A hard fought victory at Stamford Bridge yesterday against West Brom. A game we all felt we would win comfortably enough? Firstly, quite frankly we were awful in the first half and without a large slice of luck could have been out of it at half time. Not entirely convinced with AVB's excuses as normally when going down so early usually produces a little urgency and character. We were half a yard off the pace our passing was as bad as those dark days in division two, in short bloody awful. I've thought about the game and compared the live verses highlights on M.O.D and yes we were still awful but I noticed just how well organised Roy Hodgson has made them in a short space of time. Roberto Di Mateo's West Brom were a bit too free and cavalier, Roy has them pressing high up the pitch and chasing everything. If you compare last weeks game against United they played the same and were very unlucky not to have got something out of the game. Considering AVB's was the man who gathered info on opposing teams under Jose I think he missed exactly what they were all about? I appreciate it was early on in the game when we conspired to give an unearned chance to them but we were clearly lacking pace and focus too. West Brom's close defeat against United tells us that United at present are fitter than us! or they are as bad as us? which is unlikely. We only have a few games now before we lock horns with our nemesis and it will be interesting to judge Monday's game against Spurs? I think we will then know the probably outcome.. Was pleased to see Bosingwa putting in a good shift.
I don't think AVB had much to do with our first half performance, I just don't think anyone turned up! Second half was better though, had a lot more possession and created a few more. Goes without saying what Mata and Modric would do to our shape and style of play. Disappointed to see Josh staying on the bench aswell as Yossi, thought he would've liked to add a bit of a creative player on instead of Ivanovic as I thought Alex coped ok, especially after that big mistake! 4 weeks untill the big game, still got some time to fix up. Hope to see Mata for the Norwich game
I think what this season has showed so far (both in the PL and Championship) is that the top teams are going to find it a lot easier to play away from home this year. West Ham and Leicester for instance have both looked far better away from home than at home because of the weight of expectation on them, same with Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City. I thought all 4 of those teams played far better in their away games than they did at home. Forget the Aguero show against Swansea, City looked poor up until about the 50 minute mark and it was against a tired newly promoted team. Fans play a huge part and I think too much negativity and caution surrounds home games, one misplaced pace or maybe 2 if you are lucky and the home crowd are already on your back, away games aren't like that, away fans will back the team 100% win or lose. We played much better at Stoke but didn't get the points we deserved, so I'd say 4 points after 2 games is about right for us at this moment in time. IMO City are playing their best football now, they won't play much better than they already are, United and Chelsea will peak at the right time which should allow us to both finish above them.
Lets be honest for a minute. This was the same team that performed so average for large chunks of last season. Just because AVB has come in, I didn't expect that to change overnight. I think we need a couple of new faces in there just to inject some new ideas, competition for places etc. So far the signings we have made are not going to impact on the first 11. Mata looks pretty much done now though and he should come straight into the team for Norwich IMO. We then either need to try Josh or get in a central midfielder who can open things up to play with Lampard and Ramieres or Mikel
I genuinely believe Lampard should be out of the starting Xll. A radical view yes but he just sits a few yards from Mikel expecting a pass with no movement. Joshy boy needs to replace him. Mikel is actually impressing me now, and Rami is sharp. Anelka is actually slower than Barry now it's alarming.
Dont agree at all. Still think Lamps has a massive role to play. His leadership, work rate is outstanding and he always looks for the ball and will get goals. We just need someone in the middle who is a bit more of a technical footballer ala Fabregas, Alonso etc.
He's had a pretty poor start to the season...I wouldn't ever want to see him go, but I would question his value as a starting player week in week out...
I said this on another thread, but Lamps is usually a slow starter and takes a few games to find his stride. Play him but substitute him with Josh if he's not playing well.
That's last season - Why is AVB not playing Josh, Danny, Lukaku ? How can we conclude they are not ready for our starting 11 !? For starters - clueless Kalou is still playing and starting. How can anyone defend Kalou's place?
the first few games of the season are important to get off to a good start, hence why he's using experienced players instead of opting for youth. Although im sure that if Sturridge didnt have a ban he would have been played ahead of the likes of kalou/anelka. im refusing to give judgement just yet, everyones saying its a 2horse race between united and city, and id agree with them that they look miles better than everyone else. However so did we at the beginning of last year and look what happened. Everyone has a bad spell and it will be interesting to see how the youth of united pull through that bad spell, and how the ego's of city do too.
I agree with Kalou but as for the others: - Josh - still a kid and needs to be blooded in gradually Sturridge - has been banned!! Played loads in pre season and will get plenty of action this year Lukaku - really?!? He signed about 2 days before our last game and is hardly going to come straight in ahead of torres or drogba.
United and City look good no doubt at the moment but so do Wolves!! It's very early days. Lets judge it after 10 games plus and see where we are.
