Bad eggs and even worse defence — knee jerks Tuesday, 12th May 2015 15:20 by Antti Heinola Antti Heinola provides his usual talking points from the weekend's thrashing by Man City, including the declining form of Yun Suk-Young and Joey Barton's pre-match finger pointing. Line upI'd like to commend Chris Ramsey on the team selection at least. It was bold, showed attacking intent, and was pretty much the best he could do with the players he had available.Still, given those limitations, most of us could have picked a similar team, seeing as our bench was made up of three youngsters, plus the terminally ineffective Kranjcar (who must be incredible in training to get the plaudits other players give him), the terminally ineffective Hoilett, and the terminally ineffective (except at winding up our own fans by being terminally ineffective for a longer period than either Kranjcar or Hoilett while picking up bundles more money), SWP - or 'Sweep' as he's cutely known to people who once saw him look vaguely like a proper footballer. Only five years ago he was in the England squad in South Africa. And that tells you all you need to know about that particular debacle. Anyway, it was a brave choice and it would have been nice to have seen some of that devil-may-care attitude in the far more pivotal West Ham game, when two strikers with a number ten behind them would have been a welcome novelty. Away at the second best team in the division, though... well, let's say we paid the price. It wasn't just the line up that caused that though - it was mostly our horrific, abject defending that did for us. Everything we've said all season about this team's inability to defend was laid bare on Sunday. A goalie that rarely helps his defenders when balls are played into the box; some awfully old, slow players; a lack of ability to defend as a team; and, worst of all, persistent, lamentable, individual errors. It was all there. City scored six, and perhaps only one of them were they really made to work for. Pathetic.
The first goal:Well this was a corker wasn't it? Poor old Clint left looking like he was running through a pool of cold Bovril as Aguero skated past him like Robin Cousins in his pomp. Then Caulker backing off and leaving a huge gap for Aguero to dance into. Then Dunne nowhere to be seen. Then a powder puff challenge from Phillips that actually should nevertheless have resulted in either Phillips winning it or Caulker sweeping up, but didn't. Instead, Kun walked through and clipped it over a helpless Green. Jesus Christ. Four minutes in. I mean, I know the media were being very kind and respectfully pretended we still had a chance to stay up, but even when knowing that chance was blown some time ago, surely we can put up more of a fight than this?
Frustration going forwardThe frustration of Sunday came from the fact that, actually, going forward we looked pretty dangerous at times and really should have scored two or three ourselves. Obviously Bobby was playing with only one and a quarter hips again and was about as useful as a vote for the Lib Dems, but Austin and Fer looked dangerous and we actually created some good chances. We spotted City's weakness at leaving a big gap between the back four and the goalie and Yun and Phillips and Barton all played dangerous balls into that corridor. Sadly, Austin was often offside, Fer was unfortunate to miss his chance, and Bobby never got near anything.Again, it showed up the same issues we've had for at least three seasons: a profound lack of pace and a dearth of midfielders who will run past the forwards. Barton and Henry have, under the circumstances, both had decent seasons, but their inability to be involved in very much outside of the middle third means we don't attack or defend properly as a team. We need more athleticism, more support for both the defence and the attack. Fer at least offers a bit of that if we could get him playing in that position on a regular basis, but it seems likely he'll be sold. Fans who careI believe we were 4-0 down, might have been five, when we had a shot that was parried by Hart, hit Phillips and for a millisecond seemed to be heading towards the goal. In the background there, as the ball span goalwards on its extremely slow trajectory, a young QPR fan leapt to his feet, hands in the air, only to place his hands on his head and close his eyes in despair as Hart strolled over and retrieved the ball. 'If only,' he thought, 'If only we could get one back - you never know!' The poor lad has some harsh life lessons ahead of him, but it was the sweetest reaction I've seen from a fan in some time.
YunMuch debate about Yun these days. Confidence completely shot. A shadow of the player that did so well early in the season and the back end of last season. Bereft of belief. That was one of the worst mistakes of the season on Sunday, but I had to feel for him. He doesn't hide, he works hard and usually his first touch is very reliable.We'll need him next season, so I hope he can put his game back together again. Not a brilliant player, but good enough for the league below and in a more confident side he's not a bad player to have around in the Prem either. Sadly, his career at QPR has been blighted by injury, lack of belief from Redknapp, and then playing as part of the worst defence in the league. Not a great combo. Still, no excuse for not trapping the thing. Bad eggsI'd love to see the squad that doesn't have a couple of 'bad eggs' in there.The excuse about team morale was bad enough two years ago, but this time it simply doesn't wash. As a collective we weren't good enough - the only player, in my view, who could say he's been a Premier League standard player consistently this season is Austin. Maybe - maybe - Rob Green, who I don't think has been half as good as his fans make out - not that he's had much protection, but defenders do need a goalie they can trust and I don't think any of them truly trust Green. They're never fully confident in him and they certainly can't rely on his kicking. So to start laying the blame at the feet of (presumably) a couple of players who have barely played, seems like bullshit to me - no one in our squad could've saved this mess. And for Joey to go on about bad eggs when his red card at Hull was one of the pivotal moments of this season - ruining a promising start by Ramsey and forcing us to pair the limited but willing Henry and the limited and half-fit Sandro for three consecutive games, all of which we lost - is a bit rich.
There are dozens of reasons why we're down again, but it's not Joey's job to start pointing fingers and talking about if he was in charge and apparently absolving himself of blame. Everyone is culpable, from the chairman downwards. I do think that this time the players at least tried and it's difficult to pinpoint any regular in the squad who you could say doesn't care. But that wasn't enough. The truth is, we never had a squad good enough to stay up, mainly because years of short term thinking meant we haven't had what you might term a settled squad since, what, the end of the Holloway era? Summer starts now. It is a job as big as the one Olly faced when we dropped to League One. He had Kenny Jackett to pull some strings and get in a few Watford stalwarts to steady the ship. Do Ramsey and Ferdinand have that kind of knowhow? This sort of opportunity for a clean slate was possible two years ago and last year and we didn't take it. This time we absolutely must. We cannot start next season relying on 34+ year olds and one fit striker. If we do, we'll be in League One before Charlotte has her first birthday. The Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
   Blogs 31 bloggersPeterborough United Polls |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
