You sure it was him as every stat outlet I know only has him as having 2 shots an both weren't on target?

The only shot on target the entire team had was NRC from 20 yards wasn't it? I saw up till 70 mins

Because Blackburn play in a way that suits his style, Petrov.

Why has Torres struggled? Because they play it to him like he's Drogba.

Same reason Ngog has struggled, we're playing like he's Davies, but he needs it on the floor.

Torres sturggled at Liverpool before he left. Its not Chelsea it is him. That does not hold water.

Ngog struggles to score because he is a poor finisher

Yakubu has Hoilett, Olsson and Dunn, who are all creative players and all support and create chances through the middle for him. Considering we are playing him as Kevin Davies he isnt doing a bad job. It just looks worse because Davies had better players around him who were scoring the chances he created, so we forgave his relative lack of goals. Davies has 76 goals in 361 appearances in all comps for us. Hardly prolific is it? If Ngog plays that amount of games for us, in a set up geared to his strengths i am certain he would have far more goals than that. Give the lad a chance.

Torres had 9 in 20, hardly struggling was it?

GG I think he deserves his place but would find it hard to band around the term 'good finisher' for him. Davies is not a 'good finisher'

Torres has been average since the world cup.

Nunsn - yep I saw the cricket. I wish KP could do it a little more often. Such a frustrating individual. Unfortunately I think even if he averages 50+ for the rest of his career he's had too many bad runs of form over the last five years to be considered an all-time great. We are privileged to be watching an England side with a world class grinder and a world class destructive batsman at 3 an 4 though. It will be generation before we see another Trott and Pietersen, and England didn't produce either of them.

"Same reason Ngog has struggled, we're playing like he's Davies, but he needs it on the floor."

Who was responsible for identifying his qualities, purchasing him, then playing him with the current tactics?

Mallorca you will have to wait for Holden to find a way to not blame Coyle

Who was responsible for identifying his qualities, purchasing him, then playing him with the current tactics?

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I'm pretty sure at the time we were expecting Holden, one of our key creative players back, in a few weeks ...

Wait I know Mallorca. Megson.

Moses blames Holdens injury. So without Holden playing we may as well just hand over three points. Coyle s not able to find a way round it.

OC was right today to play 451 in my opinion, but having watched this system under a few managers, my opinion is this... Sam played the 451 (433) without real widemen... Stelios could be argued a winger, but his control and finishing assisted us brilliantly.. Diouf was the same.. Both came more in field and assisted Nolan in getting the scraps from the Davies knowckdowns... It worked..

OC seems to play wingers who keep wide and get the crosses in... With only 1 striker and little in midfield, there's no end product... Ryo/Petrov/Eagles don't seem to come in and support the forward like Stelios and Diouf..... You could argue Eagles is the closest which shows in his goals and assists???

Just a thought???? God knows....

Fair point Moses, but if our entire attacking opinions can be distroyed by 1 injury, we have a problem...

Moses blames Holdens injury. So without Holden playing we may as well just hand over three points. Coyle s not able to find a way round it.

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So are you telling me that what you would have done in Coyles position is to bring somebody who likes long ball football when you are fully expecting to play football on the ground?

Fairplay we should have brought in a stop game who likes longball, but we have a limited budget.

Moses

I don't think we play this passing game that we all like to think...

Swansea do...

How many Knight to Davies/Ngog balls have we seen this season?

MOTD - reminding me how bad Alonso was today!

Mallorca, what I have said is we haven't played that way this season ...

We did last season when Holden and Lee were fit.

No Moses I would have used my tactical ability to work through it. We have had Muamba Coker and Mavies finding a solution is what we pay him for.
Ngog's goal return has been poor.

I'm trying not to come on here and just be negative....

With everyone battling hard, it was amazing to beat QPR, Blackburn & Wolves... I'm not underestimating those wins. No doubt those teams tried 100%.... Mixture of luck and good performances....

I just don't see a natural development in OC, his signings or the situation..

Survival this season, and I'll guess we are in the same boat next year...

Maybe that's OC, maybe it's the resources we have???

The more I think about it, the more I'd drop Petrov and Ryo...

I'd go 433 with the forward 3 of Ngog/SKD/Sordell

Nice and tight, picking balls from SKD and surrounding him... Wingers are a luxury for me right now...

Ryo and Klasnic on the bench gives a plan B??

Oops, thinking out loud again!

Northern, you got it right with how OC and Sam utilise the 4-5-1/4-3-3. SKD had players moving around him and changing positions to latch on to any knock downs Kev created. Ngog has next to nothing. Like you say Petrov and Ryo stick to the wings and NRC, Pratley and Mavies dont support him enough. I still think SKD has a role to play and if Ngog is to be utilised as a target man, who better to learn from and since we dont judge SKD for his goals, maybe we should look at Dave in the same way?

The front 3 of SKD, Ngog and Sordell would defo be something to try pre-season

Mallorca, thats a pretty good suggestion. Would like to see that tried at some point ....

I have tried to be positive and praise Coyle were possible but have to agree that the worrying signs are he has moulded a bad team. Everything hinges on Holden who has serious question marks over his fitness longterm.
For me thats not good enough. This longterm plan looks like holey chesse without Holden. Ngog and many other signings have not been good enough. I dont want to compare Megson as he was sacked for not being good enough. That wont happen to coyle because however bad it gets he seems to have the backing of Gartside. I want to back him but every time the signs of improvement appear he quashes it by throwing on Eagles for Ryo and SKD against Fulham. Nearly all the crowd besides the his most loyal minnions pondered why Hangeland was not having to face up to the pace of RYO, Petrov, Ngog and Sordell. Yet we then producd the long ball SKD and lazy Klasnic

This summer will be interesting....

Lots of players out of contract... The safe option of bringing SKD and Klasnic could disappear... Then we could see OC and HIS signings grow....

Or we could see more of HIS signings and a fall down the league...

I think it would be difficult for me to know which is likely at the moment...