and if the season is half way through by that point and the club hasn't got the points due to this "difficult getting to know you period"... then what? You all told me we were going to challenge for Europe.
Anyone who honestly though this team would immediately storm into the European places this season was poorly guided in their thoughts.
I see it this way; in the rain you're expected to drive with a bigger distance between you and the car in front because the water makes the road slippery and means breaks don't work as well. I know there's a human element to stopping the ball, but all I'm saying is the conditions are a perfectly viable explanation for almost every player having a worse first touch than normal. In relation to our tactics, I felt maybe playing Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez together meant we had to sacrifice a midfield player to help link up the midfield and attack, when instead it felt like a defensive team and an attacking team, and no real link between them.
Wee bit of a strawman. If you look at the pre-season predictions, most had us mid-table or sneaking into the top half. But being eighth or ninth often doesn't mean challenging for Europe; heh, eighth last year was a full 23 points adrift from a European berth.
Agree with that part. Only got behind West Ham once, when Jay Rod cut it back for Osvaldo. Never got close the rest of the time. Says an awful lot too when even a **** side like England play more to Rickie Lambert's strength than his own team does now.
Just dross. Very slow, too slow decision making. When a team stick eleven behind the ball isn't the best tactic to attack them down the flanks, take the man on using pace...well, none of that. Wanyama was pretty poor (his first touch, distribution and lack of pace) and Schneiderlin not far behind. 2nd half much better though. Gotta say our youngsters certainly are promising for the future. Yes,we could of scored if it wasn't for Jussi "paskat" Jaaskelainen, but we didn't.,,again. This is a worry. If we had won, then great, but it still wouldnit hide the fact we are not playing very well.
You were watching a different game to me if you think Saints didn't target the flanks in our gameplan. We had Rodriguez and Lallana out wide, with Shaw and Clyne looking to get forward.
Eh??? Come on, how often did Clyne or Shaw get over the half way line? 3 or 4 times max (apart from to take throw-ins).
When did they get forward??? Having them in the pitch is one thing, doing the game plan is another! It was dross. You wouldn't believe the ball was in play in this picture!!! Edit: where's my picture??
Well that's impossible to argue with, fair play. In my defence, I did say "looking to"... In all seriousness, I concede defeat on that, my perception was wrong.
The game panned out just as we thought, they defended deep with a solid defensive shape. We dominated possession which they were quite happy concede. We tippy tappied in front of them and never really got behind them or disjointed their shape, we could still be there now and still not score. From my posts this morning my fears were founded, MP has still to register a home victory against a team in and around us. The squad has added quality but we are definitely missing an offensive player with pace and ability to get round full backs. Yet again MP has shown no signs of a plan B and I'm not convinced he's actually looking for one or thinks he needs one??
Well hey, anybody would have thought we played well today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24102490 Perhaps we played better than I thought and I was just bloody well disappointed.
It surprised me too, I had a look with the thought in mind that it may prove our lack of width, but not to that degree. I agree we probably went out there looking to have a reasonable amount of width but it just ended up with a traffic jam in the middle. In regards to the FBs you can only really begrudgingly acknowledge West Ham's part in their lack of attacking threat, not only did they gameplan to cover them they actually played a defensive mid out on the right seemingly for no reason other than to nullify Shaw.
We got behind their RB once, when Rodrigues crossed for Osvaldo in the 1st half, thus creating our best chance of the game. We had 5 shots on target albeit their keeper made a couple of good saves but its no coincidence our best chance came when we got behind their FB, we don't do it enough and as a result our home form has suffered and will continue to do so.
I agree. Earlier I clearly had a misconception, the stats are the stats. I wasn't that impressed by Jay though.
