CanadaSaint

He absolutely did - on several occasions, and shockingly he did it again just as he started his run up. I instantly said "Nooooo!" to my son because he and I have had the discussion on many occasions that a high proportion of players who don't focus solely on the goal when they take a penalty (and just listen for the whistle) end up missing. Maybe Ricky and Le Tiss did it but it certainly never struck me about them, and I watch for it. There's 192 square feet to aim at, just twelve yards away, and much of it is completely out of the keeper's reach. At this skill level no tricks should be needed.

My bum is squeaking as I read today's posts on this thread. Just thought I'd share that.

Sympathies to you, my friend. I'm sure you have many memories to cherish. There will be a lot "up there" watching on Saturday, including my dad and sister!

Fair comment, although I'll await your confirmation of the underlined bit. I was thinking more of Schneiderlin 2, Hammond 1 and Cork 0. And it's a relative thing - Reading don't have any players in double figures. That's more central to my point. Still, I'll back off now because I have too many wise minds taking issue with my viewpoint. But I'm an obstinate barsteward and I'll stick to my view. Hopefully Ricky will play against Reading and this non-weakness won't be exposed again.

LTC, I won't quote you because that takes up cyberspace, although I do agree with much of what you say. Isn't it possible for both of us to be right? I like our midfield more than some but less than a number of others, and criticizing it doesn't mean that I think we're a bad team or that they are bad players or that Nigel is a bad manager. My sole and simple premise is that we don't get the ball forward quickly enough, often enough. It doesn't cost us all the time and it seldom costs us against the weaker teams. However, as I said after the Barnsley game, it can - and on Saturday did - cost us against a better team; I fear it will do so again against Reading. It has also IMO caused us to struggle a bit for that second goal that would effectively kill teams off - even weaker teams. I happily accept that "sideways and back" is very much part of the modern game and I'm quite okay with it because I understand the premise behind it. However, for us it often involves "Kelvin rolls it out, we play it around, we roll it back to Kelvin, Kelvin whacks it", and - even if it doesn't end with that pass back to Kelvin and whack, our opponents have dropped off and taken solid defensive positions. Through this (IMO) failing, we tend to under-exploit the potential of players like De Ridder and Lee, as well as the offence-capable full backs. All of that happens because we don't set ourselves up, or don't have the right skill-set/positional combination, to head forward quicker. Morgan is playing from in front of the back four (farther back than earlier in the season, IIRC), and I think that this inhibits his ability to initiate attacks rather than just get us out of our own half. We're a "front foot" team and the sooner we get the ball up there the better we're likely to do - without hoofing, of course. Yes, we have scored after prolonged passing spells, including quite a few "sideways and back", and that's always great to see; you quoted one involving 36 passes but I can't recall that - only one of (I think) 24 passes which was against (I think) 'Boro. Still, your valid point remains. The "despite our midfield rather than because of it" point (which DD countered only with a sneer, not any kind of alternative viewpoint) was a specific reference to the fact that we don't get many goals from our midfielders at all, compared with our main rivals. Hence the "Thank God we've got Ricky" comment. Without that tremendous talent and his ability to control any kind of ball, we would not be anywhere near as well-placed as we are right now. Anyway LTC, as Alps said somewhere else, opinions are like arseholes - everyone's got one. That's mine. Opinion, that is.

I've just found the article - it wasn't on my news feed. Sounds "guardedly optimistic" to me so I hope he's alright because we are nothing like the same team without him.

Ah, a cameo appearance from the attention-seeking little boy who has had barneys with just about everyone on the forum. As usual, he has nothing worthwhile to say. Shouldn't you be working on growing up?

All they've said about Lambert, unless I've missed something, is that he doesn't need an operation. That doesn't mean it isn't a longer term injury. My concern was based on the fact that the club said very little about the injuries to Lallana, Chaplow and Lee - all of which turned out to be longer term. As far as your second paragraph is concerned, I gave up trying to follow all the different "stories."

Brilliant news. Who said that?

Really? I missed that. What did it say? And did it originate from the club?

It's worrying. Most of our longer term injuries this year (Lallana, Chaplow, Lee) seem to have been characterized by silence from the club. And if it is a pelvic injury, they can certainly take time.

Hypocrisy, my friend, coming from a poster who just called someone an "idiot." It's under "H" in the dictionary. If you want to discuss/debate, I'm up for it. If not, or if you just want to LOL or sneer as you so often do (now that's "sad"), I've got better ways to spend my time.

You really don't have an intelligent opinion on very much, do you? Laughing and sneering is your limit.

