Missing in action.

[john e]

Same with Elmo and Hourahane I hope they are all replaced in the starting line up by Christmas

I think you'll get your wish. I just wont be surprised if the new players are phased in gradually. Results will of course play a large part in how quickly that happens.

With Hourihane do you think he isn't good enough for that defensive midfield position or just not good enough full stop?

i daren't say

iv'e just seen him track down some bloke on twitter who posted something negative about him 5 years ago so i'm a bit scared of him now

[Dogtanian]

Elmo is a solid championship full back, Taylor isn't even that let's be honest. I'm all for new players having to earn the jersey but this selection decision reeked of conservatism in a Steve Bruce type of way. Same on the bench with Lansbury and Kodjia ahead of Marvellous and Davis.

Nobody has seen Marvelous yet and we know he went on strike and didn't have a pre-season, let's leave it to the coaching staff to judge how ready he is to be chucked in.

Regarding Davis, he's a similar player to Wesley, big and strong and hold-it-up.  If that approach was working, then he wouldn't take Wesley off for Davis, and if it wasn't working he'd want a different type of player in Kodjia in order to try something else.

The problem was that we did not hold the ball up front, the situation got even worse when Kodija came on. As it is Davis strongest attribute, we would have been much better off with him coming on. Unfortunately he wasn’t even on the bench.

Why?  Wesley was trying to hold the ball up, the problem was we were sitting so deep he was doing it right off our own box, so it wasn't effective.  Davis would have been similar.

[chrisw1]

I was very surprised Taylor was picked but less so Elmo, particularly given the added bonus of his relationship with Trezuget.

But to be fair I thought they both did ok, Taylor in particular made a lot of telling challenges.  I would have liked to see them both get forward more but Spurs pushed us back relentlessly and I suspect they were asked to play fairly conservatively by the coaching ream.

I also think Smith may well have been reacting sub-conciously to the media and the 'Fulham' thing.  It felt a bit like a statement to me - 'look there's 7 players who stareted the play oiff final'  Maybe bollocks, but it crossed my mind.

Either way, I hope to see Guilbert and Targett playing sooner rathe rthan later.

I think in the context of the game where we were defending our position, it would have been much better to bring on Davis.  But I can understand why Kodjia was on the bench - if you need someone to change a gamne or pull a rabit out the hat (which was a far more likley scenerio than defending a lead at Tottenham) he would have been much more likley to do so.

[ChicagoLion]

Elmo is a solid championship full back, Taylor isn't even that let's be honest. I'm all for new players having to earn the jersey but this selection decision reeked of conservatism in a Steve Bruce type of way. Same on the bench with Lansbury and Kodjia ahead of Marvellous and Davis.

Nobody has seen Marvelous yet and we know he went on strike and didn't have a pre-season, let's leave it to the coaching staff to judge how ready he is to be chucked in.

Regarding Davis, he's a similar player to Wesley, big and strong and hold-it-up.  If that approach was working, then he wouldn't take Wesley off for Davis, and if it wasn't working he'd want a different type of player in Kodjia in order to try something else.

except Davis is stronger and better at it.
The problem was that we did not hold the ball up front, the situation got even worse when Kodija came on. As it is Davis strongest attribute, we would have been much better off with him coming on. Unfortunately he wasn’t even on the bench.

Why?  Wesley was trying to hold the ball up, the problem was we were sitting so deep he was doing it right off our own box, so it wasn't effective.  Davis would have been similar.

And we got worse when we had no one even trying to hold it up when he went off which just caused even more pressure.

[Malandro]

I’d have taken Hourihane and Elmo off at halftime. We’d survived heavy pressure but it was going to get worse.

[Dogtanian]

Elmo is a solid championship full back, Taylor isn't even that let's be honest. I'm all for new players having to earn the jersey but this selection decision reeked of conservatism in a Steve Bruce type of way. Same on the bench with Lansbury and Kodjia ahead of Marvellous and Davis.

Nobody has seen Marvelous yet and we know he went on strike and didn't have a pre-season, let's leave it to the coaching staff to judge how ready he is to be chucked in.

Regarding Davis, he's a similar player to Wesley, big and strong and hold-it-up.  If that approach was working, then he wouldn't take Wesley off for Davis, and if it wasn't working he'd want a different type of player in Kodjia in order to try something else.

except Davis is stronger and better at it.
The problem was that we did not hold the ball up front, the situation got even worse when Kodija came on. As it is Davis strongest attribute, we would have been much better off with him coming on. Unfortunately he wasn’t even on the bench.

Why?  Wesley was trying to hold the ball up, the problem was we were sitting so deep he was doing it right off our own box, so it wasn't effective.  Davis would have been similar.

