MATCHWATCH : Barnsley (a)

[Franchise FC]

P39, W11. I can't imagine why people might think there's some criticism warranted.

Ridiculous injury list for a significant portion of those 39 games
I can’t imagine why people might think that cutting the team/club some slack is a good idea

[Notts Royal]

Fully enjoyed the end of that game…rare to have both sides going for it in the last 10. Living not too far away, really enjoyed the drive through some stunning Yorkshire countryside.

1st half was a poor performance, the only quality came towards the end when Swift decided he’d had enough of the ball not getting beyond the halfway line & picked it up to start trying things. As others have eluded to, oxf*rd me Ejaria is overrated…what does he add? I’d prefer to see a limited winger who can at least beat his man & play with a bit of tempo. Which ironically is exactly what Ince is, who I thought was our most likely goal outlet until the personnel change.

Despite the praise, and 2nd half it was completely warranted, I thought Drinkwater was poor in the 1st half. His usual lazy self (from what I’ve seen) & i won’t be sorry to see the back of him. However, booing him & the HT incident is not fair. I’d like to see more of TDB instead as he’s got something about him.

Laurent was dreadful in the 1st half. No movement at all & not a lot the CBs could do. That’s where we miss Rino. However, you can’t not love him after that goal & he has been a decent signing for us.

Joao…another frustrating lazy performance. Would love to see us sign a striker with movement who can run the channels in the summer. Taking his shirt off at HT highlighted his lack of commitment in that half to me.

Biggest issue however is that back line…it needs major surgery in the summer. Morrison is on a McShane-style decline. Both really good signings for us initially, but now lost his legs. McIntyre very exposed at LB, but we all know that’s not playing to his strengths. Yiadom is limited but at least put in a decent showing.

Ince fair play to him for that sub & putting Swift out wide. For me Swift was great in the 2nd half & I wish him well in the summer.

All the deficiencies in the performance were forgotten were forgotten in that moment of pure ecstasy when the goal went it. That’s what football is all about! Massive goal for us

[NathStPaul]

P39, W11. I can't imagine why people might think there's some criticism warranted.

Ridiculous injury list for a significant portion of those 39 games
I can’t imagine why people might think that cutting the team/club some slack is a good idea

The club has been cut a lot of slack for the past three seasons, that is why we are where we are. We as supporters are more than entitled to criticise the current woeful bunch.

Narrowly avoiding relegation isn't success, it's piss poor. The club is rotten to the core and our supporters being in any way happy with what is currently being served up shows just how far we have fallen.

[Hound]

Tired of this conversation but the idea that previous managers have got little out of Ejaria is absolute nonsense

Again don’t want to say whoscored is the absolute authority but it had him in the top 20 players in the entire division 2 years running. And that was in a far from brilliant reading side

He isn’t perfect and definitely needs to add more to his game but he has done alright for us

[Millsy]

Felt like a win tbf.

Booing DD is just bizarre. He's done ok in recent games when not asked to pass it in the box. Today he was decent.

He epitomises everything wrong with football and the way our club is run imo.

He's vastly overpaid, won the league, got his big pay day and given up really putting the effort in once he's been signed by Chelsea. Solely to stop anyone else competing with them from having him.

He's stepped down a division on loan to revitalise a dying career, as an obviously one of the most talented players in our squad and week in week out almost without exception he makes basic lazy error after basic lazy error.

He should be absolutely running the show against every team in the division and he's probably our worst performing midfielder over the season.

We signed him because he's a Name we could get from a big club, with no effort to think why he's available, whether he's what we needed or if he'd deliver.

I'm certainly not letting him off the hook for being shit because he has 1 good game in 8.

Don’t disagree with most of that but he is what he is. He’s trying hard enough now and has done ok since Ince has come in. I feel he’s another one of those players who is blamed for his wage and past worth rather than what he brings to the table.

[Millsy]

Seems like Ejaria starting has coincided with an upturn in our form. Either he isn’t over-marked, changes the game and we score, like the other game. Or he attracts lots of markers and opens up the midfield for the rest of the team. This has been blatantly obvious for months yet we’re still back to knocking him and it’s getting quite boring tbh.

