Blackburn Rovers.

CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
ivoralljack said:
Solid, competent performance with most of our players putting in an excellent shift. In fact I don't think anyone had a poor game. If pressed, I'd go for Ayew as MOM because he was everywhere and when he wasn't on the ball or involved in moves, you could see him giving directions and support to the other players. Nice touch from him as well when he congratulated and thanked the substituted players as they left the field. It absolutely amazes me that Grimes is team captain ahead of him. Nothing against Grimes whatsoever but when you compare what the two have achieved as players, there's no comparison. Ayew far and away has the greater stature and gravitas.

Anyway, six points, four goals scored, nil conceded against two decent teams, so if the lads aren't feeling confident and up for it now, they never will. I'd like to see Palmer given more game time and, of course, Cullen whilst Dhanda has really impressed me in the last two games. If he could muscle up a little to get more strength on the ball, he could become quite a player. Not too much bulk though because he might not be comfortable carrying it.

Players are coming into form such as Fulton, our CBs, Connor and even Nauts is looking good. Bidwell has already improved out of sight and I can see us posing a threat to any team in the Championship. Good to see.
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You forgot Ben. He was excellent today, and not only today. The most underrated player in our squad.
 
Borini

Borini

Key Player
We did not miss Grimes at all. Mark Guehi was so strong for a young player, he will be one of the great defenders if he can avoid injury. Dhanda is lightweight but effective when given space. Blackburn's aggressive press was really effective which is why we had to hoof more than normal giving the ball back to them, do they had more possession than us. On another day they would have taken their chances, but 3 points onwards and upwards.
 
ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
CroJack said:
You forgot Ben. He was excellent today, and not only today. The most underrated player in our squad.
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No, I didn't forget Ben! How could I forget Ben? :D He was included in the CBs as I didn't want to omit Guehi who was also very good. There were some very good performances out there today and his was certainly one of them.
 
Victoria Swan

Victoria Swan

Key Player
Best thing I take from today's game is that it doesn't seem to matter when drop some of our core layers to the bench -- there are great players in depth in this squad. Give Bennett a rest and Cabango plays the centre brilliantly. Drop Grimes for a bit and Fulton more than fills in. Bring Dhanda in and he excels. We could probably give Ayew a rest for a game and we'd still not notice with the depth we have now. Only question I have is why does Cooper persist with Lowe instead of Gyokeres or Cullen - he just doesn't have it as a striker for me. Anyway, great win and three games now with no goals scored on us from open play.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Grimes is not going to get back in this team any time soon if Andy Pandy is honest and has a spine. Grimes was not missed today. We had a much dangerous set of corners and free-kicks, and Fulton was superb in the role ... quiet, strong and super efficient.

The only weakness on the field today was Woody. The remedy is sitting on the bench. Lowe was one of the weaker players and Palmer demonstrated again that he deserves to start ahead of Lowe ... not Dhanda.
 
ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Been thinking about this game and, upon reflection, I don't think the win was as good as it should have been. First some stats:

POSSESSION: 41-59 SHOTS: 11-11 OT: 3-4 CORNERS: 9-5 FOULS: 10-10 GOALS: 2-0

I think some perspective is needed here. They had more possession and more shots on target than we did. Okay, I get that possession is not the B all and end all of the nature of the game, but strong possession is something that we try to achieve as part of our game..... and we failed. Putting this into further context, BLACKBURN WERE MISSING NO LESS THAN 9 FIRST TEAM CHOICES so, in effect, we were more or less playing their second team.

Taking this into account, was our performance that good? For me, the answer is no, because it begs the question of how much better Blackburn could have been had they been able to field their strongest team - as the one they did field certainly was nowhere near their strongest. If we had to make nine changes to our team, I have to ask whether or not we'd have won the game. I'm beginning to suspect that we wouldn't have.

I accept that we can only play what's in front of us but, given the decimation of Blackburn's team, the gloss has somewhat been removed in my eyes.
 
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