BFTG Hull.

[Jackson Corner]

When a side has lost 4 in a row get spanked at home 5-1. They must think that’s a bit of luck we have got Reading next week that will stop rot and as usual we oblige with a truly abject performance, managing to make a team who were dreadful last week look like world beaters .
Against a team who must be low on confidence have just sold there best two players, right from the kick off we put them under no pressure whatsoever with a succession of sideways and backward passing allowing them to gain confidence grow into the game so much so that even after going a goal down they still deservedly go on and get an equaliser.
On that form I still wouldn’t rule out a relegation fight.

[URZZZZ]

Who is Alunde???

Yep sorry being lazy.The Brazilian half pint.

Hull were the worst team I’ve seen this season.

LOL at playing us off the park in the first half. They were shit.

Luton by far the worst team I’ve seen this season, followed closely by Cardiff

Hull were poor but I’m not sure they were like those two

[leon]

Yep sorry being lazy.The Brazilian half pint.

Hull were the worst team I’ve seen this season.

LOL at playing us off the park in the first half. They were shit.

Luton by far the worst team I’ve seen this season, followed closely by Cardiff

Hull were poor but I’m not sure they were like those two

They were terrible. The fact we couldn’t beat them is damning.

[Jagermesiter1871]

PlAy Timbe - he's Kenyan Messi.

[NewCorkSeth]

Aluko isn't lazy. He used to look lazy with Stam but that was more down to him not understanding his role rather than his attitude. It's a common misconception that Aluko is a lazy player

And he certainly isn't an awful player. He was no worse than Swift or Ejaria out there today and yet once again, after a poor 90 minutes, people are blaming a player who featured for 20 minutes of it

There's always got to be a scapegoat doesn't there? Why can't people accept this squad is massively overrated?

I'm not scapegoating him. If anything my criticism is aimed at Bowen.

Did you notice I only asked 1 question and your response didnt cover it? We could argue back and forth all day about his merits as a player but the question I asked was "why Aluko?". What did bringing him on at 63 minutes when he was our last sub offer us?

If I was to hazard a guess as to why Aluko was brought on:

1. Swift and Ejaria were playing awfully. Aluko, I suppose was the closest substitute to them in terms of what he can do
2. He changed the game on Tuesday and wanted to reward him for that

In hindsight, as I did say myself, bringing Baldock off was the wrong move as the energy was sucked out of the place. However the Aluko - Meite partnership actually looked slightly promising in the cup game against Cardiff so there was that too

I’m not sure Bowen will be doing it again in a hurry though. Perhaps when chasing a goal, it’d be a more logical sub as Aluko gets between the lines well and offers that certain option but when holding onto a lead, it wasn’t the best one to make

Ok but why switch off a striker for Aluko when he clearly replaces Swift or Ejaria much better? They were both poor (which is funny as both had the most effect on our attacking play with Swift getting an assist and Ejaria creating 2 good chances for himself) and subbing one of the off for Aluko at least makes sense.

Moving Swift to Right Wing to allow Aluko to play centrally was pure madness. We had the lead and Hull look poor. A switch like this:

----------------------Rafael
Moore---Morrison---Blackett---Richards
---------Araruna---Pele---Swift
-------------Ejaria-----------Aluko
----------------------Meite

Would have at least made sense if Baldock had to come off and Aluko had to come on.

As it was we gave up and strength we had in midfield. Pele was in poor form so support in the DM role from Araruna would have solidified our defensive play. Hull rallied really well and despite what some said in the match thread, I thought they struggled to threaten from out wide.

If we had done something similar to my suggested formation at least Aluko would have been in a more comfortable position with actual support around him.

Twice he misplayed simple passes yesterday, I know most other players did too (think Pele was the worst for this actually), one of which led to him immediately tackling the player he passed to giving away a foul in a bad place. I'm not scapegoating him here. As I said previously most players were poor, particularly in midfield, but Aluko isnt ever any better. One of the big reasons most dislike him, besides the fee, is that he so rarely makes any impact on games. And we didnt even need a player to make an impact, we just needed a player to work hard covering the many, many mistakes our players were making in the centre of the park. Perfect game for Rinomhota.

