Im not saying hes going to be the person to lead us to safety. But hes better than Cornelius by a distance and is the best finisher at the club. He is also a better option than some who have played the attacking midfielder role - Gunnersson. Some have shown they are nowhere near good enough for this level. Joe hasnt had a chance. Noone I thought wouldnt be up to it but hes proving me wrong. If he isnt given a go we will never know. Looks like he wont get a chance anyway.
Hilts - I don't think going down is out of the question, but neither is staying up. We still have time to reorganise and get enough points on the board to do that. I think you're right about the chequebook - can't see Tan sitting back and letting us slide back to the Championship without chucking some more dosh at it, but Fernandes mark 2 he is not. Rightly or wrongly, he will be on the case himself, not just giving Ole the same blank sheet of paper that 'arry got.
Sparkey I havent written us off. Just I think it is likely we are going down. Failure to beat a rubbish outfit and being outplayed in the 2nd half v Sunderland I think shows we are not good enough. We will probably be bottom going into February and coming back will be difficult even with new signings. On the positive side at least there will be regular Saturday games and more midweek football.
The owner and the manager will do everything they can to get us winning games we can rely on that. We have good players and they should have been good enough to win against an average West Ham side. We have seen how well we can play at times and now is the time to put maximum effort for the last 18 games. Considering past last days in the premiership with clubs staying up or going down change by the minute we are a long way off that position. We have good reason to think we are much better than our position suggests and better than more than three clubs here. This is what we waited for for over 5 years so remember to enjoy being here, we also did not come here to play ex championship sides we came to play the best and the next two games should be looked forward to with high hopes. If we cannot enjoy being in the premiership what point is there being here...these are the best of times and we can take results as they come and move quickly on to the next game. After this window we will have new players and play a more attacking style and every reason to think we will start to win games now. jck
How about Arthur Scargill, it was his birthday this weekend, he was a good striker in hist time Seriously it will be the next 6 weeks that will go a long way in deciding things. If you can get a some points on the board by end Feb and try and create a gap between the bottom four then there is all to play for. As it stand my candidates for the drop are Fulham and Sunderland plus one from a few but it could all change.
I said on a nother thread that there has been enough in the last two games to be encouraged. We desperately need to get someone who can put the ball in the back of the net. We're seeing more shots on target but need a genuine poacher (not asking for him to come back, but someone like Earnie). FC gets into good positions but needs too many chances. Better than the rest, but still not good enough. To be fair to Mason, at Bolton he was playing a lone striker role. He's been at his best with us playing just off the main striker, either centrally or on the right. Don't need to break the bank and an old head for a season would be good enough. There are a few of them around the lower teams, though we'd be unlikely to get them. Lambert, Fletcher, Bent, Anelka, all have faults, but know where the goal is. To be fair, I think we'll create more chances under OGS.
I don't think we need a striker, i think we need to sort out our midfield. FC will score goals if he gets the right service. No one in our midfield on Sat was willing to run at players and move forward with the ball (except noone) we played too deep passing it around our own half or lumping it up to Campbell. We were better in the second half once Bellers and the new boy came on and for me they have to start this weekend. Would also drop Whitts if Mutch if back, he has been awful this season even his corners/free kicks haven't been the best.
Sorry Nat, but as much as I like Fraizer for his enthusiasm and never say die attitude, he is not a natural goal poacher. From memory, he's got two "open play" goals, both from sublime passes my Mutch against Man U and Sunderland - the others have all been set pieces. I totally agree he hasn't had the service, but he's not taken some of the chances he should have put away - that one on one failure with Lloris in the Spurs game even pissed Malky off. I also agree that we need to run at opposition defences from midfield far more than we do. Mutch has started doing that, and you can see every time it puts the ****s up them, and the ball can go anywhere - that's when you need a box lurker to poke it home. Dunno who nor how much Tan will spend on him, but an opportunity taker for the second half of the season is definitely required.
Think MMD is supposed to provide the link from midfield to attack in the way we're talking about. The ability to either run or pass the ball forward incisively. I know he's only 18 but if he's good enough... The difference in this league is such a fine line, Kimbo's shot going in, the clearance not hitting the ref in the build up to their goal, us getting a pen, Campbell's shot going the 6 inches either side of the keeper it needed to. The biggest thing for me though was West Ham having Noble back in their starting 11, I mentioned him to my Mrs as a massive bonus for them he was back. He was the outstanding midfielder on the pitch. As keeps being mentioned West Ham are average, but so are we, so are Sunderland (1 loss in last 10 games under Poyet), Fulham, Norwich, Palace, Hull, Swansea, Stoke etc etc. We just need to try to make sure we're on the right side of the fine win/lose line in Feb.
