Sunday, November 27, 2005

Under Pressure !

In my last post I suggested the forthcoming five games would shape the destiny of the whole season. Well, things got off to a pretty bad start at Villa Park on Saturday. A woeful performance in which we offered very little against an equally poor Villa side. They at least created chances although the quality of their play was as bad as ours. However, four consecutive defeats have now put considerable pressure on the next two Premier League games at home to Manchester City and Sunderland where no less than four points minimum will suffice. Firstly though Blackburn Rover’s trip to The Valley on Wednesday in the Carling Cup should be viewed with much trepidation. The recent trouncing at Ewood Park together with Rovers decent display at Highbury at the weekend means we enter this game with confidence at a low ebb and the pressure well and truly on.

And the pressure is now on Alan Curbishley more than most. Now is the time for AC to bring home the bacon. On Saturday his selection policy was criticised by most of the travelling fans, and rightly so, because by leaving out our most creative players in Murphy and Rommerdahl, the latter of whom didn’t even make the bench, we had lost the game before we had even started. Murphy has scored four goals this season and created numerous others and even when he has been below par, as he certainly has recently, he is still likely to pop up with a couple of exquisite passes to create opportunities for others as he did at Portsmouth for Ambrose and Rommerdahl. His replacement on Saturday, Holland, is unlikely to do this on a regular basis and neither is Kishishev or Smertin. Ambrose is the only other midfielder likely to be able to produce that extra bit of quality required.

The defence is currently at sixes and sevens and Curbs really needs to go back to basics here. Hermann must start at left-back; Powell is past it and Spector isn’t up to it at the moment, whilst Perry must return at centre-half. Karkouri is the other obvious centre-half although I’m not convinced that he is up to the job. Other than another striker in January I really think we need a quality centre-half. Sorondo was absolutely awful for the reserves last week whilst Fortune also has his limitations. I’d stick with Andersen in goal although I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Myrhe replaced him between the posts. Forget Keily as an option as it seems his days are numbered at The Valley and he is likely to be off in January to pastures new.

Finally, spare a thought for Darren Bent. Starved of service in recent weeks he must be really frustrated at the moment but to his immense credit he is still working his socks off and was unlucky with his only half-chance on Saturday. To compound this frustration I wonder how he felt when paired with the enigmatic Lisbie for the second-half on Saturday. He certainly didn’t deserve that and neither did we.

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