signs of improvement?

[watfordwhite]

I did not go again yesterday,  so now we have had time to sleep on it where there ANY positive signs of improving from the team or individual players?  :dead horse:

[MJG]

For the first 10 minutes we looked to have a plan and were bright.
We did ok for 50 odd minutes and then we went back to what we are good at..being rubbish.

Bent should have scored, but for the if's we again gave a team 20 shots and 65% of the ball.

Anyway championship here we come.

[Dan in Notts]

Yes, I thought so. We looked and moved more like a team, the defence looked a bit more organised (though still horribly shaky at times) and we mixed up our 20-minutes-to-get-up-the-field stuff with some faster paced efforts (okay, these amounted to pumping a few long balls but at least it made us a tiny bit less predictable). It takes a long time to build a team, and Swansea who are built on such a strong team ethos were always likely to overwhelm us, but yes, we were better. The only player who had a positively bad game was, I thought, Ruiz (a couple of good moments, but generally poor - It just doesn't seem to be working out for him; a shame as I think there have been flashes of promising stuff).

So, yes, there were improvements, but I fear it's too late this season, and it shows how desperate things are that the real highlight of the day was hearing the Moussa Dembele song again.

[Holders]

Signs of improvement - well, at risk of incurring the wrath of most on here, a balanced view says "yes, actually".

Rene has clearly had influence over Jol, the starting line-up and Parker as captain shows that. The first 20 minutes were better than recent games but we just couldn't keep it up. Maybe that's partly a fitness issue and midfield is still a big problem. Now Rene will have seen much more and be in a position to analyse what went wrong and attend to it in training. It takes time, the question is whether we have that time but Roy managed it.

Hughes was unlucky for the OG, Bent would have scored on another day and we could have had a point. Clearly that's not enough, we have to beat teams like Swansea at home but let's give Rene a little more time to work with the players.

Positives for me: Stek showed why we bought him, Richardson made some crucial and excellent interceptions, Parker played a real captain's game and Kasami is clearly very committed to the cause.

I shall never know why they didn't take Berba off unless he does have a clause in his contract or belong to the same Lodge. He scarcely did anything worthwhile all game.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

I would say yes as well to be honest.... Really looking forward to west ham who are equally as poor, under another week under Muelensteen with training.

We showed glimpses of promise.... Much better than in recent weeks, poor result obviously but still a baby step in the right direction imo

[alfie]

Signs of improvement - well, at risk of incurring the wrath of most on here, a balanced view says "yes, actually".

Rene has clearly had influence over Jol, the starting line-up and Parker as captain shows that. The first 20 minutes were better than recent games but we just couldn't keep it up. Maybe that's partly a fitness issue and midfield is still a big problem. Now Rene will have seen much more and be in a position to analyse what went wrong and attend to it in training. It takes time, the question is whether we have that time but Roy managed it.

Hughes was unlucky for the OG, Bent would have scored on another day and we could have had a point. Clearly that's not enough, we have to beat teams like Swansea at home but let's give Rene a little more time to work with the players.

Positives for me: Stek showed why we bought him, Richardson made some crucial and excellent interceptions, Parker played a real captain's game and Kasami is clearly very committed to the cause.

I shall never know why they didn't take Berba off unless he does have a clause in his contract or belong to the same Lodge. He scarcely did anything worthwhile all game.

"beat teams like Swansea"

Please advise what are teams like Swansea, the team that play fast flowing football with in my opinion better players.
Why should we be beating them? Why do we think we are better than them?

[TonyGilroy]

I agree with Holders.

It's less that we SHOULD beat teams like Swansea than that we NEED to. I'll be OK if I see gradual improvement and yesterday was a start.

[TonyGilroy]

With Berbatov I'd like to think it's the last roll of the dice. We know how good he has been throughout a long career. We have a new coach who knows him well. Worth persevering I think but only up to a point. Much depends on how Berbatov is at Motspur Park - is he receptive to doing what's necessary to make a better contribution or is he in a terminal sulk?

[Holders]

Signs of improvement - well, at risk of incurring the wrath of most on here, a balanced view says "yes, actually".

Rene has clearly had influence over Jol, the starting line-up and Parker as captain shows that. The first 20 minutes were better than recent games but we just couldn't keep it up. Maybe that's partly a fitness issue and midfield is still a big problem. Now Rene will have seen much more and be in a position to analyse what went wrong and attend to it in training. It takes time, the question is whether we have that time but Roy managed it.

Hughes was unlucky for the OG, Bent would have scored on another day and we could have had a point. Clearly that's not enough, we have to beat teams like Swansea at home but let's give Rene a little more time to work with the players.

Positives for me: Stek showed why we bought him, Richardson made some crucial and excellent interceptions, Parker played a real captain's game and Kasami is clearly very committed to the cause.

I shall never know why they didn't take Berba off unless he does have a clause in his contract or belong to the same Lodge. He scarcely did anything worthwhile all game.

"beat teams like Swansea"

Please advise what are teams like Swansea, the team that play fast flowing football with in my opinion better players.
Why should we be beating them? Why do we think we are better than them?

They were only 2 points above us, wrapped up in the Europa league, without two of their best players and not playing as well as last season when they did play fast flowing football.

