Sam Allardyce

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

Nicol fought Calvert-Lewin’s corner more than most of our ex players there, fair play to him. And Hislop.

Who was the fat Yank Kopite? Obviously he knows nothing.

Gabriele Marcotti mate.

 

[royalblue66]

Just seen the r/s from next door, sneaking to the shops, wrapped up like a sceptic toe, thought I wouldn't recognise him, I shouted alright there Tommy ? Couldn't make out his reply, but it sounded like bartools or something similar,
made my day. Hahaha

 

[PhilEFC]

Gabriele Marcotti mate.

I know him mate, is he an expert over there? Because he obviously isn’t very good.

 

[Stutheblue]

Obviously our (fans) nerves play a part during the game as we are bricking it but once you sit down and look at it again I don’t think we were that lucky.

They had one other decent chance (Mane) was which was a clear foul on Kenny anyway. Pickford has had to clear a cross from the right & make a pretty easy catch from a free kick.

Sitting back and defending doesn’t make a result lucky

Yep. Not picked up by the officials and certainly not by Klopp strangely enough.
Oh, and yes I agree they didn't make many fouls (they had the ball most of the time). But one foul by Gomez on Martina was a bit 'nasty'(there's always one nasty one isn't there!). Not spotted in terms of a yellow card.
To be honest, I thought we made 3 bad fouls in the match. All yellow carded. Thats not many 'bad' fouls for Derby match I'd say.

 

[Khalekan]

Might sound daft using the benefit of hindsight and 'what ifs' but if we had a big unit up front used to winning balls over the top all day then we probably would've had more joy yesterday. DCL tries and succeeds at times but he just doesn't scare defenders.

Obviously that doesn't mean that's how we should approach games going forward like but it doesn't hurt to have the option when we need it.

Indeed.

My view is that Sam did not set up to play so negatively yesterday......playing both Oumar and DCL suggests more attacking intent than we saw.

But that plan was scuppered because although he played very well between the sticks yesterday and his competence in dealing with everything that came into the box had a very calming effect on me sitting in the house so it must have also done so for the defenders in front of him, Pickford’s ball distribution was dreadful.

I think the idea was for him to start the attacks by getting the ball quickly up the field to our two strikers but every time he hoofed it forward it either went straight into touch or found one of our men in an impossible position.

He kept putting them back in possession particularly during that first half hence the relentlessness of their attacks.

 

[Nymzee]

I know him mate, is he an expert over there? Because he obviously isn’t very good.

Just a journo.

 

[PhilEFC]

Just seen the r/s from next door, sneaking to the shops, wrapped up like a sceptic toe, thought I wouldn't recognise him, I shouted alright there Tommy ? Couldn't make out his reply, but it sounded like bartools or something similar,
made my day. Hahaha

Ha ha!

I seen the most bitter Kopite who lives around ours this morning, and he was trying to give us fake praise. You could tell he was seething!

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Indeed.

My view is that Sam did not set up to play so negatively yesterday......playing both Oumar and DCL suggests more attacking intent than we saw.

But that plan was scuppered because although he played very well between the sticks yesterday and his competence in dealing with everything that came into the box had a very calming effect on me sitting in the house so it must have also done so for the defenders in front of him, Pickford’s ball distribution was dreadful.

I think the idea was for him to start the attacks by getting the ball quickly up the field to our two strikers but every time he hoofed it forward it either went straight into touch or found one of our men in an impossible position.

He kept putting them back in possession particularly during that first half hence the relentlessness of their attacks.

Yeah Pickford needed to be better with his distribution. As soon as the ball was in his hands Niasse and DCL needed to be making a break for the bylines and Pickford needed to be hitting them as quickly as possible. Didn't happen often enough.

 

[Khalekan]

Obviously our (fans) nerves play a part during the game as we are bricking it but once you sit down and look at it again I don’t think we were that lucky.

They had one other decent chance (Mane) was which was a clear foul on Kenny anyway. Pickford has had to clear a cross from the right & make a pretty easy catch from a free kick.

Sitting back and defending doesn’t make a result lucky

You are spot on.

Like ever other Blue yesterday, my nails were bitten down to my knuckles by the time the ninety minutes was up and I thought “phew....how did we survive that onslaught?”


But I watched it again this morning and stone me, we were hardly ever in danger

The goal itself, Sane and the free header Salah missed.....that was it.

They had 101% possession and they saw the whites of Pickford’s eyes three times

That was a master class in defending from Sam yesterday

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

I know him mate, is he an expert over there? Because he obviously isn’t very good.

I don't know him to tell you the truth mate, I heard the presenter calling him "Gab" so had a look on ESPN presenters, he comes across as a bit of a tit there.

 

[Khalekan]

I don't know him to tell you the truth mate, I heard the presenter calling him "Gab" so had a look on ESPN presenters, he comes across as a bit of a tit there.

I must say I always enjoy listening to Gab.

 

[Barnfred 55]

The reception he got before the West Ham game shows that the majority of the fans were willing to give him a chance, and, in less than a fortnight he's won over, to a greater or lesser extent, a lot of doubters in the fan base.

If he gets us in the top eight this season, then there'll be very few calling for his head this Summer and he'll then have the chance to show us, and the rest of the football world, if he's more than just a pragmatic firefighter.

As I've said before







Mind you, it's early days.

There's either a lot of wumming going on in this thread, or there really is a genuine love in for Allardyce amongst our supporters.

The reality is, he's only taken the team in 2 games, one of which was at home to a team I believe will be relegated come the end of the season. Yes he got a good and unexpected point at the pit yesterday (which I do credit him with for getting our defence organised) but our performance in possession in that game was atrocious. It really was.

I'm not judging the manager one way or the other at the moment. It's far to early for that. He's surprised me so far I have to say, especially with continuing with the young lads. Something needs to be done with Martina, and if he brings one of the U23s until Baines gets fit, my opinion of him will go up another notch.

But he has a lot of work to do getting us playing with the ball, starting with this weeks game at Newcastle. Let's give him a run of another 9/10 games and see how we're playing come February, before we start judging him. It'll be interesting to see how we fare up against the big boys.

One thing I will say. The very essence of his personality that made me hate the guy over the years, actually had me smiling yesterday. His handling of Klopp was just classic Allardyce. He may be a horror but I guess he's our horror now.

 

[Barnfred 55]

If we had a Jamie Vardy type forward I think we would have won that yesterday - certainly from the point we equalised.

Our possession retention was poor, improve that, add more quality and pace up top and we'll see the rest of the season out comfortably - an FA cup win would be nice as well.

That's why I think he'll opt for a pacey guy up top rather than a target man.

 

[PhilEFC]

I don't know him to tell you the truth mate, I heard the presenter calling him "Gab" so had a look on ESPN presenters, he comes across as a bit of a tit there.

Cheers mate. I meant to say I don’t know him by the way! Yeah defo seems a tit.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Couldn't have really asked for a better first ten days in the job really could he? Only thing to better it would have been winning yesterday.

He seems to be doing & saying all the right things. As i mentioned Thursday, we look to be building to have a very good second half of the season.

Reckon he has inherited himself the best squad of his club career. Obviously we are exposed on left defence. And we could do with a big wryly target man. The first team is now functioning as unit.

That's why I think he'll opt for a pacey guy up top rather than a target man.

We have Niasse and Ramirez...