So am I. Only having two strikers is ridiculous. That they can't play together either is bordering on madness.
It's insanity is genius - as they can't play together, it means we can tinker our system to have either the striker who holds up the ball but often seems disinterested, or the striker who seems interested but can;t score, but keep our shape in midfield.
Tinker with the system as much as you like Croydon, but at the end of the day we now have half the first team either injured, knackered or half dead., at this most crucial time in the season....... My point here is that we have almost certainly forfeited a much needed 3 points on Sunday next. Just like we did after the last Europa round.
Well, that wasn't in the script!, leggy, unfit, no pressure on the ball, couldn't beleive the 2nd half period that seemed like they had the ball 5minutes, stroking it around finding one theirs in space like they were the home side. Gallas and Naughton were poor, but so was Vertonghen, probably his worst game for us, don't think he has much confidence alongside WG, which compromises his own game.
Hamstrings, unfortunately, don't make quick recoveries. They give you the choice between not going all out and needing six weeks off. So the prognosis for Lennon isn't good, I think. Trying to look on the bright side, it certainly is a golden opportunity for someone to pick the team up and carry it on his shoulders. Don't laugh. I'm thinking, or rather hoping, it might be 1. Dembele (just looks more determined to win than anyone else) 2. Gylfi (convince him Spurs are Iceland, and maybe he'll score the couple of screamers he hit against Slovenia. he's been heating up.) 3. Ade (Not everyone's choice, I know. But he's got two in his last four, he can score and this would be a great time for him to continue to) 4. Holtby (he looks great in flashes. This is the chance he's been waiting for, after his spell on the bench.)
Yeah, credit to Basel. They ran the game minus twenty minutes at the end of the first half. But because that's also true of Swansea (another good team, to be sure) I can't help thinking our starters are running on empty. That's two games in a row where we've gotten outshot, after not getting outshot for ages. In any case, Basel do look like a strong team that plays attractive football. I can understand how they sent Man U home last year. They outpressed us very consistently.
The last time I looked it's the same competition you're currently in - having failed dismally in the CL. And we're still currently ahead of you in the PL table, despite not having a billionaire sugar daddy to lavish hundreds of millions on us.
Never rated Ade,as i've said many times,hope we dump him in the summer and get a striker who can score and is intrested in playing
I will say that I thought our crowd's reaction to Ade last night was bloody shameful. There were boos and ironic jeers directed at both him and Gallas which is unpardonable imo.
Whilst I wouldn't condone it - it's counter productive in most cases - in Ade's case, I can at least see a reason for it. He has looked lethargic and lacking any interest more than once this season. Gallas tries his best, but he just isn't anywhere near the player he used to be. AVB should realise that, IMO.
The other thing which irritated me about it was that they brought good and vocal support and were getting behind their team, whilst our fans seemed to concentrate more on having a go at Gallas and Ade.
Yes. I was only watching on tele, but their supporters seemed to be making more noise than ours right from the start. Well, Ade is going to have his chance to shut them up over the next few games. Let's hope he can do that!
Completely agree, unforgivable regardless of what you think about a player. Do the people doing this actually think it will make them play better? If anything it will make them worse and is that what the "supporters" really want? There are those that say that if they pay that sort of money then they can do anything they want. I disagree. If you don't want to support then don't say anything or don't go to the match!
It's something I keep going on about, and that I apologise for. - But it really winds me up that the expectation is 4th, when we have a squad which is of top 5-7 talent. Yes, we've got some very good individual names such as Vertonghen, Bale, Lennon, Lloris, Dembele etc, but after that, there really aren't any names who can make a significant difference. When 1,2 or more of those key players are out, we look very short of ideas. This is why I said at the start of the season that a 5th-6th place finish is more realisitic for us and it's what the club should be expecting based on what they put into it. - And that's where we should finish up each season when we bear in mind some of the clubs around us who simply have more strength than us. (by "strength" I don't just mean players. - Bigger stadiums, higher revenues etc) We've been punching above our weight for a fair few seasons now, and deserve credit for it. Much like the credit Everton get in their own way for their achievements. Being as challenging as we have been is very admirable, but there's a reason why we don't reach our goals after 38 games. We haven't got enough to deal with it. Injuries to players often kick in at this time of the season as fatigue starts to take its toll and this is exactly why a big squad is needed. I distinctly remember Notso (and possibly PNP) at the start of sept, saying that we don't have enough strikers. This was before we'd seen Defoe and Ade have average and poor seasons respectively. The point was that we had left ourselves short of numbers to deal with a campaign sucessfully. Added to that, the two strikers we decided to put our trust in, haven't performed to the level needed. So all in all, it's been even more hard hitting. - So many posters seemed bemused by Notso's comments and said we'd have enough to deal with it, but he couldn't have been more right. The injuries we saw last night could have happened at any time during the season. What's so frustrating for us, is that they've occurred at the worst time possible and once again, the end of our season could end in tears. In some ways, these injury problems would have been better at an earlier point in the season to force Levy to pull his ****ing finger out, which would have benefited us right now, having more numbers. But now we just have to hope, with some tough games to play and the outlook doesn't look promising. A prem season is played over 38 games, but season after season we seem to only have a squad that can deal with about 30 prem games (+ cup games) before something goes wrong. Such excellent businessmen should have addressed this problem in order to achieve this revenue injection that the CL offers. I just find it bizarre how the same mistakes keep getting made. We have to INVEST some money to get more money! If our stance over the last few years had been "Europa qualification is what we expect", then there'd be no problem for me. Our spend would fall in line with that and we'd be up there challenging. But the actual expectations and coming so close each year is hard to deal with; especially when it feels that the club are shooting themselves in the foot in the process. Rant over. As for last night, There's no excuse to boo Ade. I'd rather he wasn't on the pitch, but we aint got any choice and the fans need to be behind the entire team, especially now. Gallas was very poorlast night. i'm not sure why caulker didn't play to be honest. We're desperate for some fresh legs and vertonghen looked poor. - but probably because he's absolutely nakered! We need to really make use of the squad now. AVB's has already had his work cut out this season, but it's now gone into 5th gear. COYS!!!!!!!!!!
