How long should Ron get to turn things around?

True. But it's hard for any striker to feed on scraps. Short of unearthing a Michael Owen or Robin van Persie capable of converting every half chance, the only way I see us scoring more goals is by creating more chances. There's goals in all our forwards if we can consistently retain possession in our opponents half. At the moment we're not doing that.

Meanwhile, we need to stop getting tagged by sucker punches.

 

I haven't said sack him now. I've said wait for at least another month.

 

I'd only consider that if we were a drift in the bottom three. Currently we're 7 points from that.

 

The thing is, only Villa look dead certs for relegation. Of the promoted teams, Norwich have won at Old Trafford, Bournemouth beat Chelsea and Man United back to back and Watford are 7th! That is a bit concerning. Chelsea will overtake us at some stage. In my book, there are at least 10 teams not as good as us on paper. But football isn't played on player. We must be 2nd bottom of the form table and that is alarming. The longer we stay down the bottom of the form table and the longer we go without a win, the situation will get more precarious. We cannot afford to get relegated with the money that's in the PL. I don't think we will, but something's not right at all and it needs to be fixed. Whether Koeman can fix it remains to be seen. I'm 70-30 in favour of Koeman being able to fix it at the moment so I'm s long way from demanding his sacking at the moment.

 

I honestly think it is purely and simply down to confidence. It's a goal off someone's arse away from being okay again.

 

I really hope you're right. I don't massively care if we lose to Arsenal if we play well. I just want to see a good performance at the moment and that will ease my concerns.

 

Don't really see what sacking Koeman now will achieve. Nobody really jumps out in my mind as a good/realistic replacement so may aswell stick with Koeman. I have never been his biggest fan having watched him at Valencia and Benfica and I do think last year was a fluke, but I'm confident we will be fine and not relegated so no point changing manager until the summer imo

 

Tom, everything you said is just common sense. Can't disagree with it. All I'm saying is that I feel people are jumping on the negativity band wagon as it is the easy one to climb on. We have dropped 17 points in 6 games yet are 7 points from the drop zone. I'm not even worried at this stage. It's a bad run and apart form the Foxes, every team has had a focus on the negative Spotlight this season.

It'll come round and we'll get results sorted. Bournemouth beat Chelsea (as we did) but lost to us.

The biggest test I've seen so far is the one for the fans. We've been spoiled and expectations have gone through the roof. We need to stay calm, get behind the team and try and help them through an anxious period for them. Ron has to dig deep and get the players back on it. these players have picked up 20 points in 10/11 games and then 1 point from the last 6. The team that got 20 points will come back again.

 

Hi Saintmagic, what didn't you like about him at those clubs? I didn't really follow what he did there.

 

Almost got a very talented Valencia side relegated, but people overlook it because he won the Copa Del Rey. Think how your average Chelsea/Utd fan view the League Cup, multiply that by 2 and that is how everyone views the Copa Del Rey.

At Benfica he was just average, at the time it was a 3 team league (Sporting, Porto and Benfica) and he came third with them. Did get Benfica quite far in the CL though I believe. His signings were mainly flops aswell, but nowadays that isn't as important with transfer comittees etc. At both of these teams there were question marks over how he does when things don't go his way, especially Valencia as the team he had was very talented. I also don't buy into the whole "top player so massive attraction to players" either, why don't we just appoint Maradona if this was actually relevant in anyway.

That being said I don't really see the point in sacking him unless we really are heavily involved in a relegation fight, which won't be clear for a couple of months anyway.

 

Thanks for that. As I said I hadn't really had details other than I knew he was at Valencia for 5 months (??) and didn't do great. Be good if he "only" won a cup with us

 

I would like us to score one of those goal things we keep hearing about.

 

The measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but how he stands up to challenge and controversy

- Martin Luther King

I guess now we get to see the measure of our manager. We already know the measure of some of our support

 

He likes Spurs apparently.

 

Be nice to get one over them!

 

Bang on

 

I agree. But then a injured Pelle is better then Long...

 

We were fourth bottom prior to Swansea v West Ham today, as both of those sides were below us. And both duly failed to win.

As I said yesterday, Villa, Sunderland, WBA, Swansea, West Ham and Everton could all do with a win as well. It's not just us.

 

Agreed but I think the support has been superb. Yes OK the questions are being asked here and whilst I personally think it is premature, its the right place to ask the questions. In the stadium we get behind the team pretty well.

I have no doubt the manager can stand up. There are one or two players who just need to show it IMO.

 

Agreed, and this is one area where I do disagree with Koeman. Poch liked to play the same side every match...but we must have led the league in surprise one-game absences, because if a player had so much as a niggle he'd hold them out. Koeman seems to be a little more willing to let them play through minor injuries.