Eddie B 10:12 Mon Sep 26
Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Whatever. Past giving a fuck.
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Replies - Newest Posts First ( Show In Chronological Order)
terry-h
3:21 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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When Tomkins was sold to Palace,we were told Burke and Oxford would soon be ready for the first team squad,so a replacement was not necessary.
Burke is then sent on a season long loan,and Oxford is nowhere near the OS today.
Are we being lied to,or has someone lost the fucking plot?
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NEVER SAY DIE
3:06 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Spandex Sidney 2:10 Sat Oct 1
Misread that's the team I reckon he'll use today
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daveyg
2:37 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Oxford starts for the U23's at Leicester, game at 13:00.
So not much chance he will be on the bench.
No Martinez in the team,maybe a place on the bench at the OS?
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Spandex Sidney
2:10 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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NEVER SAY DIE 2:05 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
Adrian
Arbeloa, Reid, Collins, Ogbonna
Kouyate, Noble
Feghouli, Payet, Antonio
Zaza
NSD = Slaven Bilic
Collins?? Antonio on the left?? Noble?? No Lanzini?? Seriously??
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Spandex Sidney
2:07 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Alf (I knew you before your knighthood)
Agreed mate, regardless of the result we need to go 433, we have all the players for that with proper back up. Arguably it's easier to set up and therefore more predictable but given we have better individual players (when confident and in the right positions) that at least a third of the league we should be fine.
To be honest if he persists today with the 4231 with players out of position he needs to go because if he doesn't see what is so fucking obvious to the rest of us now then he never will. This started going wrong at the end of April, 9 league games of which we have lost 7.
I don't want to see Bilic fail but I don't want to see my team hampered so drastically by bad formations, player selections and baffling substitutions more and as the cliche tells you, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a decent definition of madness.
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NEVER SAY DIE
2:05 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Adrian
Arbeloa, Reid, Collins, Ogbonna
Kouyate, Noble
Feghouli, Payet, Antonio
Zaza
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Sir Alf
1:52 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Spandex Sidney 1:45 Sat Oct 1
Agree 100%. We do not have the players and quality of player to play the system Bilic wants to. So you play to your strengths. 4-3-3 is a much better fit. Will he give it up? You worry that we get a decent result he will go straight back to it? Get the result first would be nice though I must admit.
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Sir Alf
1:48 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Zaza to be fair is not a lone striker and never was and has never been known for his hold up play. Antonio is not a right back or left sided wide man. Nordveit is not a right back or centre half. Byram is not a left back.
Kouyate I don't what he is? Box to box they say? What does that mean? He runs with it. Great if he could pass the ball straight and to his own players. He was effective arriving late into the box for headers last season I will give him that.Not sure what else he does?
Noble is not a defensive or holding midfielder.
Lanzini is not a wide man and arguably Payet is better centrally.
Trouble is the squad is lacking quality in all positions and is threadbare in some (RB). I am hoping Obiang can finally stake a claim but will he be given more than a game in a row to do so? I am not sure he is the answer but he needs a run to know.
Thing is just Obiang as a holding player will not cut it. The whole team and midfield needs to press and deny space and track back when we do not have it. Payet you can excuse to some extent but even he has to help out. The rest? Ferghouli seems to have the legs to do that, Noble has the stamina but not the speed, Lanzini does try to.
Would like to see more of this Fernandes fella. His brief cameos look promising. He is maybe not ready for a start but should be used as Noble, Lanzini get tired after about the 60 min mark.
Got a feeling Bilic will stick with Kouyate, Zaza and Antonio wandering which is like having 8 or 9 players currently :-(
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Spandex Sidney
1:45 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Randolph
Arbeloa Oxford Reid Ogbonna
Kouyate Obiang
Antonio Lanzini Payet
Fletcher
Randolph and Fletcher deserve a chance and I genuinely think Oxford will be better off at CB with experience around him. Noble needs to sit a few out. The 4231 is NOT working because the team are not disciplined enough and it ends up a leaky 4141 so this would be the final chance to see if Obiang and Kouyate can play this system. My fear is we do not have the players to play the system Bilic wants.
We have to go to a 433 if we can't improve. I respect Bilic wants to play a system but it seems simple that with the players we have a 433 would make us more solid and allow greater creativity to the creative players.
I don't really see how you can drop Lanzini and Antonio to be honest. Antonio is best when he has proper defensive cover behind him and when he does he tears teams a new one.
What the fuck Obiang has done to Bilic, God alone knows.
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Mr Wendel
1:19 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Adrian
Arbeloa Collins Reid ogbonna
Fehouli kouyate noble payet
Zaza Antonio
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Bullet
1:17 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Antonio could cost Bilic his job. First he persists to play him in his wrong position at RB costing us points, then he persists to play the out of form Zaza instead of our top scorer as striker? May as well play with 10 men and gift the 3 points.
