Did OGS pick his strongest starting VI today?

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Discuss. 


For me, oh the gift of hindsight.

Slumdog's Son™ wrote:We caught Swansea on a downward spiral last time around. They have a couple of players that you could argue are worth £20m in Bony, Michu and Vorm whereas we can't say the same thing. They are a team who should be scraping into the European places every season and the result was probably an accurate reflection of the gulf in ability, if not the performances over the two matches this season.

You wrote that from Swanseas perspective, not our own. Look at what I wrote again - I'm looking at how our squad compete , regardless of their success. OGS' team gave up at half time, Malky's battled for 90 minutes. It's not about ability or success , it's about work rate and passion. Only three players, maximum , showed that yesterday.

Yesterday we would have lost irrespective of determination as Swansea battered us from the off. It would have simply lessened the score line...perhaps.

Slumdog's Son™ wrote:Yesterday we would have lost irrespective of determination as Swansea battered us from the off. It would have simply lessened the score line...perhaps.

In my opinion that's irrelevant. I've already said id accept losing if we gave 100%, but losing because we gave 40% in one of the biggest games of our season is an embarrassment.

A loss is a loss. It's done now and that's all there is to it. Of we win the next few matches the performance will be seen as fairly irrelevant as the points are the only thing that matters and the only thing stopping us from going down

Well, I think the first thing to point out is that he needs to pick 11 players, not 6   

Imo, the strongest team we have is -

Marshall
McNaughton Caulker Hudson* Taylor
Medel
Noone Mutch Zaha
Bellamy
Jones**

*I rate Hudson above Turner, but obviously it'll be interesting to see how good Cala is.

**This may be harsh on Campbell. I think he's done fantastically since he's been here. I put Jones in purely for his physical strengths.

This formation leaves us very narrow, It's a sort of 4-1-3-1-1. If we wanted to switch to a 4-1-4-1, we'd probably have to replace Bellamy with a more central player, either Kim or Whitts.

I think Cala will be playing ASAP as neither Turner not Hudson is truly good enough. I'd prefer KTC to Super Kev as Kev's final ball is atrocious although we may need the defensive stability now. And I definitely don't think John should lose his place. At the start of the season everyone targeted Taylor and he struggled

I think John is our best LB for the long term. I just think that Taylor is more solid defensively.

SteWells wrote:I think John is our best LB for the long term. I just think that Taylor is more solid defensively.

That's a worrying statement, as Taylor has struggled whenever faced by a decent winger. I don't think there is much to choose between them at the moment, but John will eventually be the better player overall. I'd leave him in the team.

I agree with your line up and formation.............it pretty much agrees with mine in the pre-match thread.

Red614 wrote:

Slumdog's Son™ wrote:We caught Swansea on a downward spiral last time around. They have a couple of players that you could argue are worth £20m in Bony, Michu and Vorm whereas we can't say the same thing. They are a team who should be scraping into the European places every season and the result was probably an accurate reflection of the gulf in ability, if not the performances over the two matches this season.

You wrote that from Swanseas perspective, not our own. Look at what I wrote again - I'm looking at how our squad compete , regardless of their success. OGS' team gave up at half time, Malky's battled for 90 minutes. It's not about ability or success , it's about work rate and passion. Only three players, maximum , showed that yesterday.

The spirit had gone by the Southampton game and we have collapsed on a number of occasions since then. The battering that the team took in the first half of the season was bound to have a negative effect, especially when the team couldn't score goals either. Marshall's brilliant shot-stopping earned us points we didn't otherwise deserve.

You can only fight so many Rourkes Drifts and even if Malky was still in charge, I don't think we'd be any better defensively or spirit-wise.

Precisely TDA, to be part of a team that goes out and has 30% possession and keeps 10 men behind the ball game after game would sap morale unless you were winning all the time!

Well spotted Stewells. I thought we looked outnumbered at times but that extra V players to bring it up to XI would have made all the difference.

Cyncoedslumdog wrote:Well spotted Stewells. I thought we looked outnumbered at times but that extra V players to bring it up to XI would have made all the difference.

   

Please tell me Mutch was carrying an injury? Why on earth would you leave our best man on the bench? Noone I can understand (even though I was a little surprised).

Campbell is also a strange one, he hit form under OGS, yet has been benched for the last two games?!

I give up. I truly despair when it's somehow Malkys fault two months after he left the club. Leaving our best players off the pitch, adding a crap player to an already overstaffed role, replacing the defenders when we are 1-0 down and need a goal, it's all Malkys fault, the b**terd.

I was hoping Ole would have sorted things out a bit better after the Norwich game, if anything it was worst inasmuch as we offered less in fight than against Norwich.
How we can sub a player after 38 minutes in one game and then play him for 90 in the next is a bit of a mystery to me.
Lots wrong that needs putting right and at this moment I'm not sure Ole has the answers.
Noone on at some point would have helped, giving them extra problems to worry about, instead of being able to stick 2 players on Zaha everytime he moved they would have had to watch out for Noone as well, add Mutch to the mix and you cut down their ability to get men on quickly in numbers.

Just have to hope we start to clic, because I see a team who are all over the place.


PS: first post but don't hold back if you disagree