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Stoke City (A) 28/01/06- F.A Cup 4th Round

Reports and reaction from the 2005-06 season as Walsall finished 24th (R) in League 1
jsmith
 

Sat Jan 28, 2006 7:54 pm

know that we lump it but if we want to play football like merson says then why does he ignore our most skillful player standing. he's the only one who plays the ball to one of our players.

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Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:06 pm

Well I was confident and behind the team from beginning to end just a shame we didnt turn up first half.
Considering they were on a bad run we never really threatened them until we went 2-0 down! Im fed up of seeing the Walsall team starting to play once we are a couple of goals down.

This performance is the worst weve played for a few weeks. Wrighty,Mcdermott.Westwood and Oakes had mares.
In the 4th round of the cup against a team in an higher division you need your keeper to play well, he didnt. Andy "flapper" Oakes dropped their first goal straight and nearly gifted them another. I thought Merse dropped a bollock today playing Mcdermott LEFT MIDFIELD, he simply looked scared. He didnt know what to do when the ball was at his feet.

We are now out of both cups and just a relegation scrap to look forward to. I suggest fans and chairman alike realise that the last 2 years have been the worst for some time and we need to do something NOW or face another relegation under the stewardship of this clown.

Fair play to the 3,000+ fans that made the journey, got behind the team from start to finish. Even the ruck at the end was exciting, especially when a steward starts the ball rolling. :shock:

Swindon is a VERY VERY big game.

Valence Finstorr
 

Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:11 pm

wfc_2uk wrote:Even the ruck at the end was exciting, especially when a steward starts the ball rolling. :shock:


:lol: :lol: :shock:

The steward probably just got bored...

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Sat Jan 28, 2006 9:05 pm

My first away game since Port Fail and nothing has changed with that cockney prick in charge and won't until he has gone. As I was leaving, some idiots were saying that the good thing about losing was that Merson could concentrate on the league even though he hadn't got all the players he needed; we must have some of the thickest fans this side of Dingle land. Not suprising when the chain smoking, blond haired troll with a leather face sat in front of me turned to her unwashed mutant partner at half time and asked if the advertised smoking ban in the stands applied to her. I'm suprised she could speak considering the state of her lungs.

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Sat Jan 28, 2006 9:52 pm

Rob Samuel wrote:I know people like Fox on here but i also think he's fairly poor, gave the ball away a lot today and is also very one paced.

I'm not criticising you for expressing your opinion, but did you watch the same game as me? Some of the tackles Fox made today were brilliant. He was one of our better players in my opinion. Pead does have his dodgy moments, but he has absolutely nothing in front of him - Wright is very poor and was totally outclassed today.
I thought Westwood did fairly well again, but the one thing that annoyed me was when some of our fans slated him for misplacing a pass which went out for a throw in. Is it just me, or does Roper do this a couple of times a game? - seems like double standards to me.
James didn't lay as effectively as he has been in the last few weeks, but he is a winger after all. If ever there was a game which higlighted our desperate need for a striker, this was it.

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Sat Jan 28, 2006 10:41 pm

The criticism of Wright bewilders me...did no one see the quite superb ball that he crossed for James' goal? Has no one seen the vast improvement from him in the last month? Get off the bandwagon - of course Wright was outclassed today, in his fairness though, 12 other players were also outclassed at the same time.
The moment that Wright came off (for some obscure reason, no doubt) we lost the only outlet we had in the side. Replacing him with Standing was ridiculous. All our best moves had come down the right flank, and, as I said, the ball he provided for James was superb.

As for Danny Fox, he is only 19 and will go on to be a very, very good player at a higher level than where he is now. However, I do think he could benefit from some COACHING (if anyone at Walsall FC remembers what that is) to work on his positional sense. He is fine going forward, and is very strong when some one runs at him, but he does tend to 'drift' when the attack comes from the opposite flank to his own. One three or four occasions this gave Fox's man acres and acres of space, which immediately means that our defence is split and loses its shape. Its not so much a criticism as an observation. As I said, he is 19, and if he had no weaknesses in his game he'd still be at Everton.

Also, it must be asked, why do Pead and Fox immediately look for the long ball when they get it. It makes us look ridiculous to knock 60 yard long balls for James and Timm, who are, in all fairness, two of the least effective aerial players we have had for years!

Westwood didn't deserve half the criticism he got today. Sidibe gave him and Gerrard a torrid time, and Gallagher never stopped running at them. Westy got us out of trouble on a number of occasions today,a dn I think it is just another case of it being a good bandwagon to be on, rather than any intelligent observation.

