BFTG Hull.

[Crowbar6753]

We really need to up our game for Wednesday night, otherwise i fear a right drubbing by WBA, however we do tend to play better against the top teams.
We really need to get three points out of the next three games, otherwise we could be looking over our shoulders again, yes its a ten point gap, however if we lose all three which is possible on our current form and Wigan take four points, then its back to a six point gap! and, after these next 3 games we play Wigan at the Mad Stad which could suddenly become an important game!! lots of ifs and buts though.

[windermereROYAL]

We really need to up our game for Wednesday night, otherwise i fear a right drubbing by WBA, however we do tend to play better against the top teams.
We really need to get three points out of the next three games, otherwise we could be looking over our shoulders again, yes its a ten point gap, however if we lose all three which is possible on our current form and Wigan take four points, then its back to a six point gap! and, after these next 3 games we play Wigan at the Mad Stad which could suddenly become an important game!! lots of ifs and buts though.

It`s rare for teams to go down on 50 points even though it has happened, we need just 11 points from 15 games, even we are capable of getting more than that.

[NewCorkSeth]

Not gonna bother with a full report. Big question for me is "Why Aluko?" What does he bring in that scenario? Take off a hard working, industrious striker and replace him with Aluko?

Dont get me wrong Swift and Ejaria do their fair share in helping defensively but neither threaten in the air or are particularly strong in the tackle. A midfield with Swift, Ejaria and Aluko??? I'm surprised they didnt walk through the middle.

I am sure there will be some Aluko apologists responding to this saying "what about his pass in blah blah blah". We dont need a weak, lazy AMC coming on when we are winning. Awful choice, awful player.

Aluko isn't lazy. He used to look lazy with Stam but that was more down to him not understanding his role rather than his attitude. It's a common misconception that Aluko is a lazy player

And he certainly isn't an awful player. He was no worse than Swift or Ejaria out there today and yet once again, after a poor 90 minutes, people are blaming a player who featured for 20 minutes of it

There's always got to be a scapegoat doesn't there? Why can't people accept this squad is massively overrated?

I'm not scapegoating him. If anything my criticism is aimed at Bowen.

Did you notice I only asked 1 question and your response didnt cover it? We could argue back and forth all day about his merits as a player but the question I asked was "why Aluko?". What did bringing him on at 63 minutes when he was our last sub offer us?

[sandman]

What did you think of the Swift performance, Seth?

[NewCorkSeth]

What did you think of the Swift performance, Seth?

Shite. Thought almost everyone was shite. Even Pele. Baldock put himself about though.

Edit: thought Araruna looked decent!

[Westwood52]

Watching Reading isn’t easy.Just when you think we are getting somewhere (large tracts of the 2nd half),somebody,somewhere switches off and bang, we’re back in the mire.
Please Mr Bowen,don’t play three at the back,as we haven’t got a clue how to play it.In the first ten or so minutes we could have been well behind;with Gunts and Obita miles up the field,while the opposition wide players just strolled in behind them.

Adie thought this was going to be easy,it was far from it in the first half;when a supposedly dispirited Hull side,exploited our system and played us off the park.Then lo and behold,we come out second half and dominate,up to their goal.If only Ovie had got that wonder goal,second half.

IMHO

Rafael 6 Good save first half,poor kicking again.Should he have got a stronger hand on the ball for their goal ?

Gunts 6;Typical average Gunts performance,before being on the end of a couple of crunching barely legal tackles.

Obita 5 Terrible first half,had no idea how to play the system,and lacked urgency.Got a bit lucky on the goal.

Moore 8;MOM. Lost count of the number of times he saved us.
Morrison 6 Solid enough,but so awkward on the ball.
Blackett 7 As usual one horror moment,but solid enough.

Pele 6 But for a couple of misplaced passes,played very well.We must try to keep him.
Swift 3 Horror show really.
Ejaria 5 Better and more involved than of late.End product still missing though.

Baldock 5 Tried hard enough,but never threatening.
Meite 6 Did what it said on the tin.Just short on skill,but tried hard.

