Think Deano has already ruled Kodjia out OTV....I dont think DS will but i would seriously consider playing Kodija instead of Wesley on Friday. The big man might take a while to settle yet.
Think Deano has already ruled Kodjia out OTV....I dont think DS will but i would seriously consider playing Kodija instead of Wesley on Friday. The big man might take a while to settle yet.
Not sure I see Deano as being the type to select players on sentiment tbh 57...think he's better than that, certainly hope he is, and if so, there's obviously something he and his coaching staff are seeing on the training pitch that makes them think Elmo and Taylor are better options at present....which in itself is concerning!A strange thing I heard RO'K say the other day is Jota is, not the normal sort of winger they'd go for?
So why was he the first player they bought?
The fullback situation is very worrying, I really thought we'd done our homework and brought in two replacements.
The only thing I can think is that it's a case of Smith trying not to upset all last seasons players and the famous team spirit, well team spirit comes when you're winning the bickering starts when you're losing.
Mixed feelings about stats on here, we had more shots than any other team that played today according to my maths.
Now there’s one stat that matters today. But for me, the fact we did have more of the ball and create something even if there were few long range efforts and soft headers, gives me confidence as I seem remember only 9 months ago us going to wigan and not having a shot on target all game.
Not to mention his header that nearly hit the corner flag, can't help thinking Targett would have put both away as he used to be a winger
Wesley will improve, but I see him creating more than he will score. Definitely not a natural goal scorer. I don't see him developing into a Benteke. Davies and Wesley in the same team as we saw at the end yesterday won't improve our goal chances either. The wingers need to contribute more than they did yesterday.
I hope that was Heaton's one rush of blood moment yesterday. The ball was going out
We have two big things in our favour. One is McGinn. I did wonder if he was PL material. He is. He's taken to it like a duck to water. He already looks better than last season.
The other is that the core of the team is the one which got us promoted, against the odds. They don't do give up. They are tough. If we do go on poor runs, they won't falter. They will keep things going.
FFS. If anyone thinks this is a meltdown wait until we lose 4 or 5 on the bounce.
When you buy in 12 players in one window and only 1 of them has any significant experience in this league its always going to be a tough start.
I’d like to think the players and team can improve as the season progresses, but the danger is that whilst they are still adapting to the league we fall back too far and then it becomes very difficult to turn around.
Hope it doesn't get to that stage. I wonder if Smith will take the view that playing for a bore draw against Everton is the best approach just to get something on the board?
This.
But I keep being told that there is no difference between top EFL and middle/lower Prem.
There is.
I wonder if there is an argument for switching Grealish to left wing?
I think everyone is in agreement that El Ghazi isn’t doing it and that Grealish has been a bit too sloppy in central midfield. Moving him out wide would provide better quality in the wide positions whilst Hourihane who played reasonably well against Spurs could come in to provide a more solid midfield
Angel was crap for best part of a season, I remember when George best said this on soccer Saturday. He got a couple of goals and the rest is historyFrom what I could see on Youtube, he's more of a link-play guy than an out and out striker for sure and allegedly had good movement that made space for other players so persumably he's up there on football intelligence and that's why we've got him.
His problem(s) to my eye, so far at least, are all physical - inability to consistently keep the ball when it's played to him, sometimes from a bad touch and other times by not being able to handle what is a fair shove in the back from behind from a centre half in the PL and, finally, he looks to be quite slow on the run with PL quality centre halves almost certainly being both stronger and quicker than he's used to.
If it helps any then IMO the football intelligence aspect is either very slow or impossible to improve but the physical side of things can be improved quite quickly so if he does have that intelligence then he'll already know himself what his relative weak points are in the PL and he'll address those, with help from the coaching staff/on the training ground, relatively quickly.
We know he's struggling right now but we're a long way off from knowing just how much potential he can fulfil and how quickly we'll see signs of that.
He seems to be linking up with Trez a fair bit already so perhaps that's an indication of two foreign players being able to read each other quicker than their English colleagues - all part of gelling a team together and I'm sure he/we will get noticably better over the coming weeks/months.
Luiz' almost instant levelling-up in-game with respect to being strong and comfortable on the ball yesterday was remarkable and shows what can be achieved although he's been training with Man City for a couple of years of course so you'd hope to see that level of ability anyway but perhaps he can help out his South American colleague in that area too.
I dont think DS will but i would seriously consider playing Kodija instead of Wesley on Friday. The big man might take a while to settle yet.
I wonder if there is an argument for switching Grealish to left wing?
I think everyone is in agreement that El Ghazi isn’t doing it and that Grealish has been a bit too sloppy in central midfield. Moving him out wide would provide better quality in the wide positions whilst Hourihane who played reasonably well against Spurs could come in to provide a more solid midfield
I'm hoping something marvelous happens soon.