by Snowball »
22 Aug 2017 08:20
I posted a few days ago mentioning how young, in general, the side is.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=137915For me that's where the problem lies. We don't have a hard man. We need a bit of thuggery.
PNE went in boots flying, by all accounts, and to manage to remove 2/3 of our creativity in two hits was impressive, however "wrong" you might think it is.
I believe Stam is playing down our chances this season because "he doesn't want" to go up this year, or maybe even next year. We are adding skill every window (but not weight, aggression, nastiness). But may of our starters are seriously young.
The youngest from this list should improve a hell of a lot, and if we still have them, three years down the line, the mid-field should look awesome. But we need that thuggery, that guy or those guys that put a boot in, frighten the opposition.
We are currently boys against men, and the way to beat us is to hit us hard, exactly as QPR did. Mackie deserved two yellows, got in our faces, wound RFC up. They didn't LET US play.
Let our fairy-feet do their thing and they can be excellent (esp if JVDB is playing) but force us to rush and we just down have the personnel to play long ball.