Positives and negatives from today

[YoungsBitter]

FulhamBen --

Some will (rightfully) argue that Sidwell has been among our better players this season, but his (and Parker's) limitations are a large reason why numerous other guys have looked poor and why the defense has looked so vulnerable.

yep I said it back in September, you cant play them in the middle together. its been a little easier with sidders banging in a few goals but on large it has been a failed experiment

It's tough as both are fighters but agree 100% they get tired, they lie to deep, they don't bring the ball forward with enough creativity (although both cannot be faulted for effort and some key goals). However they hv been exposed badly in every game where we hv been thumped and being hearty but not good enough gets you relegated - remember Wolves, Reading, Blackpool?
Overall the team is looking better and Burn was a star today


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[beijing ben]

The Parker-Sidwell 2-man midfield doesn't work. It's "fine" for running around and standing in front of the back four and breaking up play. It doesn't connect at all with the front four in any consistent or dangerous way, and it runs out of steam in the final 30 minutes of matches against comparable or better opponents.

We either need to play Karagounis, as well, and sacrifice a CAM, or drop Kasami deeper into a three-man central midfield, or (hopefully) buy someone in the next two weeks who's actually good.

People will complain if Sidwell or Parker get dropped, because they're good servants and they play hard and they're leaders and whatever, but they're not good by Prem standards. Sidwell couldn't sniff a match for us two years ago. Now he's an every-week starter? Absurd. If you want a reason we're very much on the way toward relegation, central midfield is the glaring reason. The club's had two windows to fix it and hasn't. If it goes a third without doing so, we're done, I'm afraid.

As for the rest of that preferred lineup, it's fine. It's not like we have choices that are clearly better than anything else right now.

100% agree with all this. I think most of us have recognised the problem has been the midfield and that should be the priority. The effort is always there from Sidwell and Parker but they can't link defence with attack. They are both uncomfortable looking forward. We had plenty of opportunities to create on the counter attack yesterday but we couldnt do it. We need creativity in the middle. Karagounis can do it but we cant rely on just him. We must get someone or we are definitely down...

[Twig]

Positives:

- Our defense overall: both Arsenal's goals were not due to our mistakes in defense, i.e. not that we played bad, they just played well.
- Steks and Hangeland back from injuries and in shape: we clearly needed you guys, please stay fit!
- Burn: not sure why Rene says he has a bright future, he has a bright present, FFS!
- Richardson: anyone able to stop Sagna is a good left back for me, played surprisingly well.
- Dejagah: Rene finally preferred him over Duff.
- Berbatov: great performance, I can't recall a wrong decision, he even tried to win some balls in his weird style, by pushing people around.

Negatives:

- We lost. Expected, but we lost.
- Parker lost his captaincy to Hangeland. Why? Is it because of Rene's obsession with clean sheets?
- Dempsey adds nothing and just stands in the way of Kasami and Taraabt.

One additional positive for me - for the first time this season I finally know my perfect starting 11:

               Steks
Riether-Hangeland-Burn-Richardson
          Parker-Sidwell
Dejagah-Kasami-Taarabt
            Berbatov


What are your positives and negatives?

Pretty much agree with your assessment.  I too would have liked Parker to retain captaincy.  I would, just, favour Kaca over Taarabt but otherwise agree with your team provided Kasami is used to to link the midfield with the front players.  Otherwise we see too much of a gap and a lack of service.

My only other negative from yesterday was the relatively poor crossing from both Kaka and Dejagah, I counted several lost opportunities to get quality ball into Berbs in both halves.  They must improve their delivery if Rene is to rely on them and not continue his search for yet more wide options.

[Max Headroom]

Lots of sense in here. For me Kasami for Dempsey is a no brainer. Kaca has a poor first touch as he should have scored when one on one yesterday and can't find a good cross for toffee. So I'd like a different winger. Plumain has looked good and hopefully gts a runout v Sheffield utd. Or even put taraabt on the wing

Big relief seeing burn and hangeland play so well together.

It will be tough but we have the best final few games remember and as we are coming from such a low base we should not expect immediate miracles but we are now heading in the right direction