So he had family reasons, but it's not like his family live a million miles away is it? It's nice that we let him go and that but we haven't replaced him (why not get the replacement in before letting him go?). So I think it's absolutely fair to question that.
Perhaps not, but it merits discussion. We've had other debates about our lack of width and so on, but even disregarding that, he made a significant contribution last season and it seems strange to let him go.
It's been discussed to death and the context of the OP (as read by me) is prematurely negative. The season is three games old. One away win and one home draw in a game we absolutely dominated that I do not accept having an extra wide player would have made a difference as we had players getting wide in that game and we created enough chances. If he posted this again in another 8 games and we were not progressing, then fair enough.
Vin the reason I pointed out the last minute goal was purely because I thought it noteable that we'd only led for a total of 8 mins in our last 9 games: 7 mins against West Ham and 1 min against West Brom. You're dead right that scoring a late goal doesn't mean it's lucky. It's only a lucky goal if the goal is lucky itself and for the record. I think it was a penalty, so don't think consider it lucky. Although getting a decision for a last minute penalty away from home could be considered as lucky as you don't always get them, so perhaps lucky we had a ref with balls to give it; but certainly not taking anything away from the fact that I believe it was a deserved penalty that was well converted. You make a valid point regarding those who see players during the week and have all of the data etc to back it up. BUT, are you therefore saying we should be selecting players more so based upon that...? Cos that is bonkers - I know a lot of players who train really well and look like great in training but when it comes to crossing the white line are completely different... Sure that Chambers and JWP will be decent players - but I really can't see any argument that Clyne, Shaw or Cork's performances warrant being left out unless it's down to fitness surely...? I'm not asking for a win in every game - I'm a realist - a point away from home is good anywhere, if you win your home games. FACT is we haven't won any of our last four. If we'd have taken 5 points I'd have been far happier, it's that Sunderland result (and almost more importantly the performance levels in that game as well as many others recentl) which worries me.
Jeez mate, Sunderland was not a poor performance. We created enough chances to win it. If we were not creating chances, then fair enough, but we were. If Sunderland dominated us I'd be worried.
We didn't finish well though did we? So it was poor in that respect. And we did concede a very cheap goal. I don't think anyone is doom-mongering just yet, but I agree that there are questions to be answered. Hopefully our coming games will answer them but I think it's still a discussion worth having.
The comparison with NA is a moot point some 9 months and many games down the line. Whilst you'd be foolish to call it a great success and the most inspired managerial appointment in the history of Earth, it's not been the train wreck many predicted. As a supporter I'm content with Pochettino. Osvaldo is only in the infancy of his career here, but you'd be deluded in thinking he would have signed for us with Adkins in charge. I was happy enough with Adkins, but I support the club and not the manager and it really is time to move on with this one.
Not questionning the strengthening - Wanyama is a good player and was probably our best player against Sunderland, but JC's stats and partnership with Morgan surely warrant a place over JWP and certainly more than 1 min's action this season as a last min sub against West Brom. He was unused against Sunderland and not even on the bench against Norwich... Thanks Saint Birdsnest. Nice to have someone read it without thinking that I’m just trying to put the boot in. These facts weren’t all things that were in the forefront of my mind, just kind of got me wondering after the Norwich defeat about our most recent performances and had to think back. Certainly not advocating the replacement of the manager as I don’t think that’s the best action to take unless things are really pretty bad and I’m not saying that. I just think we should be doing better based upon our demonstration that we can mix it with the best and that was before the improvements over the summer.
There are parts of the first post I agree with, and parts I disagree with, but on the whole I think the general view is solid enough. Under Pochettino, against teams we should/could be beating, we've been below par. I'm not gonna start talking about form, because as Joe said, it's not form when there's a break of several months in the middle, but there are comments to be made about our performances in general under Pochettino. We'll give it a bit longer, but our first few games have just made me feel more confident in my view that pre-season aspirations of top 10 were certainly too ambitious.
100% agree with everything in your post. Full of optimism in most of our players -who I think will improve. I agree we need to give the new players time as well as I think they all will have a positive impact. It's actually a case of the rest of the players underperforming since that Reading win as opposed to the new boys being not good enough. COYR
Yeah agreed. Sorry about the Punch thing. I hadn't actually heard that so one more saying that maybe was necessary, but to think that we only had one possible replacement on our radar anywhere suprsies me. I think it shows good sentiment by the club to let him do what is more important if that is the case, but as I say I would have expected us to have a solution to the problem. We'd certainly be stronger with him in the squad, and so weakened our team and had enough time to find a replacement prior to the window shutting.
I don't think top 10 is overambitious, I think that's about where we should be aiming, but our form* will have to improve a little. * couldn't resist
Some interesting responses. Glad that some of the more recent posters have read into the OP in the way that it was written - based upon facts and to stimulate debate. I am not trying to doom monger in the slightest, try and suggest we change our manager (whom I am behind), but to raise points that I think are valid and perhaps need improvement depending on the ambitions of the club and us as fans. It is from within the club that have spoken to aspirations of CL and Europe - this was beyond my wildest dreams really and still is. However if you aim for that then that's what you need to be judged against as the measurement of your performance, and I currently think that we are way below that level based upon performances. I do however think that we will stay up, which would have been good enough for me and hope that we could finish top ten and have some more impressive performances, which with the additions we've made I would be disspointed if we didn't
We were the better side granted, but we didn't test Westwood anywhere near as much as we should have done - everything went straight to him. Our performance level in that game was FAR below the majority of those in the middle of last season too. So whilst we were the better side, I don't think we played anywhere near as well as we are capable. If that's all we can do against Sunderland (who are poor then I worry when we come up against something with more quality). Putting it down as an off day. Tomorrow will be better - #fasterfootball
To be fair I don't think they've stated that the champions league is a realistic prospect this season. In fact they've been quite careful (and obviously briefed the players) not to state any targets other than "better than last season".
That's why the draw against Sunderland disappointed me more than the loss against Norwich. Can lose 1.0 to any team, but we were better than Sunderland and should have won (especially at home).
