Are we running out of steam?

We definitely looked knackered in that second half. Guthries race was run on 70 mins. Demba Ba looks a different man since the ACoN. Whats up with him? Ben Arfa couldn't get out of 3rd gear, he was strolling with the ball.

Fear the worst going down to WBA with our current levels of fitness, could be over run.

 

We've got a week to put our feet up.

Ba will wake up soon. HBA has been good three out of the last 4 games. And for all the faults in our game, we could have been 4 - 0 at half time.

Keep the ball on the deck as long as possible, and put on Shola as soon as we start playing hoof ball and we'll be fine

 

Meant Willio, sorry that wasn't clear. He is shot mentally, and you can't blame the fans. I had one idiot sat along from me saying "well maybe he'd do better if everyone stopped groaning everytime he ****ed up". How can he expect all the fans to somehow hold back what is a natural reaction to the **** ups. When 50,000 do it in one go, unfortunately its amplified. Some people don't actually think before opening their gob. Needless to say he was shot down in flames. I hate people who just get on the players back but that is different.

 

He has a point though. There's a lot more of that going on than there was back in my day (and things are a lot better now as well). Far too much moaning at players goes on. Look at the stick that Perch has got, and then some people seem reluctant to acknowledge that he had a good game at the weekend. The lad can't win. Same for Simpson. So he ****ed up a little for the goal, but people seem to totally ignore the fact he was nowhere near his own goal and that before that he had had a good game.

 

Perhaps it's your 'fair play' ignominy ...your players can't hack it

 

What ?

 

Think he's trying to say, shameful or dishonorable quality or conduct or an instance of this.

 

Wrong thread.

 

Can't agree the bloke didn't have a point at all. You can't stop a natural human reaction. Of course there are those who just get on players backs because they dislike a certain player. They are morons. But if someone is clearly shot mentally and is blatantly an accident waiting to happen, its going to put people on edge. At some point that player has to either man up or be protected by his manager by being rested. I have been going to football for a long time now, and that has never changed in my 20 years watching. Fans feed off players.

Perch has been unfortunate. He'll never be a superstar but he has been unlucky that it has taken a long time to find his natural role. Those who refuse to acknowledge his progress, well its just sad really on their part. While I recognise Simpson is no world beater, people just seem to have it in for him. He has had a very good season overall, hence he's ever present.

But no that bloke was a complete twat.

 

Beg to differ. There's a hell of a lot more unnecessary moaning going on these days compared to 20+ years ago. It's not natural to give players in the team you support the kind of constant and unnecessary stick that some of our players get. Yes, now and again, but the level it's got to now is completely out of proportion. And it doesn't ****in' help.

 

I don't think we are differing on the general point of people moaning unneccessarily. But while I agree there is more unneccessary moaning going on, the Williamson type scenario on Saturday has gone since the beginning of football. Its unfortunate and he probably needs some protection from Pardew. It is simply completely unrealistic to expect a human being watch a car crash and not display a natural emotion. That is what happened on Saturday and that bloke was wrong.

 

You can't expect the fans not to complain about Williamson particularly after that instance where he got dispossessed after fannying around with it for 30 seconds. Sorry but there's no excusing that and he deserved to have the fans on his back for it, same goes for his constant shirt pulling. While I do agree that in general there is too much humming and harring and nowhere near enough atmosphere from crowds these days, these people are being paid in a week more than what I earn in a year to perform on a world stage such as the Premier League and need to be able to take a bit of criticism on the chin. Sorry but that's the nature of playing at the highest level.

And yes, we are running out of steam, although from what I've seen of our tactics Pardew has to shoulder some of the blame. We have a pretty thin squad but I know it can't be fatigue because we managed to get ourselves knocked out ages ago of every outside competition we were in, these are top level athletes we're talking about here. The problem is as a few people have said, we're not playing to our strengths. Absolute torture watching Williamson and Krul endlessly hoofing long balls over the heads of our most talented players and it bouncing off Cisse and Ba, sort it out Pardew.

Looking at our fixtures I'm not optimistic, and can see us dropping like a stone towards the end. We can't go on playing like we did against Norwich and Wolves (which was an utter utter disgrace and made me ashamed of our manager and players) because when we come up against teams that bother to turn up we will get thrashed like we did against Fulham and Spurs. We haven't played well for a full 90 since the Man United game and don't show any signs that is going to change.

 

Cisse will be a beast next season...!!

 

Next time I'll try to be less subtle