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Author Topic: Anyone starting to get worried?  (Read 219931 times)

Offline Luke8

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1305 on: January 22, 2020, 02:28:29 PM »
Looking forward to winning games we didn’t expect.
Not happened yet

To be fair I don't think many expected to win at Burnley or to beat Watford yesterday given the abject form and lack of a striker. The results have picked up a bit even if the performances haven't.

Be nice to get back to expecting to beat dross like Burnley and Newcastle though. Although I get what you mean, a result against one of the better teams would be most welcome.

You say performances haven’t improved, but we look and feel more solid since we have gone to three at the back. We certainly aren’t giving away the same volume and quality of chances that we were previously (Man City aberration aside).

I get that we haven’t put in a really good whole team performance yet, but given it’s a new formation and we have been playing without a striker, I’ve been relatively pleased with how we have done and imagine we will improve further going forward.

Offline Risso

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1306 on: January 22, 2020, 02:31:12 PM »
Looking forward to winning games we didn’t expect.
Not happened yet

To be fair I don't think many expected to win at Burnley or to beat Watford yesterday given the abject form and lack of a striker. The results have picked up a bit even if the performances haven't.

Be nice to get back to expecting to beat dross like Burnley and Newcastle though. Although I get what you mean, a result against one of the better teams would be most welcome.

He means the so-called bigger and/or better and or much higher placed teams in the league.  Everybody else has a win against them, eg:

Burnley - beat Leicester
Norwich - beat Man City
Bournemouth - beat Man U and Chelsea
Watford - beat Man U and Wolves
Brighton - beat Spurs and Arsenal
West Ham - beat Man U and Chelsea

Now it doesn't really matter who we beat, as long as we finish above three other teams, but a win or two against a couple of those sorts of teams would make our job a whole lot easier, as we've got a fairly difficult run in.

Online Drummond

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1307 on: January 22, 2020, 02:53:10 PM »
Looking forward to winning games we didn’t expect.
Not happened yet

To be fair I don't think many expected to win at Burnley or to beat Watford yesterday given the abject form and lack of a striker. The results have picked up a bit even if the performances haven't.

Be nice to get back to expecting to beat dross like Burnley and Newcastle though. Although I get what you mean, a result against one of the better teams would be most welcome.

He means the so-called bigger and/or better and or much higher placed teams in the league.  Everybody else has a win against them, eg:

Burnley - beat Leicester
Norwich - beat Man City
Bournemouth - beat Man U and Chelsea
Watford - beat Man U and Wolves
Brighton - beat Spurs and Arsenal
West Ham - beat Man U and Chelsea

Now it doesn't really matter who we beat, as long as we finish above three other teams, but a win or two against a couple of those sorts of teams would make our job a whole lot easier, as we've got a fairly difficult run in.

We just need to repeat the 5-0 v Liverpool........ ;-)

Offline KevinGage

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1308 on: January 22, 2020, 03:35:39 PM »
Sheff U and Palarse at home look like the only traditional fixtures left where you'd say we'd be underperforming to come away with less than three points.

But Chris Wilder seems to have the Indian sign over Smith and I don't see that as a home banker at all.  And Palarse are doing better than expected this year.

There will never be a better time to do Arsenal and Man U at home.

Offline Mellin

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1309 on: January 22, 2020, 03:39:50 PM »
I think we will knock one or two of them over. We have to play all of United, Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal (and Wolves) at home.

Offline Behind Bluenose Lines

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1310 on: January 22, 2020, 05:00:38 PM »
I think we will knock one or two of them over. We have to play all of United, Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal (and Wolves) at home.
I could be wrong but has Mourhino ever beaten us at home over the years?

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1311 on: January 22, 2020, 08:40:59 PM »
I think we will knock one or two of them over. We have to play all of United, Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal (and Wolves) at home.
I could be wrong but has Mourhino ever beaten us at home over the years?

Once in 14/15, Lambert's final home game.

Offline aj2k77

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1312 on: January 22, 2020, 09:49:43 PM »
We've got to get points against Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea at home this season, they're genuinely that great.

Offline Lastfootstamper

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1313 on: January 22, 2020, 10:38:15 PM »
I take it I'm not the only one to notice we've actually won more league games than Arsenal now.


I hadn't!

