Morning lads, how we all doing today, i hope everything is well from wherever you are reading this from. I think it would be fair to say that our slide as it were to 9th place (which i am sure you would have been delighted with at the start of the season) has been linked to the chopping and changing of our team, not Darren Bent leaving or anything else. Would i still be right in saying that we havent lost this season when Gordon, Turner, Bramble and Cattermole have all played in a match, im sure i remember that stat from somewhere, (it might have been last season with Mensah not turner) and to me these players are our most important yet the likes of Gordon and Turner still get a hard time off 'fans' who are oblivious to the great job they do for the team. So we have been missing our spine of the team, but in the last few games, Tottenham, Liverpool and Stoke especially if we had these players fit i feel that we would have won those 3 games as lets face it, we lost to Stoke because we couldnt defend in the air (where we need Turner) we lost too a poor Liverpool team where the defence seemed to be caught out by every long ball 9where we need Turner) and Tottenham where we seemed to lack that bite in midfield to shut down play (Cattermole). Its like the old, Liverpool can only win with Gerrard and Torres and i think it is similar for us where if we had these players we probably wouldnt be on the run we are on and we would still be looking down, but in the hope that 7th didnt catch us! Roll on the rest of the season when we get these players fit i am sure we will push 7th and 8th and finish with a bang! KTF lads and does anyone know when Turner is back?
agree there, the spine has been missing and that should be gordon, turner, catts and an out and out c/f
Injuries have played a big part without doubt. Our squad is far superior to last season but it's clearly still not good enough to cope if we get a few injuries to key players, the likes of Riveros, Angeleri, etc, who were supposed to be good enough cover just haven't been up to scratch. Not many EPL teams could have had the same amount of injuries to their respective key players and still managed to maintain a decent league position. Hopefully we are over the hump so to speak and the run in should see us compete with a near full strength team.
There is a big gulf in class between the top Five clubs and the rest.Liverpoo's revival under Daglish may well see them win the fight for Sixth. This is a great season to support SAFC as I genuinely believe we are or at least close to being the best of the rest withouth reaching our full potential and are still just gelling as a team. Unlucky to lose so many of our battlers just when fixture list indicated we needed them most.For me then this bad spell is a combination of both.
Its all ifs and buts really as injuries are part of the game and teams we play will have their injury problems. Catts looked good when he came on but when the battling capabilities are restored the next problem arises and that is CREATIVITY. As you say mackem911 there is another level of player in the top 5 to what we can attract to SAFC
Meyler too -a lad with some serious metal, he was just starting to come good, then he gets injured again
There's a lot of truth in this thread - when Chelsea lost all their key players to injury, even they had a slump. It certainly wasn't just because Bent left. What Bent meant to us was, when everything was going wrong, we could always snatch a goal, and just maybe a point. When things go wrong now, we haven't got that possibility. But we can't go through life just relying on one man - ultimately, football is a team game. We desperately need that spine back.
yes we do and i cant wait for the West Brom game! I have resigned to a defeat v city as we are ****e their, however its doable to get 3 points
