Focus on us. And Southampton getting tonked by Bristol doesn't do our prospects any harm on tuesday week.
Quite the opposite, if they'd carried on winning I think there's more chance of complacency, whereas a loss likely sharpens their focus now they've dropped out of the top 2.
The benefit of a promotion, no matter how fleeting would be the money for the infrastructure that should have been put in place 10 years ago...
Unfortunately I think that would almost certainly come with a second season in the PL, as the money from the first would be used on a squad to keep us there.. or at least that's always the temptation and the trap we've always fallen into.
Last night was the right mix of attack, defence, possession and game management QED we have it in us. If we play that way and lose, fine.
Good to get another win yesterday ..... but the truth is it's 12 games now since we actually played well over anything like a full game. We've had a memorable 20 min spell and an impressive battling performance against the odds (Sunderland A), but other than that our actual performances have been generally poor,. Thankfully we've still somehow managed to now win 3 out of 4. One or two have been saying "that's the sign of a good team" to pick up wins when not playing well. Others more accurately have said things like "have we any get out of jails cards left". I don't see performances like ours, bar v Cardiff, as being "a sign of a good team". Good teams scrape wins when they need to do, they don't become the norm; good performances are the norm of a good team with the occasional scraped win when they have to dig one out. Several, including me, keep saying "maybe (or it will) click soon ....". That was after summer, then once 'x' get's back, now it's after January. Arguably, footballing wise we have gone backwards. I of course want the wins to continue however they come, and for Rosenior to continue to be "a lucky lucky man" (as I said post match yesterday), but to be a good side with a good manager, we need good performances. We simply aren't getting them. And in recent weeks we've played bottom end clubs. Hopefully it does click soon, starting on Tuesday, otherwise I can't really see performances like we've been seeing continue to scrape us wins or even draws. No doubt I'll get battered by some for being negative after a welcomed win, but I believe I'm just being honest & realistic.
I thought we played well against Rotherham for 70 minutes. An outstanding keeper performance aside we put a number of goals past them.
But earlier in the season when we were dominating every game and constantly drawing them you weren't allowed to say we were actually playing really well and deserved more if only we could finish, because it was the result that counted then apparently.
We had games where we dominated possession. What was it, 80% of which was in our own half or something! There were games earlier in the season where we played better football than we have been playing pretty much since Cardiff 12 games ago. Hence why I said "arguably footballing wise we have gone backwards". Wouldn't it be nice if we could have good performances that also have us scoring goals (which to my mind are one aspect of good performances anyway as it's no good having possession with no end result as we've seen) and ending in the right result. Being greedy? But surely we now have the players.
We struggle against physical sides who try to bully us off the ball, and we've played a few of those in recent weeks. It's probably about 50/50 wins to losses against such sides. It'll be interesting to see us come up against better footballing sides now, to see if we can hold our own against them.
We’ve got a great owner, a great manager and great players and we’re winning games, yet some still look for negatives. Weird.
It's not about looking for negatives. We're discussing opinions on a message board if that's ok. Great that we've been winning games. Let's see what the next few bring against the better teams. Hopefully I'm pleasantly surprised. Yes, we have a great owner in many ways. I'm remain unconvinced that we have a great manager. He might develop into one in future years. TWT. We have some very talented players, but again, in spite of the individual talent we have and the number of players that have been brought in, I'm not convinced that the owner and manager have managed to craft a balanced side. One example is as Ernie posts above, we struggle against physical sides, or you could say we are fairly easily bullied. As we may see in coming games, physicality isn't just something that the struggling sides tend to have, it's something that pretty much all top sides have too. It's part of the balance needed. How about a new rule for this board that only positive comments are allowed? #happyclappers
Man says a thing. Man repeats the thing, in teeth of prevailing contrary evidence, and openly invites "a battering". Man gets uppity when battering arrives.
I don't think it's looking for negatives, it's being realistic. We were gash for large parts of that game yesterday and were very lucky to get a win. They controlled the second half, hit the post and very nearly took a point. Our substitutions were gradually making us give up control of the game and I fully appreciate the first one was forced upon us. If a neutral watched that they would say it was a couple of mid table sides and should have ended a draw if we're being honest with ourselves.
Just like Steve Bruce's 2013 team and PB's 08 team then. We used to get loads of backs to the wall away wins then. You need to to be successful. Man City do it.
Two successive teams have tried to bully us off the ball but we’ve carried on playing the passing game . On Jaden if he wants to be a top player he needs to know when to give it , he gets the ball taken off him at times when he has a man inside or outside waiting . It’s about keeping the ball , especially up the pitch . I’ve no problem with him taking players on but two people stand him up near the lines and I would bet he gets it taken off him3-4 times out of 5 . I know his unbelievable ability is fantastic but if cornered he should know when to give it . Unless he can do a Rabona of course. LOL
