You're confusing two concepts. Yes, I absolutely agree, we did not play good enough football, consistently enough, to accumulate the points needed for survival. If things had gone slightly differently, another 2-3 sides could have easily been relegated who would have absolutely deserved it. 5-6 sides 'deserved' to go down last season, and only 3 could. The table lies insofar as those sides, through luck, chance, or brief spells of momentum, managed to play well at the right parts of the season.
What complete and utter bollocks this is. Only 3 teams deserved to go down, it was the three teams with the fewest amount of points, it doesn't matter if you think we played better than Villa or Sunderland, the fact is they accumulated more points so deserved to stay up. There's no point saying 'if things had gone slightly differently' because every single team can point to instances where they were unlucky just as every single team can (reluctantly) point to games when they got lucky with decisions or results, there's no point making out that we were better but just hard done by because thats simply not true. If the league table isn't accurate after 38 games then whats the point in having it? You might as well have a panel of judges deciding who has the best team, played the best football and were most unlucky with decisions because if the league table is so inaccurate its utterly pointless.
Hows that working out for them? You noticed a massive surge in performances? No? It's almost like the issue wasn't the managers after all, it's the players.
Im thinking Syd is confusing "Best Team" with "Best paid superstars". Leicester are quite clearly the best team in the PL at the moment, that's why they're on top. If they win the league, then yes, they're absolutely the best team in the PL this season. That's how it works. Just because they haven't got any players you'd want posters up in your room of, or who you'd have a meltdown if you met them in real life doesn't make them a good team of good players playing good football and winning a lot.
Do you believe that, or is it just you in argumentative mode again? Serious question, do you know what the job of the team manager entails? You like to make your arguments black and white and things rarely are.
Notice the massive surge in performances when Crystal Palace and West Brom changed their managers last season? Yes? It's almost like the issue wasn't the players after all, it's the managers.
Do you think Chelsea have been much better since Jose left? Do they look like top 4 by the end of the season? Do you think LVG leaving Man U will turn Rooney back into a goal scoring machine and they'll climb back up to the top? Do you really think we're in a similar situation to either of those sides?
They've only played twice, and only once under a new manager, so I'd say it was a little early to say. No, because Rooney hasn't been a 'goal scoring machine' for 3/4 years. I do think Van Gaal has done a poor job with the incredible resources at his disposal though and does deserve the boot. Nope, never said we were.
I think those that are espousing this line of thought, are really only pointing out that the difference between success and failure in the Premier League is down to very, very fine margins. And in Cities case a few more falling feathers in Tokyo could have made all the difference. I am always thinking about the thrashings that some teams last season suffered last season and stayed up, hard to remember any defeats more than 2-0 for us. A bounce here, one less stumble, a different ref decision etc. etc.
ifs and buts gents, but alas we finished with the third worse points total last season, hence we were relegated. We can all say how unlucky we were at crucial times of the season, with injuries, poor refereeing decisions, missed chances, personal mistakes, lack of quality cover etc etc, but when all is said and done, we didn`t have enough to survive, it`s just the way it is. For me that is history, we are third in the table at present, with a decent squad, possibly a few light as far as quality up front, but a fighting chance of making a swift return. Instead of sulking about what went on last year lets concentrate on the here and now, ****ty death some of you lot depress the **** out of me with your constant whining and bitching, we are third in a very competitive league, we have no right to be promoted, but we`re giving it a go. We have just beaten a team that was relegated with us, and who many thought would be up there come the end of the season, ****ing enjoy it !
We were the third worst team in the premier league last season. That is indisputable factomissio (my iPhone claims that's actually a word). Saying Sunderland and Villa especially played worse football than us is clutching and microscopic straws. We played horrifically all season, Villa actually looked a decent side once Showroom joined. What is disputable is whether finishing there was a massive under achievement or not. I'd say it was, and that it was down to piss poor bad management. We had a squad packed with genuinely proven premier league talent, topped off with other exciteables, but Bruce couldn't make a cohesive team out of them. Whatever people might say is deserved or undeserved is bullshit, you get what you deserve. Injuries, dodgy decision etc bla bla bla whatever people love to whine about, every team at the bottom suffers them, every team is faced by the same problems. But given how much we spent, and to Bruce's credit he did spend it well, we shouldn't have ended up the way we did. A solid comparison, if I bought a Moto GP bike and joined the British superbikes, after I did **** every race and finished bottom of the championship, is it the bikes fault or mine?
I agree with most, we deserved to be relegated as we were the 3rd worst side, same as now we are the 3rd best side in the Championship, we deserve to be there!
Where did I say "long ball"? What you just said about transferring defence to attack at speed is EXACTLY what Hughes advocated in the 80s. Hughes never advocated long balls, he advocated direct football that transitioned defence to POMO as quickly as possible. He identified the great 80s Liverpool side as being the perfect example of this, and they were never 'long ball'. It seems Hughes wasn't only misunderstood by the mass media at the time.
Just on long balls, Maguire's ball to Clucas before our third, I think? Was absolutely phenomenal, that boy can pass.
