The Home Straight

Well hopefully we wont see it Tuesday night as Power will slot back in along side Metcalfe....won't he ?.

 

Home straight?
More like we've hit the third fence from the finish and the jockey is just hanging on.

 

Sorry, but this is bullshit. Evans did not have a stinker against Stockport. Yes, he made three bad passes and hit a couple of shots into the stands (just like Max Power does on a regular basis). But the rest of his game was spot on. His tackling, covering and reading the game were excellent.

 

Now find a stat that shows which city player/s completed more than 33 successful passes last Tuesday night.

Tip: don't waste your time. Evans pass completion rate was the best of any city player on Tuesday night.

 

Nathan Evans posts need taking with a pinch of salt. He cherry picks the stats that suit his argument - there are a few accounts like his that do my head in. Meaningless stats for the sake of making a post. And that’s coming from someone who has used xG and performance data to bet with for years, long before they became mainstream.

I am not having it at all that he had a good game vs Stockport because I watched it with my own eyes. He was very poor. Giving away possession in key moments that could have been costly.

He was rusty and I like Lee Evans and think he’ll come good, but he was shite against Stockport - a few moments after his mistakes there were groans all around the stands.

 

Isn’t that the case for most CMs?

 

Just more stats, but Opta does appear to have Lee Evans as the overall most effective player on the pitch in the game last Tuesday.

Yes, there were misplaced passes, but wasn't that also part of the game being a blood-and-thunder type clash between two pretty even teams, on a pitch that isn't the best right now. It wasn't a game for Pirlo-esque passing. He did a lot of the dirty work in midfield, without excelling on the ball, although he was heavily involved in creating the goal for Sarcevic.

 

It was more about the "3 misplaced passes" comment.

He misplaced 3 passes in 3 minutes at one point!

Not knocking his busy performance, but his passing WAS the weaker part of his game, I dont see how that can be questioned really.

 

OK, we’ll have to agree to differ. My eyes told me that the ground he covered, the anticipation, the tackles and the majority of the passes he made (on a very poor pitch) heavily outweighed the few passing errors and two poor shots that he had. We all see the game differently, it seems.

 

He did his share of the dirty work, granted, but ultimately if conceding possession cheaply had cost us a goal then it undermines everything. While his mistakes didn’t cost us a goal against Stockport, they did, twice at Wimbledon. His poor pass conceded a throw which Dons scored from when we were off guard and for their third he stabbed to ball towards his own goal towards their lad, and failed to clear. Power will be back in on Tuesday so he will have more time to get up to speed in the background hopefully, but for a player with his quality, whose best asset is typically his distribution, I have been disappointed by him in those games - all the while acknowledging he’s just been chucked in and is settling back in.

 

He did work hard and contributed on that side. Maybe I should clarify my point - i thought his quality on the ball was lacking and his passing was shocking (for his standards). He was a rolls royce player who oozed class on the ball before and I’ve no doubt he will get up to speed

 

Although its true he gave away the throwing I'm not sure Evans was solely be blamed for Wimbledons second goal, a bit harsh mate, then again we all have different takes on games and players.

 

I thought Evans was poor against Wimbledon, but I'm not having it he was against Stockport. He took risks and whilst they didn't all pay of protected the back three well against one of the best sides in the league and his pass accuracy was better than the much praised Metcalfe.

 

It was a mess of a goal Broncs. They were all avoidable goals really. GA can’t have been happy as those players embarassed him. Slipping behind in the away games has become the norm :-(

 

Its to the point now that im gonnaavoid them we aint in the majority of these away games .............i bet the majority of these games barring the Blackpool game should have seen the home side out of sight before HT................. the commentators sat there aluding to GA being angry being frustrated so who not change it during the 1st half then rather than sleepwalking into another loss it so fooking predictable now .............piss poor line ups ,go 2 goals down and he then makes subs at HT ............now i get the odd game if this happens but this is every away game now ffs

 

Well this weekend was just dreadful. The question pretty much stands, will we score enough points at home to hang on to a play off place, because away from home we are awful. This isn't much of a surprise as we were awful away from home last year too.

Saturday, throwing in 5 changes as if it were a trophy game and then having to bring them on to try rescue something and making people like Wright travel but not even make the bench was quite baffling. GA for all his good cost us that game before a ball was kicked.

If we beat Rotherham at home on Tuesday we will be 10 points clear of 7th place with just 13 games left. If by some miracle we can draw with Reading that would make it a more solid position. Will our home form carry us through, if we can win tuesday realistically we probably need another 18 to 20 points to make sure because us getting 18 points would mean those behind us having to get 28 or more which would be a real coming from the pack type of run in.

Going away with City at the moment is soul sapping. Our only win in the last 6 or 7 was from a poor display at Blackpool, every other game we've not really been in the game. Mansfield, Huddersfield, Lincoln & Wimbledon would have me thinking that we were battling relegation.

 

I just thought the second goal was a poor one to concede but where were our defenders, although it was on the counter we should have had a bit more disapline, hence my harsh comment.

 

Being asleep at a throw in and conceeding a goal once is embarassing, doing it twice is just criminal.

We have learn't nothing from the goal we conceeded at Huddersfield town in similar circumstances.

 

You have to wonder if it was not for Curtis going over to the dug out just before half time to say he'd felt something go in his leg would Alexander have made 2 changes, although Bobby came on for Sibley any of the front 3 could have been substituted at half time.
Having said that they got little service, very few positives could be taken from the game