I thought Leary had a very poor game - he was indisciplined and second to every ball in the middle of the park. He actually got booked in the first half for less fouls than he made during the rest of the game, so it could be argued that he was lucky not to pick up a second yellow. Again, it showed the limitations in his game, but if he isn't good enough for Championship level then it bodes well for our possibilities of keeping him.

Grant Smith was the pick of the players for me. He is busy and has a great left foot on him. He can spot a pass, and is the natural progression from us losing Kris Taylor, ie. He is better than Taylor ever will be.

I didn't enjoy the game today. A dull performance that was stunted further by the replacement of Wright who was just getting into the game with a central midfielder. Also, a great following which shows just how vocal Walsall fans can be, but too many clowns who expect too much and who were too pissed to take in what was actually happening.

Season over - and that is sh!t.

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Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:03 pm

Oh well. After all the build-up, all the expectation, all the wonderful atmosphere created before the game by our fantastic away following - THAT was all the team could serve up? Sweet Jesus, no wonder we're in a relegation battle. I know, I know, we were playing a team from a higher division, but Stoke were piss poor, visibly lacking in confidence, and had a Chesterfield-style tactic of lumping the ball up to a nuisance centre forward. And guess what, we couldn't cope with the nuisance centre forward. Same old story. OK, so Sidibe is miles better than Allison as an all-round footballer, and Stoke had Chadwick, who was also excellent, but really, they were nothing otherwise.

I can't believe that Merson constantly criticises other teams for lumping the ball forward and constantly says we don't do it, because it's ALL we do. Constantly whacking balls forward hoping that James will be able to outpace the defender and get on the end of it, and today he never did. We had no other ideas.

Having said all that, we'd have won the game if we hadn't yet again gifted them two goals, the first from another weak punch by Oakes, the second from simply dreadful positional play by Westwood (though it was a terrific finish by Chadwick).

And having said THAT, two rank decisions by Merson also played their part. (Three, if you count leaving Roper out, though perhaps he was still injured.) McDermott was completely out of his depth. He apparently did very well on Tuesday night playing up front. This is not too surprising, since he is a striker. Today he played on the left wing. This is not too surprising, since our manager thinks any winger can play up front, any striker can play on the wing, any winger can play at full back and any central midfielder can play on the wing. He was awful on the left wing. Demontagnac has been poor in recent games but surely he'd have offered more? The second bad decision was replacing Wright with Standing. OK, so Wright didn't have a good game, but he still created our only goal, and every single time Standing has been asked to play on the right wing he has been utterly abysmal. Today was no exception. Lord only knows what formation we were meant to be playing after the second substitution - the players certainly didn't seem to know. At first it seemed to be 4-4-2 with Nicholls up front with James, Timm on the left wing and Standing on the right, but then both Timm and Standing started drifting all over the place - NO SURPRISE BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT WINGERS AND CANNOT PLAY ON THE WING - and we lost all shape. We were still VERY much in the game at that stage and, despite the two superb efforts from the excellent Nicholls, Merson pretty much destroyed any chance we had with that second substitution.

In the centre of midfield, we were outfought, but for the most part the game just drifted them by. James was well-marshalled by the big centre backs. Stoke's keeper made a wonderful save at the end to deny Nicholls. Both teams were dreadful in the first half, but whenever we put the ball down and tried to play we looked a lot better than they did. We just didn't do it often enough.

So, we're out of the cup. We can concentrate on the league. Oh God, I just did concentrate on the league - we're in massive trouble. As long as we keep conceding two or more goals per game when we're away, we're going to keep losing or perhaps snatching a point, regardless of how well we play in front of the defence. Two or less points from the next two away games and we'll quite possibly be in the bottom four. And I'm not confident that we'll get more than two points from them.

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Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:21 pm

Jorge14 - Your loyalty to Wright is commendable but, may I respectfully suggest, hopelessly misplaced! :) You stress the quality of his cross for our goal but that was the ONLY significant contribution he made to the game and that was because the Stoke left-back had gone a.w.o.l., leaving Wright in acres of space and this was spotted by Timm. He was equally awful at Swansea and has been a constant source of frustration ever since he broke into the team.

