As was pointed out many times in the January transfer thread not strengthening in key areas could be the difference between CL footy next season or EL or worse no European competition, today tbf showed how shallow and threadbare the squad is and that even though the Ukraine oil baron backheeled us their were options in different positions other than that to bolster, FSG are gonna cry poverty in the summer and our spend won't match our ambition, they deffo need a seasoned footballing man with experience to explain that in the modern game speculate to accumulate is the byword.
"We had control of the game, good possession, created chances and scored an excellent goal." Good to see Rodgers was watching the same match we were... "Then we made a mistake and the game is in the balance then. Straight after the game there is disappointment because it should have been three points but it was one where we didn't get any points against WBA last season but it is four out of six this season. "It is a point further away from our rivals and hopefully we will look back on it as a good point."
On Kolo Toure's error: "He is a wonderful player. He probably should not have received the ball in the first place. I will never criticise any player, especially a defender. We have won many games and played outstanding football and key to that is constructing from the back. Sometimes it wins you games and sometimes it loses you them. It was a good finish in the end by Anichebe and it is something, I am sure even at his age, Kolo will learn from."
If we somehow manage to qualify for the Champions League we're going to need to bring in about 4-5 players in the summer just to give the squad enough depth to compete in multiple competitions with falling down the league table.
Jimmy we can all see what's needed and where but we're reliant(apart from BR)on mainly corporate and baseball minded people to see what we do, its never gonna happen until we become less a part of a sports franchise and more like a football club as we always were.
Before the Everton you're told you can win one of the next two games, which one do you choose? We lost away to WBA last season too.
Ten in first block allowed for two blocks of seven. The next block was nine so overall, we're one point down. Hardly the end of the world.
agree, also see this as a positive as when we play arsenal the lads will want to prove a point, also played a team away from home fighting for their lives and we didn't lose, plenty of positives to take in a weird sort of way.
Obviously the derby. And as I pointed earlier a point away is better than none, my only gripe this season is that our winter window appeared to restrict BR's options and come the summer(if we don't get top 4)our owners can use that as an excuse to spend less money. I'm a cynic but I've had many years of practice.
Wrong thread. Think this was a chance to give us a cushion going into the next block though. Next three blocks are all rough, Arsenal home plus Southampton away, Man Utd away plus Tottenham home then Man City and Chelsea both in the last block of 4. That's not even mentioning nearly all the other 'easier' fixtures are away days not too dissimilar to today's.
I agree with maturday... we should be winning these games against MUCK, this lot were dross today and we basically threw a goal in and let them have a point. it is an outrage and a scandal we can play that lazily. it was such an easy game with zero pressing pressure on us to throw in such a weak, lazy listless performance.
My 2 cents on the game. We dropped two points through complacency. Got the first goal, then went to sleep almost as if we expected goals 2,3 and 4 just to follow as a matter of fact. 2nd half West Brom came out alot better and looked to take hold of the game, still we lacked that effort. The goal itself as again a matter of complacency, a blind pass to where he thought the player should be, rather than getting his head up and looking. Same sort of thing in attack as well, miss placed passes, blind alley running and Suarez really should have scored. Today looked like a hangover from a great result on Tuesday, a loss of intensity and focus. 2nd half performance was poor and could have cost us the game.
As disappointing as the result is just look at where we are now to last season.... 1 (1) Manchester United 25 20 2 3 60 31 29 62 2 (2) Manchester City 24 15 7 2 45 19 26 52 3 (3) Chelsea 25 13 7 5 51 27 24 46 4 (4) Tottenham Hotspur 24 12 6 6 41 29 12 42 5 (5) Everton 25 10 12 3 40 30 10 42 6 (6) Arsenal 25 11 8 6 49 29 20 41 7 (7) Liverpool 24 9 8 7 42 30 12 35 8 (8) Swansea City 25 8 10 7 34 28 6 34 9 (9) West Bromwich Albion 24 10 4 10 34 34 0 34 10 (10) Stoke City 25 6 12 7 24 30 -6 30 11 (13) West Ham United 25 8 6 11 28 36 -8 30 12 (11) Sunderland 25 7 8 10 28 33 -5 29 13 (12) Fulham 25 7 7 11 36 42 -6 28 14 (14) Norwich City 25 6 10 9 25 40 -15 28 15 (15) Newcastle United 25 7 6 12 33 44 -11 27 16 (16) Southampton 25 5 9 11 33 44 -11 24 17 (17) Reading 25 5 8 12 32 46 -14 23 18 (18) Wigan Athletic 25 5 6 14 29 47 -18 21 19 (19) Aston Villa 25 4 9 12 23 49 -26 21 20 (20) Queens Park Rangers 25 2 11 12 18 37 -19 17 POS LP CLUB P W D L GF GA GD PTS Sorry not come out great but think you can get the picture
Fair comments, however I feel that we were sloppy and poor before we scored. We just never got going - our attack has been our saving grace this season but it was really poor today.
