[Slick_Footwork]

I must say, despite the result, it was by far our most promising performance due to the fact the players actually tried.

Just shows what a difference it can make when you haven't got passengers like Pereira just walking around not breaking sweat.

Unfortunately the serial cock up merchant Sam Johnstone strikes again. Really have no idea how Bilic can persist with him given the shear amount of cock ups he's made.

Is Button really that bad? Or is Slav just being pig headed? Must be the latter..

Pathetic from both Johnstone and Bartley for the goal. Both must be dropped. I'd be tempted to stick with 5 at the back though with Ivanovic. Ajayi and O'Shea were excellent today.

Stick with the lads going forward who put a shift in. We might actually have a hope against lesser teams.

---

So we lose 1-0 to a goal scored in the 88th minute, by the England centre forward in a team that the result puts top of the Premiership.  So who will be the first to start with the sack the manager today?          

To be honest, it wouldn't matter if the goal was scored by Lionel Messi... It wasn't a good goal, it was a cock up by a goalkeeper who has a long track record of hideous mistakes dating back over 2 years.

So Bilic has to be criticised for persisting with him IMO. We bought a goalkeeper to replace him in the summer who should've been a nailed on starter...

Also, was today's improved effort down to Bilic or rather Pereira being struck down with covid? Pereira's laziness is infectious but Bilic never drops him...

So I'm not convinced it should make anyone change their tune on Bilic tbh. That said, it was a decent performance and buys him more time. I think a lot of the improvement was down to the luck of Pereira not being available though, rather than Bilic learning lessons.

[Blue Baggie]

A much improved performance, which is great. We lost at home - Sam will get the blame, but we failed to score! IMO That's the reason we got no points today.
Ah well Man Utd away next COYB.

[Salopbaggie]

So we lose 1-0 to a goal scored in the 88th minute, by the England centre forward in a team that the result puts top of the Premiership.  So who will be the first to start with the sack the manager today?          

It wasn't a good goal, it was a cock up by a goalkeeper who has a long track record of hideous mistakes dating back over 2 years.

Reading your reply raised two questions for me; one, maybe for the actual goal SJ could have done better if he had stayed on his line or come for the ball, but hindsight is a marvellous thing but the question, who else that we could get, would have made that save SJ made a little before the goal? Secondly are you suggesting we ditch Pereira, I agree he is not as effective as he was last season, but if you watch the games, other teams know what he can do, so he has 2 - 4 players around him all the time.

If the sole ambition is to stay up with no long term project, we could just bring Pulis back he is pretty good at that.

I feel for SB as it seems to me, its like if you hire someone to build you a nice house, then turn round and only let them buy breeze block and after that start taking the cement away without telling them.

I firmly believe its not the club or anyone at it where the anger should be focussed, it is the owner pure and simple.

[BaggieSteve]

I didn’t see or hear the game as I was driving back from Aberdeen so I don’t know how it played out. Considering our shakey defence was up against a free scoring Spurs, it’s a relief it didn’t turn out to be the expected massacre. However, we failed again to score. As I didn’t see the game, did we have any serious efforts, anything on target, any bad misses or did we continue the pattern of creating bugger all??

[Baggiebob(BBB)]

Great effort by the lads which is what i like to see. Pity they couldn't hold out for a few more minutes.
As for SJ, aren't you forgetting the many great saves he's made that would have made our defeats much worse.

If the players continue playing like this every game for 9o minutes, and not hot and cold, we'll avoid relegation

[Worldclassalbion]

I’m gonna get shot down for this but what’s the point in being an occasional outstanding shot stopper when you can’t do the basics.

Sam can’t do the basics. It’s that simple. His job to command his area and he has never ever done it. I remember Button coming out for crosses in the cup game, he caught everything. It was good to see it.
Sam never comes off his line and today he should have kept coming but bottled out. Bartley obviously got the call and didn’t jump.

It was a very good performance from the team today and people calling for Bilic to go must be crazy. Sam Cost us again unfortunately.

[BaggieSteve]

I’m gonna get shot down for this but what’s the point in being an occasional outstanding shot stopper when you can’t do the basics.

Sam can’t do the basics. It’s that simple. His job to command his area and he has never ever done it. I remember Button coming out for crosses in the cup game, he caught everything. It was good to see it.
Sam never comes off his line and today he should have kept coming but bottled out. Bartley obviously got the call and didn’t jump.

It was a very good performance from the team today and people calling for Bilic to go must be crazy. Sam Cost us again unfortunately.