Consider:-
(i) his positional play - many of the problems that Pead has with his distribution can be traced back to the poor support he gets from Wright. The quick and safe outlet when under pressure is frequently absent because Wrighty is not "switched on".
(ii) his first touch on the ball - he traps a ball further that many blokes can kick it and he needs more touches than a pervert in a park!
(iii) his crossing of the ball - just how often does he deliver a cross of the right height, power and accuracy for our strikers? Answer= very, very, very rarely (Today was such a very welcome rare event).
(iv) being caught in possession - how often does he lose the ball to an opponent's challenge - all too often, I'm afraid and, finally
(v) his pedigree :D - he's just like his father, Evran (ask your Dad!) - promises so much and delivers so little!

I assume Devlin or James will replace him when everyone is fit and available. I certainly hope so. I am afraid that if I were responsible for the retained list, Mark Wright would be given a free transfer, next May. He just is not up to League One standard and I think he would struggle in the Conference.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:50 am

Terribly disappointed after today's result. A win in the cup would have been a massive confidence booster not to mention a money spinner (Stoke BTW will inevitably draw Chelsea, Man Utd or Villa in the next round). Stoke were there for the taking and if we had played well we would have won. I thought we played no more than OK, we weren't terrible by any means, but this group of players have shown they can do so much better.

A few things contributed to the defeat IMO. Firstly as said above the goals we conceded were awful. Bad mistake by Oakes for the first - and it wasn't the first time he'd flapped at a cross - and Westwood's so-called defending for the second was beyond belief. I know he would be better alongside Roper and I know some people have defended him on this thread but for me he is consistently one of our worst performers. He was outjumped by both Sidibe and Gallagher and our record shows when he plays we concede goals. Merson got things wrong tactically too. McDermott shouldn't have played and Nicholls should have been in from the start but I don't think our other players made things easy for McDermott and never showed for the ball. I didn't understand the substitution though. Nicholls seemed to go up front in a 4-3-3 which our players couldn't get to grips with. Why didn't we just stick him on the left wing or swap round James, Nicholls and Wright?

However what really cost us - and in fairness this is what Merse seemed to be saying too - was the way we started the game. We didn't put them under any pressure, didn't play to our strengths and didn't impose ourselves on the game at all. We needed to get the ball down and be a bit more patient or look to turn their defence quickly and hit the ball into the corner for James, Wright or McDermott to run on to. We got things together much better after the goal but by then it was too late. That said, we could easily have got a draw were it not for the post and the brilliance of de Goey. Ironically I don't thing Simonsen would have got to that shot in the last minute so it's typical that he should get injured and their forced into subbing the keeper.

I do have to mention the fans though. A terrific turnout on a day when most clubs have seen fewer fans through the turnstiles for the cup. If only we'd had even a half-decent performance to match and we could all have gone home happy.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:55 am

Note to self: at this hour always read through your posts before you click submit. You'll make fewer errors and typos that way.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 1:08 am

just got back to post.

I echo aforementioned comments relating to is that all we could serve up? We created a brilliant atmosphere, an atmosphere that should have pushed our players to win, however we got the usual drivel that i am so accustomed to see. the word toothless comes to mind. I think people will only say we played well or ok from a psychological perspective, the atmosphere and adrenalin in the fans performance would make us look better than we actually were.

The supporters performed today, the team did not.

I havent read all of the above posts, but another reason why our illustrious manager should be abandoned to the record books; 4500 brilliant away following, and he could not even applaud us. Disgusting.

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sid swifty
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Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:15 am

Jorge14 wrote:The criticism of Wright bewilders me...the vast improvement from him in the last month? Get off the bandwagon - of course Wright was outclassed today, in his fairness though, 12 other players were also outclassed at the same time.
The moment that Wright came off (for some obscure reason, no doubt) we lost the only outlet we had in the side. Replacing him with Standing was ridiculous. All our best moves had come down the right flank, and, as I said, the ball he provided for James was superb.

As for Danny Fox, he is only 19 and will go on to be a very, very good player at a higher level than where he is now. However, I do think he could benefit from some COACHING (if anyone at Walsall FC remembers what that is) to work on his positional sense. He is fine going forward, and is very strong when some one runs at him, but he does tend to 'drift' when the attack comes from the opposite flank to his own. One three or four occasions this gave Fox's man acres and acres of space, which immediately means that our defence is split and loses its shape. Its not so much a criticism as an observation. As I said, he is 19, and if he had no weaknesses in his game he'd still be at Everton.

Also, it must be asked, why do Pead and Fox immediately look for the long ball when they get it. It makes us look ridiculous to knock 60 yard long balls for James and Timm, who are, in all fairness, two of the least effective aerial players we have had for years!

