Player marks

[bottom left hand corner]

USA 6
Murts 6
Doobs 5
Inga 6
Shorey 4
Fae 6
Harper 5
Gunnar 4
Hunt 5
Lita 4.5
Doyle 4

[Platypuss]

How strange: I thought Shorey was by far our best player today - the only one who was composed on the ball, neat and tidy and looked like he knew what he was doing.

Hunt - how can one man have so much of the ball and do so little with it?

Murty - excused as so obviously not yet match fit.

Bryn - too slow to get forward to support attacks, too slow to get back to defend. NOT a 38 games a season player.

Lita - fair enough, try and win a free kick for the "marginal" balls, but if it's to feet - please try and make something of it.

Kitson - should have started.

Doyle - maybe right wing would be a good place to rebuild, confidence gone.

Strangest decision for me was to take Fae off and leave Gunnarsson on - he really needs a chance to see what he can do in centre-mid, and Bryn was just awful today.

[readingfc13]

Harper 3 was he playing?

Harsh, I thought Harper played relatively well today

He is good at keeping the ball moving but thats about it. I never get the feeling that he is going to create anything going through the middle and if we are to believe that he is now the more attacking of the central midfield pair then currently he isnt getting far enough forward to join in with the attack. Still though he doesn't deserve a 3. A 5 would be about right I think.

[No Hoops]

First time we have been out played since Arsenal.

USA 7
Murts 6
Dubs 5
Inga 5
Sorey 6
Fae 5
Harps 5
Gunna 4
Hunt 5
Lita 5
Doyle 3 (not just the pen, but positioning was crap)
KIts 7
USA2 7

Can see Doyle being on the subs bench in place of Kits for a while.

HUnt on the right, USA2 on the left. Gunna needs to be replaced by Cisse.
Bikey in for Dubs.

[International Royal]

We shouldn't over react to this, today a better sharper team won. I always thought that this was going to be a difficult season and I think it's likely that we'll be the relegation mix.

The great team of 2005/6 is starting to break up but tht was always going to happen. However on the positive side there are enough of them to get us firing, they have to be played.

Convey should come back on the left now, he's ready. That will be one partnership restored. I would go with Bikey and Ingi and stick with them at least untl Sonks is back in the picture. The problem araes are CM, I would go with Fae & Harper. RM would be Oster when he's back if Little is out for a protracted period. Failing that Doyle.

Kitson is also now ready to start.

If you look at the line-up today it looked strong, more or less full strength with a strong bench but those combinations are not working. I am also concerned about the discipline and keeping the shape. Both those third goals (Bolton & today) came in stoppage time when the games were already lost. Some may say it doesn't matter but in the Prem it does.

The major positive out of today and the comment afterwards is that no-one is critical of a lack of effort. They are still a very hard working team. Hard work will hopefully bring its own rewards.

[beno]

good post international... totally agree

partnerships are important, give convey a run and hunt a break

one thing really obvious to me is to play players in the right positions... so as you say give oster the right wing slot.

agree try fae and harper in CM, hopefully it will work. i feel somebody like koumas would have been a good addition to give us some attacking flair in the middle.

ingi is slow so we need pace which duberry hasnt got so bikey should play til sonko is back.

[Jerry St Clair]

Lita - fair enough, try and win a free kick for the "marginal" balls, but if it's to feet - please try and make something of it.

Strangest decision for me was to take Fae off and leave Gunnarsson on - he really needs a chance to see what he can do in centre-mid, and Bryn was just awful today.

The old Lita was back today. Tumbling over like skittles - infuriating.

Agree about Fae. Thought he looked pacy, solid and skillful on the right. Just what we need in midfield.

[Wycombe Royal]

I thought Murty was our worst player today. Out of position frequently, very slow and generally gave Etherington far too much space,

As an individual Fae looked good, but unfortunately had zero link up play with his teammates.

Gunnarsson was also awful. Slow, poor first touch, failing to win the ball, zero passing ability.

I could go on.....

Convey and Kitson were the only positives for me.

[Bristol Paul]

Thought Fae looked ok to be honest, especially as he is clearly a central midfielder, not a right winger. Doyle needs a goal so badly its not true (why didnt Kitson take that penalty?).

The 2 full backs had dreadful games, leaving Doobs and Ingi exposed to the break time and time again.

Lita needs to stand up, f%cking annoying, even I thought the ref should book him he did it so often.

Just glad these 3-0 drubbings have happened now and no need to panic - though Coppell was very honest in his assessment.

Bottom line is quailty costs money, and we aren't prepared to shell out.

[andrew1957]

I was impressed with Fae - but clearly he will be much better in centre midfield.

I am really confused about Kevin Doyle - he has been fantastic for us for two seasons but now seems devoid of confidence. Even as early as the Peace Cup he did not seem quite right to me but I have no idea why. He has been such an influence for us we really need him back firing on all cylinders. Letting him take the penalty was a disastrous mistake. The last thing a player low on confidence needs is a penalty miss. I really think Kitson would have scored. Come on Kevin you can get back to your best.

