Good afternoon wherever you are. And may I just say: Yay, Bobby Soldier scored in open play!
Those seeking to disparage his work yesterday ought revisit the You Tube footage of our #9 at his previous club. That’s what he does. He scores intelligent goals inside the penalty box. Given service, he does that a lot. And that’s why we bought him.
Brad on Soldado:
If you saw Soldado day to day in training – believe me I don’t think anyone would be worried. He’s an excellent finisher, he’s very, very similar to Robbie Fowler who I played with before. He’s got that short backlift and he scores goals for fun.”
Much post match clucking about the flare incident. My belief is that football needs more pyrotechnics. The atmosphere they bring to the party is something else.
The moaning Minnies in the audience will point out the so called “inherent dangers.” My response to this, is if you throw a cup of piping hot Bovril in someones face, you stand an equally good chance of hospitalising them.
When we build the new stadium, I’d put in a purpose built Firestarter Bunker where smoke grenades, flares, firecrackers and all manner of fun filled explosives can be detonated safely.
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That’d get the 1882 kids to rethink the “impact” of waving their espadrilles in the air.
Let’s do some rapid fire player ratings then.
Hugo‘s distribution was shocking. Worse than woeful. 54% pass completion rate for a goalkeeper is some sort of very unfunny joke. Only 21 out his 39 passes were successful.
It wouldn’t be difficult to mount a cogent argument suggesting he was involved in a match fixing enterprize. We bin Brad and his hoofs that turn possession into 50/50 balls for this? Outside of this nonsense, he didn’t have a hell of a lot to do. Aston Villa had 2 shots on target, 11 off target.
Bonzo appears to be getting into the whole “I was playing Internationals, innit mate” swing of things. A subdued performance.
On an upbeat note, we were only cordially invited to one brace of brain farts.
Dawson had an improved game. 11/11 clearances, but only won 4/9 headed duels. I’m struggling to imagine what he’d need to do to win me round, and convince me he’s an asset in 2013.
Vlad‘s going to be an important player for us. His pass completion rate was 85% and what I particularly like about him is his focus upon being an actual defender. The world’s gone mad!
Jan needs to play LB until we can recruit someone with a better CV than a “caution slippery floor” sign. At the risk of banging “that old drum again”, a stable back four will breed its own success. I refuse to dig him out.
Interesting to see who fans respond to Sandro. Yes, he’s a monster, but to call for him to “start every game now” is naive in the upmostis. It’s 2013 and intelligent folk would opt to pick their picks dependent upon who we are actually playing. Is that really crazy talk?
Great to see him back. He’s a monster. Completed 2/2 take ons, 3/3 clearances.
Paulinho warmed up as the game went on. For some that wasn’t good enough. Bless.
His 88% pass completion rate says otherwise. He wilted at half time but his momentum increased in the last 20.
Siggy tried, he did try …but he had a flat liner of a game. A lack of pace, a lack of anything really good.
Holtby was another one who went off the boil on the lead into half time. That said he gradually improved and had a varying level of involvement in both goal. If he has a claim to stake, then it needs to be made more emphatically against the Villas of this world.
Townsend gave us glimpses of who he is and who he was. There was game changing stuff and there was shortsighted stuff. For this team, right now, he’s indispensable.
I don’t mean that to sound like the faint praise that it …er… sounds like, but in a period of transition we need someone, anyone to stand out. As a player, there are many areas of his game that need improving.
Soldado finally did it and scored one of the goals that made us buy him in the first place. Classy geezer.
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