Agree with most of that swan, although the one area I would love us to improve is our counter attacking play. We rarely hit teams on the break, preferring to work our way slowly up the field. We have become a slightly more physical side, hence more yellow/red cards, but we have to cut the silly yellows - Rangel & Shelvey were sent off for two yellows after their first yellow was for throwing the ball away. 8/10 for me. Let's hope we can build on a great start to the season in the next 10 games: Arsenal (H), Man City (A), Crystal Palace (H), QPR (H), West Ham (A), Spurs (H), Hull (A), Aston Villa (H), Liverpool (A), QPR (A) If we can get 10 points out of that lot we will have 25points on New Years Day. Bony will be going to the African Cup, so providing we make the right acquisitions in the January transfer window we will be looking good for the rest of the season
"...the one area I would love us to improve is our counter attacking play. We rarely hit teams on the break, preferring to work our way slowly up the field." Agree with that. We have wingers that fly, particularly now we have Montero, yet we are ponderous on the break. Compare that to the way we played in the Championship. Far too cautious now imo. When top teams get the ball they run at defences at speed. I've lost count of the times we've slowed everything down and the opposition have then got all their men behind the ball. Either that or we hoof it up to Bony and expect him to hold it up while the rest of the team catches up.
In the Championship I thought we played our best football when we didn't have a striker - Borini (now officially a scum bag) and Sinclair together with Dyer, Rangel and usually an other would hit angles at speed all over the pitch.
We are also picking up yellow cards because we have slowed and or are out of position and or refs and or lack fitness and or lack of discipline. TBH I'd expect 9 point possible 10 from the home games alone. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of European based played drop out of the African Nations Cup so we may still have Bony (unless the press has him sold off).
Can you imagine where we'd be with a half decent manager , . He's doing a good job to date , considering his and the back room staff lack of experience then I'd say theres more positives than negatives .I'd be more worried if he wasn't learning form his mistakes but again there are signs that he is for example both in team selection and substitutions both topics which previously have drawn criticism .He took a chance with his post match comments and for some got away with what some considered inflammatory remarks but they has to be said and wasn't prepared to tow the party line unlike some other managers ,( some of whom have very short memories ) . It's his team , tactics and selection ,it wasn't pretty today but we managed to do something which "stronger " sides have failed to do so kudos for that . We can't always get what we want or expect , theres always the opposition who tend to spoil the party
The thing is when assessing how we have performed we naturally look through Blinkered eyes and look for players to do things they have done well before like for instance our pacy wingers storming up the wings but we are not taking into account the oppositions game plan of stopping our wingers from doing that. Sometimes things will work in one game and not work in another because its been noticed that we are very strong doing something. This is where the managers job comes into play and where monk is still learning about and is not there yet and to be fair i would not expect him to be there in his first season. After saying that other more experienced managers are a lot worse than monk as the league table proves,,,,
Ill say one thing , never in a milllion years would i believe where we are in the table after 10 games.not a chance.
Just think, cut out the mistakes on the field and tactically etc and we could be where Southampton are It's going to be hard to predict where any side will finish this season, bar Chelsea and Man City in the top 4 and Burnley and QPR relegated.
More questions than answers unfortunately Valley. Have a better idea when it warms up.If it doesn't.....then we could finish higher than any of us ever dreamt of!
Disagree with a weak premiership i would say more competitive. When man utd and liverpool were winning the top title by a country mile between them every season then that is what i would call a weak premiership/old 1st div. ..Today the football have closed the gap to a much stronger league...
