shocking. dawson, carrick, stalteri were good, Lennon was phenomenal, Kelly was so bad.....I can't come up with anything to describe how bad he was. If Rat-shack is the best we have to take Mido's place, we may have a long January.
Was to be expected to be fair, though if we play like that we can expect about a 5-0 defeat to Liverpool.
Why oh Why does Gardner not play the effing whistle? Kelly was piss poor and missed a sitter. Dawson was solid and the midfield was fairly good until they sat back in the second half. Once again Lennon was wonderfull and was the little brightspark of that match!
He's a player I saw alot of in the Championship and I knew he would struggle with the step up. But did Jol listen to me, did he ********. You need to buy someone with Mido gone.
Mido will be back for this game but fvck me i'm so pissed off at the moment call me negative or whatever but i'm mad and i'm fearing a drubbing by the european champs
My sentiments exactly. Keano was good in the 1st half (although he missed a clear cut chance) but disappeared in the second. Brown was ok, Jenas and Carrick good. Rasiak, Gardner and Kelly were just absolutely horrible. As far as I'm concerned they should all be replaced.
We do seem to have a different mentality in cup games compared to league games where we are solid. We didn't get Lennon in the game in the 2nd half, but he was superb in the first half. The players who for me weren't good today were Gardner, Stalteri, Kelly & Rasiak. Rasiak especially, he is our target man but he never won a header and never looked like winning one. He seems to not believe he can score.
That about sums it up, they were both awful and really cost us the game. Rasiak with his total inability to hold up the ball and Kelly with his woeful defending and screwing up that great chance. Cannot wait to see them out the club and replaced. Gardner isn't up to it either, although not as bad as those two. All in all there were some decent performances by Lennon, Jenas, Stalteri (in the 1st half) and Dawson. But they were let down by the underperforming players. It's a disappointment but not a major blow, just highlights that the squad still needs some significant improvements, which we knew beforehand.
Rasiak looked injured. He couldn't move at all. Or is he always like that ? Kelly was hopeless, Brown back to his usual mediocre (at best) self and Gardner, please God don't let him be playing at Anfield. Looks like our squad isn't quite as good as we thought.
Stangely enough, I though that holding the ball with his back to goal was the only thing he was half-decent at. Everything else, however, was absolutley horrible. Agreed. I don't think he won a single header in this game, as compared to Mido who wins 90% of them. Towards the end, Rasiak didn't even jump. If I remember correctly he had 1 attempt on goal - an off target header. For his sake I hope he was injured, but I think he's always like that. He has no pace whatsoever and his work-rate is appalling. Even Kanoute at his worst worked harder than this guy. And at least Kanoute had a fair bit of pace and some dazzling skills (when he felt like using them). I'd say Gardner was just as bad. He was completely overwhelmed by De Vries and spent half the time calling for a foul while the game went on without him (like for the last goal). He has terrible lapses in concentration during which his man is free to wander off into no man's land. Gardner, Kelly and Rasiak OUT!
he didnt win a single header in the west brom game either and ive seen snails move faster than that cvnt!!!
He's Emile Heskey without the first touch and finishing ability. Except he's slow. At least he falls down a lot.
From what I have seen of Rasiak I'm surprised he scored any goals in the fizzle-pop league -- he needed to score today to show he deserved the 4th striker spot -- we can definitely get someone better...
I only saw the first half, but man oh man what a disappointing result. From what I saw we were horrible ... and our stench was exceeded only by Leicester's. I'm a big Carrick fan, but our midfield was woefully disorganized, and our back line was in shambles. This was really bad stuff. We couldn't pass hardly at all and resorted to route 1 stuff way too often. It's like Dawson and Gardner thought they were Carrick spraying passes out there. If it weren't for Keane and Lennon, that might have been the worst half I've seen us play all season. Kelly needs to keep his mouth shut. Staltieri scores a goal for us, and Kelly nearly gifted one to Leicester! Staltieri looked poor in defense though, and so did Kelly. Congrats to Jenas for being in the right place at the right time ... too often players fail to follow up shots, but to his credit, Jenas did the right thing and was rewarded for it. Honestly, we were up against a very bad team, and it almost looked like their Reserves there were so many kiddies out there. And yet we managed to give up 3 goals ... utterly putrid. The only good thing I can say is that at least we bowed out early, so we can concentrate on our Premiership form and focus on a UEFA/Champions League spot. Our defense and central midfield needs to do a lot better against Liverpool or it's going to be quite embarassing. Hopefully, we'll rebound like we did after our last embarassment. -Digital
Kelly was at fault for the first goal, it was his first start in 3 months and he is not a left back. I put the blame on Stalteri for the second goal, he conceded a needless corner where he could of kicked it into the stand but he fvcked about trying to play his way out of trouble. Harry Kewell is going to give Stalteri a big nightmare on Saturday. I would have liked to see Tainio on earlier. It was a really frustrating match, now the focus is on the Champions League spot.
You're right of course, and I said much the same thing. But I'll have to admit that losing a game to a team that has only won something like 2 or 3 of their home games in a clearly inferior league doesn't really instill confidence for chasing a Champions League spot. Like I said before the match, I would have liked to see Mendes, Davis and Defoe in there as well. At least we'd have a rested Carrick, Jenas and Keane for Liverpool. Now I hope the players look themselves in the mirror and decide that they need to give more. From now on, every game counts in large amounts. -Digital
On the positive side, I agree with everyone that Lennon was fantastic. The defenders simply could not deal with his pace and I noticed that he is developping a few trademark tricks that he used quite effectively. That hairdo has to go, though! Dawson is developing quite nicely too. Had his hands full covering for Gardner and will come out of this being a better player in my opinion. Jenas also had a very good game. My opinion of him spun around by 180 degrees. He is continuing to improve and is becoming one of my favorite players to watch. He seems faster, stronger and harder working in every game. I look forward to seeing him develop along with Carrick as a fixture in our midfield.