BFTG - Swansea

[Zip]

It's not really about being big-headed as such. It's more that he strolls around the pitch, in his mind's eye a majestic figure, calmly pulling the strings and going about the game at total ease - all while being blindly unaware of the chaos his play is causing.

His style probably looks fantastic in low-intensity U23 games, but he just doesn't react to being put under pressure. He still plays like he's got all the time in the world.

Yep. I used to rate him but he makes serious mistakes in every game. I do not understand how he can still be starting.

At the moment I think it's a case of being fit enough to play 90 minutes.

Let’s play Osho who looked fine on his debut.

[URZZZZ]

Don't give the "he tried" argument, you could stick 11 athlete runners on the pitch and they would happily run around for 90 minutes. I don't agree with singling out people and booing them, but they were an utter disgrace today, McCleary and Meite being two of the biggest culprits, so I don't understand what we are clapping them for

Watch Aluko and Barrow closely. When they lose the ball , miss a tackle or an attack breaks down. They start to walk. No effort to even get behind the ball. Hardly surprising the opposition always seem to find space to play in when in comparison we struggle.

Of course you are correct, Aluko and Barrow are both completely useless and lazy although Aluko did try more than usual today. But this has been evident since the 17/18 season. Even when Barrow got his tap ins and people lauded him as our "best player" him and Aluko were still a core root of the problem in the sense that they didn't help the defenders and were often caught in completely random areas of the pitch, leaving 2 on 1s

The point is, why has this problem not been solved? You're taught at a young age that when you lose the ball, instead of whinging about it and blaming others ( aka Barrow) you go and win it back. Can Stam, Clement and now Gomes not see this? Or are they just two lazy selfish players?

To me, giving 100% isn't something to laud. For the wages and the actual time these footballers are "doing their job", 100% should be the absolute minimum. Ability should be in the question, and unfortunately whilst Meite shows the effort, he doesn't have the ability (excluding a purple patch at the start of the season)

[Snowflake Royal]

I’m confused with Ilori’s role in the game. Firstly, don’t buy all the ‘not as good as he thinks he is’ stuff, he always seems relatively humble whenever I’ve heard or read interviews. He plays a certain style which has brought him success as a pro footballer. He is no Robert Huth and never will be

Anyway, first of all, he was poor today. No denying that. But how did he end up spending the game marking McBurnie as well as playing the playmaker from the back. O Shea just seemed a total spare part

Thought Ilori did play some nice quick balls to the front and midfield men. Far more positive than Yiadom or O Shea were.

Maybe he is worth a go in DCM until Eza is fit (if he ever gets fit for us). Him and O Shea playing as they did today is never going to work well

Yeah, I think he's decent and has potential. Prone to lapses, but hey. Stick a decent experienced pillar next to him (not the washed up relegation machine, or Captain Penalty) and a reasonable midfield in front and I think he's fine.

[Lower West]

The point is, why has this problem not been solved? You're taught at a young age that when you lose the ball, instead of whinging about it and blaming others ( aka Barrow) you go and win it back. Can Stam, Clement and now Gomes not see this? Or are they just two lazy selfish players?

Wonder if Clement initially had to play Aluko (big money signing). Owner wanted to see his investment play. In the run up to his departure. Clement had dispensed with Aluko from the match day squad. Barrow was far from an automatic choice.

[Lower West]

We look doomed. The players have no footballing intelligence. To see Jaakkola early on play a short ball out to Rinomhota when he was already marked was idiotic. Rinomhota had no choice to play the ball back to him under pressure. His pass was on the firm side and Jaakkola struggled to control it and only just managed to clear it. Braindead football.

No different to Millwall. QPR fortunately didn't press us. Gomes and his team must be scratching their heads.

[Einstein agogo]

One defeat all year , but still.. the naysayers are out in force!

[Dr_Hfuhruhurr]

One defeat all year , but still.. the naysayers are out in force!

