Opening fixture vs QPR Team: 22 Jaaskelainen 02 Steinsson 04 Robinson 05 Cahill 12 Knight 06 Muamba 07 Eagles 10 Petrov 19 Reo-Coker 14 Davies 17 Klasnic Substitutes 01 Bogdan, 03 Alonso, 31 Wheater, 11 Gardner, 16 M Davies, 21 Pratley, 20 Blake 0-0 at 36 minutes. QPR have had a goal disallowed for offside and Keiron Dyer has gone off injured.
FT 4-0 and a fantastic start to the season after a fairly ropey first 30 minutes. QPR look in trouble already. They need to buy.
Well who saw that coming? Masterclass from Cahill, we are going to miss him. Was very impressed with Eagles, he won a lot of ball and got into nice areas. Davies and Klasnic did well to hold it up but neither has the pace to pick up the other's flicks when the ball's whipped in at them from deep. Still, No-Kidneys just has that knack for lashing it in there. Also who is this new guy on the left and what has he done with Martin Petrov? This horror run of fixtures might not be so horrible after all.
I've just seen the highlights of the 3-2 loss to City. The first and third goals are goalkeeping errors, something that Jussi has been doing a lot of over the last season or so. With his refusal to sign a new contract I wonder if we shouldn't try to bring someone in over the next few days and at the very least give him a kick up the arse. I don't rate Bogdan BTW. Class finish from Klas though.
He's off his prime and probably won't get better so it has to be soon but I don't know nearly enough to say when or by who. Thought that game was pretty reasonable, City were quality and we're a little too thin at the moment to have had many hopes of an upset but we made them work. Klas is a fantastic finisher but our system requires a lot of pressure from the front and that's where Tuncay is going to be a godsend.
So we got nobbed by Liverpool, not unexpected. However the worrying this is that we were crap all over the show. Kevin Davies has not managed to put the brakes on his decline and it's only our lack of options that means he starts up front. Muamba and Reo-Coker don't work together and we look so much better when Mark Davies starts. Eagles seems to be splitting the fans but I think he does a lot of good work and for a better front two or centre midfield he would appear to be a lot more productive. Petrov was the new Petrov still (and that is good!). The defence is an utter shambles, poor Cahill must wonder what he's done to get shackled to a clown like Knight.
Coyle's tactical rigidity is a blotch on his record for mine. He's been shown up a couple of times and this was just stupid.
QFT post United game. We are shockingly bad and I fear that it's far more than missing Holden and Lee.
Eh, I think it'll work against Norwich, I just wish he had some other formation for the likes of Pool, the Rags, Moonies etc.
This is getting ridiculous and everything has been going this way since we lost to Stoke. Coyle is showing some considerable tactical ineptitude and sticking with Davies and Knight when they are clearly not up to it is costing us game after game. We're heading in to Sammy Lee territory and I wouldn't bet against us having a new manager come 1st January 2012.
The tools are there. He bought them. He just has to use them. This is make-or-break for Coyle. Happy-happy, friendly manager has to grow some balls and drop Captain Fantastic and the Premiership's Tallest Shite Defender.
We play Villa tonight in the Carling Cup with a heavily changed side. It is however a strong side compared to the 'regular' starting 11. Some bloke called 'Holden' is playing Adam Bogdan, Grétar Steinsson, Gary Cahill, David Wheater, Darren Pratley, Ricardo Gardner, Fabrice Muamba, Chris Eagles, Stuart Holden, David Ngog, Gael Kakuta