BFTG (H) Brizzle

[Snowflake Royal]

Well that was fuvking annoying. Comments to follow.

First a note on Bristol. I thought tactically they were excellent. They played the high press v. well and totally disrupted our game. If they could pass or shoot we'd have been in danger of a drubbing due to the many stupid mistakes we made.

I don't think they actually forced that many mistakes from us though. They all seemed self inflicted and apart from that I thought we coped with the high press well.

Mannone 6 maybe should have done better on the goal, I'd like to see it again. Looked very awkward on the ball.
Gunter 5 predictably average negative performance capped with a game losing error.
Blackett 8 I actually thought he had one of his best games.
Moore 5 shambles of a match, he was all over the place.
McShane 8 very solid and commanding, not the best with the ball and goes back a bit too often, but he's trying to avoid a fuk up
Berg 8 I thought he covered brilliantly and helped bring the ball out well
Kelly 7 good game until injured but not quite that magic moment
Bacuna 7 pretty good on the whole
Barrow 5 looked dangerous but too often final ball or decision was poor. An absolute clusterfuk defensively, can't believe brizzle didn exploit it.
Aluko 6 lots of great skill, no end product, first appearance though
Bodvarsson 5 ran the defence well, decent hold up play, looked like he should have had a nailed on hattrick.

McCleary ok
Edwards I like the look of him but the game was a mess buly the time he got on
Beerens no time, no chance good to have him fit.

Plenty to be positive about, just three or four players with horrendous off days. The system looks very positive, just got to get that integration of new players right.

[Hound]

Highly annoying result, but slightly predictable with all the optimism in the build up
Worst thing is we now have a week to stew on it before the next (tough) game

[CountryRoyal]

Meh. We don't need a goal scorer...etc etc

TBH it was always going to happen. No reason to worry, frustrating losing at home but not the end of the world.

[genome]

Blackett 8 I actually thought he had one of his best games.
Moore 5 shambles of a match, he was all over the place.

Just goes to show how differently people see games. I remember Moore making two brilliant goal-saving tackles and one great block to stop a City striker going through on goal. Also thought Blackett, while he had some nice moments, was a bit too casual. He had a decent game, but nowhere near an 8 for me.

[Sutekh]

Barrow. Absolute class, needs to work on his defensive understanding but that's no surprise seeing he's just joined a new club

Bodvarsson

Aluko did ok but just why did Reading buy him?

Referee. Utterly awful.

Now 3 points away from the bottom 3 and no midweek game like the teams below.

On the upside, Kermorgant is one week nearer playing again.

[FiNeRaIn]

Well, no one saw this coming by signing like 4 midfielders and no solid strikers.

[windermereROYAL]

Felt we got a head of steam going midway through the 2nd half. only to have it snuffed out by Stams baffling substitutions.

[tmesis]

Bodvarsson

He hits shots like he has shopping trolley wheels for feet.

[Esteban]

Would have won that 3-0 on another day. Bristol did well tactically, but rarely caused us problems. Striker or not, 8 yards out with the whole goal to aim at, you have to score.

Aluko played well and will improve as he learns the system. Barrow put in similar performances when he first joined and was excellent today. He needs to be more disciplined with his defending though.

The way in which we effortlessly switched from 4 to 5 at the back was good, there was good movement up front, the wide play was good and we defended well for the most part.

I enjoyed our performance for 85 minutes, we'll play worse than that and win games.

[genome]

The seat slamming is back too by the way.

[CountryRoyal]

The seat slamming is back too by the way.

Already?

Fcuk it I'm staying out here

[Crowbar6753]

We need to play this passing game at a higher tempo otherwise its not effective at all. We had that 5-10 min spell early in the second half where we tore them to shreds with high tempo slick passing and we were unlucky not to score. We also need to be more clinical, the lack of a clinical striker hurt us today, Dadi is great at running around and closing down but he aint no striker....and this will come back to haunt us, i would prefer to Sam Smith given a go upfront.

[Snowflake Royal]

Blackett 8 I actually thought he had one of his best games.
Moore 5 shambles of a match, he was all over the place.

Just goes to show how differently people see games. I remember Moore making two brilliant goal-saving tackles and one great block to stop a City striker going through on goal. Also thought Blackett, while he had some nice moments, was a bit too casual. He had a decent game, but nowhere near an 8 for me.

I accept I might be being a touch generous to Blackett and harsh to Moore. Blackett certainly *looks* casual but I thought was very good.

I expect Moore to be excellent and he made 2 or 3 stupid unforced errors, gifting corners or throw ins under no pressure. Turning over possession in dangerous areas.

[Muskrat]

Pretty much the perfect away performance from Brizzle today. Harried and harassed us all game long and put pressure on us high up the pitch. We still should have won by virtue of Bodvarsson's two missed sitters but a draw would have been a fair result imo. Blackett much improved, Barrow terrorised them all game long and I bet they couldn't believe their luck when he was subbed off.

Too early to judge Aluko but why did we actually buy him?

Ref had a good game, let the game flow and got most things right. Can't understand why people are slating him unless they're trying to disguise our own shortcomings.

[windermereROYAL]

Too early to judge Aluko but why did we actually buy him?

Seems very simular to what we already have here, decent enough player, but does he actually improve us?

[JR]

Chatting to three City fans on the bus back they said they thought 0-0 would have been a result, so are well chuffed - did a bit of a job on us.

So we shouldn't get to hett up by it.

Lack of a clinical striker is a worry though and now not playing Tuesday is a big blow.

Aluko and Barrow looked class - will come good in coming weeks - especially away from home on the break

[JR]

Too early to judge Aluko but why did we actually buy him?

Seems very simular to what we already have here, decent enough player, but does he actually improve us?

Did you see his footwork?! A class apart

[muirinho]

Too early to judge Aluko but why did we actually buy him?

Seems very similar to what we already have here, decent enough player, but does he actually improve us?

Think he will do when he gets more time in with the team, there were a number of times when he clearly wasn't on the same wavelength. Also I reckon Barrow was substituted because he was tired - he didn't seem fully fit in terms of stamina. Couple of times in the first half, after he made a run, he would stagger about exhausted (and offside) for the next few minutes.

Very frustrating, but has already been said, we will play a lot worse than that and win. 0-0 would have been a fair result, but I'd be more inclined to blame the strikers than the defence for the loss.

[Ascotexgunner]

Didn't deserve that. Aluko started really well and put some decent crosses in.....shame noons was there.
Barrow was excellent.
Bodvarsson is another matter. Held the ball up well, tackled, worked hard but f+cking hell, awful in front of goal.
Shame we took our foot off the gas when they were on the ropes.
Nothing to add other than the ridiculous passbacks that continued today ending in Mannoni hoofing it up the pitch. Must have wasted so much time doing that.

[Y21]

Wasn't there, but reading these comments it seems like the same old same old from last season. Ponderous build up and no cutting edge? A passing/possession game is only any good if played at pace, otherwise it is just tedious and gives the oppo too much time to get themselves back into shape and then you've got to be better than we are to get past them.