After today's slim pickings, who's feeling confident? And how should Marti change it?Personally, I feel a gloopy gulp forming and fear the wheels may come off up there, so I'm hoping to be a false prophet. Hindsight is a many-splendoured thing, but all those posters who were predicting nice comfy wins against Wednesday and our Wailing Wall have a smidgen of egg on their chops now. (I foresaw draws at best in both and was wearyingly correct.)
Despite my reputation for a certain asperity, and notwithstanding the above, I'll do a little damage to it and say, even if the glass isn't quite half-full, it could still be tipping that way. Today, it felt like we missed our resident 'axis of evil' dirty Jack Colback, as well as an electric Chair, like the heavens miss the rain. Those two, fit, firing and sensibly fierce, can, and hopefully will, give us our screen/pivot and playmaking vision. It feels like Chair has been out for an eternity, though, and we have to hope he'll hit the ground running rather than be hitting it in frustration. Dembele has to be a 10 for me, but in my view so does Ilias, so we may have a problem, Houston, when the latter returns. (For me, the jury's a worryingly long way out as to how well they will, or will want to.)
I agree that, on current form, and perhaps any form, Madsen and Andersen shouldn't be starting together. The former, in particular, is already tending toward the peripheries, though he can thread a pass and fashion a cross, and may pop up with a sprinkling of goals. Both of them, while decently skilled, look too lightweight and languid for this league. If our hopes rest on Danish shoulders, I fear we're going to be found wanting, however, especially while, for me, Varane continues to blow hot and cold. Apart from our delectable Dembele (even if it feels like he's still feeling his way into things), Saito looks to me the pick of the incomers, and very much in a QPR mould, if we can get him on the ball and cutting in creatively. I also rate him as cleverer than Smyth, though the latter is doing (a bit) better and gives his all.
On a further positive note, even with the limited service so far, Frey looks likely to comfortably hit double figures, while Cook (I'm crossing everything that nothing happens to him - perhaps Andersen could send up a prayer) and Dunne have been rocks in defence so far. Our goalkeeper is also a keeper. So while not everything in ther garden is coming up roses yet, we've planted a few features.
As for Marti, now we're agreed he's not the Messiah and is as much a work in progress as our team, it's a big year for him. He has plenty to prove and a lot to do, but he's said that and knows it, I think, so I guess we have to trust the process, even if the parts are still finding their whole. Our slo-mo first halves do worry me, though, and he's starting to seem a lot better at talking about other teams than devising effective strategies to deal with them and get at them from the start. He looked quite flat to me post-match, which is hopefully a paradoxically good sign. In the end, though, it's only the players who can do it on the pitch.
In the words of The Killers, 'Can we climb this mountain? I don't know.' Back to a week of worrying about it, I guess.
[Post edited 21 Sep 18:14]
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