I can see us being in the bottom 3 in a month or so. These are the next few fixtures: SAT 27 SEP Man City H SAT 4 OCT Crystal Palace H SAT 18 OCT Arsenal A SAT 25 OCT Liverpool A SAT 1 NOV Southampton H Three out of five against top teams, and we lost both to Palace 0-1 last year. This season we clearly have a problem at the back.I think there is a serious danger we get no points from these 5 games, meaning 8 teams, including Man u and Liverpool need 3 points or less from 5 games to pass us and leave us in the drop zone. Last season the squad was smaller, therefore naturally much more tightly knitted together, and in a first season in the prem mentality. In addition the vast majority were British. Now we have two more foreign (Hernandez, Ben Arfa) players who I guess will play every game when fit. As others have said there are players who were at least semi regular last season who will scarecly feature unless we get the plague, yet when you look at them individually I doubt they have the guts for a dogfight. We never know one game to the next what formation we will be playing, perhaps that has put doubt and uncertainty into the players too. Huddlestone was the lynch pin when it went well last year, but seems a shadow of his former self. Livermore much the same. We need to decide which way we are going to play if the players are to form a well oiled unit. I don't pretend to know the answer to this, I'm not sure Dawson is all we hope, or possibly not suited to 3 at the back. The FA cup run and survival in the league seems to have convinced everyone now that we are, in Prem league terms, a Middle sized club, not a little one, but just looked at our league form, W D L D D and remember our form at the end of last season. We could and should have had W D L W W and been four points better off by now There are some plus signs, Jelavic is scoring, Hernadez has opened his account. Robertson may well go on to great things (wish he is English!) Our goals for total, 7 is better than 7 other teams and the same as 2 others to date, leaving us 10th= but if we can't close up games we are winning with 15-20 minutes to go against average teams we will end up scrapping for draws. I could be wrong, it all could drop into place, but I have to mention the elephant in the room. Leaving aside my own opinion the name change thing just has to go away, whichever way, so Bruce and the team can concentrate on our league position, consolidate and finish higher than last year without having to look down the league table in the last quarter of the season. Please convince me I am worried needlessly !
Would love to but..................... I aren't convinced/confident myself. I think we are close to being ok but need to defend leads (obvious) and we can't keep the ball at the moment.
The thing is with current circumstance and we all know it. New players brought in, have to learn to play as a team, changes to personnel (too many at times but SB can sort this), and formation? (again SB can sort it). I'm sure he will get it right ......................................
I think reverting back to a 3-5-2/5-3-2 formation will help settle everything down: McGregor Elmo Chester Dawson Davies Robertson Livermore Huddlestone Diame Jelavic Hernandez Then the issue we have is a good one, in that we'll have a lot of very good attacking options on the bench with 3 from HBA, Ramirez, Brady, Ince, Aluko along with 4 others Harper, Rosy and McShane, Quinn/Meyler. That's still leaving a few out altogether.
Yep. Go back to what we know and what we can trust, and then deal with being more attacking from that. We tried to run before we walked with the new players.
To be honest the way they're going I could see us getting points in all of those games bar Man City.. Liverpool are looking shocking, Arsenal are a defensive injury away from collapse, and Southampton are looking decent but not as amazing as last season.
I see what you're saying, but there is always a chance of points in this league. Our shape and players have become confused. We go defensive when we simply need to maintain what we've been doing. The substitutions, right or wrong, just are not clicking as they should.
And back to the original post. I am worried now as I have just read in the HDM that SB uses the term 'baffling' . **** me if he is baffled what hope have we got. "Just have to tough it out and hope it is a run of bad luck" or words to that effect. It ****ing well isn't bad luck. It's **** defending.
I said this a week ago on here and was met with comments such as 'negative, only 5 games gone, miserable' etc, etc. It is conceivable that we wont get another point in our next 6 games and then is too late to wake up. We dont know our best formation, we havent got a first XI, we've got expensive players who will be getting disgruntled at not playing, we're leaking goals in a way we never have under Bruce and we've got a divided fanbase. I think we're in serious trouble. And Ramirez. Everyone - media and fans - said last season that our British and Irish spine was a massive plus point. Well we've now completely flipped that so surely it must be a negative? You cant have one side a positive and then when you change it completely it's also a positive.
This could be the poison chalice of having to get a squad to cope with European games on top of the Premier League and two other cup competitions though if we're picking up injuries (Snodgrass, Meyler) at a rate of knots, we may still need this size of squad. I reckon players are smart enough to know that being shipped out of Hull City, sold or on loan, during the transfer window won't look good on their CV and that by Christmas, we'll know who cares and who's up for fighting for a regular place in the team. Focusing for 94 minutes seems to have become an issue ....
mussiesredhat.No, my head thief never did own up Evington. If he is a friend of yours, than after what was said and done to me on that trip I'm sorry but you'll not be a friend of mine. These are specific replies to individuals on this thread, not an invitation to distract from the thread itself.
Read my lips: These are specific replies to individuals on this thread, not an invitation to distract from the thread itself.
