems we will play him no matter what, because he's the only offensive player we have that runs fast in a straight line. Somehow that doesn't seem right, as we don't really play with pace anyway. It's about teasing opponents apart, how we are currently set up and people should just live with that and put the right player on the pitch (Gaston).

We've got no width, this is the 'same old same old' and we have no way except going straight down the middle. The most effective manner of doing that is with Gaston in the team and he currently isn't there to do it, Why?

Lastly, I'm sorry to say it, but we need to play with Rickie or Dani upfront. Both does not work, maybe it will and I just need to be patient? But at the moment somebody needs to make a decision and see where we go from there, because playing both of them is bollocks, Neither of them can play that number 10 role and both of them, in their different ways, require different feeds as a central striker. At the moment we are trying to do both and subsequently not doing either.

It's better, much better than against Sunderland, but ultimately actually not good enough. if we aim to do more than survive in this league, we need to win games like this and the last one, it's not too early to start saying this isn't good enough. This team won't thrive and keep the kind of players we have started to attract, without scoring goals and putting games like today away. Even our set pieces are not good enough to rely on, so somebody needs to get their bloody finger out.

PS. Dejan will get taken apart by somebody this year, he has really good bits to his game but he is an accident waiting to happen in the air!

Crashhot

15th September, 2013