Offline Smithy

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1314 on: January 23, 2020, 02:22:21 PM »
I take it I'm not the only one to notice we've actually won more league games than Arsenal now.


I hadn't!

And only one win fewer than Sheff Utd who everyone seems to agree are having a great season.  They're basically much better at getting draws than us.

Offline AsTallAsLions

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1315 on: January 23, 2020, 02:30:46 PM »
I take it I'm not the only one to notice we've actually won more league games than Arsenal now.


I hadn't!

And only one win fewer than Sheff Utd who everyone seems to agree are having a great season.  They're basically much better at getting draws than us.

But that's a more significant feat than we're letting on, in reality.

There are teams in this league with a lot of steel who are good at seeing out games against better opposition, or under the cosh away from home, at which we're very poor.

It's been mentioned we have more wins than Arsenal, but their performance this week is a good example of something we wouldn't be able to do - despite struggling to bed-in a new style of play at the moment, and missing their best player through injury, even after going down to 10 men halfway through the 1st half they managed to claw back a game (twice) against a decent team in Chelsea. That's something we'd be incapable of doing with 10 men and without our best player (Grealish). Can you imagine.

Our game management is really poor. The second half on Tuesday was better than anything we've seen in a while now, but let's not get carried away - we're still well off Arsenal or Sheff Utd's pace.

Offline Luke8

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1316 on: January 23, 2020, 06:46:09 PM »


But that's a more significant feat than we're letting on, in reality.

There are teams in this league with a lot of steel who are good at seeing out games against better opposition, or under the cosh away from home, at which we're very poor.

It's been mentioned we have more wins than Arsenal, but their performance this week is a good example of something we wouldn't be able to do - despite struggling to bed-in a new style of play at the moment, and missing their best player through injury, even after going down to 10 men halfway through the 1st half they managed to claw back a game (twice) against a decent team in Chelsea. That's something we'd be incapable of doing with 10 men and without our best player (Grealish). Can you imagine.

Our game management is really poor. The second half on Tuesday was better than anything we've seen in a while now, but let's not get carried away - we're still well off Arsenal or Sheff Utd's pace.

It definitely was a big issue, particularly when we were playing 4-3-3 (even when we were playing quite well), but I think it is something that we have shown signs of improvement in from the Burnley game though.

A bit like the Arsenal example you mention, playing a new formation that we are still learning, without our best central midfielder and with absolutely no senior striker at all we have come from behind in the last two games to get a decent draw and a win. Add to that the fact that we saw out the Burnley win relatively comfortably and it’s fair to say that our mentality and game management has been better in recent weeks.

Offline Smithy

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1317 on: January 23, 2020, 07:40:26 PM »
I take it I'm not the only one to notice we've actually won more league games than Arsenal now.


I hadn't!

And only one win fewer than Sheff Utd who everyone seems to agree are having a great season.  They're basically much better at getting draws than us.

But that's a more significant feat than we're letting on, in reality.

There are teams in this league with a lot of steel who are good at seeing out games against better opposition, or under the cosh away from home, at which we're very poor.

It's been mentioned we have more wins than Arsenal, but their performance this week is a good example of something we wouldn't be able to do - despite struggling to bed-in a new style of play at the moment, and missing their best player through injury, even after going down to 10 men halfway through the 1st half they managed to claw back a game (twice) against a decent team in Chelsea. That's something we'd be incapable of doing with 10 men and without our best player (Grealish). Can you imagine.

Our game management is really poor. The second half on Tuesday was better than anything we've seen in a while now, but let's not get carried away - we're still well off Arsenal or Sheff Utd's pace.

I don't disagree that getting draws important, or that Sheff Utd are good at it, but at the same time we're not a million miles from it.   We were 4 minutes from drawing with Spurs, 6 minutes from drawing with Arsenal, and 1 minute from drawing with Liverpool.  All of which were games we were leading.  Add those 3 points and the only difference between us and Sheff Utd is the result against them (which they deservedly won).

Yes, this is a whole of lot of if's but's and maybe's, and I'm certainly not saying we deserve to be higher - we are where we are on merit - I'm just trying to point out the distance to upper mid-table isn't as big as some people think.

Offline mike

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1318 on: January 23, 2020, 08:42:38 PM »
I take it I'm not the only one to notice we've actually won more league games than Arsenal now.


