Not getting anything from last nights game was disappointing. Liverpool didn't play well in the first half but are a great side. We did compete with them although the intensity diminished as the game wore on. However, there are reasons t be cheerful. The new guys are playing well and look to have integrated nicely. Dan Burn has been excellent so far, he's come in from Birmingham and immediately been up against Rooney, RVP, Suarez, Sturridge, Arsenal and done really well. Holtby has been a breath of fresh air, intelligent runs, picks pass and plenty of running. Kvist looks a great player too, nt afraid to get stuck in. Sidwell has been revived and done well without Parker. Tunnicliffe has played really well and has showed he can play, unlucky about the slip last night to let in Gerrard. We're playing as a unit, you can tell there is belief and the football is good. Its counter attacking but we have to cut our cloth accordingly to the predicMent we are in. Steckelenburg has played really well. Heitinga looked assured, pacey. Richardson has been a revelation for me. Playing well at last. Not sure why? We do need another outlet or system. If Holtby is marked out of the game (2nd half) then we look bereft of imagination. Other than that, we're fighting for every point and if we do go down and play like this we'll go down with style. We won't go down though!
As I said in the Liverpool thread, my faith to the team has been restored. These guys are up for the fight and challenge to save our season. Everyone who wants to play have to fight for a place rather than get it on merit. The viruses of Jol alongside Berba, Ruiz and Taarabt are gone. Dempsey, another flop, has been dropped. Good luck to him but has nothing to offer. Kasami if he wants to play again needs to run his socks off and get example from Tunnicliffe. Hugo has wasted his chance. Might take some time to re-build, probably never. Tankovic has already passed him on the selection order and if Dembele is back fit Hugo will never be considered. Parker needs to have a reality check. He thought was irreplaceable and his performance against Sheffield was awful. Zverotic, who? I would give him another chance at some point but not as RB. Duff, Kara remain committed whenever they are called as that's their character but they are past it... Only as impact subs if need be for 20-30 mins max. Brede is a soldier and will be used as necessary. Probably his injury has a bigger impact originally thought. Let's keep it up.
I did a quick predictor league thingy last night, and it ended up with with us in 10th place... that was based on us winning all the games we should be winning, and losing the ones against the top 6-8 teams, and the teams around us doing similarly. Now I know it's total bollocks, and is virtually meaningless, but it's made me feel better!
Yes - its refreshing to see players running about like they care, rather than strutting around doing a bit of charity work. We look more like a team - still plenty of obstacles to overcome. One thing I'd like to see is more 'team goals' or at the very least, chances which are the end of a passing move. It's maybe more for next season, but this season we've been relying on balls breaking, wonder strikes and scrappy set pieces. Very few of the few goals we've scored have actually been crafted. We're still not creating enough, but the defence is looking much stronger.
I would love to share the optimism but really struggling at the moment we need 6 wins and a couple of draws and there only 12 games left we are going to have to suddenly almost hit European form to stay up. In reality the next game against West Brom is Massive if we win Think we will do it but if we lose we are in massive trouble and this is a team who at home have held Chelsea Liverpool and Man City
Posted this on 16 December, lets see where we are at? In bold are actual points we got. If my predictions come true there is 18 points on the table = 38 points. It's going to be close!! We have to win 4 of 5 home games COYW! Norwich away - 1 - 3 Hull away - 0 - 0 West Ham home - 3 - 3 Sunderland home - 3 - 0 Arsenal away - 0 - 0 Swansea away - 0 -0 Southampton home - 3 - 0 Man U away - 0 - 1 Liverpool home - 0 - 0 West Brom away - 1 Chelsea home - 1 Cardiff away - 1 Newcastle home - 3 Man City away - 0 Everton home - 1 Aston Villa away - 1 Norwich home - 3 Spurs away - 0 Hull home - 3 Stoke away - 1 Palace home - 3
Thanks Cravingawin. It is a good reality check. Our lowest point was the defeats against Sunderland primarily and Soton (at a lesser degree). There is still scope to pick points...
