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What a dour watch this is.
No chance of scoring from open play with this line up. Huge disconnect between the midfield and Kanu - reminds me of Pulisball with Rondon 40 yards from his nearest support.
Pedestrian passing in midfield, almost always going back and square. Wingers providing no creativity, no link up play.
One good move in 45 minutes which came in the first minute and Gallagher should've scored. After that, dreadful.
Most of these players aren't even squad players at Premier League level. It becomes blatantly obvious when you take the 2 or 3 footballers we have out of the team.
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I've turned the stream off, neither team are interested so I can't be bothered to watch any more of this
friendly kick about.
2020 the year the bubble burst
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Can concentrate on getting into Europe now ???
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I blame Bilic for treating the cup as a distraction. Shame on him.
2020 the year the bubble burst
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That's the end of THIS thread then!
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22-09-2020, 22:40
(This post was last modified: 22-09-2020, 22:54 by Slick_Footwork.)
I said at half time that I couldn't see us scoring from open play and it wasn't a shock the prediction came true when Bilic persisted with the same team.
The only shock was that we managed to get into their box to win the penalties. Albeit, the first was from Brentford's own error.
For me, it was yet more proof that the 'squad players' are way out of their depth at Premier League level. Let's face it, this was largely Brentford's second string and we didn't create a chance.
I can't get my head around how Bilic prefers Edwards and Phillips to Grosicki...
Edwards is almost entirely anonymous and while he provides the occasional 10 seconds of excitement, he doesn't do enough. Phillips looks like a shadow (a rather large one) of his former self.
As for that centre midfield... I've got a shoe box that is more creative, it least it's got a logo on there.
Harper was typically anonymous. The commentator said at one point that he rarely gives the ball away... well it's not that difficult when you almost always go backwards and square. The irony was, the one time he passed forward it went straight out of play. I'll say boldly now, he will never be a Premier League player because he simply doesn't impose himself on games. The raw talent is there, but he doesn't know how to use it and the fact he's gone backwards since he's come through means he never will. I mean he doesn't tackle, doesn't thread balls through, doesn't dart into the box to score. Are we really in an era where all you have to do is be 'neat' to get paid a huge salary in the Premier League?
I hate to be critical of Field, because the guy works really hard. But opposite to Harper, the raw talent isn't there in games where you should be imposing yourself.
If only we could merge Harper and Field into 1 player, then we would probably have a Premier League player on our hands. As it is, I'm not sure if they are even good Championship players...
Gallagher I also don't want to criticise, because it's his first game and we live in hope he will improve us. But on that evidence, he's not going to be the answer to our midfield problems. On the plus side, he showed the mobility that we've been lacking and intent to actually score a goal by getting into the box and trying to pass forward (Harper take note) but his quality was questionable to say the least. Some real loose passes and poor finishing.
For me the only real positive was that Ivanovic actually won a contested header. First time I've seen any of our central defenders win a proper header this season.
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Sorry Slick but I cannot agree with your criticism of both Field who had a decent match and Gallagher who barring the missed chances was superb. He got up and down the pitch. As for making chances we created chances there keeper had to make 3 decent saves and we had two crosses go straight across the area with no striker to get on the end of them.where as except for hitting the post our keeper never had a shot to save. They scored from a worldy and a none penalty for a great tackle. Yes Ivanović was superb for the hour and Kipre looked good along side him.