This year we've let in four times as many as we've scored!

[Emeraldroyal]

Pen - Yiadom was all over his back and when the player turned him he ran into his leg and went over. Soft, but you get that tight and physical in the box and you're asking for trouble.

I saw Swift do three things in the highlight. A lame freekick on target, a shit cross shot that had the keeper stepped back another inch or two would have been the lamest goal I've seen us score since Al-Habsi dropped the ball in his own net against us, and then a pointless turn into trouble and pass straight to a Swansea player to start a break that nearly led to a goal. Obviously not representative of his performance across the entire match. He really just can't play proper midfield, he's got one position where he isn't just a liability who occasionally takes a nice free kick or does some flashy control or pass, and that's No. 10 - in fairness got Gomes, we don't have a lot of options with Bacuna acting like a teenage moron and a casualty list longer than the Light Brigade's.

Some horrendous defending in there. Yiadom has obviously given up trying and is resigned to getting relegated from the Championship two seasons in a row after a very poor career choice to come here. Still, at least he isn't on O'Shea's hat-trick of relegations, the man to organise our defence. PMSL.

Agree with Ian Royal.

When horses are in pain and can no longer function they are taken behind the barn and shot. We need about 16 bullets.

We'd still miss.

I can only say as the one who played the Caraboa ‘can you kick it’ challenge yesterday at half time.
I managed to knock two over. Skimmed a third and almost took a cameraman out with second.

Hanging up my boots

Can’t be arsed reviewing the game. Piss poor end of.

[Hound]

Ha actually watched that carabao challenge thing for once. Wtf were those last 2 efforts?

[Old Man Andrews]

He got to meet the stadiums PA bloke so that's a prize in itself.

[Snowball]

After watching highlights, Barrow is doing nothing so right-side player has all the time in the world to cross.

Saying that we have both CBs sandwiching their striker who should do better. He does very well.


Barrow DID (at least) tackle back just before the second goal. Shame that he couldn't either tap the ball out for a throw, or welly it past half-way. The soft/miss-kick was just one of those things

I thought the third goal was offside. I had to ignore the kicker and listen for the kick. Then (to me) scorer went early, and was offside.


The penalty looked ridiculously harsh.


We are still conceding goals near start-time, half-time, 2, 45, 47!!


Live I thought Harriott's goal was a bit of a bundle but it looked far better on replay.

And we are letting him leave?

Rhino had a good game. Wouldn't be surprised to see bigger clubs come sniffing in January. Swift was decent

Unlike some, I thought our LB did mostly OK and saved one certain goal.
It wasn't his fault that Swansea often had extra men on the right.



But unless we get a freak and good result VERY soon, this side has relegated itself, and at least 50% is mental. I honestly believe one 0-1 steal followed by beating a bottom-third side and they could start playing. They show in flashes that they could be a decent side.

I think, though, probably, the best thing to do is break the team up, change the almost-fixed-now mentality. Even if we brought in 5-6-7 (and yes they would need time to gel) it would probably pay. If they took six games, so what? We are hardly expecting more than three points from those six games anyway, and if the newbies couldn't then start us winning well and stay up, at least we would be on the way to a fresh not-expecting-to-lose-every-game team (that will bounce straight back.

[Hound]

Harriott's goal was actually very nice. Lovely bit of interplay between him and Loader. Obvs whether they could have done that at 0-0 may be a different matter

3rd goal looks very much offside to me - think the goalscorer thought so to. 2nd potentially a foul on Jaakola. One thing that annoys me a bit is how we just accept these things on the pitch. I know you respect the ref an all that, but we seem to regularly be on the wrong end of poor or 50/50 decisions - Boro handball, fairly harsh sendings off at Millwall, yellow cards not being given to the opponent (Their 23 100% should have been sent off for throwing the ball away) - and just walk off with our heads down.

