Poyet rues missed chance (From The Argus)

What was the El-Abd substitution all about ? Hammond was not having his best game,but he looked more likely to score than anyone from open play. If it was just to get Lopez on the pitch, it wasn't really worth it, he did nothing.

To be honest, not many of them turned up but Wayne Bridge was excellent! Crowd tried their best to no avail.

Am bemused as everyone round me by that game.could not believe they only had two shots(birmingham ) no threat . We missed Craig and I think more Bruno who has given us a more balanced attack with invention on both sides of the pitch even though he is a right back. For what it's worth would invite comment as I think we went back to how we were last season. Dobbie no lone striker and a lot to prove. Liam excellent , wayne good but everyone seemed blind on our team to the fact in the first 20 min he was in acres of space yelling for the ball . There were many exchanges between him Adam and gordon! Just disappointed as we could even with a draw against a poor side given ourselves a bit of breathing space for tougher games to come at a later date.

Birmingham were awful but scored a good goal from one of only a few chances. Bridge was class yet again and just a pity Bruno was not doing the same down the opposite flank. Not sure why we played a winger in front of Bridge and getting in his way instead of down the right wing. If Barnes is in the team please play him down the middle not left midfield surely we have better midfielders. Dobbies performance was encouraging until he run out of puff but we need someone to make more of our corners. Just because a training pitch corner nearly works once do we have to keep trying it. Top of the league still though and 3 points waiting on Tuesday.

Just red comments on previous article and agree with many. In gus I trust but two wingers at hm got to be worth a go in our position and Liam on his own may be a gd step for us/him to give us another option but no high balls from the wings as we don't have that height /strenght advantage. Understood Adam switch but not while we were losing. We need a cb option and Hammond if we ever get a fully fit midfield( v,crofts,orlandi,dob
bie,dicker) could be an option in that position and save us some money!just strange it was tonight. Mangers we all wish we were :-)

I agree Far gull and although I thought Dicker was better today do we need him and Bridcut at homeI I thought Bridcut was back to his best tonight but we do lack creativity in front of him without Vicente. Not sure about switching El Abd for Hammond either?

As I forecast on previous posts, this was a game I feared we would struggle to win.
Totally agree with Gus that we took too long to get going. If we had started the first half like we did the second there would have been only one winner. Agree with those who say Dobbie is a link man, not a target man. He was impressive with his touch and link-up play, but there was no one apart from Buckley (Lua Lua) and Wayne Bridge to link up with.
Gus's plea for others to score fell on deaf ears, with no clear cut opportunities created despite some excellent approach work. Hammond was disappointing, and Barnes failed to make an impact . The final ball from the wings was poor, and in this respect Will Buckley had several chances to pull the ball back from the bye-line but could never find a colleague with his crosses. Too many were fired at the keeper.

This game demonstrated our desperate need for a striker with an instinct for getting on the end of things, and with an instinct to know when to make his runs. Obviously CMS was missed, but we can't rely on one man. Personally I would play CMS and Dobbie together, as I think their interplay (with support from Buckley, Bridge and Bruno) would be too good for most championship defences.

The officiating was attrocious, with the main offender being the linesman who clearly doesn't understand the meaning of "springing the offside trap". As an earlier post said, he even flagged one of our players offside when they had the ball!!!
I lost count of breaks we made from an onside position which were flagged offside because by the time the ball arrived our forward was ahead of their defender.
The referee failed to see a blatant push on El-Abd when he was about to head the ball into the net from a corner. He also failed to spot several pushes on our forwards when they were past the defender.
This however is a smokescreen for a performance which promised much but failed to deliver.

Sorry fellas, I must have watched a different game. You were as poor as we were. Closest comments were Yogi's.

A quick message for Dave from Bexhill who asked, on Friday night, if I was insinuating the ref was bent... No Dave, far be it for me to make such a very dangerous insinuation. I'll just stick with 'totally incompetent, along with his assistants who should have learnt the offside rule before leaping on the Birmingham team bus'. How about that!