Mutch was such a vital miss last game. He would frightened the life out of West Ham by running at them. Where City failed IMO was the final ball when in attacking positions. Plenty of times, especially 2nd half, the final ball was poor. When good ones did come in, Campbell & Cornelius missed chances a PL striker has to take. At least FC made the keeper save but it was an open goal. Cornelius' header was embarrassing. Thought we should (again) have had a penalty. The officials again were hopeless. How lucky were West Ham when the ball hit the ref for the lead up to their goal?
Don't worry about not scoring - some joker on another board is saying that David Marshall is a liability and needs competition to improve his game!!! Clearly, he did not go to Norwich away - or any other game this season for that matter. If there is one player we cannot do without at the moment it is Marshall, without his outstanding for m this season we would already be adrift at the bottom. After all, when you have spent the best part of five months doing little but inviting attacks and defending away from home you need a keeper in form - and he definitely is.
Possibly could have stopped Noble's shot on Saturday. His positioning was a little out. But hey, I'm not holding that against him and apart from his slip up v. Chelsea he has been in excellent shot stopping form. Could do better on crosses but then we would have perfection and the way the balls swerve in the air nowadays collecting crosses is tough for any keeper.
Mackay should be chopped from his pedestal. To many people think he is chocolate. He had £35 m and he brought in only 2 decent players, and one unfinished article in KTC. Hindsight is an easy thing to talk with but it was so blindlingly obvious City were going to struggle without better quality players especially another decent CB, a LB, an offensive CM, a winger and a striker. For a start OGS can consign Whitt'm to the bench and let Eikrem take the creative role.
Rumours abound that we could be taking Zaha on loan possibly from today. Anyone else concerned that this is a player who can't get into the starting line up of what is one of the poorest Man Utd squads in many a season?
He's better than Noone IMO who is our outstanding attacking player. Therefore I'll be absolutely delighted if this happens, he will improve us as an attacking force without doubt.
The weeks leading up to Malky going I was posting that he was to blame for the dire football not Tan and leaving us 1 point above relegation after the funds he was given was simply not good enough. At the time this was seen as my personal support for Tan but that was not the case, Tan was not the problem on the pitch. This situation with Whitts has now become the issue, the tide has turned and he is a luxury we can no longer afford. For a player who was supposed to be a dead ball expert we have not seen that this season. Apart from that most of us are saying the same things so it is nice to see that for a change. We will get who we get and trust Ole can get things right because we may not be top class but we are better than a fair few teams above us. Unlike most teams who go down we will not have to sell players so would be far too strong in the championship so another championship win would not be the worse fate for us. I say that but we are a long way from being relegated and at last we can see we will go out and during games attack a lot more. Ole tends to like the same players we do, players that want to run forward not backwards. jck
I have reservations over him but will be pleased to be wrong. The one really positive thing we have is the togetherness of the team and team spirit. Eikrem looks like he is of the same ilk and OGS clearly rates Daehli very highly. The one thing we don't need is someone coming in playing the Billy Big Bollocks which I fear Zaha might do. On the other hand he is a very talented footballer who could bring another dimension to our game. I must admit I am more interested in hearing whether or not Diouf is coming to us.
Under Malky we didn't drop into the relegation zone. I also note you are accepting that we are going down then.
snlk...we should not have been 1 point off relegation in the first place that is not exactly why we spent so much was it? As far as accepting going down where you read that I do not know, the reflection was if we compared to any other team went down we would come right back the following season. Anyway reading your post I will say you agreed with Malkys style of play and were happy at the Palace and Southampton games and dropping deeper and deeper was the way to go? See, that is how easy it is for me to read your post the way I want and not the way you meant it but I am used to you reading a lot of posts wrongly which may not be your fault. jck
Right here goes then. No we shouldn't have been 1 point off the relegation zone, so on this we agree but I'm sure many would have accepted that position at the end of the season. Do you agree with the fact that Malky kept us above the relegation zone? In your fourth paragraph you intimated that we would be relegated. The words are yours not mine. Do you agree? Maybe you are having problems reading posts? Malky had faults and I'm the first to admit and often highlighted them that but that's the thing here, you need to recognise your faults jack.
