It's fair to say it's not all on the WBs, but rarely if at all when we were camped on the edge of their box did either of them, take a man on, play a 1-2 or try and drive deep into the box. I don't know if that's tactics or lack of confidence. I like both Semedo and RAN but they both seem nervous on the ball to me, RAN especially always looks like he's gunna trip over the ball.
As for Traore, I stood up for him last night and I still think that's one of his best games for a long time. Some great runs with the ball and tried to link up more. Yes he should have passed the shot but most forward players take that on, his pass to Raul towards the end was poor, the one to Raul was very good but a terrific tackle.
Giving said all that, in the cold light of day, this 'wrong decision or poor execution has been going on too long.
Lets be honest , with Traore you have a world class dribbler , with world class speed coupled with league two awareness and finishing. Thats based on his entire time here. He brings world class excitement to the crowd for 10 seconds and then a huge groan when he fecks it up because of his league two traits as mentioned. That is not going to change ,. If it was he would be playing for a champions league team week in week out not warming our bench 75% of the time.
I like him. I like the excitement he brings but I am a complete realist in that he is a luxury that this current squad cannot afford. We have failed to score against Spurs, Man u , Leicester, Brentford, Norwich , Burnley , Crystal Palace. These teams are currently all below us in the table. In those first three examples we had over 40 attempts at goal and failed to score , so despite looking great we could not finish our dinner. We were rancid against Brentford and Palace and not much better against Norwich. Dyche was happy with his point and we didnt have the guile or ability to create more than 2 attempts on target. This is nothing new from this squad. It will continue to be an issue with these players as many of them have peaked so wont get better, only worse.
Our wing backs cant cross and our midfield cant score. Our attack is a bit powderpuff in the majority of cases. Defensively , we look rock solid so thats the saving grace. We dont look like losing. When we do concede however , we will lose ,more than win as we cant score.
The answer , however , does not exist within the squad. It needs new players. Fabio and Trincao still dont convince me and the former clearly doesn't convince Lage as he has minimal minutes under his belt this season. Hwang certainly has something and has shown he can finish, he is just inconsistent. Again thats why he is here on loan not playing for a better team. I dont know who the answer is but I know that if we keep doing what we are doing , playing the same players and expecting a different outcome then that way lies madness. It wont happen. Traore will never be a consistent goal scorer, Moutinho and Fabio will not get any faster, Semedo probably cannot improve his crossing, Trincao may be too lightweight. Its why Lage has not implemented his preferred style IMHO. Jonny and Neto will improve that but they wont solve it. I fear , however , we best get used to it as the negativity and doom around the possibility of any incoming January transfers has already started.
This isnt a moan, this isn't pelters at the players I mention its just the realistic observations for a number of performances over a reasonable amount of time. We are as likely to beat one of Liverpool Chelsea or Man City as we are to drop points to Norwich or Burnley.
