My thoughts and player ratings

I did miss the first 15mins due to work but im told nothing of note really happened so excuse my comments if inaccurate for those 15mins.....

Lets be honest that was pathetic, people moan about the attendances and atmosphere but with performances like that its only going to get worse. I don’t mind a player losing the ball trying a “tricky” pass, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t but very very very basic passes today where going all over the place. Losing the ball from very simple throw ins again totally unacceptable. I wouldn’t say the players were lazy as they aren’t but they waste so much energy chasing shadows instead of bossing games which we easily have the quality to do. We had one moment of quality in the second half where I think Smith put in a quality cross but that’s all.

Im a big Malky fan but again he got it totally wrong in the first half, long balls up to Campbell who had two big strong centre backs against him, talk about mission impossible. Even if he did win them he had no player anywhere near him in support. That was pretty much the story of the half even when we went 4-4-2 players weren’t looking for the second balls. Even towards the end of the gaming and losing 0-1 players were strolling about taking there time, no urgency.
One thing is certain, VT had a very good point in his interview, if you don’t shoot you wont score. We had 4 attempts on target and to be honest other than the goal we had little else of any note. Kasper had nothing to do. We made it so easy for Leicester it was unbelievable.

I thought Leicester were a very average team but the draw certainly flattered us IMO so im very pleased with the point having watched the game. If we didn’t know the teams or players I would have said that team in red is a certainty to go down, we were that poor. Such basics.

Marshall 7 – An excellent save in the second half, sometimes used the ball well other times frustrated the hell out of me but this awful performance was not down to him

Connally 6 – Solid enough, A non event at RB but did well in the centre

Nugent 4 – I don’t like to slate a youngster and wont, he is doing his best and in certain games he has done very well. Against Derby he was shaky, today he was all over the shop. I honestly don’t feel he is currently good enough for the first team.

Hudson 7 – excellent as usual until he went off.

Taylor 6 – didn’t offer as much going forward as usual, made one excellent clearance/block in the first half. Should be seeing more from him at this stage

Smith 4 – No idea where he was playing in the first half but he was totally ineffective. What happened to the direct, powerful, clever Smith of the start of the season? He got more involved towards the end but simply not good enough for the quality of player he is.

Whitts 5 – Some decent passing but if no one is moving around him then we aint going to get anywhere. Everyone is so lethargic, tippy tappy nonsense going no where.

Gunnar 4 – Playing like he did at the start of the season again, poor passing, no power, chasing shadows.

Noone 4 – I wasn’t even sure where he was playing, one point he was very wide then he popped up in the middle, crazy formation.

Conway 4 – I cant think of anything to say about him.

Campbell 5 – An unbelievable decision by MM to play him as a lone striker, he ran his arse off but all for nothing, long balls up to him he was never going to win, with no support at all, it was crazy. He looked tired in the second half and im not surprised after all the running in the first half. He needed help.

SUBS
McNaughton 6 – Gave us plenty of width which we badly misses, did a very good job.
Bellamy 6 – Didnt give us a great deal but did make Leicester more cautious.
Rudy 6 – Pretty poor overall performance but good goal and he caused problems, the only time we looked like we may score.

Got to disagree on a fair bit of them. Whitts wasnt better than Gunnarson for me he was all over the place and is lacking any confidence he had. To say Rudy was poor when he came on is a load of rubbish sorry, he won every ball in the air which the rest of the team had failed to do all night (fair enough asking Campbell to do that is idiotic and I agree with you the wrong call by Malky). We looked alot more dangerous when he came on and took his goal well. And for me Mcnaughton played very well for when he came on and looked alot better than Connelly did. Otherwise I can agree with the rest of what you said.

Also felt Taylor was man of the match today.

Got to disagree on a fair bit of them. Whitts wasnt better than Gunnarson for me he was all over the place and is lacking any confidence he had. To say Rudy was poor when he came on is a load of rubbish sorry, he won every ball in the air which the rest of the team had failed to do all night (fair enough asking Campbell to do that is idiotic and I agree with you the wrong call by Malky). We looked alot more dangerous when he came on and took his goal well. And for me Mcnaughton played very well for when he came on and looked alot better than Connelly did. Otherwise I can agree with the rest of what you said.

Also felt Taylor was man of the match today.

No I actually agree with you especially about Kev, for me Connally is not a RB. Kev offered us much more width and penetration going forward. I gave them the same rating as I thought Connally did well at CB while Nugent was basically melting next to him.

Your also right about Rudy, caused problems in the air but his general ball play and hold up play lacked on previous performances imo. I felt a 6 was right for him tho.

Taylors saving our defense game after game.

Got to disagree on a fair bit of them. Whitts wasnt better than Gunnarson for me he was all over the place and is lacking any confidence he had. To say Rudy was poor when he came on is a load of rubbish sorry, he won every ball in the air which the rest of the team had failed to do all night (fair enough asking Campbell to do that is idiotic and I agree with you the wrong call by Malky). We looked alot more dangerous when he came on and took his goal well. And for me Mcnaughton played very well for when he came on and looked alot better than Connelly did. Otherwise I can agree with the rest of what you said.

Also felt Taylor was man of the match today.

No I actually agree with you especially about Kev, for me Connally is not a RB. Kev offered us much more width and penetration going forward. I gave them the same rating as I thought Connally did well at CB while Nugent was basically melting next to him.

Your also right about Rudy, caused problems in the air but his general ball play and hold up play lacked on previous performances imo. I felt a 6 was right for him tho.

Yeah I agree with you about Nugent the last couple of games have really showed how inexperienced he is and its too soon to rely on him. We could really do with getting a centre half on loan in.