On a positive note, Kiko was solid enough, if Messlier has covid, Kiko will probably play next week too, so hopefully he will be solid in the next game. And the subs actually improved things when they came on, but we still looked a bit toothless.
Getting the defence back in their normal positions will help, their goal came from Ayling and Alioski going walkabout.
I feel similar to how I felt after the Wolves game, hopefully we can get a similar resp

Agree with much of that. A lot of our problems come when Phillips is out. We have no adequate cover so end up shuffling around too much. Struijk is just not the man for that role. We’d have been far better with Shack or Klich there with Pablo in Klich role and having Dallas and Ayling in their propper positions. Use Alioski as an impact sub. Bamford was absolutely starved of good service.

The pitch is an absolute nightmare and is definitely having an impact on our football and I think it’s affecting confidence at home. It wasn’t this bad last season?!?!

Ten days until our next game now which is Newcastle away. Lose that and I’m starting to get worried about being dragged the wrong way. Hopefully it’ll give the missing players chance to get back fit. If I’m the owners I’d be looking around the market a bit closer for a midfielder after today

The pitch has had 9 hours of heavy snow on Thurs plus freezing temperatures on it so today the thaw started n they watered it at half time!!!!

Bamford was absolutely starved of good service. [/quote]
Trouble is mate decent strikers only need a couple of chances to score.
Bamford always takes that extra touch instead of having a go.
Apart from the one I mentioned previously he didn`t control a peach of a pass from Harrison as well.
The tempo we played at when the season started has gone.
Maybe teams have sussed us out.

Trouble is mate decent strikers only need a couple of chances to score.
Bamford always takes that extra touch instead of having a go.
Apart from the one I mentioned previously he didn`t control a peach of a pass from Harrison as well.
The tempo we played at when the season started has gone.
Maybe teams have sussed us out.[/quote]

I think we really struggle with tempo at home because of that pitch

Trouble is mate decent strikers only need a couple of chances to score.
Bamford always takes that extra touch instead of having a go.
Apart from the one I mentioned previously he didn`t control a peach of a pass from Harrison as well.
The tempo we played at when the season started has gone.
Maybe teams have sussed us out.[/quote]

you say that but we still created a couple of golden chances. i'm thinking the rodrigo chance after 6 minutes where he really should have scored from a few yards out, he seems to be the nearly man when it comes to converting chances right now. also Harrison second half i think if he hits the target like he should he scores and bamford with a few good looks like you said. the only chances really they had were the goal and then the gift alioski gave them in the second half, kiko had virtually nothing to do. it always felt like they had a bit more control than us but when you look at the game as a whole there was little between the sides and that was us on a pretty meh day at best.

Disappointing performance. Just seemed a bit low on energy and ideas. We never really stretched them or carved out many chances. Very dull game by our standards

All down to the midfield for me and not pressing enough up front. Saw a stat this morning that showed it was our 3rd worst performance for sprints in a game this season. No sure what that’s down to. The heavy pitch? Interestingly the other two poor games for sprints were also at home v Leicester and Fulham. The Leicester game was a bad pitch too as it chucked it down which suited Leicesters more direct counter approach.

Apparently the pitch is getting re laid in the summer

It was due to be relaid at the end of the season, but the shorter off season meant there wouldn't have been enough time for it to bed in. I just hope it doesn't ruin our season.

Not an excuse but there’s definitely a theme of our better performances being away and our two worst performances being at home when the pitch was in a bad way. I’m not saying that’s why we lost but it’s definitely having an impact on the performances.