Ruddy's injury spell is seriously costing us and in addition, a decent 2nd striker - something we completely lack at the moment! Positives: Whittaker, Bassong and Pilkington to come in next game; Liverpool are also our bogey team Still, Southampton seem to have torpedoed their survival effort, Newcastle are sinking fast and both Villa & Wigan are awful right now. --- The whole transfer budget has to go on a striker if needs be, Holt can't carry the burden single-handedly and if Snodgrass gets injured, I will be very concerned.
I'd rather have 2 midfielders that have good movement and can pass the ball. I really do detest the direction Hughton is taking us footballing wise at the moment.
My Solution to our current plight: 1) Ditch the 4-2-3-1 system and buy a good striker (Graham is a must) 2) Play the following system Holt-Graham Pilkington-Fox-Hoolahan-Snodgrass Garrido-Bassong-Turner-Whittaker Bunn 3) This at least will restore some attacking mojo...right now, it is the worst of both worlds (can't score because only 3 attacking outlets - down each wing or centre...each being heavily marked, can't seemingly defend despite having 2 DMs) 4) It may sound harsh, but I am fed up of watching Tettey and Johnson. What is the point in playing 2 DMs if we concede goals by the bucketload! 5) Play Fox, Surman ffs
It worked when Ruddy was playing, it has failed badly when Bunn is playing. The difference is: 1) Bunn isn't as good and 2) He doesn't inspire the same confidence in the defence
We don't. Not defending today's performance, but before that we only ever lost by the odd goal. In fact we haven't been thrashed or even beaten by more than an odd goal in about 15 games.
On a positive note if you said with 15 games left we would be in 13th 7 points clear of relegation at the start of the season I would be quite happy. Maybe a result like this will actually be good for us and make sure we have a rethink on what we are doing. When we lost to Liverpool at home 5-2 that proved to be a turning point and we went 10 games unbeaten. We can't go and spend millions of pounds to stay up, and nor would I want us to risk the long term future of the club. Like it or not it seems huge amounts of money have to be spent to achieve anything in the top flight. Considering this we are actually doing quite well.
I am consoling myself by watching the Barcelona match and they're 1-0 up after 6 minutes. This reassures me that there are worse teams than us, namely a fair few Spanish teams, Ipswich and Villa. All is not lost
Blimey this ain't Canary Call get real we r doing fine can't expect to beat teams like Liverpool away especially without Bassong I think we will beat Fulham at home revenge! Southampton at home Swansea at Home Villa at home Draw with Reading and wBA at home Draw or beat QPR away Draw with Wigan away Possibly lose the rest that gives us 17 points So stay positive please never nice getting a drubbing but it will always happen to us in this PL learn and move on
That'll lead to another thrashing. We need to adapt our system based on who we're playing. Going 'hell for leather' against Spurs will see us destroyed.
Well something needs to change for the next game, else on this run of form, Bale will have his hat-trick
True slight over reaction from me. But sitting back inviting pressure with 10 behind the ball isn't the answer either as today showed. I think an attacking threat is vital to stop the better teams getting comfortable like liverpool did today!
At least, let them lose. They are rubbish, much worse than us. But at least Lambert has the guts to go for the result, so they're not far behind us. One of PL's great strengths was that he was fearless. It stood him in good stead with us, with all those late goals. I fear it will help Villa edge ahead of us even though overall we are a much more complete team.
