Rooney In!

[RadioactiveWaste]

1 minute ago, Rammy03 said:

Shinnie has undoubtedly improved, Buchanan as well

Hasn't Bird been playing better lately?

 

[GrimsbyRam]

1 minute ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Hasn't Bird been playing better lately?

 

I am not sure he has.  We have only won 3 games all season when he has started.  Not a witch hunt as he's a young lad but I do not see all the fuss about him.  He clearly does not influence the game. Terrible goals ratio.  He is not strong enough.  His set pieces are woeful. 

[RoyMac5]

7 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

I remember saying at the time I thought it would backfire.

50:50

[JayRam1]

7 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

Shinnie has undoubtedly improved, Buchanan as well

Buchanan seriously? He can’t get ahead of Forsyth at the minute, he was in the young England squad not so long ago before pooney took over! He’s gone downhill massively 

[kevinhectoring]

26 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

Didn't exactly have a lot to bring off the bench and we haven't all season long. It's a poor squad

I was more thinking that - unusually - we were doing ok and the substitutions did little but halt our fluency. (As has been said on other threads) 

[Ramarena]

33 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

Not a great deal more 

Hard to know, there are some managers who can galvanize a squad and get them performing way beyond the sum of their parts. Barnsley, Luton and Millwall (good old snakey) are prime examples this season. 

 

 

[kevinhectoring]

18 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Changed things yes, different. Colin should have scored two headers. Festy should have had a penalty.

One header was good, well saved. The other less impressive. But as we have seen, Colin is a mighty wardrobe but not in fact a great header in front of goal. So you got exactly what you expected from that substitution so far as headers are concerned... not enough. And you also got a lot of direct football (whooping) which was a shame, because our modest impersonation of Arsenal before he came on was proving pretty effective 

[Rammy03]

18 minutes ago, JayRam1 said:

Buchanan seriously? He can’t get ahead of Forsyth at the minute, he was in the young England squad not so long ago before pooney took over! He’s gone downhill massively 

He hasn't been good recently, but he has been good under Rooney when we were picking up results. Better than he was under Cocu

[kevinhectoring]

19 minutes ago, GrimsbyRam said:

I am not sure he has.  We have only won 3 games all season when he has started.  Not a witch hunt as he's a young lad but I do not see all the fuss about him.  He clearly does not influence the game. Terrible goals ratio.  He is not strong enough.  His set pieces are woeful. 

C’mon, Bird had a very good game against Blackburn. Ok, he was under less pressure than usual in possession and he was given more space. But I thought he used the ball well, consistently,  and he showed some excellent skill at times. The problem is this was well above his usual performance 

[GboroRam]

35 minutes ago, TexasRam said:

Virtually? So not too confident that’ll happen. One game or consistently? Awful decision maker, greedy, weak and the thing that bothers me more is him squealing and rolling around every time he gets tackled I dont want that at our club. I watched the game on the Blackburn iFollow and the commentators where fuming at his antics. 

Well, there's little I hate more than people who write like they're the oracle of all things. I could say "it's a fact that..." but that'd be bull. Of course I can't guarantee what will happen, but wait and see. I'm sure he'll be a top level player, but we aren't able to capitalise on it. I'm sure someone will though. 

[GboroRam]

38 minutes ago, jono said:

I thought you said in your earlier post we had been unlucky in relative terms ? I think we have .. not by a great degree and we are we are are on the balance of luck, skill and whatever else. It does go both ways for all sides - I always remember that Tom Lawrence header after Bennett’s cross in the dieing  moments - that was one where we were flipping lucky but the number of games where 1 goal has been key and we have had the rough end this season ? . The balance hasn’t been with us .. but .. hey it could swing the other way in the next 4 games and parity willl be restored

No, sorry, I was saying the opposite. You'll remember the decisions that go against us as its a form of confirmation bias. You'll not see so evidently the decisions that go in our favour, or you'll gloss over them as warranted, justified or not so controversial as the ones against us. 

Over 46 games it has to be negligible in its impact. 

[GrimsbyRam]

12 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

C’mon, Bird had a very good game against Blackburn. Ok, he was under less pressure than usual in possession and he was given more space. But I thought he used the ball well, consistently,  and he showed some excellent skill at times. The problem is this was well above his usual performance 

better but still no massive influence and Shinnie was still better defensively and going forwards.

