They've just shown the 12 contenders for save of the season on MOTD, and of those 12 no fewer than three of them were against us. When you consider that on average each club would have been on the receiving end of 0.66 of those 12 contenders, three seems rather a lot and might even suggest we might have been a shade unlucky. The three were from Guzan, Marshall and Stockdale, all in huge games and between them they cost us four points to three of our relegation rivals. Bloody Chris Hootun!!
Munky, you need to let Hughton go! Seriously. I agree that we have been unlucky with the outstanding keeper performances this season but we still failed to ever impose our selves on games and really go for wins.
Sorry, but if people will insist on laying the blame for our relegation solely at his feet (and at those of McNally for not sacking him sooner) then I'm afraid it's well within my rights to point out other possible reasons that exist that are beyond his control.
I agree that it wasn't all Hughton's fault. I just think it's time we all moved on. He tried, he never really got the team going and he was sacked. End of, let's look to the championship and not still be divided over a man that's isn't our manager any more.
That's absolutely fine, and I'm more than happy to do that as I have (just about) accepted our fate by now. Can you have a word with those fans of ours who are still banging on about how he "destroyed our club" and are demanding answers from McNally etc about why it all went wrong though and ask them to do the same please?
I have to say, the last few times I've seen Hughton mentioned has been in your comments. Obviously there are those that blame Hughton but they have been quieter lately. It feels like you're just stirring it up a little. As for your original point about the keepers being outstanding against us, I've actually felt that way for years but it has been especially bad this season! It certainly hasn't helped.
We should definitely try, yes. For me, the three top priority players to try and keep are: Ruddy Howson Snodgrass
Yes. I would say the vast majority of goals conceded were down to defensive lapses, and nowhere near as many down to JR or even Mark Bunn for that matter (although I still worry about him playing for us)
I'm sorry you feel like that. Ok, just ignore the final three words of my original post then, my real point was about how fortune hasn't been on our side this season and how we've ended up on the wrong side of the fine margins. I think we were destined to go down this season, I really do.
I would add Olsson to that list. Sadly I think losing Snoddy is almost a foregone conclusion, he has proved himself to be a good player at premier league level with his contribution of assists and goals and I feel sure that someone will come in for him. Thankfully due to his contract status and our financial stability we should be able to command a decent price for him!
I almost put Olsson instead of Howson. I just thought (limiting it to 3 players) that Howson would be more difficult/expensive to replace than Olsson.
Not just the goalkeepers to be honest. How often were our opponent's centre-halves playing a blinder too? What sums it up for me is that Man United are terrible vs Everton, play well and beat us 4 - 0 and then are abysmal against Sunderland the very next week! We somehow seemed to inspire the best out of many of our opponents.
Just as a further kick in the bollocks for us, did anyone see the Goal of the Season short-list at the weekend? Of the six goals selected, two were against us and those two (Wilshere and Suarez) were voted as the best and second best goals of the season. When you consider there were 12 best saves, and 6 best goals totalling 18 incidents in total in a 20 team league, it's pretty unbelievable that 5/18 occurred against us! Just further evidence for me that last season royally shat all over us from a great height, I ****ing hated last season and I'm glad to see the back of it!
I didn't need further evidence, I was already convinced But yes, that is quite a bizarre stat and definitely adds to it. The only thing I'd say is that I'm pretty sure neither of the goals of the season impacted on the end result much and that questions have to be asked about the defending for the Wilshere goal. For me, it has been the goalkeeping antics, injuries and a whole other raft of misfortunes that have really hurt us. Plus the Sunderland/Crystal Palace freakshow
I disagree about Wilshere's goal, I was at the game and at the time of the goal we were all scratching our heads, possibly waiting for a flag to go up and wondering what on earth had just happened as it either had to be offside or our defence had had an absolute shocker as they all just stood there, flat-footed However when I saw the replays that night all I could do was applaud the absolute brilliance of the skill involved, it was an incredible piece of football as good as I have seen in the flesh and it was a priviledge to witness it. Might not have changed the game (Suarez's certainly didn't as you say) but it was 0-0 at the time so it might have had an impact - we gave it a real good go that day as well. Ramsey's goal on Sunday could have been a contender as well!
I agree that Wilshere's goal was an unbelievable display of teamwork and skill, but I suppose I am stuck in the mindset that if the correct defender stays with his man, goal side, even that goal would not happen. I suppose you could argue that such was the skill on display defending was impossible, moot point. Definitely worthy of applause. Ramsey's goal was special and another good example - in a sense, I'm more bewildered and demoralised by the number of high quality individual goals against us (Sterling's, Parker's, etc), which genuinely impacted on results. They may not have been goals of the season contenders, but we had more than our fair share of (occasionally decidedly average) players on incredible form scoring screamers. Questionable defending? Perhaps. Make your own luck? Possibly true. But I think the total combination has given us a bizarre season - if Amalfitano hadn't scored that decent goal against us... We played Man U at just the wrong time, whereas our two principle relgation contenders when it went to the wire both beat Man U at Old Trafford... Amalfitano again.