I suppose I should also reply to the derisory comments I received about the failure to convert the many opportunities and who would come off the bench to make the difference. The only one who could didn't, possibly because he doesn't have enough experience at this level... and he won't get it either, sitting on the bench. Flooding the pitch with midfield players may work for Spain but we are not quite there yet.

And oops, I forgot to mention, congratulations to all those Brummie fans who followed the advice of much maligned Michael Holden in the Independent and, following his advice, got 4/1 on a Birmingham win. I bet Markymark03 is even more peeved off now... So am I by the way - smug journalists - I hate 'em!

When Gus says we missed opportunities he's right. I can't recall one decent shot on goal regardless of all our possession in the last 30 mins. Brum came with a plan and it worked. Just a lack lustre performance and shades of this time last season. We must recover our winning ways on Tuesday for fear of going on a bad run. I feel that our season really begins next Saturday with a string of much tougher opponents. From there on we will be able to judge how the season will pan out.

Agree that WB was sensational -class apart. I have noticed in the recent matches that we get behind the opponents with relative ease (ie 2nd half yesterday) as we are basically a good team, but so often the crosses go astray or no one is there to convert. This is really frustrating. Missed CMs's running in the box yesterday.

Vince wrote:
As I forecast on previous posts, this was a game I feared we would struggle to win.
Totally agree with Gus that we took too long to get going. If we had started the first half like we did the second there would have been only one winner. Agree with those who say Dobbie is a link man, not a target man. He was impressive with his touch and link-up play, but there was no one apart from Buckley (Lua Lua) and Wayne Bridge to link up with.
Gus's plea for others to score fell on deaf ears, with no clear cut opportunities created despite some excellent approach work. Hammond was disappointing, and Barnes failed to make an impact . The final ball from the wings was poor, and in this respect Will Buckley had several chances to pull the ball back from the bye-line but could never find a colleague with his crosses. Too many were fired at the keeper.

This game demonstrated our desperate need for a striker with an instinct for getting on the end of things, and with an instinct to know when to make his runs. Obviously CMS was missed, but we can't rely on one man. Personally I would play CMS and Dobbie together, as I think their interplay (with support from Buckley, Bridge and Bruno) would be too good for most championship defences.

The officiating was attrocious, with the main offender being the linesman who clearly doesn't understand the meaning of "springing the offside trap". As an earlier post said, he even flagged one of our players offside when they had the ball!!!
I lost count of breaks we made from an onside position which were flagged offside because by the time the ball arrived our forward was ahead of their defender.
The referee failed to see a blatant push on El-Abd when he was about to head the ball into the net from a corner. He also failed to spot several pushes on our forwards when they were past the defender.
This however is a smokescreen for a performance which promised much but failed to deliver.

Top post Vince.

One of those really awful games when you just hope the team will scrape a result, even if not deserved. No need for alarm bells yet in what generally has been a brilliant start to the season.We missed CMS as I, and others, thought we would. He creates so much space for others to play in, so perhaps those that were glad to have sold him off to Norwich may now appreciate what an excellent player he is, even when not scoring. Agree with Jonathan above and others how incompetent the ref and in particular one of linesmen were, although the implication made by some that because the ref was from the West Midland he was biased towards Brum is at best silly in my view.Amazing how poor performances seem to go hand in hand with poor refereeing decisions. Anyway, at this stage I'm optimistic that it was just one of those bad days at the office. Roll on Tuesday. (ps there was a stage towards the end of the game when I had fingers crossed that the lights would fail again and that the match would have to be abandoned and therefore replayed)

I think sometimes when a team is on a good run and are bubbling with confidence , they expect things to happen instead of making things happen. I think tonight we were guilty of this , we just expected alot because we have been playing well without the committment and desire to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
Yes some of the tactical decsions were not too good as mentioned above but alot of players simply didnt turn up for the first half.
Confused about Dobbies role ... think that needs to be cleared up , its obvious he is a great link up player ...but to link up with who ? Play him with CMS and then we might see his true potential.
Would like to see Hammond and Crofty play together in the midfield.. Pains me to say it but think we miss some Vicente magic ... GG

Brighton top of the league at home 26,000 crowd and not one decent effort on goal.We still miss a target man,we always mess up when we are in a good position.We were not up for it,and they brought their own Ref with them from the west midlands.Looks like we still have a hot and cold team.Burke looks a bit of a Craig Michael-Smith lookalike he wasnt playing for Brum was he.?