Alunde Nobodies idea of a full back,or defensive midfielder.But neat and tidy on the ball.Why did we buy him ?Looks like the Director of Football,wanted to justify his appointment.
Richards One of those bad days again.At times so short of confidence,and self belief.
Alukho Thought he’d turned the corner,but same old Alukho today.

[NewCorkSeth]

Watching Reading isn’t easy.Just when you think we are getting somewhere (large tracts of the 2nd half),somebody,somewhere switches off and bang, we’re back in the mire.
Please Mr Bowen,don’t play three at the back,as we haven’t got a clue how to play it.In the first ten or so minutes we could have been well behind;with Gunts and Obita miles up the field,while the opposition wide players just strolled in behind them.

Adie thought this was going to be easy,it was far from it in the first half;when a supposedly dispirited Hull side,exploited our system and played us off the park.Then lo and behold,we come out second half and dominate,up to their goal.If only Ovie had got that wonder goal,second half.

IMHO

Rafael 6 Good save first half,poor kicking again.Should he have got a stronger hand on the ball for their goal ?

Gunts 6;Typical average Gunts performance,before being on the end of a couple of crunching barely legal tackles.

Obita 5 Terrible first half,had no idea how to play the system,and lacked urgency.Got a bit lucky on the goal.

Moore 8;MOM. Lost count of the number of times he saved us.
Morrison 6 Solid enough,but so awkward on the ball.
Blackett 7 As usual one horror moment,but solid enough.

Pele 6 But for a couple of misplaced passes,played very well.We must try to keep him.
Swift 3 Horror show really.
Ejaria 5 Better and more involved than of late.End product still missing though.

Baldock 5 Tried hard enough,but never threatening.
Meite 6 Did what it said on the tin.Just short on skill,but tried hard.

Alunde Nobodies idea of a full back,or defensive midfielder.But neat and tidy on the ball.Why did we buy him ?Looks like the Director of Football,wanted to justify his appointment.
Richards One of those bad days again.At times so short of confidence,and self belief.
Alukho Thought he’d turned the corner,but same old Alukho today.

Who is Alunde???

[Westwood52]

Watching Reading isn’t easy.Just when you think we are getting somewhere (large tracts of the 2nd half),somebody,somewhere switches off and bang, we’re back in the mire.
Please Mr Bowen,don’t play three at the back,as we haven’t got a clue how to play it.In the first ten or so minutes we could have been well behind;with Gunts and Obita miles up the field,while the opposition wide players just strolled in behind them.

Adie thought this was going to be easy,it was far from it in the first half;when a supposedly dispirited Hull side,exploited our system and played us off the park.Then lo and behold,we come out second half and dominate,up to their goal.If only Ovie had got that wonder goal,second half.

IMHO

Rafael 6 Good save first half,poor kicking again.Should he have got a stronger hand on the ball for their goal ?

Gunts 6;Typical average Gunts performance,before being on the end of a couple of crunching barely legal tackles.

Obita 5 Terrible first half,had no idea how to play the system,and lacked urgency.Got a bit lucky on the goal.

Moore 8;MOM. Lost count of the number of times he saved us.
Morrison 6 Solid enough,but so awkward on the ball.
Blackett 7 As usual one horror moment,but solid enough.

Pele 6 But for a couple of misplaced passes,played very well.We must try to keep him.
Swift 3 Horror show really.
Ejaria 5 Better and more involved than of late.End product still missing though.

Baldock 5 Tried hard enough,but never threatening.
Meite 6 Did what it said on the tin.Just short on skill,but tried hard.

Alunde Nobodies idea of a full back,or defensive midfielder.But neat and tidy on the ball.Why did we buy him ?Looks like the Director of Football,wanted to justify his appointment.
Richards One of those bad days again.At times so short of confidence,and self belief.
Alukho Thought he’d turned the corner,but same old Alukho today.

Who is Alunde???

Yep sorry being lazy.The Brazilian half pint.