[3points]

Personally I’d have brought on Rino (as McCleary wasn’t on the bench) and got him to play a more right sided midfield role with Swift coming back into the centre and Ejaria playing off Meite.

With the Obita sub I can see the sense of a like for like switch, but agin I’d have been tempted to bring Rino on and move Ejaria to the left, where he’s done well in the past and brought Swift back into the centre.

[bcubed]

Personally I’d have brought on Rino (as McCleary wasn’t on the bench) and got him to play a more right sided midfield role with Swift coming back into the centre and Ejaria playing off Meite.

With the Obita sub I can see the sense of a like for like switch, but agin I’d have been tempted to bring Rino on and move Ejaria to the left, where he’s done well in the past and brought Swift back into the centre.

Agree

Swift going wide right upset the balance. Not his best position at all.

As some have said he was not on his best form from the off. I thought he did pass the ball away countless times in the first half. Second half after the position change he get caught in possession far too often.

[bcubed]

Hull were the worst team I’ve seen this season.

LOL at playing us off the park in the first half. They were shit.

Luton by far the worst team I’ve seen this season, followed closely by Cardiff

Hull were poor but I’m not sure they were like those two

They were terrible. The fact we couldn’t beat them is damning.

Im not sure they were that bad either. They looked like they would score on every attack in the first half. But that may be as much to do with our 3 at the back and 2 full backs half way up the park. A welcoming hole between the two lines of defence.

[Jack Celliers]

It was a stupid game really: two below-par teams struggling for coherence. They should have scored within a minute and we kept giving them chances to run at our defence, especially in the first half, but we had them beaten. When Ejaria beat six players and rolled the ball onto the post, the last thing I was expecting was a jammy deflected equaliser.

Rafael 5 Should have saved us at the end really,
Gunter 6 OK,
Moore 7 Quite strong, but not fit.
Morrison, Blackett 4 each Off the pace and didn't instil confidence in the first half.
Obita 6 I have no idea what position he was meant to be playing but it was a good goal.
Pele, Swift, Ejaria 5 each They should have given Hull a lesson, but they just never seemed fluent today, and gave the ball away too much.
Baldock 4 Anonymous.
Meite 5 If referees could see a little more determination, he would win more fouls.
Aluko - absolutely fine
New bloke - small

It will be better against WBA and we'll probably draw that one as well. We have some very good players, but Pele, Swift, Ejaria and Meite have got to up their game. To do that we need a consistent formation. If they had the same shape behind them and in front of them, it would liberate them.

[Snowflake Royal]

The switch to 4-4-2 @ HT was the right move, but it needed one of Ejaria or Swift to come off. And shifting Swift out wide while Ejaria stayed central was the worst choice to make.

The one impact Swift had second half was when he abandoned his position and went more central / overloaded the left.

Agree that Aluko on for a striker was also madness.

Ok, two of the subs were enforced, it happens and restricts your choices. But any of the following would be better than Aluko for Baldock.

Puscas - Baldock - like for like
Puscas - Ejaria - push Meite to RW, Swift in the middle
Puscas - Swift - push Meite RW
Rinomhota - Swift - push Meite RW, put Ejaria in behind Baldock
Rinomhota - Ejaria - go 4-3-3
Rinomhota - Baldock - Ejaria right, Swift in behind Meite
Adam - Ejaria - etc etc
Adam - Swift
Adam - Baldock
Aluko - Ejaria
Aluko - Swift

[Muskrat]

There are not enough flat mouthed emogies on the Internet to express the meh-ness of yesterday's match. Two poor teams playing out a poor game in a half empty stadium in February. Has to be the most uninspiring match day experience ever. We have become less than the sum of our parts and Bowen is going to have a hard task to keep the players motivated for the rest of the season.

Wednesday could be embarrassing but equally I wouldn't be surprised if we upped our game against them. Also I'm sorry to join the Aluko bashers but what does he actually bring to the team? Personally I would have had the G-Mac on the bench but what do I know.

[Millsy]

1) 532 ridiculous nowdays. 442 changed the game for us. Well done Bowen.

2) Bowen normally quite shrewd but taking Obita and Baldock off!?? Wtf.

3) Swift did good stuff because he's Swift but by his standards had a shocking game.