Not sure anyone had a great game. USA made some great saves to stop a repeat of the 6-0 score line (the other way round). Shorey looked ok but the defence was generally all over the place. Hunty was not his usual self and only Convey and kitson looked in any sort of form when they got on.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

I thought Murty was our worst player today. Out of position frequently, very slow .

It wasnt much better on the left side.

The worst player by far was Lita. Completely pointless.

[The Quiet Man]

I think Doyle is worried that at some point he would have a sh*t spell and its becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. At the start of the season he seemed to me to be trying too hard and doing too much and now he seems to be drifting into the lack of confidence. He really needed to put away that penalty to get going yet never looked like he was going to do it. I haven't seen too much wrong with his general game but any striker needs confidence and he looks like a guy whose fabulous two seasons have just caught up with him a little bit.

[PieEater]

Marcus, looked suspect for the first goal but could do little about the rest
Murty, caught out twice by Etherington but overall did OK
Ivar, and Doobs I thought did ok against a blatently cheating Ashton that the ref refused to punish for persistent fouls
Shorey, did not look sharp but most of our best stuff came from him
Fae was OK but I thought his first touch was pretty poor.
Harper, lots of running but no penetration, but again there was little movement or options for him
Gunnar, tried hard but really doesn;t look good enough
Hunt looked off the pace and his crossing was non existent, should have been subbed
Doyle, poor pen and also missed a great chance later, I'd still put him first on the team sheet
Lita, anyone else with half a braincell would realise the Webb was not going to give him anything despite being blatantly fouled. Spent too long winging about not getting free kicks

Kitson looked sharp when he came on, Convey did very little, Cisse no real verdict.

[Amongst the sheep]

Both those third goals (Bolton & today) came in stoppage time when the games were already lost. Some may say it doesn't matter but in the Prem it does.

If we hadn't conceeded them we wouldn't be in the bottom 3

[Irvinchangeyaname]

Lita, anyone else with half a braincell would realise the Webb was not going to give him anything despite being blatantly fouled. Spent too long winging about not getting free kicks

If Lita's first inclination was to stay on his feet rather than look for a foul, I think we would see a far better return from him.

Agree with those that say Kitson should start. He's our best winger at the moment!

[working class hero]

Even MOTD described Lita as 'theatrical'.

His dives are going to have to be a great deal less transparent if he wants free kicks....

[Royal Lady]

Even MOTD described Lita as 'theatrical'.

His dives are going to have to be a great deal less transparent if he wants free kicks....

I thought MOTD were unfair, they didn't show a close up of the two handed push that was right in front of the ref - he appeared to start falling down after he was awarded nothing that blatant push - not saying he's right to do so, it infuriates me, but I think he was going all out (in his mind) for retribution for that foul. He seemed to stop play acting towards the end of last season when he came back after being dropped, and I think Coppell needs to have another strong word with him.

Some of his jumps for headers were Sonko-esque yesterday and he's probably our only player (other than Convey) who you think could actually do something when he's on the ball.

I don't know what Doyle's problem is at the moment - but there is a problem, lack of confidence probably. But to put that in some sort of perspective, Andy Johnson hasn't scored this season yet - so it's not all doom and gloom for him. With regards the penalty, it appeared no-one else was interested - he took the ball straight away and no-one appeared to challenge him, so I presumed Doyle was our appointed penalty taker.

In the cold light of this morning, despite being mightily p!ssed off last night, I think we can turn it around in the next few games, although Sunderland away will be very difficult and we might not get anything out of that game. However, as it always used to be, even in the old Division 4, if we lose but everyone appeared to give 100% you can't feel too down. Yesterday, imho, no-one gave 100%, whether all the discussion surrounding Shorey knocked them as a team or not, I don't know - but here's hoping we can turn it around, get a couple of people back from injury and who knows!

[papereyes]

Harper should appear in the Taxi section on soccer am for his miss I expected it to be put into row FF as usual.

I'd already ducked. Murked.

As for 'nullifying our threat' - we did that to ourselves, imo.

We beat Everton using wingers and pace and work rate. All three were absent yesterday.

[working class hero]

Yesterday, imho, no-one gave 100%

I think Kitson, Convey and Hunt all gave 100%. Admittedly Hunt lacked the quality we expect -but the other two seemed to turn the game and if the penalty had been scored I would have expected a draw.

[PEARCEY]

We do need more pace in the side which Rosenior and Bikey will provide and I would like to see both play against Sunderland.
I would still retain Doyle upfront. This is his first bad patch at the club although since his injury against Everton in January he has not recaptured the form of the first half of last season. He is also not an unknown quantity to other teams anymore. Have faith in him he will come good again.