Yes Stevo, Kim fell over when he was fouled - he also fell over when he ran into trouble of his own making. Quick feet need to be matched by quick thoughts to lay the ball off. He runs into trouble far too much for me just like Odemwingie did when a pass would have been simpler. There's no doubt Campbell playing wide left helped Declan enormously. If we want a wide man with that never say die attitude to help out a young but fast maturing defender, then he's the lad to put there and Declan had a stormer. Unfortunately, that masks our real problem that's staring everyone in the face - our forward players yet again cannot score goals. This is fundamental and a serious threat to us staying up. Two from Caulker from set peices and a fluke own goal (albeit from and excellent cross by Noone) did the job, but we seem unable to score from open play. We'll have a real problem if we expect those sort of goals to come along every game - if they do, they should be a bonus to our front line efforts and not relied upon to win matches. I'm not being too critical - how can you be when you've just bagged all three points. I'm just aware that we were playing a dreaddful side in Fulham and a loss against that lot would have been hard to take. As it was we won and it's on to the next one - Everton away. Caulker on the score sheet would be great, but at least one from the front men would make me feel much much better.
The main reason we won yesterday was Fulham were absolute sh!t. That team would be lower Championship. 2nd we were more up for it. Hopefully what that result has done is given us confidence and we can improve. Campbell I thought was outstanding. Fabio easily his best performance , John improving all the time. Kim I was shocked to see him in the line up but even though he was knocked off the ball too easily he played well , some good passing and was always available for the ball. Though I would have taken him off for Bellamy around the hour mark. Mutch clearly needed the 90 minutes. Caulker man of the match.
Our other home 6er is against Stoke we're away to Brom. We beat them at ours so they sacked Steve Clarke. If we're staying up I think we'll need to win the Brom game away though.
Last one defending Kim for me (this week) but surely one of the reasons loses the ball more than others is his willingness to always take the ball. We have had midfielders who hide when taking possession isn't easy. Kim always busts a gut to give the man on the ball an option. He hardly ever passes backwards and always looks to move forward and make things happen. Anyway best file him along side Zaha in the difference of opinion category
Stevo - let's just say I respect your opinions regarding Kimbo far too much to ignore them - but you're still bloody wrong...... So you think Campbell is a better option playing wide left than Zaha? Must admit that Campbell was a class apart when it came to helping out his fullback, but as an attacking force down that side, his ball control is poor for that dimension, and his first touch is often lacking. Still say his best position is through the middle where his bravery alone means he can get on the end of things. I suppose it's horses for courses - Declan needs some help at the moment and Fraizer certainly provided that in spades yesterday.
Ole mentioned that our plan was to still be in a position to win the game after 60 mins. That's very much what I've been saying for a few weeks, to win a game you have to not lose it first!! FC is a far superior option to zaha as a starter based on those tactics. I think Zaha was the player on the bench who was supposed to win it in that last half hour. With the goals scored his lack of work rate didn't need to be risked. I said on the zaha thread I don't think we can afford him in midfield. He has to be played in a free attacking role. Noone is that player right now and he has a work rate zaha could learn a lot from. If noone is injured or has an off day Zaha could still be vital for us though.
2 goals from a defender and the 3rd a comedy of errors has not convinced me we have kickstarted anything yet. But if it was a confidence thing then maybe we can get our strikers striking. We live in hope.
Great win for us on Saturday. Was pleased to see us actually playing like a team again.. Atmosphere was dull at points, I still do not understand why people are not singing and chanting constantly in our 1st season in the PL. Man of the match for me, either Caulker or Nooney.. Still don't think we have enough firepower up front and we are constantly relying on our midfield / defense to bang the goals in! Keeping the faith BLUUUEEEBIIIRRDDSSS!
City were poor. Fulham were even poorer. Nice to win, nice to score a few goals even though they were all terrible goals, but let's not kid ourselves, City are all but down.
That's the spirit! There's a huge challenge for sure, but we have a chance. We had to win and we did, Palace and Stoke are also very poor sides. West brom are almost if not as bad as Fulham. Sunderland are ****e and their fixtures are piling up a bit. Norwich need to almost write off their last 4 matches. We are not good enough but the same could be said for any of the teams I've named. We could still scrape survival. KWJ might score one day........................KTF!
I am reviewing the situation, and it's seems it's not all doom and gloom as I thought, that win against Fulham has made it very interesting and I no longer believe we are going down (ATM). Because of the fixtures on the run in it seems we actually have a very good chance of making it through this. Other teams around us are not sitting so pretty, and if we can get some results from other fixtures go in our favour, then 3 wins can keep us up. It would be a good time to pull off a shock result to. All to play for. all we need is the strikers to perform, it is a long time coming, surely they are due.
we're level with west brom on 25 points (albeit with a game in hand) and there are a clutch of teams with less than 31 points, teams that will get dragged down in to the relegation zone. if we were 5 points adrift you may have a point, but we aren't, and you don't.........
Never the less, Nin's still entitled to his opinion. I agree with him we may be back in it but don't think we have the firepower to get out of it. I feel better than I did before mind you and I live in hope.
I don't think we are out of it, after all we are in 18th with Sunderland 1 point behind us and 3 games in hand.. Not exactly safe, but yes, I feel a whole lot better than I did on Friday BLUEBIRDS!
Mid table comfort zone would be soooooo boring........ Still need others to slip up for us to scramble clear, but it ain't over yet. Some big, big bottom half club battles to come - a couple next Saturday with Sunderland v Palace and Stoke v West Ham. Neither of those last two teams are out of it yet, and I'd go as far as to say if West Ham can take the points off Stoke on their own patch, Hughes' lot will be a real candidate for the drop.