You were the one who originally used the terms "play maker" and "ball winner" when you lectured someone else for having a different opinion to yours, so please don't tell me how to think as well. I've offered my opinion that we don't get the ball forward quickly enough - that's neither a conventional nor an unconventional concept. I said right after the Barnsley game that we got away with it against a weaker team but that it could prove costly against a stronger team, and on Saturday it did; it could prove just as costly against Reading. It's not about "a lack of movement or the strikers being (un)able to hold up a pass." Against Barnsley, Lee made all kinds of intelligent runs and never got the ball until he couldn't avoid being offside. Against Donny we had De Ridder and we didn't capitalize on it because we didn't get him the ball where and when he needed it - he certainly made himself available. In both games Ricky got the pass he was looking for about 10% of the time, at best. The best (but not only) way to find an opening is to start early, while the openings are there, and it helps a lot to look forwards rather than sideways and back. Again, that's neither a modern nor an old-fashioned concept. And I've said that there's plenty of scope for sideways and back as long as we don't do it to excess. In my view we do. Yes, the Blackpool wide men were very threatening but some of that was due to the fact that we didn't do anything quickly enough to make our wide men threatening. Besides, Schneiderlin, Cork, Chaplow and Lallana are hardly Spanish-style players, are they, so how can we expect them to play like they are? As for your "fans who think they are more tactically aware than Adkins" comment, you seem to lose sight of A) the fact that this is a forum for sharing opinions - informed and otherwise, and B) the fact that you offer your opinions as often as most - and not always with the high level of expertise you seem to expect from others. That was a disappointing comment, coming from you. Adkins has done a great job and I still think we're going up, hopefully as champions - but we probably need to at least draw with Reading for that to happen, which IMO is a big ask considering how we're playing right now. But I can still like and admire Adkins and yet reserve the right to say that if we are promoted, it will IMO be despite our midfield rather than because of it. I don't think anyone at Reading has scored over 7 or 8, and things aren't much different at WHU. They both seem to get far more offensive contributions - and certainly far more goals - from their midfield than we do. Thank God we've got Ricky.

If Morgan is "the playmaker" why has he been playing so deep - at the base of the diamond or just in front of the back four? How can we hope to attack with speed, as we did before the end of November, if he has to come from there in order to initiate attacks? And I'd venture to suggest that Schneiderlin has made as many tackles as Corky ("apparantly the ball winner") in recent games, which - again - takes him away from the playmaking role. And when Hammond plays with those two, which he has - especially during our bad run, we've got a hell of a lot of ball-winning and not much creating going on. My problem is that I'm not sure who our playmaker is, because we're taking an age to get the ball forward and a lot of the attack options are closed-off by then. We get caught in a sideways-and-back blob in the middle of the park - almost waiting for Morgan to get forward in support. It happened against Barnsley and Donny, two weaker sides, and we still won. But it happened again against Blackpool, a much better side, and we got stuffed. It needs sorting before Reading arrive.

I agree because it gives us width and some pace in attack - but only if we get the ball to him early enough. The temptation is to say that we don't seem to have that kind of player, or that the player who's playing there didn't offer much on a particular day, when the problem IMO is the bit I underlined. There's certainly a place for "sideways and back" but we do it to excess and so we don't get the ball forward soon enough to expose defences. We don't capitalize on the skills of the Lees and de Ridders - or even the Puncheons - in our squad. I said after the Barnsley game that the excessive sideways and back could hurt us at some point, against a better team that Barnsley, and yesterday it did. I think De Ridder could do that for us down the right. But against Donny and again yesterday (in the second half) he seemed to eventually receive the ball only when he came back looking for it, which meant he had his back to goal with a guy right up his arse. What chance does he have of doing what we need him to do - turning, running and getting to the goal line - when he gets the ball so late? Tadanari Lee suffered from the same problem - it wasn't him keep being caught offside, it was intelligent runs not being spotted soon enough by our midfield. It doesn't look like there's anybody in our central midfield with the control and vision to involve/release our wide men as quickly as we need to do it. And yet we were doing it earlier in the season. What happened?

As we always do in these post-game reaction threads, we tend to focus only on our own lot. However, while we played poorly I'd like to commend Blackpool. They were very well prepared by Holloway and they worked their arses off, showing speed, skill and inventiveness. They offered a number of powerful reasons for us to avoid the playoffs at all costs. As badly as the West Ham lot must feel about losing to Reading today, they'll feel even worse seeing Blackpool playing like that.

That's where Schneiderlin played against Donny and IMO it's probably his best position. What I think we lack is a visionary playmaker who constantly retains a mental picture of his up-front options and uses them as soon as he gets the ball. The lack of that type of player causes a lot of the "sideways and back" we so often see in the middle of the park, especially today.

I can handle players having poor games because it happens, even when it happens to about six at the same time. What I can't handle is "the fittest team in the division" being outworked and out-hustled for the entire ninety minutes. Having someone instantly up their arses just caused us to play even more square passes and backward passes in midfield than we usually do, explaining why we had lots of possession but virtually no penetration. And yet if Sharp had scored the penalty and Jos had scored when he could have farted it in, the story could have been oh so different.

Confucius, him say: A striker who can't read the onside line and misses penalties will not play many games. I give you Billy Sharp, penthouse to sh*thouse in one week flat.

I feel really sorry for the 2,000+ who trecked all the way up there and vastly outperformed the team.

I don't think Fonte and Butterfield combined would score 4 in the match ratings. Adding Sharp might make it 6.

That's the bit that's p*ssing me off most. Schneideriln seems to be playing at the base of the diamond and playing reasonably well, but farther forward we're clueless. Turn back, pass square, back to Kelvin, hoof. I don't want to ignite the Guly debate again but ...

It was pitiful. He used his concentration time looking at the ref, and even glanced at him again just as he started his run-up. That's when I knew he wouldn't score. Five times out of ten players who look at the ref end up missing. Focus on the goal, listen for the whistle and go.

KUMB will go into meltdown after this. Should be a good read.