What I saw yesterday was us restrict Chelsea to 1 shot in 35 minutes, have a decent share of possession (after weathering the early storm) and open them up a few times...without getting in a satisfactory effort on goal admittedly. 5 minutes before half time Lampard robbed De Guzman (who was admittedly frustrating, but watch the replay...he was never winning that ball back even if he had kept on running)....I felt Lampard fouled De Guzman but there we are....and Chelsea showed their quality to craft an excellent goal. Then Leon gives away a penalty and my fellow Jacks have a mass meltdown. Newsflash....Chelsea are better than us. As they should be given the massive gap in resources! For those pining for Allen, Orlandi, Sinclair, Graham, Borini or Brendan....none of those players, or manager, have been part of a team that has achieved what this team has achieved. 2 points from 18 I hear you say....9 of those were against teams with far greater resources competing ferociously for Champions League places! if we got one point, ONE, from those 3 games it would be a bonus indeed. Of the remaining 9 points we were robbed of a decent away point at West Brom due to match officials incompetence, we obtained a good away point at Norwich (a team involved in a relegation battle who we usually lose to) and were bored to death by a Southampton team who came for a point and got it. All of a sudden I'm reading disrespect aimed at Ash who has helped to get us here enormously and is most importantly still here fighting for us (he had a stinker, it happens!) and criticism of the classiest manager in the league who has overachieved for us this season. Calm down people! Have we forgot who we are and where we have come from? We don't have a divine right to shackle the likes of Mata, Hazard and Oscar and score against Terry, Ivanovic and Cech. In the summer Laudrup will add more players who are capable of scoring and creating goals. Which will make us less predictable and easy to shut down. He will also add more defensive depth and everything will be just fine next season, our 3rd in the Premiership. Happy ****ing days.
Pretty muchmade the same points in another thread. Yes I agree, except that at chelsea we were lacking fight. I won't dress it up we were below average. Other than that agree.
Who is pinning for Allen, Orlandi, Sinclair, Graham, Borini or Brendan .... we want our current lot to man-up and win a challenge once in a while - 50% would be an amazing achievement at this point in time. Against Chelsea, the only player on the field on refused to be beaten in a challenge was Chico. One doesn't think of the likes of Hazard, Oscar and Mata as hard-nosed types, but they were picking our pockets and banging bodies when they had to get possession of the ball. They wanted it more than we did .... that's not acceptable at any level. If Chelsea had really applied themselves they could have scored more, but they throttled back and coasted safe in the knowledge that we couldn't make a pass in the final third of any quality. It's not being disrespectful of Ash to point out that wherever his head and heart was it wasn't at the 'Brdige on Saturday.
Quite right Terror. Some of the doom and gloom merchants on our board really need to have look at this to cheer themselves up - http://thechive.com/2012/07/19/ling...-never-gets-old-60-photos/lingirie-is-sexy-8/
^^^^ this. can't fault our season but that was one game where I was actually disappointed by the lads on the pitch, doesn't happen often so now we move on.
You can get too wrapped up in bickering about football. This week I am returning to my first love of music to entertain myself - http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/girls-guitars-17.jpg
fair play to you terror for trying to big us up but you have to be realistic and see 2pts out of 18pts is our actual up to date form and im afraid that's all that counts...like they said on MOD..Chelsea could of gone up another gear if they needed to....I know how you feel though it hurts to see us fade away as one of the worst teams ...points wise in the league...
I read people saying he can't be sold quick enough etc. That's a bloke who has been the heart of our defence since League 1 and is having a great season for us that bigger clubs are interested in securing his services. If that's not disrespect I don't know what is. I don't see how we need to 'man up' and that's certainly not how we got here. Last season we had little Joe Allen and Gylfi 'I don't tackle' Sigurdsson in there instead. I don't remember the hysterics. The final pass/shot is more of an issue to me. We need alternative options so we are not so predictable imo. e.g. Every Premier defender knows that when Hernandez gets the ball he is looking to play Michu in, he is our only option. Can't be bothered to look for names but I have read comments just in the last half an hour pining for Allen, Borini and Brendan.
I don't agree with your post Terror, your full of excuses for some really bad performances! enough said, and I'm very calm...................
I understand Terror's point completely, with our team and resources we should have been in a relegation fight but instead we got to safety early and won a trophy putting us in Europe next year. We have done amazing but the truth is we need a few signings to get the squad to a top half team. When your best option up front is a midfielder then you know you have worries, luckily for us that midfielder nearly matched the top strikers in the League but is its hardly surprising that 2/3rds of a season later other teams figure out they just need to keep him locked down and we cant score. Im really looking forward to seeing what Michu can do paired up with some quality up front next season, Rome wasnt built in a day after all.
i'm with terror on most points. i thought we were unlucky to go in 2 down but once we did, the malaise that has set in from being in the comfort zone for too long, meant we were never going to come back in the second. i'm sure there's been plenty said behind closed doors in the past few days about the performance. the next three games do look quite intimidating however i expect a reaction next time out, and i wouldn't be surprised if we turn over city. But win or lose the players do need to show some real passion and commitment, it's the very least the jack army deserve
Dai our seasons form is 42 pts from 34 games thats the bottom line and it is the over the whole season we will get judged on at the end not the last X games. I have just done the predictor on the BBC website I predict we will be 8th with 49 points. I agree with most of Terror's comments but I have to say apart from a few individuals we just didn't compete on Sunday.
I gave them a point at home to Wigan but to lose to Norwich and Man City away, and to Man U at home. We get 8th on GD - easy
For me it hasnt all been bad. first up: West Brom - be fair, we should have had a point, was robbed by the officials. (11 shots 2 on target, wasteful up front) Arsenal, thought we played well in patches to a team fighting for a Champions League place, it took 2 later goals to win it. And to be fair, Arsenal were never really in charge were they. (9 shots, 0 on target, wasteful up front) Spurs - 2 wonder goals sealed the game, we played well in that game, but alas no end product, I was more frustrated that we lost to 2 goals like that, than I was for losing the game due to the performance. (15 shots, 3 on target, wasteful up front) Norwich, was a well earned away point, was end to end, both teams had good spells, and we were the better IMO. Was a good performance, but the result was fair. (18 shots, 7 on target, wasteful up front) Southampton. Came out flying, played well, but just like previous games just no end product, michu missed a hatful of chances. But the performance was there. (14 shots, 3 on target, wasteful up front) Chelsea - I admit that was frustrating, that was a really poor performance. And have no excuses. (13 shots, 3 on target, wasteful up front) So in 6 games, we have had 80 shots on goal, yet only had 18 on target. Am sorry, that is why we are not winning games, we need a striker. We just haven't been clinical enough up front. But i think people are reading too much into the results, and not enough into the performance, yes we have been below par compared to our previous games, but other than the Chelsea game, I have not been frustrated with how we have played.
