by muirinho »
04 Jan 2020 20:33
Walker - Mediocre. Had one decent save. Defence was poor for the first, but he was worse. And with a makeshift defence like that you really need confidence in the keeper behind you. Needs games - but I hope he doesn't get them here. Would like to see what Southwood is like - wonder will he get his chance in the replay
Howe - Got turned inside out a couple of times, and gave away a silly penalty - lucky to get away with that. Couple of decent blocks though, and showed more going forward. But I'm glad Gunter didn't leave in the summer window, because Howe is not ready for the likes of Fulham, and Yiadom's injury would have put us in serious trouble (Maybe Rino would have played RB?)
Miazga - Decent enough, but as captain, and the experienced head in that defence, he should have been a bit more pro-active in organising them. First half, a bit frustrated by him always taking the short easy pass instead of throwing in a few cross-field balls to players in space. 2nd half, we could see why he should always take the short easy pass....
Burley - A bit out of his depth to be honest. But got an important block in after penalty rebound (I think it was him anyway). Has plenty time on his side to improve.
Richards - OK going forward, still not great defensively - would have preferred him and Obita to swap postions to see what he'd be like as a midfielder
Rinomhota - Grand. Continually fouled, and the referee could have done far more to protect him
Olise - Had less time then he was used to, needs to speed up his thinking. But there's definitely something there. Not ready for serious first-team football, except for cameos off the bench maybe. If we're out of contention / danger would like to see him play more in the last few games
McCleary - Pretty patchy. Some decent attacking moments though
Boye - Such a frustrating player. Almost wants things to happen too much, and panics any time there's an opportunity to do something decent.
Obita - A shadow of his former self. Or maybe his former self wasn't as good as nostalgia tells me it was. So-so
Baldock - Great to see him back, MOTM for me
Loader - Good goal (although their keeper won't want to look at it again) Not a whole pile else though? But that seems churlish when he scored.
Aluko - Tried for about 5 minutes, seemed to decide it was all a bt too much like hard work after that. Probably not fully fit to be fair.
Medford-Smith - Got in a decent block during his cameo appearance, didn't see enough of him to work out if he's any closer than Burley.
All in all - was worth the £10 admission and the £5 busfare as it was actually a reasonably entertaining game. And we're still in the hat, and no first-team players injured. So I'm happy enough