I did similar predictions and ending up with 38 points too however I had us down to get nothing from the Liverpool or UTD game so that would now make 39points. Given our shocking goal difference we are going to need at least a point more than the team finishing in 18th place to stay up. Below show the points we would need to achieve this over that last 10 years… it’s going to be very tight, I can see us needing something from the Palace game on the last day of the season to stay up. 12/13 - 37 pts 11/12 - 37 pts 10/11 - 40 pts 09/10 - 31 pts 08/09 - 35 pts 07/08 - 37 pts 06/07 - 39 pts 05/06 - 35 pts 04/05 - 34 pts 03/04 - 34 pts …If you go back 11 years West Ham went down with 42 points!!!!
With our goal diffrerence being as it is, we should really aim for 39 or 40 because if a couple of us end up with 38, it will be us on the way down.
The lowest point was the defeat at home to Cardiff - the signs had been there prior to that game but it was the one that confirmed the malaise around the team. However, we're here now and the last two matches have shown that the 'new' team is prepared to fight. Is it a coincidence that since Sidwell became captain the team has a little "huddle" immediately before kick off? Can't remember a Fulham team doing that before.
I haven't seen the MatchChoice recording yet, but from what I've read here and what I heard on the Sky commentary last night, we were competitive with Liverpool throughout and were unlucky (or stupid, if Sascha's reading this) not to get points. Cravin' wrote: "Liverpool didn't play well in the first half but are a great side". But I read from that "we made it difficult for a top team" who probably expected to thrash us. That's two good performances (but only one point) against big teams that tells me we're starting to turn the corner on our performances. I see confidence and competitiveness leaking into the squad, and that (IMO) is the most important thing. Survival starts with competitiveness. I agree entirely. Even if he was playing well, I wouldn't play him. He's the past and we need to move on. Same thing with all of our other "old" players with the exception of Parker. He may have been present during our bad spell, but I don't attribute any of that to him. He's been solid and competitive (IMO) since he's arrived, and I see a future place in our team for him.
Demps, you're right it was ambiguous. My point was that we played well against the inform team in the Prem. We competed, like you said, there was energy and togetherness. We still let 3 in though and Reither didn't need to dive in, just shepherded, but hey ho!
Evening all, gutted about the late penalty last night but hugely buoyed by the performance. I have not seen any highlights yet but listened to gentleman Jim. Reading what everyone has said it really does sound like we are a football team again. The disjointed days seem to be behind us and I really hope we approach the west Brom game with confidence and enthusiasm. The icing on the cake would be the return of mitroglou and him bagging a debut hat trick !!! Still believing COYW
There were some good performances last night, Richardson had his best game, Tunnicliffe & Kvist both had a good first half, Sidwell & Holtby had good games, Heitinga looked solid along side Burns. But there was the same problem of not putting their defenders under pressure in the second half. It's not the first time our performances in the second half have dropped off and we defend too deep. We've done the same recently against Sunderland and Southampton at home and Hull, Arsenal and Swansea away. Sorry but I think we are kidding ourselves if we think things have changed drastically since Jol left. We don't take our chances, we let in late goals in both halfs, we defend too deep, we lose our shape in the second halfs with very little attacking options, our passing is poor and have to chase games when behind, we've allowed players to cut in and score from outside the area too many times, we keep conceding deflected goals. The substitutions have puzzled me, I wonder if they see the same game as me, as we seem to take off our best players. Yes there have been better performances, I remember thinking at all those games above (except the Sunderland game) at half time that we'd turned the corner and would go on to get a draw or a result but all the above failures crept back in. I just don't understand our second half performances, is it the half time talk ? do the players get confused ? is it the substitutions ? why do the players seem to run out of energy after 70 minutes ? Is it the other teams tactics aren't being countered properly after half-time ? I wish I knew the answer.
I believe things have changed. We played against Utd and Liverpool. Everybody would expect us to get run-over given our past performances and their strength. That didn't happen and had we been more clinical and careful. I agree on the subs and tactics but it is still work in progress. The break will be good for the team to gel more and get into better shape. The signs are positive...
I posted something similar on a different thread last week. In 8 out of the last 10 years, the best-relegated team has had 36 points or fewer. That means that the chances are that 37pts will be enough. I said then (before the United match) we needed six wins which would put us on 37pts. Now six wins would put us on 38pts. If you ignore the big teams that we still have to play, we have 8 winnable matches to get those 6 wins. I'm not saying that we write ourselves off against the bigger teams, just saying that our best chance is in those 8 games, rather than against Chelsea, Man City, Everton and Spurs. Six wins from 12 games is doable, so let's do it!
