by aCe' » Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:30 pm
I think its naive thinking our performance against Norwich was any indication that the team can perform well with Lucas out of the side. For me, NONE of our players had a good game out there and our midfield was shockingly poor especially when it came to closing down spaces and pressing the opposition. We left way too much space in front of our back4 and it cost us 2 points and potentially could have led to us losing the game. Norwich are a poor side and while I'll give them all due credit for a good performance, we need to realize that yet again, we quite simply didnt do enough at either end to get the three points.
All the big sides miss plenty of chances against such smaller sides but in many occasions the difference between picking up the 3 points or the 1 point like we did is the defense (and that includes the midfielders) stopping the opposition from scoring and creating dangerous chances.
Now, whether Lucas has been good, poor, or excellent is a completely different discussion to where I'm going with this. I'd understand someone thinking Lucas hasnt been doing a good job defensively and suggesting Spearing be introduced to the starting 11 but for some to suggest that we should continue with a midfield of Gerrard-Adam for me is ridiculous. We struggled against Norwich with the pair, and against better opposition we would have been battered with that setup.