If there was any doubts that we haven't changed at all over the Summer, then these last two games have put those doubts to bed now. Simply put, we're awful. I'm not sure if this is news to anyone, but we are. It really is that simple now, no debate, no argument- we're awful and we've got a manager who's either delusional enough to not know we're awful, or naive enough to not know how to change that fact- anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. I'm not changing my stance when it comes to Kit and giving him the rest of the Window- but at the rate we're going I can't see him lasting even the amount of time I'm willing to give him.
Let's get into it then. The Team Selection. Why on earth did Kit not make changes from Saturday? Here is an exact quote from my Hull Preview.
"I think the one thing that will get me pissed on Wednesday is if we start slowly"
Sure enough we started the First Half exactly how we started the First-Half against Brighton and we got completely killed. The fact we were even in a position where Hull needed a late winner was in itself a miracle. How Kit could have seen the game on Saturday and thought there weren't changes needed is just completely beyond me. I'm going to try so hard not to get worked up tonight, because my expectations were so low for the game tonight in a way the fact we only lost by 1 goal is a miracle in and of itself. We went into the game knowing- not expecting, KNOWING Hull had Odubajo and ElMohamady and they were going to play them. So we started Voser, who I'll definitely get onto- and Pringle in front of him who is iffy at best when it comes to his covering of the Left-Back. If Kit couldn't have anticipated that then he should resign on the spot. Both of our Centre-Backs made a mistake leading to goals on Saturday, I don't know if it's some weird sense of loyalty he's got to these two- but why on earth would Kit stick with them?! I'll get onto Smith a bit later on, but let's just say for now Dembele was so, so much better and he lifted the whole team when he came on. Again, this isn't rocket science- I'm not a Manager (unless you count Football Manager) but I can see this, WHY CAN'T THE PERSON BEING PAID TO MANAGE?!
Right then onto the goals. I'm not sure if Penalties count as Set-Pieces, but this was our first goal conceded from our old friend the Corner. I'm 99% sure Cairney is the player who Elmohamady completely bullied to get to the Header and direct it in, but it was just horrific defending. Once again, How the hell have we not learned that defending corners and set-pieces is an area we need to work on? The Cairney goal was weird, when we scored we were definitely looking the more likely team to score- but at the same time we really didn't deserve to get it. It was a quality goal though, I said what with the Former Club Curse and all that Cairney was likely to score in my Preview- and it's nice to know we've got 1 player who's capable of scoring out of nothing, and there was an awful lot of nothing tonight. We MUST have conceded the most goals in the last 10 Minutes of games in the last 5 Years out of all of the 92. It was more horrific defending, how the ball actually got to Aluko is beyond me- but once again we conceded in the last 10 Minutes. 3 out of 4 guys!
Losing a game isn't fine by any means, but seeing Bettinelli go down the way he did- winning and losing a game of Football becomes a moot point. It looked horrendous, and with the Grimmer injury basically a week ago putting him out long-term it's becoming a nightmare start for us. Without any basis whatsoever I'd guess Bettinelli has either a Broken Leg or Ankle. Just the way he turned on it when he went down- it was just awful. So in short, I can't see anything other than Bettinelli being out long-term as well.
Oh the Defence. There were very few positives, but on balance I thought Hutchinson played decent tonight- put this way, comparatively he was one of our best players tonight. He was pretty much playing as a Sweeper tonight basically knowing we were going to mess up and give the ball away in dangerous positions- and in general he played that role well. I'm not sure why Bodurov was on the pitch in the first place to be honest- Bodurov and Voser protecting our left against Elmohamady and Odubajo isn't legal in 64 Countries. I'm not even sure if it's worth blaming Voser at this point. He's awful- we all know he is, surely Kit knows he is but he's being played seemingly to highlight how awful he is. Richards is weird, he hasn't had a game yet where he's been consistently under pressure just because everyone's gone down our left- so it's pretty hard to say one way or the other on Richards today and in general.
Tom Cairney in a way embodies us as a club at the minute. He was completely out of the game First-Half, he had a little flourish resulting in a goal and then he tailed off again. I don't understand why Cairney and the Team in general can't show up until the Second Half. O'Hara was fine, he's got to be the most frustrated person in the team at the minute. He's got the best passing range in the team by an absolute mile- but especially First-Half nobody was moving for him. Pringle had another dire game, I don't want to keep going back to Kit- but surely he saw how bad Pringle was on Saturday? In fact I know he did because he Subbed him off after about 60 Minutes. So how Kit can justify Pringle starting tonight once again is completely beyond me. I think because Voser is- well Voser some people are completely ignoring Pringle's non-existent defensive work in these last two games. Christensen... Christensen was there.
This isn't a massive indictment of Smith & McCormack because they're both good players. Smith & McCormack aren't built like athletes, they really need to be whipped into shape for their stamina to be enough to compete for 90 Minutes. Their fitness levels are pretty much non-existent at the minute, and once again that comes back to Kit and the Management Team. I hope Smith's fine after the Bettinelli collision, but once again the First-Half proved that we're a worse team with Smith starting. Smith has a role to play, and that's off the Bench for last 30 Minutes changing our attacking dynamic if needed. McCormack was bad again, I'm still 50/50 on whether I'd drop him- but that's a moot point because if Kit won't drop Bodurov, Voser and Pringle after the Brighton game there's no chance he's dropping McCormack.
The Subs, two of which were enforced were varied. Lonergan didn't really have much to do when he came on. We were definitely the team pressing for the majority of the Second Half- and that limited his involvement. But much in the way of Fulham performances we gave him one thing to do when he had to pick the ball out of the back of damn net. Dembele coming on once again had a positive impact on the team. You can pretty much do an exact comparison First-Half/Second-Half with Smith and Dembele- and this may shock some of you, but Pace actually made a difference. Kacaniklic came on pretty much as a token gesture from Kit way too late to make any sort of impact- and that's all that can really be said about him.
I'm sticking by my stance of keeping Kit for the rest of the window, but I can't see anyone still being in a position where they'd defend Kit as a long-term option now. The simple fact is that he hasn't learned any lessons from last season- that's become blatantly obvious in these last two games- I can deal with a bad manager if they show signs that they're learning, but the simple fact is Kit's learning curve is a flat-line. If you are on the "Kit In" bandwagon then I'd LOVE to hear from you and basically wonder what possible reason you have for it. It's just dire, Pretty much since Christmas it's been a slow decline for Kit- and now I think it's safe to say we're close to rock bottom. We're not at Rock Bottom yet- that's for next week when we lose to Sheffield United.
I can pretty much guarantee that we'll sack Kit as soon as Allardyce is off the table, which'll annoy me even more. To all the people at the back end of last season who were saying they don't want Allardyce citing "style of football" which is a bullshit argument in the first place- a wins a win, and Allardyce would get wins. I would LOVE anyone to make an argument that Allardyce would being doing equally bad or worse than Kit is. Then it becomes who we can get in- and without Allardyce I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who'd get us into a position where we'd be pushing Top 6.
Thanks for reading as always, I tried to keep the ranting to a minimum- but we're just so bad. I'm honestly beyond caring- and it's only August. But like the good Soldiers we are we'll move on to Huddersfield- which will truly be breaking point for me. If we lose and/or play badly I might well go nuclear. So at least that's something to look forward to. Thanks again for reading, keep an eye out for the Preview on Friday. At least we're consistent.
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