One good note to emerge yesterday - the team doctor said that they have removed the metal plate in Hoskins' foot and that they are already well advanced in the strengthening-up process. I for one am looking forward, with optimism, to seeing if he can be the missing link.

PS : Yes Dave it's me linking the ref to Brum - of course it's silly but a little banter doen't harm - and I still have memories of standing in the shed all those years ago, watching a bent referee single-handedly knock us out of the cup... against Palace of all teams!

Clearly miss a centre forward who can change a game, brum came to defend and close space in the last third, and we had no options .. As for eland coming off, that was to bring us to a flexible 3.4.3 attack with them camped in there own half.. Bridge is the standard of player we will need to stay in the premiership! That shows why saints will be going down, and changing manager by December ..
Big centre forward who can smash his way through and get on the end of crosses needed , because few teams will try and outplay us at the Amex.

I think you're being a little harsh on the players, especially the new ones. It's going to take a few games for the new players to build up an understanding.

As I said yesterday--'a shame', but on reflection, Gus has the team playing his 'certain' way but IS there a plan B when the opposing team has us worked out and frustrates us so much that we are unable to play 'our way'? Are the players only programmed to do it Gus's way or are they given licence to use their initiative to 'give it a go' and try something else--because if not then very soon teams will have got us worked out and many results will end up like yesterdays and the players will begin to loose confidence.
Only one loss but a game we were expected to win which would have given us an early cushion---but many more games to get it right.
I speak as one who can only glean info from other posters and match reports as I am here in Spain---where the rain does not always fall on the plain!!! It would be good to get a perspective on my comments from those on site.

Sorry--on a different topic---I read that Fergie of MU is wingeing yet again about 'extra' time and how his team was not given enough time to score another goal---as Cloughie used to say 'It only takes a second to score a goal' guess he would not have had a go if MU was winning??

So what happened to our, 'strength in depth,' where were all those, 'options,' Gus now has. If all others have to do is to play the offside trap to stop us then we can forget about promotion. I am sure our next opponents, and the next three or four will have taken notes.

Vince wrote:
As I forecast on previous posts, this was a game I feared we would struggle to win.
Totally agree with Gus that we took too long to get going. If we had started the first half like we did the second there would have been only one winner. Agree with those who say Dobbie is a link man, not a target man. He was impressive with his touch and link-up play, but there was no one apart from Buckley (Lua Lua) and Wayne Bridge to link up with.
Gus's plea for others to score fell on deaf ears, with no clear cut opportunities created despite some excellent approach work. Hammond was disappointing, and Barnes failed to make an impact . The final ball from the wings was poor, and in this respect Will Buckley had several chances to pull the ball back from the bye-line but could never find a colleague with his crosses. Too many were fired at the keeper.

This game demonstrated our desperate need for a striker with an instinct for getting on the end of things, and with an instinct to know when to make his runs. Obviously CMS was missed, but we can't rely on one man. Personally I would play CMS and Dobbie together, as I think their interplay (with support from Buckley, Bridge and Bruno) would be too good for most championship defences.

The officiating was attrocious, with the main offender being the linesman who clearly doesn't understand the meaning of "springing the offside trap". As an earlier post said, he even flagged one of our players offside when they had the ball!!!
I lost count of breaks we made from an onside position which were flagged offside because by the time the ball arrived our forward was ahead of their defender.
The referee failed to see a blatant push on El-Abd when he was about to head the ball into the net from a corner. He also failed to spot several pushes on our forwards when they were past the defender.
This however is a smokescreen for a performance which promised much but failed to deliver.

basically this...

