Very deflated to slightly pessimistic. Our performances have been constantly deteriorating. The win against Newcastle was good but had certain elements of luck. Against QPR and Liverpool we were abysmal. No start, middle and end. Players seem lost both defending and going forward. The fact we lost Dembele and Dempsey are only excuses. Ruiz has been on and off for some time and plan B does not seem to exist. Unless we get 6 points in the next 3 games I will start be worried. The bottom is catching up with us...
It does indeed, and I may not be the only one who cannot see it happening. A lot of people are pining their hopes on Ruiz when he comes back, but he hasn't been consistent for us so far. Kaca has really gone off the boil and seems to be the first replaced each game, Diarra wasn't playing particularly well before his injury, and most people were calling for Sidwell to be dropped before he got suspended, so having these players back, in my opinion, will change little. I put this down to Berbatov. He looks so disinterested it's unbelievable. I don't know whether it's because Ruiz is out so he doesn't get a lot of service, but he, like Kaca, needs to find form, and quickly. There are too many people to be brought in in January, and until they are, we will have to rely on the likes of Kara, Richardson and Rodallega, Championship quality players. This could be a long hard second half to the season.
I know i will be castigated for saying this but is JOL technically enept, I personally think so. And I ask this question can he be trusted to buy wisely,judgeing by some of the dross he thinks is,or could be, premiership class." Reither Berbatov" the exception. He is not delivering,ok, we possibly may never be championship contenders,but surely us fans would hope to be at least in the top half of the league. In August,( with no disrespect) who would have thought Norwich, Swansea, W Ham. Stoke, & WBA would be above us. And who knows comes Jan 1st, Newcastle,A Villa and Sunderland could join the aformentioned We cannot rely on those below to secure our survival. As the fatalist that I am I cannot see us getting much, points wise, over the christmas period on our current form. So for me the jury is out on his managerial competance. I hope i am proved wrong, nothing would give me pleasure comes May,than the FFC 606rs saying Rosc hasnt a clue.
When in a bad run, us fans almost inevitably turn on the manager. However sometimes with justification and I don't think you are too far off the mark rosc. After today's match Jol said, "You could say Liverpool were great today but they weren't. We were disappointing” Well he has to take some responsibility for that since that's two games in a row where the players didn't seem to be know each other on the field or what their roles were. And to bring out an old cliche, they sure as hell didn't appear to be playing for the manager.
Having just spent a frustrating time up here, it was very disappointing. Turning on the manager, however, is not an option. We have a midfield problem for MJ to fix - Diarra/Kara/Richardson are not solutions, and we can only play Baird OR Sidwell. Not being able to flow forward means extra pressure on defence.
What concerns me is that when we win, Jol always manages to pinpoint areas where we still need improvement, yet when we lose, he rarely picks out specifics, dishing out the usual 'we were disappointing' 'the players didn't turn up'. What sort of analysis is this? Apparently Jol had a right go at the team after the QPR game and was confident they would all bounce back from that game with at least a quality performance if not result against Liverpool, trouble was that tonights was possibly our worst performance and result of the season. Does Jol have it in him to turn this around?
I have seen no footage of the game today but from the comments made on here and other forums we were dire again. The fact that we have no central midfield is causing us huge problems. Defensively we have no cover in front of the centre back so they are being overworked, offensively we have no creativity so are not working productively. Bandy, I cannot agree with your comments on Diarra. Since he has not been playing we have struggled big time, whilst he is not the creative spark we need he brings quality and composure to the centre of the park and also some needed leadership. I am not going to pass judgement on Jol, he can only play the strongest team he can, the problem is the players are simply not good enough. Karagounis is not fit enough for premiership standards, Richardson seems to have lost his love of football. We have quality players but we are unable to play to their strengths because we cannot control the game. I have said it before, Danny Murphy was a magician at controlling the game, his understanding of the game was exceptional. We MUST replace him or we will be in trouble by the end of the season, but if we do replace him and get a few more quality ball players then we can get the best out of our quality players. It is going to be a bumpy christmas and we are going to struggle but Big Mart is not stupid and has not got as much respect in the game by being s**t. He more than anyone knows our weaknesses and if he is given the correct support, from fans, the club and financially we will be ok come the end of the season. Stand up and believe. COYW
With respect Frogman ,the dire performances are in many cases from the players he bought, and the tactics are his, not the fans. motivation ?
I'm with Frogman27 on this. I was lucky enough not to see the match but heard commentary on the radio and that was bad enough. We're on a bad run and have key players out. Jol, as Frogman says, is not stupid and I'm happy to keep faith with him. I agree some of our fringe players are just not up to scratch and certainly not good enough to accomplish a plan B. Some though do have potential and I'm happy to bear with players like Kaka, Frei, Briggs etc The Southampton game next will be interesting and with a few of our players possibly back it will be a better test of where we are. Time to really get behind the team and the manager. Just seen Gera score on MOTD - he's another we should have kept !