[Hound]

Yep the process and choice of signing him might not have been ideal

But we have pretty tight restrictions. No fee and 8.5k a week on paper looked a cracking deal for him. And he hasn’t been awful overall, just a bit underwhelming really

Attitude seems ok on the pitch and he’s basically managed to stay fit

A cheap gamble that has proven to be about as successful as you may expect from 8.5 pw

[Hound]

Seems like Ejaria starting has coincided with an upturn in our form. Either he isn’t marked, changes the game and we score, like the other game. Or he attracts lots of markers and opens up the midfield for the rest of the team. This has been blatantly obvious for months yet we’re still back to knocking him and it’s getting quite boring tbh.

I feel it’s just a football fan distrust of anyone a bit showy

For me he has been better than Rino for the past two years, but Rino being from the academy and a head down hard worker gets a free pass for being pretty damn average or injured for 18 months whilst we all seem happy to jump on Ejaria or swift the minute they have a bad game or 2

[Orion1871]

Admittedly this is only from the highlights but looked to me like Ejaria created some of our better chances yesterday.

Second half against Blackburn aside I've thought that since he's been back from "injury" he seems to be trying to get crosses and shots in more than his usual trying to beat everyone three times.

[Royal_jimmy]

Agree he had a decent game. Until it came time to actually achieving anything.

Someone will take a punt on being able to get more out of him for about £1m, I'm sure.

Absolutely oodles of examples of talented disappointments getting multiple second chances out there.

You do know Drinkwater's been one of the defensive midfielders for most of the season, right?

If £1m was the best we could get then I'd rather keep Ejaria. We would do well to find a replacement with a fee that low

We got Laurent for nothing on half the wages.

Yes we did but we were lucky with Laurent. Many punts like him dont work out.

[Royal_jimmy]

I think Ejaria will he a massively important player next season. Swift will go who wont be easy to replace. We would be nuts to let Ejaria go unless we had a silly offer come in and I'm talking £5m+. No one in the academy looks ready to step up consistently. Camara should play more next season but I wouldn't want players like him playing every week unless we definitely know he's good enough and ready. I'd look at getting Ejaria in a centre attacking midfield role with Camara as understudy next season.

[Stranded]

Problem with wanting Camara to play more next year is he needs to sign a deal first.

[Snowflake Royal]

P39, W11. I can't imagine why people might think there's some criticism warranted.

Ridiculous injury list for a significant portion of those 39 games
I can’t imagine why people might think that cutting the team/club some slack is a good idea

Doesn't make anyone play badly when they're fit though.

[Crowbar6753]

I think Ejaria will he a massively important player next season. Swift will go who wont be easy to replace. We would be nuts to let Ejaria go unless we had a silly offer come in and I'm talking £5m+. No one in the academy looks ready to step up consistently. Camara should play more next season but I wouldn't want players like him playing every week unless we definitely know he's good enough and ready. I'd look at getting Ejaria in a centre attacking midfield role with Camara as understudy next season.

Agreed Jimmy, with Swift leaving then i really think this is the time for Ejaria to be given the role just behind Joao! Lets face it, Ejaria really isn't a wide player and i would much prefer a more direct pacey style of player in this position. I would like to see more of Brandon Barker in this position as he looked exactly this in his short cameo the other week.

[Snowflake Royal]

Tired of this conversation but the idea that previous managers have got little out of Ejaria is absolute nonsense

Again don’t want to say whoscored is the absolute authority but it had him in the top 20 players in the entire division 2 years running. And that was in a far from brilliant reading side

He isn’t perfect and definitely needs to add more to his game but he has done alright for us

All that does is show you can't trust those ratings

[Snowflake Royal]

Seems like Ejaria starting has coincided with an upturn in our form. Either he isn’t marked, changes the game and we score, like the other game. Or he attracts lots of markers and opens up the midfield for the rest of the team. This has been blatantly obvious for months yet we’re still back to knocking him and it’s getting quite boring tbh.