Why is everyone so obsessed with a target man? We just need players that can unlock defences. As others have said, the forward players had an off day. There is more variety in our approach this year (not just plan A) but it just didn't happen last night. Too many offsides (yes I know some were dubious) too many poor quality final balls. It needed a cool head in the final third and we didnt have that. We had an off day and still deserved to get something out of the game. I think there will be a better and different outcome on Tuesday. A bit of work on corners might be useful too - as we had 12 and didnt really threaten from them. That was 12 more than Birmingham by the way!

What annoys me is the idiot in the North stand who starts that God awful left right left song. It sucks dude, save it for the shower.

I recall Gus saying the fans would love Steven Dobbie. Personally, I would prefer it if he was playing for the opposition. Apart from TK and WB the additions this year are not working. I expected DH to be subbed, but AE went who was having a better game went instead.

mikeygit wrote:
As I said yesterday--'a shame', but on reflection, Gus has the team playing his 'certain' way but IS there a plan B when the opposing team has us worked out and frustrates us so much that we are unable to play 'our way'? Are the players only programmed to do it Gus's way or are they given licence to use their initiative to 'give it a go' and try something else--because if not then very soon teams will have got us worked out and many results will end up like yesterdays and the players will begin to loose confidence.
Only one loss but a game we were expected to win which would have given us an early cushion---but many more games to get it right.
I speak as one who can only glean info from other posters and match reports as I am here in Spain---where the rain does not always fall on the plain!!! It would be good to get a perspective on my comments from those on site.

Yep on games like these, I question if we lack a good plan B option. Maybe we have to just perfect plan A. So far this season plan A has worked, but with Bruno and CMS out of the team it was a different team and we lacked their inspiration.

It was a weird from the start, and the Brum just sat back from the kick off and although we passed and played ok we didn't do enough to deserve the win.

Have to give the credit to Birmingham on this one.

Does anyone have any idea if Bruno will be fit for Tuesday ? I believe CMS has already been ruled out which indicates the same forward partnership.

The thing that puzzles me is that Gus says that Crofts is fit and available, and does not even make the bench. Orlandi has been starting and yesterday not even in the squad. Added to the fact that Mackail Smith and Bruno are injured together with the Mr elusive Vicente we are pretty thin on creative players. Dobbie is no forward, Barnes was very average yesterday and Dicker still struggles. Why if players are supposed to be fit why are we not told why they are not playing. No doubts that with everyone fit this is going to be a great season; but Gus just be honest with us

seagulltess wrote:
The thing that puzzles me is that Gus says that Crofts is fit and available, and does not even make the bench. Orlandi has been starting and yesterday not even in the squad. Added to the fact that Mackail Smith and Bruno are injured together with the Mr elusive Vicente we are pretty thin on creative players. Dobbie is no forward, Barnes was very average yesterday and Dicker still struggles. Why if players are supposed to be fit why are we not told why they are not playing. No doubts that with everyone fit this is going to be a great season; but Gus just be honest with us

Gd post

Birmingham took their chance (one) and defended well, stepping up to catch us offside on too many occasions.

WoodingdeanDS wrote:
I recall Gus saying the fans would love Steven Dobbie. Personally, I would prefer it if he was playing for the opposition. Apart from TK and WB the additions this year are not working. I expected DH to be subbed, but AE went who was having a better game went instead.

Steven Dobbie has played one game....he is a good player, but more as a number 10 link player than somebody who is going to play up on his own. I thought he had a decent game yesterday - he does not have the same pace or eye for a goal as CMS, but has good feet and will create. If CMS had been playing I doubt whether Brum would have played the offside trap as they would have been too scared of his movement and pace in behind. Kuzczak and Bridge have been outstanding thus far and Orlandi contributed well at Millwall. Hammond was kept on ahead of El Abd because he has a better range of passing from the back and is probably more likely to score a goal (in spite of El Abd's goal last week). Way too early to be dismissive of Gus's signings.