[3points]

Lot of criticism here for Swift, but throughout the second half he played right midfield. Just not his position and poor tactical switch from Bowen. We looked better when we went to 4 at the back, for a bit, but always felt threatened down our right wher Swift isn’t natural and Araruna is clearly not an experienced right back.

I think we need to drop Ejaria to bring back some balance. Or go more to the 4-3-3 system we’ve played under the previous managers.

I ah ent seen the league side since the start of January (before Joao was injured) and, at the moment, Bowen has turned us from a poor team that’s easy to beat into a typical average Championship team which is much tighter and harder t9 beat, but with no flair or quality going forward.

[NewCorkSeth]

Watching Reading isn’t easy.Just when you think we are getting somewhere (large tracts of the 2nd half),somebody,somewhere switches off and bang, we’re back in the mire.
Please Mr Bowen,don’t play three at the back,as we haven’t got a clue how to play it.In the first ten or so minutes we could have been well behind;with Gunts and Obita miles up the field,while the opposition wide players just strolled in behind them.

Adie thought this was going to be easy,it was far from it in the first half;when a supposedly dispirited Hull side,exploited our system and played us off the park.Then lo and behold,we come out second half and dominate,up to their goal.If only Ovie had got that wonder goal,second half.

IMHO

Rafael 6 Good save first half,poor kicking again.Should he have got a stronger hand on the ball for their goal ?

Gunts 6;Typical average Gunts performance,before being on the end of a couple of crunching barely legal tackles.

Obita 5 Terrible first half,had no idea how to play the system,and lacked urgency.Got a bit lucky on the goal.

Moore 8;MOM. Lost count of the number of times he saved us.
Morrison 6 Solid enough,but so awkward on the ball.
Blackett 7 As usual one horror moment,but solid enough.

Pele 6 But for a couple of misplaced passes,played very well.We must try to keep him.
Swift 3 Horror show really.
Ejaria 5 Better and more involved than of late.End product still missing though.

Baldock 5 Tried hard enough,but never threatening.
Meite 6 Did what it said on the tin.Just short on skill,but tried hard.

Alunde Nobodies idea of a full back,or defensive midfielder.But neat and tidy on the ball.Why did we buy him ?Looks like the Director of Football,wanted to justify his appointment.
Richards One of those bad days again.At times so short of confidence,and self belief.
Alukho Thought he’d turned the corner,but same old Alukho today.

Who is Alunde???

Yep sorry being lazy.The Brazilian half pint.

Ah. I thought he looked decent. Got up and down well, tidy on and off the ball.

[Singing Defective]

Lot of criticism here for Swift.

The thing is, he’s trying to be a one man Army. Corners: check. Hold up play: check. Free kicks: check. Scrambling back like a headless chicken because YM is half-way up the pitch on his arse, and Aluko, like James May, just doesn’t run on television: check. Mission impossible, even for Swift.

[paultheroyal]

Another point towards safety. A massive improvement from where we were 12 months ago and 20 games ago.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Swift needs the odd game like this, otherwise we'd be losing him to a PL team. He's just looking out for us. Fair play.

[Snowflake Royal]

Cabral - 6 unlucky with the goal, deflected, got a hand to it but just couldn't keep it out.
Gunter 6 typical Gunter, stood off crossers, played negative cautious football, but otherwise did alright. Nearly shit himself in terror when he had the chance to shoot. Hope he's ok.
Obita 7 scored, put a load of crosses in and got up and down to defend too
Moore 6 poor as RCB, much improved back in his normal slot second half
Morrison 6 did fine apart from the general shambles that was the first half defensive shape.
Blackett 5 brainless moments but when we wasn't being flash or stupidly in cautious ok.
Pele 5 too many poor passes, totally lost his man for at least 1 attack... probably the most involved and plenty good, but you can't have a DM who makes that many mistakes
Swift 5 assist but really very sloppy, utterly ineffectual out wide and a liability helping out in our box. Clear. The. oxf*rd. Ball.
Ejaria 4 over played everything. Yeah, it's nice to ooh and ahh, but let's have a modicum of end product.
Baldock 7 ran and hassled endlessly
Meite 6 had a few chances, but didn't link well with Baldock and it didn't go his way

Araruna 6 looked a bizarre mix of quality and a bit of a lost passenger at times. Looks promising
Richards 6 didn't do a lot
Aluko 5 oxf*rd about with it in a dangerous area and lost it then committed a brainless foul. Did nothing else of note.