Gera is on a long list of players that should still be here. Dempsey, Dembele, Murphy etc. I'd even take Etuhu in midfield right now.
From what I saw on telly, Liverpool were pressing the ball with real vigour all over the pitch, whereas we didnt have the same urgency when they were in possession. The problem in midfield yesterday wasn't so much that no one was offering the defence any protection, but that we were doing it in the wrong way - sitting back and letting them play, rather than closing down space quickly. The pundits on ESPN seemed to think that Berbatov's poor example in this regard spreads through the team. I don't know about that (you don't sign Berbatov for his defensive work-rate), but it was certainly a problem. We looked better in the second half, after the game had already been lost, for what it's worth. As for Jol's lack of detail post-defeat, I don't mind him not washing our dirty laundry in public. You can bet that he goes into a lot more detail with the players when he hasn't got a microphone in front of him. If he can't see specifics then, that would be a lot more worrying. I'm not saying we don't have problems - clearly, something has been very wrong recently - but I think the injuries have revealed a lack of depth in key areas. Jol has to take responsibility, but that's very different from saying he's suddenly a bad manager. He's the best man for the job right now and, hopefully, for many years to come.
Interesting point Captain about our inability to close down. I guess the likes of Sidders and Diarra do this quite well. For me Karagounis cannot do this, every time I have seen him play he marks the space not the player, Kaka still has alot to learn regarding defending and Dejagah is inconsistent in his tracking back. We should not forget as well that Liverpool have a particularly energetic central midfield who are very good ball players as well as tough tacklers. Rosc, you make an interesting point about motivation. Whilst I think this is simply a bad run of form for us and nothing too much to worry about, I am concerned that Jol maybe losing part of the dressing room. I hope not but the lack of commitment to the cause tends to be the first indicator that something is not right in the camp. COYW
Although we are a second half of he season team as many suggest our performances are worrying. May be it is just a bleep in our performance but we are lacking inspiration. Berbatov in certain cases seems bored and definitely not on the same wave length. Kaca is slowly showily why may be Liverpool got rid of. Frei was better. Riise is playing like a rookie defender. But the biggest for me is leadership. There is no leader. Take the captaincy from Brede. He is not a leader. Also the longer he takes to sign the worse he becomes. We don't have a football mastermind the like of Murphy to be captain. May be Berba.
With Berbatov on the pitch we were playing with 10 men. Stan Collywobbles was doing his nut in talk sh@#e! We lacked desire and the hunger to compete. Richardson was taken off again. We should get rid of him in January, noone will have him though. Very disillusioned at the moment! I'm still believing though, in adversity and all that. COYW.
First the positive: We've taken a point away at Southampton, Reading, 3 points at Wigan and 0 points at QPR. We have to play all of those teams at Home, so if we don't lose, we'll have picked up points against teams who are struggling below us (the trick is not to lose the overall points tally with these clubs). We've beaten Villa and Newcastle at home so if we take a draw away, then same applies. Lost to Sunderland at home (but they were the worse team I've seen this season), so need a win away to them to keep up the points against them and need a win at home against QPR. At present we have no confidence in our away form, but that's been the same with all our managers and different players over the 12 years we've been in the Premier. It's our home form that has helped our survival. If we start to lose the above games then yes we may well struggle to avoid a relegation fight. Whats been happening. I think we forget too easily the way our football has changed in its style under Jol. We have a more attack minded team, but our problem at the moment is playing the ball out from the back, teams only need to press high up and the defenders too easily pass the ball back to Schwarzer, as they don't have the options of the players to pass to in midfield. If we look at last season we had Dembele, Murphy, Ruiz and Diarra for the backs to pass the ball too. This season the only person who has the same ability to link attack and defense is Ruiz, so the only option is to play down the wings with Duff (having a good season with assists), Kacaniklic and Rodallega, have been inconsistent, Riether and Riise have been used to overlap, but both have been exposed by counter-attacks as our wide men don't back them up in defense like they did under Hodgson. Riise's defending is a real problem as it exposes Hangeland to go wide leaving the middle exposed. Up front in Berbatov and Petric we have players who as players haven't gelled as a partnership, but both have the ability to win games. What can change Stop passing back to Schwarzer to lump it aimlessly forward. Need to get back to the performances at the beginning of the season. Don't play Richardson, not sure what he brings to the team. Try to get the spirit back like away at Arsenal and Chelsea, and give Supporters a lift out of the doom and gloom. The obvious, replacements needed to bring in creative midfield players.
Always good to see my man score!!! I was disappointed to see him go, but much as it hurts me to say so, we have now moved on - or at least MJ is trying hard to do so. Let's not harp back to lists of people who have moved on. My one exception being Danny Murphy, who we miss now - we could have kept him (unlike the Ds going to The Lane)