mikeygit wrote:
As I said yesterday--'a shame', but on reflection, Gus has the team playing his 'certain' way but IS there a plan B when the opposing team has us worked out and frustrates us so much that we are unable to play 'our way'? Are the players only programmed to do it Gus's way or are they given licence to use their initiative to 'give it a go' and try something else--because if not then very soon teams will have got us worked out and many results will end up like yesterdays and the players will begin to loose confidence.
Only one loss but a game we were expected to win which would have given us an early cushion---but many more games to get it right.
I speak as one who can only glean info from other posters and match reports as I am here in Spain---where the rain does not always fall on the plain!!! It would be good to get a perspective on my comments from those on site.

PlAN B was to hope the light's did not come back on ,there manager did his home work and we dont have the attacking force ,dont tell me Hosking's best we can hope there is to get fit and sell get some cash back

Lua Lua has to got play on Tues (from the start) he can cross better than Buckley who is best played down the middle linking up with Dobie. Anyone count the "offsides" was it double figures?

Lee Clark appears to be able to bring teams against Gus' teams that can take the points.
Remember him at Huddersfield?
I seem to remember they beat us twice in our League One promotion season.

The whole of Saturday was a big let down after the tremendous efforts of the previous couple of weeks. It was so lacklustre and we seemed to play with little self belief. Lack of punch up front was was pretty obvious and I'm wondering why Toby didn't get an opportunity. Dobbie was disappointing after all the mid-week hype and Barnes was pretty invisible after his early knock. I couldn't see the point of persevering with him when he was not getting on the ball in his advanced midfield road and was not getting anywhere near any crosses. If you've got another option up front on the bench, then surely yesterday was the time to give him an opportunity. Both Buckley and Lua Lua were creative and capable of getting by and behind their markers, but they had very few options when they came to make their crosses into the box. So a poor performance, but at least we are still top, so let's hope for better on Tuesday and not rue another opportunity missed. It would have been great to have opened up a 3 point gap !!

Vince wrote:
As I forecast on previous posts, this was a game I feared we would struggle to win.
Totally agree with Gus that we took too long to get going. If we had started the first half like we did the second there would have been only one winner. Agree with those who say Dobbie is a link man, not a target man. He was impressive with his touch and link-up play, but there was no one apart from Buckley (Lua Lua) and Wayne Bridge to link up with.
Gus's plea for others to score fell on deaf ears, with no clear cut opportunities created despite some excellent approach work. Hammond was disappointing, and Barnes failed to make an impact . The final ball from the wings was poor, and in this respect Will Buckley had several chances to pull the ball back from the bye-line but could never find a colleague with his crosses. Too many were fired at the keeper.

This game demonstrated our desperate need for a striker with an instinct for getting on the end of things, and with an instinct to know when to make his runs. Obviously CMS was missed, but we can't rely on one man. Personally I would play CMS and Dobbie together, as I think their interplay (with support from Buckley, Bridge and Bruno) would be too good for most championship defences.

The officiating was attrocious, with the main offender being the linesman who clearly doesn't understand the meaning of "springing the offside trap". As an earlier post said, he even flagged one of our players offside when they had the ball!!!
I lost count of breaks we made from an onside position which were flagged offside because by the time the ball arrived our forward was ahead of their defender.
The referee failed to see a blatant push on El-Abd when he was about to head the ball into the net from a corner. He also failed to spot several pushes on our forwards when they were past the defender.
This however is a smokescreen for a performance which promised much but failed to deliver.

Good post and like you I was wary before the match.
I even pointed out in one post that Bet Victor were offering 19/5 for Birmingham to win. I thought those odds were too generous for a two horse race especially as Birmingham were expected to 'bounce back' as forecast in the Independant which I referred to on here.
As you say we clearly need a target man and this match reinforced Poyet's need for one, a desire he has expressed on numerous occasions.
I didn't think having to make 3 changes to the team helped - no CMS, Orlandi or most importantly Bruno. In fairness to Calde he did everything that was asked of him but he isn't Bruno.
There is a report in the People today that Poyet is interested in Hitzlsperger (?) currently on trial at Everton. I am not sure why we would want yet another midfielder when a target man is what we need.
Lets hope the Albion get the show back on the road against Ipswich.