Westwood didn't deserve half the criticism he got today. Sidibe gave him and Gerrard a torrid time, and Gallagher never stopped running at them. Westy got us out of trouble on a number of occasions today,a dn I think it is just another case of it being a good bandwagon to be on, rather than any intelligent observation.

I thought Leary had a very poor game - he was indisciplined and second to every ball in the middle of the park. He actually got booked in the first half for less fouls than he made during the rest of the game, so it could be argued that he was lucky not to pick up a second yellow. Again, it showed the limitations in his game, but if he isn't good enough for Championship level then it bodes well for our possibilities of keeping him.

Grant Smith was the pick of the players for me. He is busy and has a great left foot on him. He can spot a pass, and is the natural progression from us losing Kris Taylor, ie. He is better than Taylor ever will be.

I didn't enjoy the game today. A dull performance that was stunted further by the replacement of Wright who was just getting into the game with a central midfielder. Also, a great following which shows just how vocal Walsall fans can be, but too many clowns who expect too much and who were too pissed to take in what was actually happening.

Season over - and that is sh!t.
did no one see the quite superb ball that he crossed for James' goal?
YES I WAS THERE AND I SAW THAT CROSS BY WRIGHT...LUCKY FOR ME I DID SEE IT BECAUSE APART FROM LOSING THE BALL EVERYTIME A STOKE PLAYER CAME WITHIN 10YDS OF HIM...HE DID SOD-ALL ELSE...SO NO CHANGE THERE THEN! :)

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:33 am

Hang on - we lost a game, away, and there's only 71 posts by Sunday morning? Zippy won't be very impressed. Are we that battle-weary?

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:01 am

That was awful yesterday, absolutely pitiful - very similar to the Sheffield United game under Lee.

Yet again hamstrung by the team selection, yet again wait until we are 2-0 down before we start to play.

Basically the fans turned up but the team didn't.

Stoke were useless, but without any kind of physical pressence anywhere on the pitch we made them look half-decent.

Merson, just p!ss off to Sky Sports y'know like.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:54 am

Does any body no how many fans their were at the match yesterday?

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sid swifty
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Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:07 pm

scott_wfc15 wrote:Does any body no how many fans their were at the match yesterday?
well i was there with my sons so thats 1...2...3...that nice man next to me...4...the team did'nt turn up so thats minus 7...i should say about 3,000 :D

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YGA Saddler
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Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:53 pm

Exile wrote:Hang on - we lost a game, away, and there's only 71 posts by Sunday morning? Zippy won't be very impressed. Are we that battle-weary?


I think a few are just fed up of posting the same old arguments. Once this idiot has left only then can we all reunite as one.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 1:13 pm

wfc_2uk wrote:
Exile wrote:Hang on - we lost a game, away, and there's only 71 posts by Sunday morning? Zippy won't be very impressed. Are we that battle-weary?


I think a few are just fed up of posting the same old arguments. Once this idiot has left only then can we all reunite as one.


we need merson to be dethroned to reunite the divided public. not long now.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:52 pm

From where I was sitting it was great to see the massed ranks of the saddlers at the game, sounded loud and proud. Stoke ?, where were they all?, must have been free samples day in Aldi.

The performance? , no real threat upfront is the main problem. Plus our forwards are too light weight and are easily muscled off the ball. Wright, talented but frustrating player to watch at times. Nicholls did well when he came on, Gerrard worked hard and was tidy at the back.
But not good enough, Stoke were there for the taking , the look a very average side at best apart from the excellent Gallacher.


PS, theres some real rare pond life types populating the Boothem end, was interesting to say the least. :D

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:01 pm

Bristol Fan wrote:Oh well. After all the build-up, all the expectation, all the wonderful atmosphere created before the game by our fantastic away following - THAT was all the team could serve up? Sweet Jesus, no wonder we're in a relegation battle. I know, I know, we were playing a team from a higher division, but Stoke were piss poor, visibly lacking in confidence, and had a Chesterfield-style tactic of lumping the ball up to a nuisance centre forward. And guess what, we couldn't cope with the nuisance centre forward. Same old story. OK, so Sidibe is miles better than Allison as an all-round footballer, and Stoke had Chadwick, who was also excellent, but really, they were nothing otherwise.

I can't believe that Merson constantly criticises other teams for lumping the ball forward and constantly says we don't do it, because it's ALL we do. Constantly whacking balls forward hoping that James will be able to outpace the defender and get on the end of it, and today he never did. We had no other ideas.

