When I saw Sunderland go one nil up I thought the worse, then I saw Zamora trying to karate kick his opponents head off and get sent off. I though we were going to drop like a stone with Newcastle beating Fulham. But we have been lucky again. We need to beat reading badly.
The pundits still seem to think we are safe. They point to our habit of drawing and picking up points. Possibly true but a win would certainly make that belief more certain than an educated hunch. I guess supporters of other clubs at the bottom will all have doubts. I would imagine QPR and Reading have no doubts now. Wish mine would go away.
Given how anonymous Howson seemed for large parts of the game yesterday, I think Hughton should go with a 4-1-3-2, Johnson as the DM, Kamara, Hoops and Snoddy in MF and then Holt and Becchio up front? or swap kamara for becchio and elly benny on the wing?
Thought we were quite attacking against Swansea, wasn't that negative, granted the 1st half was nervy. Reading and Stoke are winnable games, need to win 2 more games. But I must admit I am feeling a bit uncomfortable, still believe we'll just be ok though.
People seem to think 1 upfront equals less attacking and being negative, but we scored 2 goals with 1 upfront and were attacking them. I thought we could have quite easily got the 3pts, but it was a poor second goal to concede. This formation we're playing can work, just finding the right balance. If we survive I think RVW will make a big difference next season.
We were very attacking from the 35th minute until around the 75th minute and were absolute dogshit apart from that, particularly in the first half an hour when we were as bad as we have been all season and I sat there shaking my head in almost disbelief. Overall though it was certainly an improvement and we did show a fair bit of attacking intent and actually chalked up several shots on target. Have to say I was very disappointed with the Swans, thought they looked very ordinary and a shadow of the side I've been very impressed with several times this season. Don't think I've ever seen them lump so many long balls up, think they've taken their foot off the gas after reaching 40 points and winning the cup.
And I doubt Munky that Michu will ever be that wasteful again? Totally agree about first half, I sat in my seat in total disbelief that we were level at half time!! We scored when we were playing pants, and as soon as we looked half decent going forward we gifted them another goal !!! Hoops was dreadful all game, really surprised he wasn't taken off before 80mins?
To me we didn't chase them down enough in midfield, and I think that would have been improved by tettey starting for howson (who was poor most of the game) We let them just pass it around too much, ESP after their equaliser when we could have gone on to win But on the positive side it was a good game and we were more attacking And I think we will beat reading if we play similar and cut out some of rhe defensive switch offs
Yes, I thought Wes had a poor game, not just poor passing but several times being too easily dispossessed. Very surprised he wasn't subbed earlier but it might have been CH caution about the need to sub for injuries with one of our sub options going early on with the Bunn injury. On that note, I guess Arsenal will be too early for Ruddy so it'll be Camp in goal. He's not a bad stopper but his kicking is noticeably worse than Bunn & Ruddy - puts us under pressure sometimes.
One time Camp was unlucky - put under pressure by a weak back pass from ?Martin, but I completely agree his goal kicking is weak. As I said on the other thread, I actually think he had a decent game overall and no horror show like against Wigan. Can't wait for Ruddy though - I think he single-handedly makes us more aggressive as all the players know we are much safer at the back!
I actually spoke to JR on Friday and he's playing in a 'develpopment' game tomorrow, but don't really expect him back before Reading at the earliest!!!
It was Bennett's bad back pass that caused Camp to fly-hack the clearance. His kicking aside, I thought Camp had a good game.
We don't want to rush big John back as camp did good vs swans, although he could do with some kicking practice Plus we don't know go long bunn is out for, I haven't read anything about him
In all honesty I think you will be ok. Two have already gone so there is only really one berth in the bottom three. Norwich already have points on the board that Sunderland and Wigan will be scrabbling for. Had results gone against you yesterday i think panic may have set in but I think Norwich have only lost one of the last four and I would be fairly confident that at least one other team will fail more miserably.
I think people are reading far too much into the Reading game as if that will be enough for safety. Beating Reading will not make us safe, by the time that game comes around we could well be a point ahead of Wigan with them having a game in hand. Somebody on an article wrote that it is in our own hands to stay up, I think the only thing that will keep us up are other teams failures. Whilst we showed more ambition against Swansea lets not forget that they pulled us apart for long periods of the game and they didn't play particularly well. We on the other hand were only reasonable for half the game and poor for the rest. The quality for our goals was very good, but for the majority of the game the quality was very, very low. Giving the ball away over and over again. For all Beefs attempts to try and dress it as something else, everybody knows we were generally not that good, just a marked improvement on the previous games because we did at least try and succeed in score. I think Stoke ( as I have all season) will get that final relegation spot, they are a dreadful team with an equally dreadful manager. I think they presently mirror ourselves, all four boxes for failure are being ticked for relegation. One dimensional manager, awful results, awful football, lack of technical ability in the players and disgruntled fans. The reason I'd have us ahead of Stoke is because we are better (not in awfulness) in all departments. Stoke fully deserve to be relegated and have done since they arrived.
