Giving it all away...

As I see it one of our biggest problems is the inability to keep the ball for any length of time unless we are passing it back and fore between midfield and defence. Eventually it goes back to Marshall he hits it out and we lose possession on long ballss nine times out of 10. That is one reason that I rate Heidur, he either wins the ball or prevents the opposition defence from winning it cleanly and passing it to one of their own players. Heidur at least gives us a chance at some possession from second balls.

I've watched Gestede closely, he has the height but his positioning and timing is rubbish in the air, and his touch is not good on the ground, if he wins the ball he has no idea where it is going and more to the point neither do our runners.

We are also lightweight in midfield... when we bang in long balls which we eventually do after a lot of non-incisive passing that ends up back with Marshall or Turner... the opposition defence wins the long ball under no pressure and 80% of the time their midfield will pick it up... we need our midfield to improve their positional sense and fight more for the ball.

Up front... Bellamy chases everything... yesterday Gestede and Mason plus some of the midfield should be totally embarrassed by the lack of effort put in compared to Bellamy... they need to run more, faster and hit harder... i.e fight for the ball more. Conway has a go, most of the others play at it.

Mason... great lad with bags of skill... if you watch the way he covers he chooses an angle that looks as if he is covering butt ensures that he does not have to tackle, he always gets there "just too late" and the player he is marking releases the ball and often has gone past him and is therefore available for a return.


The back four are immense and clean up a hell of a lot ofthe crap that comes through at them... main are of improvement... when you head it out head it to one of our players not just anywhere... it only comes back at you.

Corners... we pack the box and leave 3 or 4 opposition players free just outside the box thereby allowing a second and third attack after we clear it... put someone on the edge of the area and leave a player up... if we leave a player up they have to keep two back and it allows him to challenge for long clearances instead of allowing them to pump it in again for another go.

In this transfer window I think we need...

1. A striker that can score and is big enough to win ball and hold it up... a younger more mobile Helgur... and lose Rudy, let's face it he is not up to the job.
2. A strong midfield ball winner
3. Cover for full back

If we get those we are going up no problem, we have tons of attacking options but we need more of the ball in the final third of the pitch.

Good post. A lot of sense in that

Kenwyn Jones & Ramsey.

Sorted.