There's not enough topics about the match today so I'll start one...

[The Tashkent Terror]

Just got home after watching what was possibly one of the worst, most abysmal and low quality matches I've seen in a while.

We missed Cattermole so badly. Henderson and Richardson were appalling in the centre of midfield, getting bullied by Nolan and Barton all match, losing the physical battle so much that after 30 mins they weren't even competing for the ball, surrendering the middle of the field and allowing Newcastle the time and space to build attacks and run at our constantly exposed defence. Henderson looked either far too worked up, to the point of losing his head, or terrified of the occasion, but either way he was not the same energetic and composed player today as he has proved he can be many times this season. A poor performance. Richardson did very little, makes far too many mistakes, lacks the passing range to play in the middle and hopefully will only be used in the centre of midfield again in a real emergency.

Steed came out with a little credit, showing a real enthusiasm and battling spirit that I didn't know he had in him! The other player who looked like he was up for the match, like he was ready to face the challenge and had the mentality to meet it, was Bardsley.

Our tactics seemed to be 'Plan A, hoof it. If that fails, Plan B is... hoof it more.' Why, when we've been playing some lovely football down the wings, patiently creating chances and happy to keep possession (even against the more physical teams like Blackburn and Bolton), did that all go out the window almost immediately today? I think that again the occasion got too much for many of the players, that Newcastle hastled and harried them into making rushed decisions and panicking so much that our normal game went out the windown. Worrying to see.

Once again we made Ameobi look like Messi, giving him time and space and failing totally at dealing with both the balls to his head and his knock downs. Bramble looked unsure when dealing with him, but that is as much because he and Ferdinand were so exposed and had to deal with far too many balls coming at them due to the lack of any structure in front of them.

Bent and Gyan could have done better with a few chances (how many times have we said that recently!), but again were left feeding off either balls played to their heads at 100mph or scrappy chances that they had to fashion themselves. Again a problem that was mainly due to the lack of a functioning midfield behind them.

Thank god it is over, thank god we didn't lose, I hope that we never play that badly again.

P.S. Do those who were defending pitch invasions as harmless fun in an earlier thread from yesterday still see it that way?

[I Am The Walrus]

We worked it down the wings a few times in the first half to Elmo and unfortunately he didn't hit one decent cross. Having two right footers on the left side limits our ability to play flowing football on that wing as they have to check back. Second half was just pure back to front hoofing.

[seedysafc]

Agreed. Terrible performance as once again the players bottled it. Credit to Malbranque, Bardsley and to an extent Elmohamady but i'm pleased to get out of it with a draw despite it being undeserved.

[The Tashkent Terror]

Originally Posted by I Am The Walrus

We worked it down the wings a few times in the first half to Elmo and unfortunately he didn't hit one decent cross. Having two right footers on the left side limits out ability to play flowing football on that wing as they have to check back. Second half was just pure back to front hoofing.

2 right footers on the left worked well earlier this season with Welbeck (a big miss today) and Bardsely and has worked well with Malbranque and Bardsley as well, but today we hardley even tried. We were sitting far too deep and Bardsley made only a fraction of his usual forwards runs. Maybe because he was worrying about Barton too much?

[The Hooded Claw]

Yeah it was shit. Get over it.

[The Tashkent Terror]

Originally Posted by The Hooded Claw

Yeah it was shit. Get over it.

Yeah, I will, thanks for the completely useless input.