Andy Munro talks Blues.
Before talking about the ‘match’ (a bit of a misnomer in the circumstances) let’s get the Zigic issue out in the open. It’s an issue which, in my straw poll of the Tiltonites, we were pretty much split 50:50. First of all, let’s presume, even if the jury’s out on Lee Clark and the judge has got his black cap handy, that Lee is not a liar. So if Zigic behaved so badly and disrespectfully at training then some major disciplinary measures were called for. For those who say that it’s the manager’s fault that Zigic is behaving badly, my view is that Zigic should be putting it in for the fans, many of whom bizarrely worship him as some sort of talisman.
Personally I would have stuck him on the bench and fined him two weeks wages, which at a £100k + saving would have come in handy for our cash strapped club. To drop him completely, however, is still understandable even if you could question the public crucifixion. The latter perhaps shows the vulnerability of Clark in that most managers would ignore the Twitterati indulging in their footballing fantasies.
Anyway, with Marlon King injured, it left us woefully short up front with Lovengrands very one paced and Wes Thomas looking every inch a Bournemouth reject, rarely displaying his ‘pace and power’. The midfield was also poor with Gomis, as usual, nullifying his extra workrate with diabolical distribution. Alongside, Wade Elliott didn’t look particularly comfortable in his centre of midfield role. Probably Blues best player was Burke despite Watford having the luxury of being able to surround him with their players, partly because there was precious little threat elsewhere. On that note, Rob Hall, for a supposed starlet, was inconsistent going forward and defensively poor in terms of tracking back. Mind you, Brady, Sully and the Golds rarely give anything away!
However, it’s at the back that we have a real problem as Caldwell and Curtis Davies don’t convince as an effective unit whilst Robbo had a mare. On that subject, if he was a horse he would have been a prime candidate to end up in a Tesco’s ‘Essentials’ Lasagne. Yet it took Lee Clark an hour to put him out of his misery but by then we were 3-0 down. Butland might have stopped one but had no chance with the rest. We were carved open too easily and again suffered from the curse of the ‘Returning Blues fans who are also strikers for the opposition.’…first Craig Davies and now Troy Deeney.
We were slightly better in the second half probably because Watford had one foot off the pedal. Redmond came on for an impressive cameo performance and probably deserves his opportunity against Sheffield Wednesday, a game that now takes on massive significance.
Food for thought:
- Should Clark have dropped Zigic?
- Should Robbo have been kept on for an hour?
- Would you send Rob Hall back to West Ham now?
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