World lass, I agree with you. I fully recognise that that Sam is a good shot stopper and has turned in some very good performances this season, ones that have kept us in games when we probably didn’t deserve it. However, he is so lacking in the command of his area, whether vocally or in coming for crosses that it’s now painfully obvious, particularly to the opposition. If you have a glaring weakness- and I honestly think this is - you are in danger of it being exploited at every turn. I don’t expect him to come for crosses on the penalty spot but he doesn’t come for crosses in the six yard box with any level of confidence so that, once the ball is crossed into it, it becomes a lottery as to the outcome. Ben Foster wasn’t perfect but that part of the penalty area was his and everybody knew it. To show my age, I remember back in the early 1970s when we signed Jimmy Cumbes and he was just like Sam - great shot stopper and terrified of crosses. Don’t know what happened but he became a great taker of crosses eventually, so it’s possible for a change to happen. Someone needs to be working with Sam to boost his confidence

[Slick_Footwork]

So we lose 1-0 to a goal scored in the 88th minute, by the England centre forward in a team that the result puts top of the Premiership.  So who will be the first to start with the sack the manager today?          

It wasn't a good goal, it was a cock up by a goalkeeper who has a long track record of hideous mistakes dating back over 2 years.

Reading your reply raised two questions for me; one, maybe for the actual goal SJ could have done better if he had stayed on his line or come for the ball, but hindsight is a marvellous thing but the question, who else that we could get, would have made that save SJ made a little before the goal?  Secondly are you suggesting we ditch Pereira, I agree he is not as effective as he was last season, but if you watch the games, other teams know what he can do, so he has 2 - 4 players around him all the time.

If the sole ambition is to stay up with no long term project, we could just bring Pulis back he is pretty good at that.

I feel for SB as it seems to me, its like if you hire someone to build you a nice house, then turn round and only let them buy breeze block and after that start taking the cement away without telling them.

I firmly believe its not the club or anyone at it where the anger should be focussed, it is the owner pure and simple.

Johnstone's save before the goal was excellent. He is capable of an great save from time to time. That said, given the amount of errors he makes, he wouldn't even be a pro if he couldn't make the occasional worldy.

His errors are very frequent. He makes a cock up every 3/4 games. He hadn't made a cock up since the Chelsea game, where he was responsible for 2 of their goals so it was obvious a mistake was due. Today's error was a shocker IMO. The ball is floated into the 6 yard box and it's 80/20% in Johnstone's favour to come and punch. He simply isn't decisive enough.

It wasn't his only mistake today either, he missed another cross which was fortunately headed out by our defender and almost had a cock up with Ajayi.

He all too regularly fails to deal with crosses and make the right decisions. For me, we saw enough of over the last 2 years. His horrendous cock up in the must win game at Huddersfield should've been the last time he wore the shirt IMO. Yet, despite signing another goalkeeper, he is still number 1 and I simply can't make head nor tail of it. As worldclassalbion alluded to, Button's performance in the cup was far more assured than anything we have seen from Johnstone so surely he deserves a chance.

Regarding Pereira, I am suggesting we ditch him based on his performances this season. For me, it doesn't matter how talented you are, if you can't be arsed to run then you're not going to make it in the Premier League. Very few teams can afford that type of luxury player and certainly not a side who ships goals like we do. I mean, after his woeful performance against Fulham he has the audacity to storm off and not support the lads who come on to try to change the game? Yes, he's a talent on his day, but isn't as good as he thinks he is. Even last season he was inconsistent and he looks clearly overweight IMO.

My feelings are purely anecdotal, but I think today's improved performance did correlate to the fact that Pereira was missing. There was far more effort.

For me, the primary ambition is to stay up. A long term project is great, but that would mean ongoing progression. Going down screws it completely.

I think if we go down, we will go into freefall. Our owner clearly has no cash, our loan players would go back to their parent clubs and multiple first team players will be out of contract. We would only have a tiny squad of players left and no cash to replace those leaving. I imagine the last few strips of 'talent' we have left would be sold and replaced with blokes signed for pittance. That's why I don't really believe a long term project exists in this football climate and certainly not with our owners. Who I agree, have proven to be woeful and let Bilic down.

That said, Bilic has to do better with the tools he has. I'd be happy for us to do what Villa did at the end of last season and grind our way to some results and then add footballers on top of that next summer. Hopefully Bilic has learnt something today that actually we play better with a bit more of a 'robust' line-up without Periera and Grady. With Ivanovic and Button in, maybe we might pick up a few dirty wins if we persist with this style.