And we got worse when we had no one even trying to hold it up when he went off which just caused even more pressure.

So, maybe the answer was to not take him off?  He was already doing the job!  Smith took a gamble that a bit more pace might allow us to catch them on the break and give them something to think about before committing forward.  It didn't work, but can see why he tried it.

When something isn't working, changing the person doing it rather than what you're doing is unlikely to make a difference I'm afraid.

[SoccerHQ]

Yesterday we needed fullbacks that are good at defending and that have positional awareness.

If either Mings or Engels had a bad game yesterday, we could’ve had ten put past us.

Yes I suspect Dean thinks Freddie is for VP games

Matt Targett will start v Bournemouth I reckon. Not sure on Gulibert as Trez was quite good on Saturday and it will obviously help him having a teammate he knows very well playing right behind him.

Maybe option if we're winning is to bring on Freddie and move AEM to right midfield for last 20 minutes

[dave shelley]

Same with Elmo and Hourahane I hope they are all replaced in the starting line up by Christmas

I think you'll get your wish. I just wont be surprised if the new players are phased in gradually. Results will of course play a large part in how quickly that happens.

With Hourihane do you think he isn't good enough for that defensive midfield position or just not good enough full stop?

i daren't say

iv'e just seen him track down some bloke on twitter who posted something negative about him 5 years ago so i'm a bit scared of him now

My daughter showed that to me yesterday, and as it said: the man must have an elephantine memory to remember it from five years ago.  Whatever people may think of Hourihane as a footballer his inner strength of character is, to me, unquestionable and very much instrumental to where he finds himself today.

[ChicagoLion]

Elmo is a solid championship full back, Taylor isn't even that let's be honest. I'm all for new players having to earn the jersey but this selection decision reeked of conservatism in a Steve Bruce type of way. Same on the bench with Lansbury and Kodjia ahead of Marvellous and Davis.

Nobody has seen Marvelous yet and we know he went on strike and didn't have a pre-season, let's leave it to the coaching staff to judge how ready he is to be chucked in.

Regarding Davis, he's a similar player to Wesley, big and strong and hold-it-up.  If that approach was working, then he wouldn't take Wesley off for Davis, and if it wasn't working he'd want a different type of player in Kodjia in order to try something else.

except Davis is stronger and better at it.
The problem was that we did not hold the ball up front, the situation got even worse when Kodija came on. As it is Davis strongest attribute, we would have been much better off with him coming on. Unfortunately he wasn’t even on the bench.

Why?  Wesley was trying to hold the ball up, the problem was we were sitting so deep he was doing it right off our own box, so it wasn't effective.  Davis would have been similar.

And we got worse when we had no one even trying to hold it up when he went off which just caused even more pressure.

So, maybe the answer was to not take him off?  He was already doing the job!  Smith took a gamble that a bit more pace might allow us to catch them on the break and give them something to think about before committing forward.  It didn't work, but can see why he tried it.

When something isn't working, changing the person doing it rather than what you're doing is unlikely to make a difference I'm afraid.

Unless the person does it better of course.
I give up.

[SoccerHQ]

However good or bad Wes was going to be, it was obvious he found the pace of the game a massive step up to what he played in Belgium.

Was never going to last 90 minutes so would've thought bringing on Davis would've been obvious thought in pre match debate between DS and coaching staff.

Seems odd to exlude him when you have 6 outfield sub options and many teams name 3 strikers on the bench nowadays.

[ktvillan]

Smith probably thought Kodija offered something different to Wesley, a plan B if you like.  However, with hindsight, I think Davis would have been a better option because Wesley wasn't holding the ball up all that well and that is one of Davis's particular strengths, so he may have been a lot more effective at it.

[Mister E]

Smith probably thought Kodija offered something different to Wesley, a plan B if you like.  However, with hindsight, I think Davis would have been a better option because Wesley wasn't holding the ball up all that well and that is one of Davis's particular strengths, so he may have been a lot more effective at it.

Given the pressure we were under I'd perhaps have replaced Wes with anoth midfielder - it would have made us a little more robust and psossibly helped us on the break.

[Dogtanian]

Lansbury?

[chrisw1]

Smith probably thought Kodija offered something different to Wesley, a plan B if you like.  However, with hindsight, I think Davis would have been a better option because Wesley wasn't holding the ball up all that well and that is one of Davis's particular strengths, so he may have been a lot more effective at it.

exactly.

[Risso]

We were under the cosh, and throwing on Jota and Kodjia almost made it like playing with nine men, so little did the pair of them offer.  Still, easy to say in hindsight, and I don't think we'll play many teams as dominant as that at home, other than Liverpool and Man City.  I really do hope Luiz and Marvelous come to the fore soon, because we really do lack physicality everywhere except in defence.