As a life-long long-distance supporter I find it a little amusing that so many posters who a week ago were lauding Gus now turn into football managers themselves and feel they can do a better job. They have better tactics, more idea of team selection and the "In Gus We Trust" mantra is so easily discarded. We are going to lose some games and we will not always have our "best eleven" available - God help us if we ever lose two on the trot!

Bit surprised that Gus didn't give Agdestein maybe the last 20 minutes to see if he might make an impact. So easy, of course, to analyse after the game but with Dobbie looking short of match fitness I wonder what Toby has to do to get a chance.
Roll on Tuesday! How's Gus going to shuffle the pack, I wonder.

I share a season ticket with my son. I got to see a team play the offside trap and watched as we didn't know how to deal with it, I think due to yesterday he will see the same thing on tuesday. Two or three players earned their wages yesterday, the rest should hand back the cheques. Before yesterday's game we were all, nearly all, convinced that we had strength in depth, yesterday showed we don't have it right now. I went home frustrated, let's hope my boy doesn't come home with the same feeling.

I'm looking forward to 'Hosko' getting fit because he will surely be in the frame. I may have missed something but what is his situation at the club? I seem to recall that he was not included in the first team squad and was somewhat in the wilderness. Perhaps someone would post the answer.
Digressing, I had to miss the match and caught the second half on the radio. I clearly cannot comment on the officials' performance but over a season you win some and lose some decisions. On the issue of a target man, I still think that is the real missing link in the team. Somewhere there is an Alex Dawson or a Peter Withe to nod the balls down to CMS or perhaps Hoskins.

only two of our players turned up the rest were below par.Birmingham got a freak goal that looked good but could have gone anywhere.No goalkeeper would have saved it.For 80% of the game Birmingham kept six players in or on the penalty area.We played the wrong type of game to break them down we should have kept the ball on the ground and gone through the middle more.Anything in the air Birmingham wone with thier taler players.Roll on Tuesday lets bounce back I think Ipswich will come to play they need points.Should be a better game SEAGULLS>PS see Southampton lost again.

OzzieGull wrote:
As a life-long long-distance supporter I find it a little amusing that so many posters who a week ago were lauding Gus now turn into football managers themselves and feel they can do a better job. They have better tactics, more idea of team selection and the "In Gus We Trust" mantra is so easily discarded. We are going to lose some games and we will not always have our "best eleven" available - God help us if we ever lose two on the trot!

Good post Oz!

I was disappointed with the porformance, and from where i sat (NS) it looked like the linesman was getting a lot of decisions wrong.
After reading reports and comments, i now realise that the brum probably played a good game with the offside trap.

On reflection i do think we need a 'target man' as part of our squad. Barnes is quality but doesn't fill that roll, and with CMS playing the big man will be on the bench.
I think if we had that player on the bench yesterday he may well of come on and got the goal. Hopefully Gus will find that player (and maybe more?) in the loan window.

UTA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone at the match was saying 'it doesn't matter if we lose we will still be top' with all the results in from the 3.00pm kick offs.Cant help but feel this malaise got through to the players.Only plus points Dobbie and Bridge,both excellent.Would love to see Dobbie and a fit again CMS up front together.

mikeygit wrote:
Sorry--on a different topic---I read that Fergie of MU is wingeing yet again about 'extra' time and how his team was not given enough time to score another goal---as Cloughie used to say 'It only takes a second to score a goal' guess he would not have had a go if MU was winning??

The audacity of that hypocrite is so extreme it's actually laughable.

I'd be interested in his view of the five minutes the Anfield ref added on (should have been nine) last weekend. I'm sure it must have slipped his mind to complain! Also re: the Suarez penalty and ed card incidents his poor little cherubs got away with.

Gross hypocricy.