Bilic says Zaza will come good, but we don't have time and compares him to Berkamp who took a year to settle. Deluded springs to mind.
Bilic is very stubborn as we saw this with his persistence to play Antonio at RB and Valencia, Emenike. Tore who Bilic spent so much time getting is so bad that even Bilic knows he is not worth playing.
I don't see Bilic improving results with his player selection and won't be here much longer.
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i-Ron
1:05 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Private Dancer 12:12 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
I see it as a must win.
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Bullet
1:04 Sat Oct 1
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Assuming Lanzini et al are told to do their defensive duties.
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Bullet
1:03 Sat Oct 1
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Sir Alfs team but with Lanzini instead of Noble and Randolph.
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daveyg
12:46 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Alf
That's basically my view to.Noble is a good link player for Payet ,Kouyate is not.
I would stick with Lanzini at home but if he doesn't show any form then Fernandez should come on.
Not sure Antonio has the nous to hold up play up front,give him a go but I'd rather Fletcher but Zaza seems to be in Bilic's thoughts to much.
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Private Dancer
12:12 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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I don't see this as a must win, as it's still too early, but if we lose again I think we will be in full crisis mode and at best the owners will have a lot thinking to do.
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Sir Alf
11:54 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Roeder-nowhere 11:26 Sat Oct 1
Bilic is getting selection and tactics wrong at the moment and perhaps even training. He is picking and / or instructing players to get forward as much as possible from midfield. Did he and the coaching team assign defensive duties to some or all the players or did the players neglect to follow instructions / game plans? Alternatively, are the players selected the wrong ones?
We do not know. Is it the tactics and roles or players assigned to the tactics or roles or both? I suspect the latter.
As last season progressed you could see Bilic was trying to get us to be better in possession and have more possession of the football. Its at this point where we started conceding as previously we had been happy to sit back and play on the break especially the famous victories away.
But IMO we do not have the players to play on the front foot the way we are trying to. The approach has to be allied to a pressing game when we do not have it. We do not have the players or they are not instructed to press. A bit of both. Lack of legs and inferior fitness and lack of discipline.
Noble too slow to play that way and better at the centre of midfield linking up play but he has to have players that take on the defensive side of the game. Kouyate does not and never has. Payet is the same and even Antonio seems to have gone on "Walk about". Lanzini does try to but is too lightweight. Its why I would bench Kouyate first and move Antonio up top. He (Antonio) is able to hold it up too. Bilic will pick Kouyate unfortunately.
------------------Adrian
Byram-----Reid----Ogbonna-----Arbeloa
Ferghouli-----Fernandes----Noble-----Obiang----Payet
-----------------Antonio--------------------------------------
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Infidel
11:41 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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I would say that none of our players has made themselves undroppable.
The performances have been sub-par for the entire team.
It doesn't matter who we play today, if we concede another idiotic goal early on we will go on to lose heavily.
Our team is suffering from a lack of confidence, not quality.
Older WHOers will remember Kanoute's penalty miss against Arsenal in the 2002-3 season. If he had scored we would almost certainly have gone on to win the game. I am absolutely sure that would have ended our miserable run and kick started our season. We would not have got relegated.
As it was he tapped it lamely at the keeper, Arsenal went up the other end and scored and it really felt like everything was against us. We had the stench of relegation hanging around the club and went down.
We need that stroke of luck - something going our way for once.
In a sense today is a lose-lose game. We have lost three so called 'must win' games in a row and by definition if they were 'must win' games and we lost then we are already beyond the point where it matters (otherwise what does 'must win' mean?)
Boro isn't a big enough scalp for a celebration - even if we win we are still in deep trouble. But if we lose or draw that sense of crisis and inevitability will be very hard to dislodge. Not looking forward to this at all.
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Roeder-nowhere
11:26 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Lanzini & payet need to be in the attacking zones to benefit the side, which leaves little room for defensive support from midfield when Noble can't cover the ground far enough, Antonio has no defensive brain and Kanoute arrives on the scene when the goal has already been scored cos he's always in the wrong place!!
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JayeMPee
11:10 Sat Oct 1
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Can't agree with the 'drop Lanzini' comments, didn't really understand why he was subbed at h/t last week still one of our best.
Think back to the breakaway goal in one of our 4 goal drubbings (Watford or WBA?) who was the guy who chased the full length of the pitch in an effort to prevent the fourth goal? Yes, the little chap with the shortest legs, great heart and player who should not be hung out to dry.
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deanfergi
10:25 Sat Oct 1
Re: Your team Vs Middlesbrough?
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Or £5 on Downing hat trick!
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