Holmes_and_Watson

Red or Grey? 🙂

Russ to the Beeb... "I’m quite pleased with the result. It was a tight game against a good team in a brilliant atmosphere. "I would have liked a clean sheet before the game so I’m happy with that. We had to defend well. "We should have caused a few more problems for them but it isn’t easy. "The risk outweighed the reward with Che Adams. He has only trained very little, mainly resting and recovering. We are really positive about Friday. Hopefully he’ll be back involved."

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Memories

Dunno.

Yeah, he didn't look too happy when going off. And it's a quick turnaround. Hopefully just got enough to get a winner against Leeds and then have to miss the next game.

We seem to want a hard running, high intensity central player. One who drops back to create angles for others, but is also capable of knowing when to move up to support the attacks down the flanks or in stages through the middle. Oh, and a player with clinical finishing. Not only the normal stuff, but against the teams we've allowed to reset. Quite an ask. And I think Che has tried very hard to do his best to meet a lot of that. Gets his head down, happy to work from deep, has scored instinctive goals from preferred spots and normally puts some work in. Mara is a low intensity forward, who would much prefer to do work in the final third. He's off the pace for anything else through a combination of lack of experience, instinctiveness, and it not being a system he's fully adjusting to. Watching him, he can take up finisher positions. Today was on the back post for a blocked ball across the box. But he's not the player to have been there following winning it back in midfield and busting a gut to get there. He had a few good touches today, and did drop back from which we got a chance. But was missing on other occasions. Ironically, being elsewhere when a finisher was needed.

We looked exactly what we were: a side that has played in a single system for nearly the whole season, and changing it at thecend as we kept conceding and had gone on a decline. Martin will be happy with the clean sheet. Overall, it was about level, with WBA shading it. This system highlights some different limitations in the players. Downes is still key. Today offering driving runs. Bednarek was vital at the back. McCarthy made some saves. He's comfortable doing that. But we kept asking for trouble by repeatedly looking for him to do Rapid passes out from the back. Stephens was a mixed bag. Some decent moments combined with passes that got us into trouble. Mara had a few moments where he did the right thing. But even more where he didn't. Manning offered little protection at the back. For a side offering width and numbers in midfield, we failed to pin them back and use our own attacking skill often. Not much in the way of orchestrated attacking moves either. We go into the second leg with home advantage and hopefully a fit Che Adams. If it's the same system, it will be a close game too.

FFS Saints. Never, ever learn when to just get it clear.

"Gets away from Stephens". Ummmm.. I trust Alex in there for shot stopping over the others. Steward does what we've not had since Tella and the first Fraser appearances. Get it it from deep, bring it in and shoot.

And breathe...

Uh oh...

Never happy to see AA go off as the work rate drops off

Hopefully some attacking replacements to give us a spark here. Fraser surely.

That was only just wide. Very close from WBA. We have to get a grip on this one. A lack of purpose creeping in.

Decent run earlier from Mara. But there's never a run of good things. Milescoff his trigger there. A game that's bringing out some of our limitations. RussBall v1 at least gave us spells of getting past that.

Manning just can't stop anything coming in.

Good run from Downes. Maracwaitingbto just tap that in

Mara watch: jobs when could run 5o close down. Nice touch and run to get a return that didn't come.

Could be. It's disappointing that Mara couldn't be trained across a whole season to add more to his game. He did a Che track back at least once in the half. So, he knows to do it. We got a chance from it too. Likewise with Sule, who I think would be a handy central option.

AA off. But keeping that high line on its toes.

Finishing the half well. No idea why the ref stopped it after their defender got fallen over. Tough. Nice moment of skill from Mara. Who looks nowhere near as physical against that WBA defence

Bedders solid with some good passes today. Aribo has a sometimes thing of driving his passers, making them hard to control

AA offside. But that was a good ball through. Tellingly, it was Mara dropping back, as Che does that created the room for the pass.

Clumsy passing out. Downes gets a yellow after that. It won't be the only time he has to mop up, so not great.