The Mail Bag
Unacceptable
Comments (3)
I wanted to write this as soon as the final whistle went, but now I've had time to sleep it off and I can honestly say that I am still fuming over the performance last night.
The only word for it is unacceptable. For 10 minutes or so, we were playing against 9 men. What happened? Punted balls on to the edge of the area for their big centre backs to pick off with ease. No balls out wide to stretch them, no passes to try to create some space, nothing but Phil Neville lumping it to their defender's heads. Utter shite.
I am a Moyes fan, I think he's done a great job so far, but that was just unbelievably bad. We were technically inferior, they even played the better football in patches after being reduced to 10 men. I understand that we were without Arteta and Gravesen, but still, you can't blame the loss of 2 players on that XI not being able to find a blue shirt with the ball.
AJ shouldn't have taken the 2nd pen, but with the service he had, he can play from now til Christmas and there'll be no goals for him. It's time to ask some serious questions, when Yobo is nigh-on the best attacking player in your line-up.
I have always been of the opinion that Moyes works day-in, day-out with the squad and he knows the best players for each position, but last night really makes me wonder. If that is the best team that we can put out and that is as good as they can play without Arteta, then we may as well give up on the European adventure. If we go to the Ukraine and play like that, it's over; if we get through and play like that againast a half-decent oppostion in the group stage, it'll be Dinamo Bucharest all over again.
It's time for something to change... I can't sit through another 90 like that! (And no, I'm not Tony Marsh under an alias - I'm just pissed off!)
Richard Parker, Posted 21/09/2007 at 09:32:07
Comments
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer
2 Posted 21/09/2007 at 12:19:09
His movement seem laugable and to me he seems unfit. Its like hes coming back from injury or something but he had a full pre season with Boro, so whats his problem. Maybe I imagined a big powerhouse going at defenders and hammering it home. One things for sure for such a big bloke his shots sure do seem weak.
When Victor came on we looked a different team.
3 Posted 21/09/2007 at 17:21:57
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
1 Posted 21/09/2007 at 09:38:03
How the hell Moyes feels that Neville is a midfielder is beyond me. His best position is right back. Jagielka should have been in the middle and Hibbert should have been in the stands. His distribution is literally non existent and he seems to be getting ever worse instead of better!
4-3-3??? I can't remember us playing that formation before! It left holes all over what was a poor midfield anyway!
There are no excuses whatsoever for the whole debacle. Injuries, refereeing decisions, whatever, we should have steam rolled that lot and been able to blood some kids in our away leg!
Why did he not see that his tactics were not working and change the system. Just because your one nil up doesn't mean you can't recognize that we're not performing and have the balls to change it!
Simply not good enough and Moyes looks less than capable when taken out of his comfort zone. It's no good qualifying for Europe if we don't make a realistic efforet in the competition!