4) Aluko was surprisingly good. Lost it once or twice but his vision and speed when attacking were brilliant. I was quite surprised.

5) Their goal. Which of the 2-3 defenders standing in front of Wilkes should have picked him up? He was completely unmarked allowed to take that shot.

6} This isn't going to be popular but 442 has got to be our alternative when we have no target man. And the best partnership I've seen with 2 up front is Puscas Baldock. I'd have loved to see Puscas on for Meite if that was possible.

7) goodbye playoffs. But thanks Bowen for quickly learning the team and getting us to the point where we consider missing out on playoffs a poor season. I'm genuinely excited for next season. All about the FA cup now.

[yuomi]

Probably going to get battered for saying it, but increasingly feels like Ejaria is a waste of a shirt.

Yes, the show pony stuff makes for a great highlight reel, but it's getting difficult to see what he's actually contributing to this team that Adam or Olise couldn't in that both can actually pick a pass and move play forwards without >50% chance of having the ball taken off them.

I also think Swift's tendency to take an extra touch or try something half-baked and audacious (whatever the hell that was that killed the counter attack at 1-1 yesterday for example) is getting worse with Ejaria in the team to compete with. I just don't see how they compliment each other.

Also:
- Swift to RM is something that should never be tried again. If he *has* to bring on Aluko, why not put him out there and move Swift back into the middle
- On Aluko, I wish I could see what some folks on here can. Thought he was dross yesterday and that stupid yellow card summed it up.
- 2/3 subs were enforced, can't do anything about that, but Aluko for Baldock made no sense and that's on MB
- Trying to sit on a 1-goal lead with this team in this division with more than half an hour on the clock completely *deserves* to fail. We had the momentum, we had them on the back foot, they were beaten. Again, that's on Bowen.

[paultheroyal]

Probably going to get battered for saying it, but increasingly feels like Ejaria is a waste of a shirt.

Yes, the show pony stuff makes for a great highlight reel, but it's getting difficult to see what he's actually contributing to this team that Adam or Olise couldn't in that both can actually pick a pass and move play forwards without >50% chance of having the ball taken off them.

I also think Swift's tendency to take an extra touch or try something half-baked and audacious (whatever the hell that was that killed the counter attack at 1-1 yesterday for example) is getting worse with Ejaria in the team to compete with. I just don't see how they compliment each other.

Also:
- Swift to RM is something that should never be tried again. If he *has* to bring on Aluko, why not put him out there and move Swift back into the middle
- On Aluko, I wish I could see what some folks on here can. Thought he was dross yesterday and that stupid yellow card summed it up.
- 2/3 subs were enforced, can't do anything about that, but Aluko for Baldock made no sense and that's on MB
- Trying to sit on a 1-goal lead with this team in this division with more than half an hour on the clock completely *deserves* to fail. We had the momentum, we had them on the back foot, they were beaten. Again, that's on Bowen.

Ejaria is the one piece of entertainment. I want to be entertained.

[Bigtimmeh]

Probably going to get battered for saying it, but increasingly feels like Ejaria is a waste of a shirt.

Yes, the show pony stuff makes for a great highlight reel, but it's getting difficult to see what he's actually contributing to this team that Adam or Olise couldn't in that both can actually pick a pass and move play forwards without >50% chance of having the ball taken off them.

I also think Swift's tendency to take an extra touch or try something half-baked and audacious (whatever the hell that was that killed the counter attack at 1-1 yesterday for example) is getting worse with Ejaria in the team to compete with. I just don't see how they compliment each other.

Also:
- Swift to RM is something that should never be tried again. If he *has* to bring on Aluko, why not put him out there and move Swift back into the middle
- On Aluko, I wish I could see what some folks on here can. Thought he was dross yesterday and that stupid yellow card summed it up.
- 2/3 subs were enforced, can't do anything about that, but Aluko for Baldock made no sense and that's on MB
- Trying to sit on a 1-goal lead with this team in this division with more than half an hour on the clock completely *deserves* to fail. We had the momentum, we had them on the back foot, they were beaten. Again, that's on Bowen.

Ejaria is the one piece of entertainment. I want to be entertained.