Also why do people continually refer inaccurately to him as "the master of kidology"?..:he's as subtle as a brick. All his is good at is making hugely inflammatory statements with no disguise that are so outrageous you can't help be annoyed and he has the establishment in his pocket. Shouting loudly and havin all the aces doesnn make him a mastermind, just a bully.

Mourinho is an irritant but he IS genuinely good at deflection of pressure, clever implication etc.

(Sorry about typos.)

fairweathersupporter wrote:

Vince wrote:
As I forecast on previous posts, this was a game I feared we would struggle to win.
Totally agree with Gus that we took too long to get going. If we had started the first half like we did the second there would have been only one winner. Agree with those who say Dobbie is a link man, not a target man. He was impressive with his touch and link-up play, but there was no one apart from Buckley (Lua Lua) and Wayne Bridge to link up with.
Gus's plea for others to score fell on deaf ears, with no clear cut opportunities created despite some excellent approach work. Hammond was disappointing, and Barnes failed to make an impact . The final ball from the wings was poor, and in this respect Will Buckley had several chances to pull the ball back from the bye-line but could never find a colleague with his crosses. Too many were fired at the keeper.

This game demonstrated our desperate need for a striker with an instinct for getting on the end of things, and with an instinct to know when to make his runs. Obviously CMS was missed, but we can't rely on one man. Personally I would play CMS and Dobbie together, as I think their interplay (with support from Buckley, Bridge and Bruno) would be too good for most championship defences.

The officiating was attrocious, with the main offender being the linesman who clearly doesn't understand the meaning of "springing the offside trap". As an earlier post said, he even flagged one of our players offside when they had the ball!!!
I lost count of breaks we made from an onside position which were flagged offside because by the time the ball arrived our forward was ahead of their defender.
The referee failed to see a blatant push on El-Abd when he was about to head the ball into the net from a corner. He also failed to spot several pushes on our forwards when they were past the defender.
This however is a smokescreen for a performance which promised much but failed to deliver.

basically this...

I concur.

OzzieGull wrote:
As a life-long long-distance supporter I find it a little amusing that so many posters who a week ago were lauding Gus now turn into football managers themselves and feel they can do a better job. They have better tactics, more idea of team selection and the "In Gus We Trust" mantra is so easily discarded. We are going to lose some games and we will not always have our "best eleven" available - God help us if we ever lose two on the trot!

Are we not allowed to have an opinion and make a comment if we considered the game poor, which it was. I have hardly read any comments on this thread criticizing Gus, but when expectations are becoming understandably high, if a little unrealistic on occasion, surely fans are allowed to vent that frustration. Mostly, it's just healthy debate, which includes differences of opinion and yes, occasionally going over the top, both in a positive way and a negative way. Now bring Ipswich UTA

he club need to put their hands in their pockets and buy a 20 goal a season target man,ie rickie lambert or simiar.otherwise this season i fear will ebb away like the last.dobbie,agerstie
n,arent the answer.

Why doesnt Gus give young Barker a run out,he scored a hatrick in the Dev team and to be honest looked a much better foreward than Dobbie.

The Phantom wrote:

WoodingdeanDS wrote:
I recall Gus saying the fans would love Steven Dobbie. Personally, I would prefer it if he was playing for the opposition. Apart from TK and WB the additions this year are not working. I expected DH to be subbed, but AE went who was having a better game went instead.

Steven Dobbie has played one game....he is a good player, but more as a number 10 link player than somebody who is going to play up on his own. I thought he had a decent game yesterday - he does not have the same pace or eye for a goal as CMS, but has good feet and will create. If CMS had been playing I doubt whether Brum would have played the offside trap as they would have been too scared of his movement and pace in behind. Kuzczak and Bridge have been outstanding thus far and Orlandi contributed well at Millwall. Hammond was kept on ahead of El Abd because he has a better range of passing from the back and is probably more likely to score a goal (in spite of El Abd's goal last week). Way too early to be dismissive of Gus's signings.

Phantom, our friend from Woodingdean also omits Bruno from his list....the best signing of the lot imho!!!