[JfR]

28 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

It really wasn't

The thing is though, Rooney made changes from the 4-3-3 even before the Cardiff game, because it wasn't really working without Bielik. Rotherham was the 4-3-3 with Bird in for Bielik and we lost. Watford was a 4-3-3, albeit with Roberts and Edmundson in for Jozwiak and Clarke, and we lost. Forest was a 4-3-3 and we were struggling until Gregory was brought on, we went 4-4-2 and got back into the game. The three wins were with 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 in the case of the Huddersfield game. When we've used 4-3-3, or for that matter 3-4-3 with a lone striker, since it also hasn't worked. I think Brentford shows this better than most games, where we were thoroughly outplayed first half in a 4-3-3, and then outplayed them when we went with two up top in the second half.

The big problem seems to be that we're struggling to make the 4-4-2 formation effective with Gregory injured, which I think has been reflected in the last two games. I keep thinking of that cross Roberts put in near the end of the game yesterday across the six yard box. It's those sorts of balls that Gregory was converting from, but without him no one seems to be making the runs to get on the end of them, so they're being wasted. I'm hoping if Waghorn or Stretton get back soon they might be able to do a job of filling that vacancy.

[GrimsbyRam]

51 minutes ago, TexasRam said:

Virtually? So not too confident that’ll happen. One game or consistently? Awful decision maker, greedy, weak and the thing that bothers me more is him squealing and rolling around every time he gets tackled I dont want that at our club. I watched the game on the Blackburn iFollow and the commentators where fuming at his antics. 

Look at him internationally, there is a player there - give him time and some decent players with him.

[kevinhectoring]

5 minutes ago, GrimsbyRam said:

better but still no massive influence and Shinnie was still better defensively and going forwards.

Shinnie was one of the best on the pitch   But he’s a midfielder in his prime. Bird  is a fledgling 

Edited April 17, 2021 by kevinhectoring

[Jimbo Ram]

50 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

Shinnie has undoubtedly improved, Buchanan as well

Buchanan played well at the start of the season but has faded....

[Inverurie Ram]

1 hour ago, kevinhectoring said:

So you thought his substitutions improved matters ?

I don't think any of the subs had a part to play in conceding a corner and not defending a corner for Blackburn's first goal or falling on their backsides to give Blackburn the ball to create their second goal either. 

We went 1-0 up in a game, and the usual suspects that started the game had a massive part to play in conceding the goals that lost the game also.

[DCFC1388]

13 minutes ago, JfR said:

The thing is though, Rooney made changes from the 4-3-3 even before the Cardiff game, because it wasn't really working without Bielik. Rotherham was the 4-3-3 with Bird in for Bielik and we lost. Watford was a 4-3-3, albeit with Roberts and Edmundson in for Jozwiak and Clarke, and we lost. Forest was a 4-3-3 and we were struggling until Gregory was brought on, we went 4-4-2 and got back into the game. The three wins were with 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 in the case of the Huddersfield game. When we've used 4-3-3, or for that matter 3-4-3 with a lone striker, since it also hasn't worked. I think Brentford shows this better than most games, where we were thoroughly outplayed first half in a 4-3-3, and then outplayed them when we went with two up top in the second half.

The big problem seems to be that we're struggling to make the 4-4-2 formation effective with Gregory injured, which I think has been reflected in the last two games. I keep thinking of that cross Roberts put in near the end of the game yesterday across the six yard box. It's those sorts of balls that Gregory was converting from, but without him no one seems to be making the runs to get on the end of them, so they're being wasted. I'm hoping if Waghorn or Stretton get back soon they might be able to do a job of filling that vacancy.

Spot on, we have caused teams much more trouble when we have had 2 srrikers. I really do think if Waggy & Gregory hadnt got injured vs Luton we would be almost safe, probably with an extra 4pts. Against blackburn we went with the same style as what beat Luton only without recognised strikers and still caused them problems, Lawrence header was impressive purely from his positional awareness to get in that space with him not being a natural striker.

Fingers crossed Waggy at least makes the bench vs Preston and I do think we could utilise Ebosele's pace late in games either for counter attacking or running at players like he did vs Blackburn

[BondJovi]

6 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Buchanan played well at the start of the season but has faded....

Buchanan and Knight were the stand out performers early on.  Both have faded as the season has gone on. I suspect in Knight's case he was just overplayed.

[jono]

39 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

No, sorry, I was saying the opposite. You'll remember the decisions that go against us as its a form of confirmation bias. You'll not see so evidently the decisions that go in our favour, or you'll gloss over them as warranted, justified or not so controversial as the ones against us. 

Over 46 games it has to be negligible in its impact. 

Common sense and logic says you’re right but it just seems the last few games are like that sinking feeling when you’ve been watching your step but somehow you always manage to tread in that solitary bit of soft smelly stuff.