The six fingered Clarets

[Harry Genshaw]

I was delighted with Dawson who looks like the centre half we've been crying out for. Cravies looks strong and direct and could prove to be a real bargain. It was worth £300k to shut them in breds up! De Ridder I thought played well in the 1st half and could turn out to be a very useful player for us for the short time he's here.

There's something not quite right though. They hadn't had an attempt on goal and yet I felt they pretty much dominated the 1st half. Always first to the 2nd ball and often had men to spare in the middle of the park.

We're going to keep dropping points as long as we persevere with Bogdan & Knight.

Some of our fans today though - feck me

[SmokinFrazier]

I'm surprised at the comments about De Ridder. I thought he was awful. He did a few nice bits of skill, but only when under no pressure. He showed no sort of intelligence or class. He's a show pony, who is very limited.

Maybe he'll be better when he's fitter but, yeah, I thought he was terrible.

Knight should/could have been sent off too. He's a liability and, by far, our worst defender. Had he been sent off, we'd have lost. He's dreadful.

Hopefully Davies, Holden, Vela, Medo and Wheater are fit soon. Maybe our next game.

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm surprised at the comments about De Ridder. I thought he was awful. He did a few nice bits of skill, but only when under no pressure. He showed no sort of intelligence or class. He's a show pony, who is very limited.

Maybe he'll be better when he's fitter but, yeah, I thought he was terrible.

Knight should/could have been sent off too. He's a liability and, by far, our worst defender. Had he been sent off, we'd have lost. He's dreadful.

Hopefully Davies, Holden, Vela, Medo and Wheater are fit soon. Maybe our next game.

Knight is a long way from being our worst defender. Is he great? No. Does he make errors? Yes.

But Christ he's a long way from being as bad as Ream, funny how we drop him and win yet again.

Oh and whilst Alonso was good on the ball, he made two basic defensive errors one in each half that could have both been punished with a better ball in. Clearly he's worth his place but its errors like that, from an otherwise good performance that have cost us all season.

Mears looked ok to me today. Seemed a bit more confident on the ball.

Eagles was poor though and has been for a long time. I'm not surprised fans are frustrated with him. Far too much fancy dan stuff which is not what is needed in this league, especially when you've been piss poor for weeks.

De Ridder was ok, I think he offers something. It was hardly a travesty that he was subbed though, he'd drifted out the game.

I'm still pretty sure that if we are playing one up front, that Sordell is not the answer. Craig Davies seems to fit that bill somewhat more IMO.

[boltonboris]

Burnley worked hard first half and tired in the second. No wonder either. I've never seen a fatter team in professional football.. They looked like a Sunday league side. That Austin might be a good finisher, but fvck me, he's about as mobile as Tony Kelly and probably a similar weight!

[SmokinFrazier]

Ream is fundamentally better than Knight is. They're both prone to errors though, and Knight is lucky his today didn't cost us like Ream's mistakes did last week. The better plater now and obviously long term is Ream.

De Ridder and Eagles were both atrocious. Neither had any enforcement product but at least with Eagles, you know he's capable of it. The lack of intelligence De Ridder showed is worrying. Did he create a single chance once? Poor.

[boltonboris]

I don't agree that Ream is better than Knight. I'd have Knight any day... But that's like saying gonorrhoea is better than syphilis.

[TANGODANCER]

Firstly, as I saw it: Charlie Austin was handled well; he's a dangerous striker and backed up by some big presence in the box for corners etc. Next, de Ridder is one of the few we've seen who's happy to take a man on. He kept the ball well and is still very new here. Calling him crap is ridiculous so soon. We seem to be learning-at last- that the casual stroll football is out the window in this league and you have to move the ball quickly; we're keeping posession much better than we've done in a while, and defenders hunt in packs in this league whilst we, at times still lay off and let players run at us. They had far more time and space around our box than we did near theirs. Alonso is really looking the part and Spearing's running into space and ball winning and distribution was excellent. Craig Davies looks strong and not frightened of putting it about, which was good to see, and Dawson had a very good first game. Chungy too was very good and he's toughened up a lot. Overall I thought we were better than the result and could have had four but for good keeping and defending. To come back and win against a decent team is no small feat. We're not there yet, but the signs are encouraging. Using KD as Dougie did was smart thinking; he figured in the goal and his through ball for Cravies was top drawer and very unlucky not to result in number three.