^^^This is by no means an apology for an abysmal performance before anyone suggests otherwise. We didn't lose because the ref was a bit rubbish

[tee peg]

One of the most depressing days watching Reading and left after the fourth Goal.I was very optimistic
after the QPR game and thought that we could start the new year on a high.Normal service resumed.
Dreading next Saturday.

[Emeraldroyal]

Ha actually watched that carabao challenge thing for once. Wtf were those last 2 efforts?

Poor. Got cocky after the first beauty.
Tried to put the laces through it.
Must try harder

[Henley Royal 1]

Don't give the "he tried" argument, you could stick 11 athlete runners on the pitch and they would happily run around for 90 minutes. I don't agree with singling out people and booing them, but they were an utter disgrace today, McCleary and Meite being two of the biggest culprits, so I don't understand what we are clapping them for

Watch Aluko and Barrow closely. When they lose the ball , miss a tackle or an attack breaks down. They start to walk. No effort to even get behind the ball. Hardly surprising the opposition always seem to find space to play in when in comparison we struggle.

Of course you are correct, Aluko and Barrow are both completely useless and lazy although Aluko did try more than usual today. But this has been evident since the 17/18 season. Even when Barrow got his tap ins and people lauded him as our "best player" him and Aluko were still a core root of the problem in the sense that they didn't help the defenders and were often caught in completely random areas of the pitch, leaving 2 on 1s

The point is, why has this problem not been solved? You're taught at a young age that when you lose the ball, instead of whinging about it and blaming others ( aka Barrow) you go and win it back. Can Stam, Clement and now Gomes not see this? Or are they just two lazy selfish players?

To me, giving 100% isn't something to laud. For the wages and the actual time these footballers are "doing their job", 100% should be the absolute minimum. Ability should be in the question, and unfortunately whilst Meite shows the effort, he doesn't have the ability (excluding a purple patch at the start of the season)

Exactly though we would be bottom but for Meite.

[Millsy]

I've always said the day Liability-Blackett is seen as a good option is the day we know we're in deep trouble and this is definitely that day given the comments above. The comments aren't wrong, because he has improved and he is probably better than the shit we have but he is still a liability and this is a sad day indeed.

Illori is another one we knew a while back was mistake prone, lazy etc yet we've been hailing his return to the squad.

O'Shea we always knew was shite, has taken teams down before. Yet he is seen as a good option.

RIchards, whilst up and coming, has had woeful games for us and is nowhere near safe.

Jak we know has always been poor yet we are playing him because he's less bad than the alternatives. (Just a quick word about Mannone btw he is not a bad keeper, but since the poor lad's mum died he seems to have taken quite a hit in performance poor chap).

Yiadom to be fair has always been solid so no issues there (for me).

So we basically have a defence of second rate players, so poor that we are waiting for Blackett to return, and are wondering why we are leaking goals?

Midfield - **** knows what's going on there. I will never forgive Stam for flooding the midfield with a load of shite for no reason. Very bizarre. Now we're paying the price. Thankfully we have Rino, we have Eza on the way back, Swift I think is quality although I know people disagree. Barrow, McCleary and now Harriott I believe will be good.

Strikers - what strikers? Of course we still need one. But looking back at the likes of Nogan and Archie etc.. they weren't necessarily brilliant btu in a good team strikers can shine. Vyrda rubbish for us but great elsewhere. A decent striker won't solve our problems, although we should have one yes.

SO in summary I think we need to sort out the defence. Moore must always start he's the only decent player we have but he'll be gone at the end of the season. We *STILL* are desperate for a LB whilst Obita is out. We need another very decent CB or two. We are desperate for a keeper. We must sort out the defence and the rest will follow.

[Millsy]

And now I've just watched the extended highlights. My observations, for what they're worth.

1) 1st goal was just a good goal, to be fair. Decent defenders might have done a better job but I think it was a great cross and fantastic header.

