Poor result, better performance IMO. No recognised striker which had antisocial media calling for Cocu's head before kick off. What we saw was the best opening 60 minutes of the season so far. Lawro subbed on the hour which wasn't a surprise to me. Not for the way he played but he is still "on the way back" and him lasting 90 would have been an amazing feat. That one move of theirs that led to the goal was the difference between the teams, just as one piece of individual class, aided and abetted by a defensive lapse, Evans last time out and a combo of Wis and Curtis this time. There was some slow play. It's not realistic to expect 90mph football over the full 90 minutes.. So near yet so far.
The biggest surprise to me was the subbing out of Buchanan. I didn't get that. Going to a back 4 to try to attack more wasn't a bad idea IMO. However, if you decide to push Wis to RB, where he can play then you are going to have to sub a full back off. Buchanan was playing better than Byrne IMO and was also useful for his aerial work both defensively and offensively. You then end up with a FB on the "wrong side" and it showed.
Davies almost but not quite. His usual standard in possession but we accept that for his defensive work which was, for the most part very good again. Their goal? Bacuna got the ball and Curtis was only 1 yard away, the ball was passed to a teammate who got the jump on Wis, Bacuna then ran to the middle of the box hoping to get the ball back, Davies didn't track him. Neither did anyody else go to cover him and the rest is history.
I was really disappointed with our dead ball situations. Bird and Lawrence are usually pretty good with their delivery. Both overhit just about every one they took.
Despite this being quite possibly our best football of the season so far, we should be worried about the passing. IMO way too many passes were overhit, underhit, mis-hit leaving the recipient in trouble or were so bad they got intercepted. How do you rhyme the poor dead ball issue and a lot more bad passes than usual with possibly our best football of the season? Seems strange but there was movement off the ball, lots of it and we saw quite a bit of the fast, 1 and 2 touch play we have been craving. More of that and less of the errors please.
Might we have been 1 up at HT had Knight not been pulled up for being 3 yards ON side? Did he know he'd been penalised and might he have scored if allowed to play on? Also a shame Wis shot straight at Hamer with his chance
Marshall 6 nothing out of the ordinary but not at fault anywhere either
Byrne 6 had a decent game but no more than adequate
Wisdom 6 I might have gone 7 but for his part in their goal
Davies 6 See Wisdom
Clarke 6 had a decent game but no more than adequate
Buchanan 8 the lad really impressed me with all parts of his game except for his below par crosses
Bird 5 his best game for a while. He needs to add passing to the right hand side of the field to his game. He goes left 95% of the time. Marked down due to his really poor free kicks and corners
Shinnie 6 no more than adequate
Knight 8 Some end product needed otherwise excellent
Jozwiak 6 Some good stuff both in and out of possession. As with Knight end product needed
Lawrence 6 Looked interested and got stuck in. No end product, lost the ball a lot IMO and what was wrong with his dead ball attempts?