You're being as ridiculous as all those you criticise for their hysteria. We played a good side and got done 2-0. We still haven't lost by more than 3 all season, which is incredible. Yes it's irritating to have dropped so far but we've had hard games. The only game in that time where we've really had a result worse than you'd expect was Villa. Losing to Everton and Man U is nothing to be ashamed of. We're getting spoilt and thinking we're bigger than we are.
I disagree. We have been exceptionally poor since beating Sheffield United in the Semi Final. Bruce also said the same in his post match interview and he 'apologised' for our poor recent form. We have been a shambles since the semi final. Very few have staked a case for a starting shirt in the final, our dip in appetite for points in the last few games has cost the club a lot of money. I have no qualms about losing, but the manner of the defeats and lack of effort and application has irritated me. We are now carrying no run of form into the cup final - except for defeats, and we're up against it. Versus Arsenal who have been unbeaten, one off game and all that, but you want to at least be competitive.
Sums it up perfectly for me. This is the first year in my lifetime anybody associated with the club has really given a **** about the FA Cup. So why have the players suddenly decided that the league doesn't matter anymore? Fair enough, nobody wants to get injured, but then you might as well not train either, just in case you pull a hamstring. We really should've beaten Fulham and at least performed better against Villa, but as GLP said, it's the manner of the defeats that stings. Yeah yeah, dare to dream, best ever season, but if we play like that next year, we'll get shagged.
I personally feel this was not that the players gave up or didn't care, it's probably more to do with just not wanting to get injured or run themselves into the ground, as the final was on the horizon, and all want to be fit and play in it. SB has said repeatedly that players can play 3 games a week, but not at the same intensity. This is probably something similar, if you even drop 10% of effort, in this league you will get punished.
Yesterday we were no worse than in any other home game we've lost. People are just desperate to associate every loss with the cup final. I don't doubt we could have got some more points over the last few games but it's getting exaggerated ridiculously. We didn't play badly at all yesterday. We were just a bit one-dimensional as always with only Elmo going forward. I was hearing people yesterday saying the players weren't going into tackles for fear of getting injured. That's just a bollocks cliche thing to say, they weren't even basing it on the game they were watching. I'm not commenting on the three aways before that because I didn't see them live but yesterday I didn't see anyone jump out of a challenge or anything. People just see what they want to see sometimes.
So is Steve Bruce wrong too? It was clear to see standards have dropped since getting to the final. If we had played like we have over the last 4 to 5 games over the course of the season we'd have been relegated, no doubt about it. Yesterday we played like it was a training game, very little effort.
No stupid yellow cards, key players rested, injuries avoided, fringe larkers given game time = job done Everton are a top 5 team and have the larkers to bully us, especially if we are not 100% at the races. In a perverse sort of way I enjoyed yesterday. At least we have a good benchmark in terms of quality, strength in depth and dare I say it, in support. Best away fans this season?
People said the exact same thing after our 1-0 win against 9-man Sunderland. It was a very similar performance. But there wasn't a cup final to blame it on back then so everyone just went apocalyptic about it.
Better than Villa and Man Utd but still less than half hearted. Shame that we did not just play the squad players with some kids. At least it would have had a better tempo. The game itself did not matter other than for £5m.
Not seen anyone else mention it but did anyone watch Howard? I knew he had Tourettes but it was fascinating watching him, ticks all over. Even did this funny hand on his head wave when facing a fee kick. Fair play to him to forge a career and not let it hold him back.
Paper gives it 5/10 for atmosphere. Salford v Rovers in the same paper (att. 2,903) gets 6/10. I reckon Everton had as many fans as the whole attendance at the rugby, complete with numerous blue smoke flares, constant loud singing, ironic Poznans, chanting war with E1-E3 etc. Yet somehow this is isn't quite up to the redhot rollercoaster atmosphere-drenched of the 4 figure RL crowd. Ah well we can only dream...... I'm expecting the Polo at the KC to notch a heady 7/10 as the braying Hoorays show us all how its done.
Charlie's upset that ****witted one. http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/hull-tigers-v-everton-11th-may-at-15-00.67156/page-47
I guess I was just hoping to go into the small matter of the FA Cup final with at least one decent game behind us. Ideally, a really good showing against Everton would've coincided with Arsenal dropping points against WBA in their time-honoured, psychologically fragile fashion. Instead, we go into the game having playing badly for several weeks now.
