Great Managers suss out the opposition and their tactics and counteract it. Last two games have shown that we can be beaten, time for a variation on the theme.
Don't think anyone is going totally overboard. More, it's that we're seeing the situational weaknesses that presented earlier in the year exposed again, which is likely what will make the difference between finishing 6th/7th and 9th/10th. Not anything disastrous by any means but there's room for improvement, especially with the transfer window approaching.
Need a 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th category. Jay Rod; pacey dribbler, poor close control, decent first touch, average in the air. Osvaldo; decent dribbler, fantastic close control, good first touch, good in the air. Lambert; poor dribbler, average close control, fantastic first touch, fantastic in the air.
Really? You think a tactic must work 100% of the time or junk it? I, too, need a sabbatical. I thought it might take a longer losing streak before people started to whine but clearly a couple of defeats away against the numbers one and two in the division are enough to warrant bleats about our general inability to play football. Vin
I'm certainly not slitting my throat. No shame in defeats away to Arsenal and Chelsea. Further, I don't think these last two matches suggest we can't finish in the top four either as I'd be more than confident against these two at SMS. Consider also our point at OT, and it more comes down to our performances against the rest of the teams in the league and not only those we think will be there or thereabouts the top 4 at the end of the season. I'm looking forward to seeing our "bouncebackability" on Wednesday night.
No not really, we played two of the best teams with really astute managers who out thought us, I am not sure the others will be quite so clever, let's see how Poch reacts against Villa, I trust him to come up with the answers, but may be a bit limited with the current crop of injuries, we need to score more to win, still have a very decent back four to counter most opposition attacks. This Premier is the weirdest that I can remember, anyone can beat anyone else as this week-end has shown. Oh and just to add, no I don't expect our tactics to work 100% all the time, but when they don't a bit of adjustment is needed to correct the bits that aren't working, it's not done with a simple on/off switch.
I hoped we would get at least one point from these two games, but not totally unexpected to get none from Arsenal and Chelsea away. It was dropping points against teams like Norwich and Sunderland that is more disappointing. However, we have 22 points after 13 games...which is excellent. We are in a great position, but have now reached that bit we were worrying about...the time when a few injuries are creeping in. I think we will have very few games from now on when we will have our best eleven players available. Osvaldo obviously has ability or he wouldn't play for Italy...hopefully he is just one of those players who take a while to settle into a team. Lambert has dry spells...he will come good again. I said at the beginning of the season (drum roll) that JRod was our most exciting player who would create chances. If our defence stand firm, we will get enough goals to do well this season. No one is to panic
Out of interest, our scorers this season... RODRIGUEZ - 5 LAMBERT - 4 S. DAVIS - 3 LALLANA - 3 GASTON - 2 OSVALDO - 1 YOSHIDA - 1 LOVREN - 1 HOOIVELD - 1 MAYUKA - 1
Which just shows that we have plenty of goals throughout the team. I can't worry about the fact that we aren't as prolific as Arsenal or Chelsea at home....yet
League-only, it's: Rodriguez - 4 Lambert - 4 Lallana - 3 Davis - 1 Fonte - 1 Lovren - 1 Osvaldo - 1 Schneiderlin - 1