[URZZZZ]

Not gonna bother with a full report. Big question for me is "Why Aluko?" What does he bring in that scenario? Take off a hard working, industrious striker and replace him with Aluko?

Dont get me wrong Swift and Ejaria do their fair share in helping defensively but neither threaten in the air or are particularly strong in the tackle. A midfield with Swift, Ejaria and Aluko??? I'm surprised they didnt walk through the middle.

I am sure there will be some Aluko apologists responding to this saying "what about his pass in blah blah blah". We dont need a weak, lazy AMC coming on when we are winning. Awful choice, awful player.

Aluko isn't lazy. He used to look lazy with Stam but that was more down to him not understanding his role rather than his attitude. It's a common misconception that Aluko is a lazy player

And he certainly isn't an awful player. He was no worse than Swift or Ejaria out there today and yet once again, after a poor 90 minutes, people are blaming a player who featured for 20 minutes of it

There's always got to be a scapegoat doesn't there? Why can't people accept this squad is massively overrated?

I'm not scapegoating him. If anything my criticism is aimed at Bowen.

Did you notice I only asked 1 question and your response didnt cover it? We could argue back and forth all day about his merits as a player but the question I asked was "why Aluko?". What did bringing him on at 63 minutes when he was our last sub offer us?

If I was to hazard a guess as to why Aluko was brought on:

1. Swift and Ejaria were playing awfully. Aluko, I suppose was the closest substitute to them in terms of what he can do
2. He changed the game on Tuesday and wanted to reward him for that

In hindsight, as I did say myself, bringing Baldock off was the wrong move as the energy was sucked out of the place. However the Aluko - Meite partnership actually looked slightly promising in the cup game against Cardiff so there was that too

I’m not sure Bowen will be doing it again in a hurry though. Perhaps when chasing a goal, it’d be a more logical sub as Aluko gets between the lines well and offers that certain option but when holding onto a lead, it wasn’t the best one to make

[SCIAG]

I think that one moment where Swift gave the ball away in his own half is clouding people's judgement. He was excellent, certainly a long way from "3/10" or "as bad as Aluko". The pass for the goal was exquisite, it was the best I've seen him dribble for a very long time, he moved the ball around extremely well and was a real thorn in Hull's side. Three key passes, two big clearances, and an important block. He's not really fast enough to play on the wing but he still managed to cause them trouble.

Overall ratings:

Rafael 7/10 - solid, couldn't get to the goal but can't really blame him for it.
Gunter 6/10 - was looking reasonably good until he came off.
Morrison 5/10 - poor, got caught out several times, positioning all over the place, played a nightmare backpass to Rafael.
Moore 6/10 - fine, nothing special.
Blackett 6/10 - some good tackles.
Obita 7/10 - took his goal well and put in one good cross.
Pele 6/10 - doesn't really offer anything defensively, didn't win the ball a single time all match. Moves the ball quite well, but despite a deeper role he misses more passes than Swift and Ejaria. He looks good, but is he a luxury player?
Ejaria 7/10 - not at his best, but full of energy and caused Hull all sorts of trouble. Should have laid off after he created that great chance before Hull's goal, but what incredible footwork to create the chance in the first place. Another we mustn't take for granted.
Swift 8/10 - as above, clear MOTM, just a class act.
Baldock 7/10 - worked very hard and helped provide the extra body in midfield in the second half. Played Meite in well on a couple of occasions. Needs to work on his own attacking movement though, just doesn't get in goalscoring positions often enough when playing against a deep line (he's excellent against a high line).
Meite 6.5/10 - he's had better games but we need his pace and power up front.

