Today was a repeat of at The Bridge last month: we matched them in the first half then the second half Mourinho makes changes (both tactical and personnel) and we struggle.
Yep, well put. Theres still a considerable gulf in the PL betwee the top 3 or 4 clubs & the rest, but today was the first time wev been outclassed. Anyone turning on the manager now is blind to the bigger picture. We're better than the teams below us, we can beat anyone on our day, but our squad is no match for chelsea's or city's.
My main worry is that we try to play through teams and rely on the fullbacks solely for width and our strikers get isolated from the midfield when we are playing tougher teams.
Yes, by some coincidence they were both injured just at the time our form headed south. Get them in, things will be back to normal.
CBK raises a fair point in the OP and for me people can only respond to that based on their own expectations. Last year we pulled ourselves from rock bottom and eventually we finished 14th. At the start if the season, I predicted finishing 8th-12th. If we had started with a couple of wins and draws, crept up from 14th to 8th or 9th everyone would be calm. The unthinkable happened though and we found ourselves with the best defensive record in the league and 3rd in the league after nearly 10 games; we then slipped to 8th/9th.... Same result but different perspective on things. We go into the next couple of months starting in 9th place which is a great foundation. I look up the table and don't see too many teams I expected to be above... maybe Newcastle. We are in a good position and I eagerly await our first choice keeper (and the only one we have who I am truly comfortable with in this league) and our £12m CDM player who I believe has been sorely missed, despite several fans not really seeing his contribution at the time he was in the team. Good times ahead.
When Wanyama's back, I'd like to see him replace Schneiderlin. Cork's been really good since he's come in and I don't know what, for some posters, he has to do to get into the starting 11 with everybody fit. I'm assuming one of the reasons why Schneiderlin's form over the last few games or so hasn't been so great is because he's had to be careful when making tackles as he was approaching his 5th booking, which he eventually picked up.
I agree with all that you have said except that Davis has looked comfortable in goal the last two games.
