Saint86

First one absolutely isn't his fault. He doesn't see it till late, so unless it was straight at him he's never reacting in time. Command of the box is a weakness for him - but i also do not understand why (at set peices) we don't protect him and allow the opposition to just stand on top of him and jostle him (get another body in there to deal with that player).... but no... we seemingly go, "we know baz struggles with this, lets let the opposition maximise that advantage".... Similarly, we play in such a way so as to invite crosses - and our defenders simply do not deal with them... we struggle to win defensive aerial challenges well, and even when we do, the clearances are often weak and don't clear the ball properly. He has his limitations, and he has his advantages... when we attack, we either use him to draw the opposition onto us by recycling the ball through him, or by using his distribution for a release. This pattern of play is what led to the first goal vs WBA and has been important to much of our most dangerous play under Ekert. This is why Macca was dropped - he just can't do this job. Baz also is a very effective sweeper keeper and comes out almost to centre circle on occasions. This is playing to his strengths. But then (second halves currently under Ekert) when we decide to stop attacking we drop deeper and deeper, invite pressure, invite balls into the box - which means we are directly playing to his weaknesses of having a poorer than average command of his area, and a slight weakness on some shot positions - particularly in crowded boxes where that extra split second reaction time of seeing a shot late etc makes a difference. But in those cases, its also down to our defence not doing the basics that exposes us/bazunu - i.e., not winning the first ball, not stopping the cross, not closing someone down... the Gray goal for brum the other night (which was a fantastic hit that you don't expect a champ keeper to save frankly), the two ranged hits for millwall (again, he isn't saving those)... Fact still remains, he is the best keeper at the club. He is also a young keeper that has had limited game time / injuries in recent years, and was thrown in the deep end too early into a terrible premier league season, and then suicide football under martin... But he will develop if coached properly, and there is a good keeper in there.

Living in a world where THB wins defensive headers are we? 😂🤣

You're on the match thread slating him for "not saving anything", yet completely ignore the fantastic 3 saves he made back to back that had the commentator waxing lyrical about him. His ball play at the back is tactically very important to how we draw teams on to us and led directly to the first goal where we broke away, and the first goal he is utterly unsighted for. The 2nd goal he could command the box better, but equally it's about 6 saints players Vs 2 west brom attackers, and once again a case of 3 cbs that cannot win headers. Ditto we seem unable to effectively stop crosses even with a 5 man back line. He has weaknesses for sure , but he is the best keeper at the club. And ultimately the PPG doesn't lie compared to macca.

A CB who wins headers would be a fantastic addition. But it doesn't resolve the glaring tactical issue. We try to defend games we're dominating, with a 5 man defence tasked with dropping deeper and keeping possession - I would imagine the entire forum can see it's terrible. We can't keep the ball, we have no outs, we get deeper and deeper, the full backs get overloaded and no one can stop the crosses, and our cbs can't win the headers - and baz ain't the best at commanding the air either. This tactical setup is untenable and someone needs to have strong words with him. But fundamentally, carrying more threat and more bodies up field, with more width in the middle 3rd, would resolve much of the threat. His 2nd tactic (the defence mode) is just appalling.

Yup, it's all on Ekert, he gets ahead and then decides to defend it. It's Southgate level stuff. I desperately hope he learns from this quickly.

Imagine this 2nd half crap being played at fratton park... 🤮🤮

Who does he have around him for support? Trollope has gone and lallana is with the u21s? (Not that they are by any means brilliant). Ekert deserves credit for getting the attackers playing so well, but then when he changes it to all out defence its appalling. Real jekyl and Hyde stuff.

Ominous. Don't think he's got it on recent games. He blows teams away with the best attacking players in the league, and then tactically morphs into Southgate likes he's actively setting us up to let the other team come and beat us. Needs to learn quickly. But I don't think he'll get us through the playoffs with these tactics.

Reckon they made a difference today! That was shocking.

Like, if he wants to sit and hold possession, he needs more bodies in midfield. 5 defenders ain't keeping possession anywhere other than our own 3rd. This is delusional.

2nd half we came out and were told to sit on this. And so we end up trying to keep possession whilst playing a formation that has 5 defenders and limited ability to retain possession up field. And so the other team can easily push up on to us and we get deeper and deeper. He's basically a German Southgate with hungry eyes and no waistcoat - is he getting away with it because we frankly have the arguably the best front 4 on the division? He has one style of play, which is the same as Southgate for England basically, and he has awful game management.

What's the fucking point if we let them cross at will and can't win headers....

This is shocking. Another cross there and no one even closing him down as he crosses FFS.

We aren't winning this.

We gave tonda this job to soon imo. We have a bunch of defenders that can't defend crosses - and sitting on leads is not an option. He has to learn this asap. This is entirely on him.

Tonda cannot keep playing like this FFS. It's utterly unnecessary. We already lost Vs Millwall because of this.

3 fantastic saves by baz there. Any chance of our defence actually defending?

Behave, he is utterly unsighted.

That goal is on tonda for me. Needlessly stopping attacking and inviting pressure once again. Just stupid that we do this every game.

I think we need to sign another Attacking Mid / winger (subject to formation). Fellows, Azaz, Scienza are good, but after that the quality reduces significantly to JayRob and Fraser. Its evident already that we are protecting Scienza in matches circa 65min, at which point are attacking play suffers significantly and we end up inviting the oppo on to us a lot more - and i dread to think what this will look like if he gets injured. Attack is the best form of defence, especially for us... so yeah, i want another attacking mid/winger.

But you need to remember that we're all hardened 1970s football hooligans out to cause trouble and start a fight, and therefore the police must make sure we're all treated like the criminal scum we are... Failure to do so might result in more violent wig robberies and social media banter when the two fanbases meet, and that really would be terrible 🤯.

Especially with the bad weather - a superb leveller for WBA. Prepare yourselves imo. This has all the makings of an extremely annoying result.

It was still free to watch though... Suspect the FA Cup will outlast the BBC anyway, soon as we get a change of government the BBC is getting hammered.

I reckon we're getting Oxford away....

The cup draw itself really should be maintained as free to watch.