Having said all that, we'd have won the game if we hadn't yet again gifted them two goals, the first from another weak punch by Oakes, the second from simply dreadful positional play by Westwood (though it was a terrific finish by Chadwick).

And having said THAT, two rank decisions by Merson also played their part. (Three, if you count leaving Roper out, though perhaps he was still injured.) McDermott was completely out of his depth. He apparently did very well on Tuesday night playing up front. This is not too surprising, since he is a striker. Today he played on the left wing. This is not too surprising, since our manager thinks any winger can play up front, any striker can play on the wing, any winger can play at full back and any central midfielder can play on the wing. He was awful on the left wing. Demontagnac has been poor in recent games but surely he'd have offered more? The second bad decision was replacing Wright with Standing. OK, so Wright didn't have a good game, but he still created our only goal, and every single time Standing has been asked to play on the right wing he has been utterly abysmal. Today was no exception. Lord only knows what formation we were meant to be playing after the second substitution - the players certainly didn't seem to know. At first it seemed to be 4-4-2 with Nicholls up front with James, Timm on the left wing and Standing on the right, but then both Timm and Standing started drifting all over the place - NO SURPRISE BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT WINGERS AND CANNOT PLAY ON THE WING - and we lost all shape. We were still VERY much in the game at that stage and, despite the two superb efforts from the excellent Nicholls, Merson pretty much destroyed any chance we had with that second substitution.

In the centre of midfield, we were outfought, but for the most part the game just drifted them by. James was well-marshalled by the big centre backs. Stoke's keeper made a wonderful save at the end to deny Nicholls. Both teams were dreadful in the first half, but whenever we put the ball down and tried to play we looked a lot better than they did. We just didn't do it often enough.

So, we're out of the cup. We can concentrate on the league. Oh God, I just did concentrate on the league - we're in massive trouble. As long as we keep conceding two or more goals per game when we're away, we're going to keep losing or perhaps snatching a point, regardless of how well we play in front of the defence. Two or less points from the next two away games and we'll quite possibly be in the bottom four. And I'm not confident that we'll get more than two points from them.


Great post Bristol, I need add only this.

Although the support was good yesterday in numbers and vocally it wasn't a patch on the vocal support of around 3,000 less supporters that went to Barnsley in the last round. Mind you we had more to sing about that day with committment from the players.

Does anyone know the official away support yesterday? The end holds 4,500 so it can't have been far off 4,000 which at moment is nearly all home fans going to Bescot. :shock:

We need half of those backing us in the forthcoming away games to get these points on the board to secure safety asap.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:08 pm

Very disappointing especially after such an encouraging performance going forward last week at Chesterfield. Madds Timm & James didnt look the same players at Stoke.First half was pretty dreadful - 2 poorish sides where the main difference seemed to be that they were faster at closing us down when we were in possession and pushing us off the ball far too easily (as they continued to do throughout the game). Thought Mcdermott should have been subbed at half time, as he seemed totally lacking in confidence, always turning to play ball backwards. Thought we looked weak in the air at the back at times as they could have scored more if they had directed headers more accurately. I havent seen goals but should Oakes have done better on the first?
Why an earth did we persist with lumping the ball onwards & upwards all the time when we were getting nowhere with this tactic? especially when our goal came from Wright actually finding space on the right. Nichols was a definite positive when he came on and did very well & almost got us what probably would have been an undeserved draw. Pity we didnt have Sidibe!
Still it did mean that I had nice weekend staying in Peak district

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:13 pm

I think attributing blame to Westwood for their 2nd goal is quite harsh, he didn't have a great game against Sidibe but neither did Gerrard. However, Chadwick beat 3 players on the way through, not just Westwood. All failed to get a decent tackle, all failed to really challenge him and others let him get the shot away.

Its abundantly clear that we miss Roper, and I question whether its worth finding another Roper-esque type of player for when he is missing.

I give up complaining about Merson's lack of tactical nous as it happens every bleedin week now. His latest fad seems to be a 4-3-3, which involves punting the ball long to the huge trio of James, Timm and Nicholls, those well renowned giant strikers we have.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:07 pm

We're not a "lump it long" team then Merson ? Perhaps in your boozed fuelled haze you can't see the ball after ball after ball after ball ...... that just get's whacked from the back four to ...... well to somewhere basically resembling the kind of area the front two might be occupying at that moment. For God's sake Merson, you haven't got a fudge clue what's going on have you ? You're a totally clueless idiot that is well out of his depth but wont admit it. GO NOW !