I feel it’s just a football fan distrust of anyone a bit showy

For me he has been better than Rino for the past two years, but Rino being from the academy and a head down hard worker gets a free pass for being pretty damn average or injured for 18 months whilst we all seem happy to jump on Ejaria or swift the minute they have a bad game or 2

If you're a creative player, you simply need to deliver goals and assists. Ejaria's best in a season is 3 goals and 5 assists. In 106 (5) appearances, he's got 9 goals and 12 assists. After three and a half seasons it's just not really good enough. His game hasn't really improved in recent seasons. He's now a senior experienced player and one of our higher earners.

Don't agree in the slightest that he's been better than Rino.

You can forgive Swift losses of form because you know he can deliver under the right circumstances. He's more than pulled his weight this season. Ejaria's never done that.

[Millsy]

Tired of this conversation but the idea that previous managers have got little out of Ejaria is absolute nonsense

Again don’t want to say whoscored is the absolute authority but it had him in the top 20 players in the entire division 2 years running. And that was in a far from brilliant reading side

He isn’t perfect and definitely needs to add more to his game but he has done alright for us

All that does is show you can't trust those ratings

Evidence goes against your beliefs? Evidence must be wrong. Gareth Keenan and his calculator would be proud.

Ok I'm certain you're trolling now. Another good game for him and literally the bottom of the list when it comes to talking points for a very eventful match yet somehow he's dragged up as something to discuss. Mind boggles.

[Snowflake Royal]

Tired of this conversation but the idea that previous managers have got little out of Ejaria is absolute nonsense

Again don’t want to say whoscored is the absolute authority but it had him in the top 20 players in the entire division 2 years running. And that was in a far from brilliant reading side

He isn’t perfect and definitely needs to add more to his game but he has done alright for us

All that does is show you can't trust those ratings

Evidence goes against your beliefs? Evidence must be wrong. Gareth Keenan and his calculator would be proud.

Ok I'm certain you're trolling now. Another good game for him and literally the bottom of the list when it comes to talking points yet somehow he's dragged up as something to discuss.

No, I'm not trolling. Those stats are useful as individual metrics to be informative, but the second you try putting together a complex calculation to give a quality rating, it's pointless.

Watching players >>> greater than some arbitrary algorithm based on stats that are only a partial reflection of the game anyway.

Does anyone really think Yiadom has been our second best player this season? Swift's obvious and is just scored really well on the really obvious two stats - goals and assists. Or Carroll third? Do you really think Joao has been worse than Ejaria this season?

[Zip]

I think Ejaria will he a massively important player next season. Swift will go who wont be easy to replace. We would be nuts to let Ejaria go unless we had a silly offer come in and I'm talking £5m+. No one in the academy looks ready to step up consistently. Camara should play more next season but I wouldn't want players like him playing every week unless we definitely know he's good enough and ready. I'd look at getting Ejaria in a centre attacking midfield role with Camara as understudy next season.

Yep agree with this. I would like to see Ejaria taking over from Swift in a central attacking midfield role. I think it will suit him better than playing wide which doesn’t play to his strengths.

[Hound]

All that does is show you can't trust those ratings

Evidence goes against your beliefs? Evidence must be wrong. Gareth Keenan and his calculator would be proud.

Ok I'm certain you're trolling now. Another good game for him and literally the bottom of the list when it comes to talking points yet somehow he's dragged up as something to discuss.

No, I'm not trolling. Those stats are useful as individual metrics to be informative, but the second you try putting together a complex calculation to give a quality rating, it's pointless.

Watching players >>> greater than some arbitrary algorithm based on stats that are only a partial reflection of the game anyway.

Does anyone really think Yiadom has been our second best player this season? Swift's obvious and is just scored really well on the really obvious two stats - goals and assists. Or Carroll third? Do you really think Joao has been worse than Ejaria this season?

I wouldn’t necessarily argue with either no. Joao had a great month but been pretty rubbish in other games. Yiadom has been solid throughout - I don’t think anyone has been considerably better - who did you have in mind?

The ratings aren’t perfect no. But you look through the top 20 or 30 and yes they nearly all sound about right

Problem with watching games is that it’s always subjective. So I like ejaria and will prob look on him more kindly than you. I’ll focus on the good stuff he does and forget the rubbish and you’ll prob do the opposite. That’s not a criticism that’s basic human nature