Well, that was poor wasn’t it?
At least I thought it was. I seriously struggle to find a single positive from that game, apart from the fact that we somehow got a point out of one of the worst performances of the season.
I’ll start with the attack, or rather the lack of it. Watkins must have been asking himself why he was involved at all, as for all the service he got, he may as well have stayed at home. Same as usual, I couldn’t really fault him.
His effort is second to none, but he had absolutely nothing to work off.
There was one stage where someone hoofed a thirty yard plus ball up to him and I quite frankly just laughed to myself. Enough said.
The midfield.
Good grief, where do I begin?
It was just horrendous. Where you normally get a half decent performance out of at least one midfielder in a rubbish performance, there wasn’t a solitary one last night.
It probably says it all when Jack Grealish has an off day.
Which is okay with me, as he’s been outstanding all season up to now.
But it’s not quite so acceptable for any of the others.
Traore and McGinn were plain poor, but Ross Barkley took things to another level.
I’m not going to harp on about it, but you’d have to be blind to not see that something is seriously not right with him.
Dean Smith can talk all he likes about how the players are not struggling in the slightest, but I’ll say it again, even stronger than I did previously. It’s bullshine.
Granted, Barkley was much better last time out, but he’s been poor since he came back from injury. Which coincidentally pretty much coincides with our run of poor performances.
Now, I’m not saying Barkley is necessarily pivotal to our game, but he is important and if he’s not right, it shows.
The reason being that he’s a good player. He’s skilled, strong and hard working generally. Ie, he has all the attributes.
And I fail to believe he’s suddenly just gone rubbish because of form.
He’s not trained at all, so why is he playing?
It’s not like he’s Paul McGrath, who could rely on his reading of the game to bring out a performance. With an attacking midfielder, you’re needed to make the game, not defend it.
Take Barkley and Grealish out of our game and you’re down to Traore. I’ve said I’m undecided on him and this game did nothing to convince me.
McGinn has just been out of form for a while to my mind, but he does at least work hard. He needs to find some form quickly, as patience is rapidly running out. As much as you can love a player, the love can only last for so long if it’s one-sided.
I give up, as I really can’t understand why we were so bad.
The saving grace is that the defence didn’t concede.
I was expecting some fans to say how good the defence was and looking around, it didn’t take long to find these sort of comments.
I’m sorry, but I massively disagree.
If you can call a defence that gives acres of space to the opposition just on the edge and inside of the box that they can pass it around like it’s a training day, a good defence, well, I obviously know nothing in all the time I’ve been watching the game.
And then there’s the panic, where we’re lashing balls to nowhere.
Don’t believe me?
Watch the game again.
Our defence is just as bad as the rest of the team has been over the last few weeks, but Mings and others have been good at last second shot stopping, I admit.
That is not a good defence. It’s a lucky one, that trust me, will be caught out against a good, incisive side.
Leicester and Leeds coming up soon, isn’t it?
Martinez was the only one who kept us in that game and I think if we’d have lost it three or four nil, none of us would be complaining much, because Brighton would probably have deserved it.
It was a repeat performance of the Arsenal game, where we were equally poor in my opinion.
The difference there though, was we got an early goal that proved to be the winner.
If we’d have done the same here, I wonder how many fans would be saying it was a great win?
I don’t profess to know what the problem is, but it’s obvious we’ve got one.
The big question is, does Dean Smith?
And can he do anything about it?