Yes, taking all that into account and the fact that we were at home we should be beating teams in their position if we aspire to mid-table - or at least staying up.

[ScalleysDad]

Spookily a couple of very articulate fans got through to 606 and baffled the pundits with consistent and articulate observations. Yes we started a bit differently, the armband was given to Parker which was long overdue and we looked on paper to be full of attacking intent and as the motd highlights showed we did give it a go for a while. However that is never going to work if you have a lopsided midfield, surrender the flanks, include two players in vital positions who contribute zilch and make the substitutions at baffling times.
Give RM another couple of weeks on the training ground but the tactics were questionable yesterday. I wonder who dictates those?

[Holders]

One problem is the defensive cover that the midfield gives, particularly on the flanks, compared with that of the Roy team. Ruiz, for all his skill, is not made for that role. Frankly, of the current squad, I'm not sure who is - on either flank. That puts much more onus on the middle two and the fulbacks. All that rather negates the value of having the talented but unco-ordinated squad that we have.

[Dodger53]

Agree with most - First 10 bright and balanced - next 35 Ok but not enough at home and second half back to old rubbish - so little play in their half of the pitch - they played around us so easiliy - no pressure built up on they defence at all.

Most players were slightly better except Ruiz and Berba but better still does not make them Premiership level players - Actually Berba was better but from doing nothing to running around like a headless chicken is nothing to cheer about

[Zu-Meister]

we looked a tad better.
i just dont understand how dejagah doesnt play. ten times the player ruiz is.

[Zu-Meister]

in fact id say dejagah is our best player. strong, fast, skillfull and direct

[Wingnut]

Was there yesterday. We were better in the first half. Once we got the equaliser we fell to bits. I see nothing but Championship football ahead, i'm afraid. Ruiz had another shocker. I felt for the guy when the crowd cheered as he came off. Spurs home, West Ham away, Man City and Everton away up in our next five games. Bleak times ahead.

Boateng, Dejagah and Parker played well, I thought.

[Matt Inglis]

I thought we looked pretty good, actually.
Had that performance fit into a season full of ones of a similar nature it would not have been so bad.
For the majority of the first half Swansea attacked our left side, clearly having seen how vulnerable Richardson appeared in the previous games. They struggled to create anything, however and it was clear Richardson, Kasami and Boateng had been training to make sure they knew who was in charge of which man.. and successfully broke down any Swansea attempts at concise passing around the edge of the box.
Special credit in that area to Boateng, it seemed to me he made a number of good interceptions and blocks. Parker also blocked shots Swansea took from outside of the box. Those were the chances they mainly had, outside the box long shots.. and that's encouraging. The only real danger moment I can recall from that first half was when Boateng lost the ball.. twice. Amorebiate and Hughes bossed the air in that first half too, no signs of the sheepish marking seen in the Liverpool game.
Second half started in a similar vain, and in the end two good defenses were outdone by one piece of luck, and potentially two world class efforts.
We just didn't look good enough going forward. Bent's misses maybe dictated the result, as it turned out. But really we didn't create enough. It took Ruiz a good 30 minutes to get going, which was really disappointing. Berbatov really didn't do enough, I still want to see him dropped.
Anyway, everyone would probably disagree with me.. but I thought that was a very promising performance and would not be surprised to see us pick up some points in the next few games.

[Matt Inglis]

Boateng, Dejagah and Parker played well, I thought.

I personally don't see what you saw in that Dejagah performance.. haha

[watfordwhite]

Thanks guys, at least some positives to take out of the game. Lets hope the improvement continues and we get back to playing like Fulham.  049:gif

[Holders]

I thought we looked pretty good, actually.
Had that performance fit into a season full of ones of a similar nature it would not have been so bad.
For the majority of the first half Swansea attacked our left side, clearly having seen how vulnerable Richardson appeared in the previous games. They struggled to create anything, however and it was clear Richardson, Kasami and Boateng had been training to make sure they knew who was in charge of which man.. and successfully broke down any Swansea attempts at concise passing around the edge of the box.
Special credit in that area to Boateng, it seemed to me he made a number of good interceptions and blocks. Parker also blocked shots Swansea took from outside of the box. Those were the chances they mainly had, outside the box long shots.. and that's encouraging. The only real danger moment I can recall from that first half was when Boateng lost the ball.. twice. Amorebiate and Hughes bossed the air in that first half too, no signs of the sheepish marking seen in the Liverpool game.
Second half started in a similar vain, and in the end two good defenses were outdone by one piece of luck, and potentially two world class efforts.
We just didn't look good enough going forward. Bent's misses maybe dictated the result, as it turned out. But really we didn't create enough. It took Ruiz a good 30 minutes to get going, which was really disappointing. Berbatov really didn't do enough, I still want to see him dropped.
Anyway, everyone would probably disagree with me.. but I thought that was a very promising performance and would not be surprised to see us pick up some points in the next few games.

I almost entirely agree, it was certainly an improvement.

You mention Richardson, I thought his performance was a highlight of the game and it's interesting that you can see the effect of some TEAM coaching there. There's cause for hope.

[Sgt Fulham]

in fact id say dejagah is our best player. strong, fast, skillfull and direct

No remember Ruiz is our best player?