Surely after two home defeats on the bounce against Villa, we're due a win? At least we know Lambert will come here looking for the win. Should mean a good open game that our attackers may hopefully be able to take advantage of. On to your predictions, KIO, what exactly are they based on? Our very decent home form (only three defeats in 21 PL games under Hughton) suggests that defeat against Villa and Chelsea are not certainties, and I'm sure many Cardiff fans will admit that we are the favourites between the two sides at Carrow Road. We also went to within 5 minutes of beating Arsenal at the Emirates last season and would have drawn if it weren't for two awful linesman decisions. Besides, Fer > Ozil (kidding of course...). Yes, we may lose to Stoke but a draw there would be a good result, and Man. City, bar the first game of the season, have looked poor under Pellegrini thus far. None of your predictions have any credence to them and you have to take each match as it comes. Out of interest, KIO, what do you think of van Wolfswinkel so far?
Too early to say as our midfield have only created about 4 chances for him in as many games ! He looks a bit pissed off to me as the service (or lack of it) has been woeful.
Fair enough, I think the same. I'll admit I was looking to see if you'd say 'he's **** and a waste of money and we should ship him back to Holland' etc. but you passed my test. Just trying to figure out why you have such little faith in our ability.
CH now has a wealth of talent at his disposal, the players we have are better than we've had in many a year. It's his ability as a coach that I doubt, as I say I really do want to be proven wrong, we shall see
my glass is obviously half full, i'd say RVW has looked pretty good so far. His level of movement and ability to create space is impressive. I fully anticipate Redmond, Snodgrass and Fer to pick better passes as the season progresses and give him more goal scoring opportunities.
As a matter of fact, CH hasn't actually had this wealth of talent at his disposal so far. Fer was ineligible v Everton, Pilkington, Hooper and Olsson have been injured, Snodgrass was injured playing for Scotland, hadn't recovered fully for the Hull game, and is clearly way off his normal form, Hoolahan has been poor, Elmander has only just come in. The side CH was forced to put out against Hull was makeshift in the extreme. As it is, we are already a point better off than last season after 4 games. Also, as many people have pointed out but KIO and others seem incapable of grasping, while we have improved our squad, so have every other team in the league. Anybody with an ounce of sense would not be expecting anything other than a difficult season ahead whoever we were managed by. Just let McNally and the board get on with running the club and the rest of us simply give 100% support to the man who is our manager, and his team.
Spot on Robbie, if only everyone had your faith, people don't seem to take every factor into consideration, we can't judge CH until he has a fully fit squad.
It's not a matter of faith Fenland. It's a matter of seeing things as they actually are, not as they appear to people who "see" only what their pre-conceived ideas allow them to see.
Spot on. What I will say however is that you can't blame fans for wanting to see growth. What I'm finding is that the amount of growth expected seems to be largely unrealistic. From the side we put out against Bury a few weeks ago, I think Chris Hughton has been targeted with survival and a good tilt at one or both of the cups this year. For me, a similar finish to last year plus a cup semi final is unmistakable progress in a league that is so hard to make the next step in.
What I can grasp robbie is the fact that it's now 5 wins in 25 PL games for Hughton, impressive or what ?
KIO, I think you have a point earlier, but these sorts of statistics weaken your case... it's also been: 1) 4 wins in our last 9 2) 11 wins and 12 draws in our last 35 matches (in other words 45 points) So you see you can easily distort the figures when you're that selective.
His overall record looks ok to me, played 49 W 16 D 15 L 18. But the only statistic that counts for anything is Norwich City 11th in the Premier League last season. The 11th best side, I'll take that.
The phrase lies, damn lies and statistics should be mentioned here. Oh and patience, but I've mentioend that earleir and think I got away with it!
We have a "want to be proven wrong"er here guys Not confident enough to have an opinion and stick to it.
no doubt i'll get lambasted for saying so but kickitoff shows a terrible lack of understanding of where the club lies in the real world right now. he's not alone but it's all a bit pathetic really
and as said above, stats can be designed to look how you want. if you take the last twenty-one league matches we've only lost 7 - hardly horrific to lose a third of your games if you're a mid table side.
Not lambasted, but I think that's very harsh. I would challenge anybody who would suggest that our football from January through to April wasn't, predominantly, turgid. I think KIO is right about that, and I agree with him that it's a problem that has not been, yet, satisfactorily resolved. Where I would disagree with him is that I see the shoots of recovery, especially in the way we are trying to play, even if not in the way our players are executing it because the squad is not yet settled. Anybody who is absolutely satisfied with our performance right now is, presumably, high. It's too early to judge, but I'm confident that what I've seen suggests we'll come good. I'm not certain of that, because there are still, undeniably, some glaring deficiencies in our play that may not be resolved, but only time will tell. I'll come back on this one at Christmas.
....and exactly where do we stand in the real world right now ? I thought we were entering our third season as a top flight club with one of the best squads we have ever had ? Basically I would like us to stay there and with the group of players Hughton has assembled that really should be a given IMO. All I'm guilty of is criticising the manager and his tactics and I'm not the only one. If, Mr Superman, all you are going to do is comeback with yet another one of your patronising, sanctimonious, holier than thou, 'I know better than you' comments don't bother !