I'm sorry Jorge but I agree with Leamore. If that was a class performance from Wright then I'd better buy me some boots, because even at 35 it looks like a career in League One awaits me. If basically cack yourself everytime the ball and an opposition player comes anywhere near you is good enough then I'm in with a chance. Have you ever seen someone welch out of so many challenges ?

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Stu
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Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:18 pm

Dave,

It wasn't a great performance by Wright, but there is no denying that he seems capable of creating something out of nothing and for that reason alone, I'd let him play 90 minutes every week.

Goals created at Barnsley, Swansea and yesterday just in the last half a dozen matches.

In my opinion, his biggest flaw is the way he runs at defenders. He sort of runs directly at the man instead of trying to get around them. That's down to the management to drill into him.

He gets some OTT stick, because I tell you, there were far worse players than him on that pitch yesterday.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:34 pm

Stu wrote:Dave,

It wasn't a great performance by Wright, but there is no denying that he seems capable of creating something out of nothing and for that reason alone, I'd let him play 90 minutes every week.

Goals created at Barnsley, Swansea and yesterday just in the last half a dozen matches.

In my opinion, his biggest flaw is the way he runs at defenders. He sort of runs directly at the man instead of trying to get around them. That's down to the management to drill into him.

He gets some OTT stick, because I tell you, there were far worse players than him on that pitch yesterday.


Agree as I've said on the other thread. He's created or had a hand in most of our recent goals so incosistent as he is we need him to play when as many say, the only other option is an aimless punt regardless of what Merson tries to tell us.

Wright will be forced out when Devlin is fit anyway, then Devlin will sign for someone else and Wright will have been ignored...or Devlin will stay, retire in a year or two while Wright will have move onto another club, will do very well and many will be saying "Wright's scored again, why did we let him go?" :roll:

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:26 pm

Come on lads, he can't fight his way out of a paper fudge bag. He'd cack himself if my seven year old lad tried to tackle him. Rabbitt in the headlights, I'm afraid.

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Stu
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Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:51 pm

Dave Roe wrote:Come on lads, he can't fight his way out of a paper fudge bag. He'd cack himself if my seven year old lad tried to tackle him. Rabbitt in the headlights, I'm afraid.


I didn't say he doesn't, but that doesn't take away from the fact (in black and white) that he creates goals.

A winger is there to create goals, he does that. He isn't there to make bone crunching tackles. He dodged no more tackles than Mads "I want 1 more touch than neccessary" Timms did.

A winger is there to hug the touchline, put crosses in and create goals. He does this, simple as in my book.

Bernie
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Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:59 pm

I like Wright and hope he stays part of the squad, but at present I think he should not be in our first eleven.

That is because we have two good specialist right wingers in James and Devlin. Unless they are both unfit Wright should be on the bench. James looks much better when on the wing than trying to be striker.

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tinned
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Sun Jan 29, 2006 11:08 pm

Stu wrote:
Dave Roe wrote:Come on lads, he can't fight his way out of a paper fudge bag. He'd cack himself if my seven year old lad tried to tackle him. Rabbitt in the headlights, I'm afraid.


I didn't say he doesn't, but that doesn't take away from the fact (in black and white) that he creates goals.

A winger is there to create goals, he does that. He isn't there to make bone crunching tackles. He dodged no more tackles than Mads "I want 1 more touch than neccessary" Timms did.

A winger is there to hug the touchline, put crosses in and create goals. He does this, simple as in my book.


Yeah, but if his constant welching out of challenges means that the fullback is put under constant presure then that negates the positives he (occasionally) does.

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Sun Jan 29, 2006 11:10 pm

Dave Roe wrote:
Stu wrote:
Dave Roe wrote:Come on lads, he can't fight his way out of a paper fudge bag. He'd cack himself if my seven year old lad tried to tackle him. Rabbitt in the headlights, I'm afraid.


I didn't say he doesn't, but that doesn't take away from the fact (in black and white) that he creates goals.

A winger is there to create goals, he does that. He isn't there to make bone crunching tackles. He dodged no more tackles than Mads "I want 1 more touch than neccessary" Timms did.

A winger is there to hug the touchline, put crosses in and create goals. He does this, simple as in my book.


Yeah, but if his constant welching out of challenges means that the fullback is put under constant presure then that negates the positives he (occasionally) does.


Well thats then up to the full back to deal with. If Wright acts as a distraction and gets back and covers, which he often does then he's defensive duties are good enough as a winger.

I agree with Bernie that now we have Devlin, I'd use Wright off the bench, when he often looks more effective with his pace agaisnt tired defenders.

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