To be fair SC, Fat Sam has never lost three premier league games in a row so Avb isn't to blame .............Lol. Whats even more embarrassing for Avb is Fat Sam was on the WUM, in the papers talking about the 100million spent on players. Just shows managers like Allrydace may be laughed at but hes more capable then we think and definitely got the better of Avb today.
Put simply, I believe our defenders were flattered all season through a combination of poor opposition, lucky escapes and a few moments of world class keeping by Lloris. The luck was always due to run out one day., and with no one protecting the back four we should've anticipated a thumping at some stage during early season, I suppose. I just didn't expect it was going to be today, at home against hitherto relegation candidates.
Did we, which ones? Don't personally know a single Manchester United fan who thought we would walk the league like we did last year. You way to often base your opinion on what you've read on the internet compared to actual experiences.
I actually quite like Allardyce. He knows the game inside out and he knows how to get the best out of players. When he went to West Ham, I said he would get them automatic promotion. He didn't, but he did get them up through the play offs. I like the way he asks his players to take responsibility, for example Nolan today took charge and with Noble, they controlled their shape in the middle, whereas we had no-one wanting to take any responsibility whatsoever. Villas Boas has said today was a wake up call. it is up to him to make sure it is nothing more than that.
I did say west ham deserved to win...they had a game plan and more than matched us and it was not a lucky win ... they fully deserve it...I did say I dont mind lose spurs so I am kind of used to it ... my rant was purely about what I perceive to be arrogance...we left over £50m on the bench as it was 'only west ham' and played like it was our destiny to win. Our loss against arsenal was not down to arrogance it was because they were better on the day...our last loss prior to that was fulham and that was just a poorish performance which I can accept and understand....I am struggling to remember the last time I saw us display arrogance (which is something I hate.)
No personal insult taken, but it does seem as if every time Lloris's name is mentioned, the words "world class" are never far away. Just wanted to make it clear I think he is some way from being " world class". .
In the PL, we have (after today), played each other 35 times. We have won 17, there have been 7 draws and you have won 11 times.
No. But the trouble is that other people have been taking equally unrepresentative facts (our "miserly" defence which has conceded against both decent teams it's come up against or the fact that we're where we are in the table cos of a couple of penalties and a last-minute winner). The truth is that we HAVE been performing that badly all season - and last season too. By which I mean the lack of space, movement, creativity in the final third. The lack of cutting edge or realistic threats. So far our defence has come up against some of the weaker teams in the league and kept clean sheets and we've won through penalties twice and a last-minute goal. We have been very lucky. Please don't say "we dominated game x, y or z" cos of stats. Any fan can see that we really lack many of the exact same things we lacked last year and possession and shots statistics do not persuade me that we have been playing well over the last year and a bit. We simply haven't. Last year Bale's wonder goals papered over many, many cracks. And we've replaced Bale's wonder goals with SEVEN players without EPL experience, none of whom have looked ready for the EPL yet (Capoue aside but getting another very good DM was hardly the answer to any pressing problem that I could identify). Perhaps we're not as bad as today's result suggests. But I tell you what - we're nowhere near as good as our league position suggests either this year or last. And we're nowhere near as "solid" as our defensive statistics suggest. In fact our defensive options are thinner than they have been for years and there have been plenty of dodgy displays from our defenders thus far.
Lenny raises a good point... We haven't been "great" to watch in some time and the clean sheets were mostly expected. We need to improve; but how much we can do in a few weeks is up in the air. At the moment I'd say we're playing about 60%. How long to get to where we need to be? Christmas? Next season? The players we have are now good enough, it's just getting them playing to potential.
I'm completely unconvinced that this guy is a UTD fan - just seems too odd to me and it doesn't add up. Clearly a closet Spurs fan.
AVB is under a hell of a lot of pressure to succeed not only for us but for himself after his so called failure at Chelsea. He has a reputation to restore and he's aware of it so when things were appearing to go well he relaxed a bit and a bit of smugness came back. We have Villa next, two claret and blues in two matches and I'm waiting to see the result before saying anything. After a defeat like this then a draw or a narrow win will be acceptable for me.
I'm glad it has happened at a time where nobody is dominating. We are 3 points off the top. I just hope we can learn from this...I won't be getting pessimistic just yet. I'm not going to blame Defoe but I will say we need Sandro,and Dembele can rotate with Paulinhio. I find them two to be too similar. That is the crux of it for me. Them two don't win the midfield. If you can win the midfield it's likely you can win the match. The rest need to return to basics...Chirices needs to find his feet. That may take time but he is a footballing CB..something we need. Dawson is a good player but leave him in charge and he is half the player. I'm not Walker's biggest fan but ill back him and say he wasn't 100%. AVB needs to have a few words with himself. I think it's time to throw Lamella in. Nothing will speed up his bedding in more than minutes on the pitch.
I was going to mention the three points too, it's not a tragedy is it but losing to Villa will be er not disastrous but not healthy.
"I'm glad it has happened at a time where nobody is dominating. We are 3 points off the top. I just hope we can learn from this...I won't be getting pessimistic just yet." Indeed. This is a timely wake-up call. Time will tell if AVB is driven by dogma.