Araruna 7/10 - again not understanding the criticism, he won the ball three times, as many times as Blackett, or as Obita, Richards, and Gunter combined, and was very assured in possession with excellent passing (the highest completion rate in the team). Hopefully he grows into the role but you understand why they let Howe go when they bring in someone like this.
Richards 4/10 - couple of good runs but otherwise awful, just totally anonymous with no threat. Yes he has his defensive flaws but so does Blackett, just play him at left back.
Aluko 4/10 - probably his worst performance for us, capped off by a yellow card. Is Olise injured? There's a gulf in class between them. Given the options we had on the bench, I'd have liked to see Puscas on and Swift in behind him with Meite down the right.

Bowen 4/10 - poor subs, weird decision to switch to 4-4-2 which just doesn't suit our players at all. Stick to three in midfield as long as Pele's in there.

[Snowflake Royal]

Why the hell are we playing 5-3-2 at home against a Hull City team who's form is dire!! Away from home, yep i get it, but we should be taking the game to teams like Hull, especially if as Bowen says "We are still going to give the play-offs a go".
Most teams play 4-2-3-1 these days and there's a good reason for this "It works".

Play a back four with Gunter, Moore, Morrison and Richards.
Play Swift and Pele as deep lying midfielders, Pele can cover the back four and Swift has time to dictate the play.
Play Ejaria off the shoulder of the striker and Obita and Meite or Timbe as attacking inside forwards.
Finally either Puscas or Baldock as the lone striker but getting plenty of support from the attacking three just behind him.

And finally we have to play with pace and tempo, today was slow and lethargic and boring as......

We did do that a few weeks ago. It didn't work.

[72 bus]

Alunde Nobodies idea of a full back,or defensive midfielder.But neat and tidy on the ball.Why did we buy him ?Looks like the Director of Football knows his Dad

[Lower West]

[quote="SCIAG"
Bowen 4/10 - poor subs, weird decision to switch to 4-4-2 which just doesn't suit our players at all. Stick to three in midfield as long as Pele's in there.[/quote]

Listen to the post match interview. Fully explained.

[leon]

Watching Reading isn’t easy.Just when you think we are getting somewhere (large tracts of the 2nd half),somebody,somewhere switches off and bang, we’re back in the mire.
Please Mr Bowen,don’t play three at the back,as we haven’t got a clue how to play it.In the first ten or so minutes we could have been well behind;with Gunts and Obita miles up the field,while the opposition wide players just strolled in behind them.

Adie thought this was going to be easy,it was far from it in the first half;when a supposedly dispirited Hull side,exploited our system and played us off the park.Then lo and behold,we come out second half and dominate,up to their goal.If only Ovie had got that wonder goal,second half.

IMHO

Rafael 6 Good save first half,poor kicking again.Should he have got a stronger hand on the ball for their goal ?

Gunts 6;Typical average Gunts performance,before being on the end of a couple of crunching barely legal tackles.

Obita 5 Terrible first half,had no idea how to play the system,and lacked urgency.Got a bit lucky on the goal.

Moore 8;MOM. Lost count of the number of times he saved us.
Morrison 6 Solid enough,but so awkward on the ball.
Blackett 7 As usual one horror moment,but solid enough.

Pele 6 But for a couple of misplaced passes,played very well.We must try to keep him.
Swift 3 Horror show really.
Ejaria 5 Better and more involved than of late.End product still missing though.

Baldock 5 Tried hard enough,but never threatening.
Meite 6 Did what it said on the tin.Just short on skill,but tried hard.

Alunde Nobodies idea of a full back,or defensive midfielder.But neat and tidy on the ball.Why did we buy him ?Looks like the Director of Football,wanted to justify his appointment.
Richards One of those bad days again.At times so short of confidence,and self belief.
Alukho Thought he’d turned the corner,but same old Alukho today.

Who is Alunde???

Yep sorry being lazy.The Brazilian half pint.

Hull were the worst team I’ve seen this season.

LOL at playing us off the park in the first half. They were shit.