If we'd have beaten Southampton and Reading we'd be on 17 points and in 4 position! If we'd have defended properly, instead of a bunch of muppets, we'd have won not drawn the games. But, we could easily have lost against Villa. Maybe Jol will consider not playing Rodallega? All if's, buts and maybe's!
We are picking up points away from home, so that is a positive. Both sides which we conceded late goals to, also took the lead against us, so you could see it as a point gained, considering we were awful in both first half's against them. I expect Reading and Southampton to get a lot of late goals this season in their favour because these are sides that basically have nothing to lose when they go behind, so begin to play with the pressure off their shoulders. You could see it yesterday when Southampton went 2 down to Spurs they begun to play a lot better and could have nicked a draw in the end. There haven't been too many negatives for me so far this season. Yes, the defending needs to be sorted out, I think both Riether and Riise leave Brede and Aaron a little too exposed as both like to get forward, but if Jol's tactic is if the opponents score three then we must score four then that's fine by me! I'm not going to go on about Richardson and Rodallega as everyone knows my views, but both need to improve and quickly, there are very good players waiting in the wings to take advantage of their poor performances.
Agreed with Bandy on all counts. The games against Southampton and Reading are ones we would possibly have lost last season. Our defence isn't as imperious as it once was but our attack is a hundred times more potent, I suspect this is a trade-off for teams below the top 6. Lister and Hugo haven't been great overall, but they're squad players and hopefully once Dejagah, Frei and Kaca are back they'll get limited game time.
Love the ring of imperious Bidley. And as Lenin (or some such despot), said "There is nothing so skillful in its own defence as imperious pride".
I was checking the other results on my phone after the game on Saturday and noticed that too. Before the games yesterday it would have put us on the same points as 2nd place (but we would have been 3rd or 4th on goal difference) Our away form is improving which is good and it’s nice to go to an away game this season and come away with something. I didn’t see the Southampton game but hear we were pretty poor first half. We were definitely poor against Reading for the first 60min. The disappointing thing is how with minutes to go in both games we lost the lead. Had we snatched a draw in the last minute we probably wouldn’t be thinking about it. I’m looking forward to Dejagah and Ruiz starting as we looked like a different team when they came on. I can only image they are not match fit yet. I don’t rate Rodallega but I think Richardson is a decent addition to the squad due to the positions he can cover. I can’t see him being a regular starter for us but think he is a decent squad player. I thought he seems to lack confidence on Saturday, a misplaced a load of passes most of the short 5 yard ones. I heard someone say on Saturday (although I haven’t check to see if its correct) that we are 6 points better off than last season already.
That wouldn't surprise me at all, in fact I thought it could be more than that! We were still looking for our first goal 3 or 4 games in, if memory serves...
Our defence is leaking this year... Hangeland is the main reason I think. He is not as concentrated to his game as he once was. If it is his contract that worries him lets get it sorted.
Like others I've questioned some of Brede's performances, but I think that's a bit harsh FFC-Mad. For one, all the late goals recently have been from silly free kicks given away just outside the box - so some blame must go to the players giving them away and to Schwarzer for not being more commanding in the 6 yard area. Secondly, JAR with the best will in the world doesn't get back after his storming runs as quickly as he used to, which has (on occasion) left the two Hs vulnerable. The midfielders also don't always close players down when they should, which has caused Brede (on occasion) to commit when he might prefer not to. So, I don't reckon Brede can be singled out for the goals we've conceded. Although I agree his general play and in particular his distribution, as I said in an earlier post, is not up to par. PS we're 7 points better off than this time last year and have scored 8 more goals.
If we hadn't conceded any in the last 5 minutes we would have 19 points. November is going to be a tough test though- we've basically played 6 relegation candidates in 9 games. If we play like the second half of this tie last season and, now that Zamora has been shipped out, not miss an absolute sitter in the last few minutes then we can continue our form.
I agree with Bandit's view here. Certainly, our home form has been good 32 points from 14 matches this year and an away approach where we can pick-up points. As to singling out Brede, I do not agree. Frankly, I feel happy with the stability of Hangeland+Hughes, rather than Senderos. Yes they are left a little more exposed by Riether going forward, but it makes us a more attacking team, especially with Duff and Kaca playing. And that's not helped by the interchanging of our central midfield. C O Y WYW