I hadn't!

And only one win fewer than Sheff Utd who everyone seems to agree are having a great season.  They're basically much better at getting draws than us.

But that's a more significant feat than we're letting on, in reality.

There are teams in this league with a lot of steel who are good at seeing out games against better opposition, or under the cosh away from home, at which we're very poor.

It's been mentioned we have more wins than Arsenal, but their performance this week is a good example of something we wouldn't be able to do - despite struggling to bed-in a new style of play at the moment, and missing their best player through injury, even after going down to 10 men halfway through the 1st half they managed to claw back a game (twice) against a decent team in Chelsea. That's something we'd be incapable of doing with 10 men and without our best player (Grealish). Can you imagine.

Our game management is really poor. The second half on Tuesday was better than anything we've seen in a while now, but let's not get carried away - we're still well off Arsenal or Sheff Utd's pace.

I don't disagree that getting draws important, or that Sheff Utd are good at it, but at the same time we're not a million miles from it.   We were 4 minutes from drawing with Spurs, 6 minutes from drawing with Arsenal, and 1 minute from drawing with Liverpool.  All of which were games we were leading.  Add those 3 points and the only difference between us and Sheff Utd is the result against them (which they deservedly won).

Yes, this is a whole of lot of if's but's and maybe's, and I'm certainly not saying we deserve to be higher - we are where we are on merit - I'm just trying to point out the distance to upper mid-table isn't as big as some people think.

But this what pisses me off. I can see us getting relegated but if we can just stay up, I think players like Luiz, Nakamba, Engels, Konsa will be solid players by next year so with a few extra signings we could be a reasonable unit. I have a horrible feeling we’ll get relegated and they’ll all be stars next year.

Offline RamboandBruno

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Re: Anyone starting to get worried?
« Reply #1319 on: January 23, 2020, 09:21:57 PM »
I take it I'm not the only one to notice we've actually won more league games than Arsenal now.


I hadn't!

And only one win fewer than Sheff Utd who everyone seems to agree are having a great season.  They're basically much better at getting draws than us.

But that's a more significant feat than we're letting on, in reality.

There are teams in this league with a lot of steel who are good at seeing out games against better opposition, or under the cosh away from home, at which we're very poor.

It's been mentioned we have more wins than Arsenal, but their performance this week is a good example of something we wouldn't be able to do - despite struggling to bed-in a new style of play at the moment, and missing their best player through injury, even after going down to 10 men halfway through the 1st half they managed to claw back a game (twice) against a decent team in Chelsea. That's something we'd be incapable of doing with 10 men and without our best player (Grealish). Can you imagine.

Our game management is really poor. The second half on Tuesday was better than anything we've seen in a while now, but let's not get carried away - we're still well off Arsenal or Sheff Utd's pace.

I don't disagree that getting draws important, or that Sheff Utd are good at it, but at the same time we're not a million miles from it.   We were 4 minutes from drawing with Spurs, 6 minutes from drawing with Arsenal, and 1 minute from drawing with Liverpool.  All of which were games we were leading.  Add those 3 points and the only difference between us and Sheff Utd is the result against them (which they deservedly won).

Yes, this is a whole of lot of if's but's and maybe's, and I'm certainly not saying we deserve to be higher - we are where we are on merit - I'm just trying to point out the distance to upper mid-table isn't as big as some people think.

But this what pisses me off. I can see us getting relegated but if we can just stay up, I think players like Luiz, Nakamba, Engels, Konsa will be solid players by next year so with a few extra signings we could be a reasonable unit. I have a horrible feeling we’ll get relegated and they’ll all be stars next year.

I’m one for taking the ups when they come. Still buzzing after Tuesday and whilst I’ve been watching villa for too long to get carried away about our chances of staying up after one victory, their are wins and their are wins. To battle back like that can only (hopefully) give us confidence and some momentum.

As has been pointed out we’ve been without our midfield engine for 5 weeks and no forward for last 4 games and apart from Man City we’ve done really well, so credit where credits due.

I agree we’ll have to win one or two against better sides, if we can beat Bournemouth, spurs could be one. 4 more wins.

There are so many teams 5 points ahead of us on 30, I still think one or two will get dragged in, maybe newcastle, proper shite them.

 


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