At the beginning of last season I started a thread saying we wouldn't win anything without a change of luck. I was pretty much shouted down by people saying that luck evens out over a season. Well that didnt happen last season did it..in fact quite the opposite. Last week against WBA nothing seemed to have changed. So the fact still remains that we seem to have some real bad luck as opposed to the likes of Chelsea and united. Already this season Chelsea have scored an offside goal and had at least one dubious penalty. United yesterday were very fortunate to get all 3 points against a good looking fulham team. Until we get those breaks in the box,the correct offside decisions,coming up against average keepers putting in world class performances,avoiding the woodwork I dont think we will get near top four. Let's hope BR is a more " lucky" manager.
I remember the thread mate ts not a lack of luck that we can't hit a cows arse with a banjo....and its not a lack of luck that linesmen and refs ****ing hate us what we need is some Roman sized brown envelopes stuffed with pieces of silver or a ridiculously undeserved knighthood for our manager. In all seriousness though mate we just weren't good enough last year at doing what counts the most...scoring goals. I'm not sure that problem has been solved yet either.
No I agree with you that a lot is self inflicted but how many times did goalkeepers play blinders against us but were average at best the rest of the year. Maybe luck is the wrong word..more misfortune . Uniteds "luck" is legendary and Chelsea have the same. Strangely though city didn't that I can remember. I just feel we get the rough end all the time. Let's hope for better starting this afternoon.
I think its also a confidence thing though mate. When we went a goal down last year it seemed to sap confidence because we don't know where the next goal is coming from. In past seasons we've had a Gerrard or Torres in full flow who can get a goal from anywhere. Arsenal had Van P doing it last year, United have that in built belief still that they can get two goals in the last 5 mins if necessary. As for the keepers playing blinders....Everton beat the manks last week despite De Gea making a number of excellent saves. Why? Because they had a player who was quite obviously full of confidence that he could get the better of his markers every time he got the ball. For me Suarez is the key for us this season. He's the player we need to be able to give the ball to and know that not only will he be creating chances but he will be banging in a high proportion of them. Had he scored last weekend when he should have at 0-0 I think it would have been a different result altogether.
How do you say that you are both right? Billy, we can look back and say that we weren't good enough last season. However, what would be the consensus if you add 20 more goals to our tally (and that's not all we could have had!)? At the same time would we have even considered players like Allen or Sahin had we actually achieved 5th (let alone 4th)? My own opinion is that our luck was very bad last season but I think we let it get on top of us - hence the decline.
Maybe thursday was the start of our luck changing. We managed to turn a what was looking like 0-0 into a 1-0 win. Kelly put in a cross that was nothing more than hopeful, and they deflected it into their own net. If we can get breaks similar to that today and onwards we'll be fine.
It was undoubtedly a freakish season Dave but I always think any supporter of any club can use the "if we'd only had another twenty goals" argument. Granted we could and should have had a lot more last year but then the counter argument would be...why don't we buy players who can score goals (or at least stop leaving a £35mill striker on the bench)? Goals win games...that is a fact. If we continue to struggle to beat opposition keepers and keep hitting the post a lot will that still be bad luck? Or will it be down to not buying a top class goalscorer? Personally I'd say the latter.
I disagree mate. That sort of luck doesn't come around every game. We need to be earning wins not relying on OG to be our top scorer.
I wasn't suggesting that ''o.g.'' becomes our top scorer. Its a marginal thing, we are earning the right for our chances to go in as we're creating them. If we weren't creating chances, then something would be wrong. Should we keep doing what we're doing our luck will change.
But we've been saying that since this time last year. It isn't luck that gets the best players 30 goals a season. It isn't luck that gets a team 80 goals in a year. Yes of course creating chances is important. Scoring a high percentage of the chances you create is far more important though. No one wins anything on what they create do they.
I actually think we should expect more from him in the goals department having a main goalscorer allows the others more freedom because derfenders are concentrating on stopping him.
I agree with that. The entire side needs to chip in with goals. Having acquired sahin, I asked this question last night, would Gerrard be played in a more advanced position than he's currently in? In a Borini Suarez Gerrard Allen Sahin Front five?
my opinion here is that margins may be fine and suarez can say oh goals fell in for him in holland but you have to look at standards. We saw johnson turn his back on gera's brillinat shot... just perhaps has he blocked properly he'd have got it.... then we see that kelly who was not fit yet was AWOL and nobody in midfield covered him, gerrard gives it away and then agger is pushing a guy over (stupidly) and getting sent off.... then we get the LUCK with a terrible pen from long and yet STILL we play badly and let them have another pen.. Bad play or poor work rate costs us far far more than luck... suarez has said in his interview he's snathcing at chances... IMO if he doesn't get one early on and settles he's poor in fornt of goal. Its not realy luck IMO, its just players needing to concentrate for 90mins then put in a shift that justifies their wages to go with it and then us scoring a few. luck won't convert 8th to 4th, no way.... we were only ever looking at 4th last year cos the top 4 sides were bloody awful and the total for 3rd and 4th was very low last year... If we look at it very critically then we should say it was unforgivable to perform that way v west brom as we can look at the next fixutres and think that we needed those 3 points due to a very hard start.... I can't just dismiss it as a bad day at the office as they players didn't pass well enough or move well enough at all.
I think it's a combination of things. There is an element of luck in everything, but it seems true that when you're confident luck seems to be on your side. As things went wrong for us the confidence drained away, players became nervous in front of goal, and a downward spiral occurred. I agree that if we get a bit of good luck that confidence might return and we can build on it. Let's hope we get a result today and see where we go from there. On a side note, can we please stop calling AC a £35m striker? He may have cost that much, but nobody in their right minds thinks he's worth that much. I like Andy, and the price tag isn't his fault- but when we say we're "leaving £35m worth on the bench" it sounds like we're ignoring someone who is streets ahead of the rest, and he certainly isn't that.
Thats a great point about United. Look at them yesterday? They were 1-0 down after 3 minutes and then flew through the gears and within 30 minutes they were 3-1 up. If that was us conceding after 3 minutes, we would be lucky to get a point. Things need to change, and fast.
He did cost us 35mill though Saint. Had he cost us half that it would still be total folly IMO to leave him on the bench for so many games. He might not be streets ahead of other players in the league but he was certainly as big a threat as anyone else we had last year. Not saying much I know but still a point worth considering.
At the moment the only real area there is competition for places is in midfield and the full-back areas. We're light up top and need more strikers, and we've got 3 centre-backs, Carra is in the autumn of his career, its winding down.
All we need is someone that knows where the net is. I'm still convinced someone like Dempsey would be ideal.
I believe you make your own luck. For example, Chelsea get dodgy goals because the ref is scared of what John Terry might do. United get dodgy goals because Alex Ferguson has all the refs broken in.