2) 2nd goal - Richards just let the man run through to head it across and set up the goal.

3) 3rd goal - Richards again just completely let the guy run in and score, like he forgot he was playing a football match!!??

4) Aluko - from the highlights seemed to do some stuff - very impressed!!

5) My favourite, Swift, ridiculous pass to noone in the middle of the field, and Swansea almost (should have!) scored from. Maybe I'm wrong about him!!!

Overall, to me Richards is nowhere near ready to play for the first team . I put two goals solely down to him. WIthout those cockups we may have had a chance at 1-0 as we did some good stuff.

It just goes to show a weak link in defence can screw everything up. I hope I never see him in a Reading shirt again to be honest. Makes Blackett look reliable!!!

[URZZZZ]

I've always said the day Liability-Blackett is seen as a good option is the day we know we're in deep trouble and this is definitely that day given the comments above. The comments aren't wrong, because he has improved and he is probably better than the shit we have but he is still a liability and this is a sad day indeed.

Illori is another one we knew a while back was mistake prone, lazy etc yet we've been hailing his return to the squad.

O'Shea we always knew was shite, has taken teams down before. Yet he is seen as a good option.

RIchards, whilst up and coming, has had woeful games for us and is nowhere near safe.

Jak we know has always been poor yet we are playing him because he's less bad than the alternatives. (Just a quick word about Mannone btw he is not a bad keeper, but since the poor lad's mum died he seems to have taken quite a hit in performance poor chap).

Yiadom to be fair has always been solid so no issues there (for me).

So we basically have a defence of second rate players, so poor that we are waiting for Blackett to return, and are wondering why we are leaking goals?

Midfield - **** knows what's going on there. I will never forgive Stam for flooding the midfield with a load of shite for no reason. Very bizarre. Now we're paying the price. Thankfully we have Rino, we have Eza on the way back, Swift I think is quality although I know people disagree. Barrow, McCleary and now Harriott I believe will be good.

Strikers - what strikers? Of course we still need one. But looking back at the likes of Nogan and Archie etc.. they weren't necessarily brilliant btu in a good team strikers can shine. Vyrda rubbish for us but great elsewhere. A decent striker won't solve our problems, although we should have one yes.

SO in summary I think we need to sort out the defence. Moore must always start he's the only decent player we have but he'll be gone at the end of the season. We *STILL* are desperate for a LB whilst Obita is out. We need another very decent CB or two. We are desperate for a keeper. We must sort out the defence and the rest will follow.

Agree with most of that, it's quite sad how Blackett has been our standout defender this season, forget Yiadom, he's vastly overrated IMO, one 8 out of 10 game every 3 games just isn't good enough. Blackett does lack a brain at times, if he could fix his concentration levels, I think he'd be a very good player but I don't think he ever will

I think you're harsh on Bod, he's had a great season so far, I would certainly categorise him as a "decent striker". Think McCleary is finished as well and Barrow has been poor for 12 months, I think the wingers are the biggest problem

[Snowflake Royal]

Agree with Ian Royal.

When horses are in pain and can no longer function they are taken behind the barn and shot. We need about 16 bullets.

We'd still miss.

I can only say as the one who played the Caraboa ‘can you kick it’ challenge yesterday at half time.
I managed to knock two over. Skimmed a third and almost took a cameraman out with second.

Hanging up my boots

Can’t be arsed reviewing the game. Piss poor end of.

Did you get to meet the rather pretty events lady who often wanders around the pitch with a clipboard?

[Old Man Andrews]

We'd still miss.

I can only say as the one who played the Caraboa ‘can you kick it’ challenge yesterday at half time.
I managed to knock two over. Skimmed a third and almost took a cameraman out with second.

Hanging up my boots

Can’t be arsed reviewing the game. Piss poor end of.

Did you get to meet the rather pretty events lady who often wanders around the pitch with a clipboard?

She left a month ago. Victim of Gourlay.