Ejaria made two chances for himself out of nothing and on another day one of them would have gone in. Aluko was v good against Cardiff so I understand that change even if with hindsight it didn't work. Baldock had a quiet game. I don't think we did try to sit on a one goal lead made lots of chances after going ahead and if anything it was us going forward that left us exposed at the back for their goal...

[URZZZZ]

Interestingly enough, we haven’t conceded a first half goal in the league under Bowen since the 7th December IIRC (Birmingham H)

[Jack Celliers]

Probably going to get battered for saying it, but increasingly feels like Ejaria is a waste of a shirt.

Yes, the show pony stuff makes for a great highlight reel, but it's getting difficult to see what he's actually contributing to this team that Adam or Olise couldn't in that both can actually pick a pass and move play forwards without >50% chance of having the ball taken off them.

I also think Swift's tendency to take an extra touch or try something half-baked and audacious (whatever the hell that was that killed the counter attack at 1-1 yesterday for example) is getting worse with Ejaria in the team to compete with. I just don't see how they compliment each other.

Also:
- Swift to RM is something that should never be tried again. If he *has* to bring on Aluko, why not put him out there and move Swift back into the middle
- On Aluko, I wish I could see what some folks on here can. Thought he was dross yesterday and that stupid yellow card summed it up.
- 2/3 subs were enforced, can't do anything about that, but Aluko for Baldock made no sense and that's on MB
- Trying to sit on a 1-goal lead with this team in this division with more than half an hour on the clock completely *deserves* to fail. We had the momentum, we had them on the back foot, they were beaten. Again, that's on Bowen.

Ejaria is the one piece of entertainment. I want to be entertained.

Exactly

[South Coast Royal]

There are not enough flat mouthed emogies on the Internet to express the meh-ness of yesterday's match. Two poor teams playing out a poor game in a half empty stadium in February. Has to be the most uninspiring match day experience ever. We have become less than the sum of our parts and Bowen is going to have a hard task to keep the players motivated for the rest of the season.

Wednesday could be embarrassing but equally I wouldn't be surprised if we upped our game against them. Also I'm sorry to join the Aluko bashers but what does he actually bring to the team? Personally I would have had the G-Mac on the bench but what do I know.

I watched the Friday night game on Tv, Bristol City v Birmingham where both sides played quick-passing, accurate and intelligent football which made me question my normal view that Championship football is just dull dross for the most part.
Then I watched our game.

A few comments:-
Regrettably Obita has no longer got the pace and trickery to beat defenders (such a shame) and yet has developed the knack of scoring goals. Apparently hamstrung by...……...his hamstrings
Meite, for such a big bloke he doesn't half get knocked off the ball easily.
Swift-as an earlier poster said, he is so involved in the game that he doesn't warrant so much criticism when he has a bit of an off day.
Ejaria-as another poster said, a good reason why we come to games.

Bowen explained well afterwards the reason for subbing Obita which made sense but Richards didn't step up.
I thought when he tried to explain the subbing of Baldock for Aluko it was telling that he said that he wanted him to play in the role that he had done well for earlier clubs and why we had bought him-he didn't say as much but it felt as though he wanted to say that the little oxf*rd doesn't do it for us.
He did ramble a bit about McCleary when Adie asked him why he had not been considered-something on the lines of him only playing down the right whereas the sub was needed more to play towards the left ( a bit odd really when Richards was already playing wide left).

If Yiadom is fit enough I could see him playing on Wednesday v West Brom with BOTH Pele and Rhino joining Ejaria and Swift in midfield plus 2 up front.
No width ,unless Yiadom gets forward, but a tighter, compact midfield and relying on us trying to score on the break and/or playing for a result of 0-0

As others have said, we may play better against a more attacking side like WBA as the onus might be on them to make the running, something that we are not very good at as shown yesterday.

[Old Man Andrews]

Interestingly enough, we haven’t conceded a first half goal in the league under Bowen since the 7th December IIRC (Birmingham H)

Interesting?

[Lower West]

The main problem currently is the lack of ability to create chances let alone score goals. There's a good structure to the team. Now just requires the icing.

Hull's no 9 yesterday was very effective at holding the ball up. Something the squad lacks.