Overall, a decent game and result.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Ream is fundamentally better than Knight is. They're both prone to errors though, and Knight is lucky his today didn't cost us like Ream's mistakes did last week. The better plater now and obviously long term is Ream.

Ream lacks the physical stature to be a top centre back. This is more fundamental than any of Knight's (many) failings, if you ask me.

[CAPSLOCK]

Ream is fundamentally better than Knight is. They're both prone to errors though, and Knight is lucky his today didn't cost us like Ream's mistakes did last week. The better plater now and obviously long term is Ream.

De Ridder and Eagles were both atrocious. Neither had any enforcement product but at least with Eagles, you know he's capable of it. The lack of intelligence De Ridder showed is worrying. Did he create a single chance once? Poor.

What the fcuk?

[boltonboris]

I'm better than Tim Ream. Seriously.

[BWFC_Insane]

Ream is fundamentally better than Knight is. They're both prone to errors though, and Knight is lucky his today didn't cost us like Ream's mistakes did last week. The better plater now and obviously long term is Ream.

De Ridder and Eagles were both atrocious. Neither had any enforcement product but at least with Eagles, you know he's capable of it. The lack of intelligence De Ridder showed is worrying. Did he create a single chance once? Poor.

As the others are pointing out to you here Ream lacks the fundamental qualities to be a centre half.

It's fairly obvious that a soft as shite little weed is not going to cut it in that position especially in a physical league.

Fairly basic and fundamental that.

[TKIZ!]

This is pathetic. A disgraceful performance from our team. There is no sign of improvement at all, and yet the results keep getting worse.

Are we in the relegation zone?

From our fans, too.

I take slight umbrage with this, Sponge. I was at the game and Eagles had done the precise sum of feck all. Fans were booing the decision to take De Ridder off when he looked more of a threat. Sordell was also suffering because of the lack of Eagles shaped service and on a few occasions let him know just that. Anyway, we won.

[CAPSLOCK]

De Ridder was taken off cos he's not fit - DF in after match questionning

Why do 'our fans' not engage their fcuking brains and give the manager the benefit of the doubt

As for De Ridder, on todays showing he's the new Riga...bit flash, created nowt

He might get better

[BWFC_Insane]

Would have been nice, and funny if Dougie had come over, pointed at the ESL and shouted 'you don't know what you're doing'.

[TKIZ!]

I'd say that De Ridder was more of a threat than Eagles and leave it at that

I hold my hands up and say I was wrong but at the time it was born of pure frustration

[Mar]

Would've been nice had the fans chanted 'You know what you're doing' when we went 2-1 up. Freedman's substitutions clearly turned the game on its head. While it could be argued that the first half shouldn't have played out the way it did (had we started with 2 up front) we will never know. All we know is that Freedman got the game plan right today because we've come away with 3 points.


With regards to De Ridder being more of a threat than Eagles I would say that was the case. Eagles is clearly out of sorts and De Ridder is clearly looking to make a point. The manager substituting De Ridder might have been from injury or just plain tactics but I severely doubt it was because of a poor performance.

[TFF]

Good game, and more importantly we defended well for once. Don't think Bogdan made a save.

[Mar]

This is pathetic. A disgraceful performance from our team. There is no sign of improvement at all, and yet the results keep getting worse.

Are we in the relegation zone?

From our fans, too.

I take slight umbrage with this, Sponge. I was at the game and Eagles had done the precise sum of feck all. Fans were booing the decision to take De Ridder off when he looked more of a threat. Sordell was also suffering because of the lack of Eagles shaped service and on a few occasions let him know just that. Anyway, we won.

I agree with TKIZ on this one. I really couldn't tell whether Sordell was having a piss poor game or whether he just wasn't getting service. I pretty much figured it was both. We can't have Sordell on his own up front as it clearly just doesn't work. Craig Davies might work on the other hand because of his physical presence but to have just Sordell (who seems more of a fox in the box type player) is just madness.

[boltonboris]

What I think everyone can agree on, is that the right players came on. Not everyone will agree that the right players came off. To be honest, with the way N'gog and C. Davies changed the game, I don't think it mattered who came off. I think the outcome would've been the same regardless.

And the fact that the game shifted so much with the subs, to me, disproves the theory by a few who think we have a shit squad. Not many teams can bring on players of possibly greater ability than the ones they replace.

[Harry Genshaw]

Eagles was damn frustrating today because we all know he's capable of so much more, but the response to his removal from some today was atrocious. Similarly the reaction to Bogdan catching anything is the same. Hardly going to fill them with confidence is it?