Anyone else think that this is 2 points lost (either tonight or Sunday)? I know win your home games and draw your away and you are there or thereabouts but I just think something is missing in the side and we just won't win enough games until this missing link is found. For me this is some width, playing a proper winger. Great news that the defence looks a lot more solid but it seems at the expense of goals. Good teams score and make goalkeepers work, we don't. Just not convinced we have the right formula in midfield either. I still think Sven is living on a knife edge - Saturday is a big big game. If we don't get 3 points I can see the headlines returning....The league already indicates again it is a load of tosh so if we can't get a winning run together then it doesn't say a lot.
Good point, as I said in the match thread would take clean sheet and draw again, now lets beat the Sheep at home!
2 points gained IMO. We havn't had the best of starts but we are unbeaten in 6 now. As long as we win at home and draw away its cool with me. So much for our sloppy defence btw, we just kept out the leagues top scorer
But we have lost 2 at home. I still don't think Sven is sure of his best line up - Let's see some width on Saturday, give Dyer a run and I can see us scoring some goals.
A good point for me. Look at the sides we have played so far this season. Reading, Forest, Southampton, Brighton, Cardiff and Middlesboro........certainly not the easiest start to a season.
Well as you've alluded to, it depends what the Derby result is. They are 2 decent points considering the opposition. I still feel the same as after Cardiff though. It's not the result, but we sounded very one dimensional and wasteful in the last 3rd. I'm starting to get fed up of Vassell again, he had a good game against Brighton but it sounds like he's back to playing like a twat again. He always makes the wrong decisions - if he should use his pace, he passes back, if he should cut inside, he goes outside, if he should hit the target, he hits row z. It's the same old concerns with the midfield, none of them do anything. They all play it simple, they don't skin anyone, they don't take any risks. I hate saying this every few days I'm even annoying myself but I agree with you, we need a winger and it's so annoying that Sven couldn't see that. We are a very one dimensional side and play slow, uninspiring football, partly because the set up is wrong but also because we just don't have the players to play any different. The injuries are a blow but none of them are a 'big loss' because none of them are having a massive influence on games at the moment. Whether Beckford is fit or not I think he should make way for Nugent, who's easily been our best striker so far, and Vassell should be replaced by Schlupp IMO as we need someone who isn't afraid to use his pace. Johnson, if fit, needs to play further forward and I'd have Fernandes back in. I'd drop King and Wellens, neither have done anything in the last few games.
If we win on satuday then these will be 2 very good points. The defence was the problem and now we have 3 clean sheets in a row the defence looks solid now. Up front we lack something hopefully David Nugent can provide that. I think we still need a winger and a striker.
Reading lost 5 in a row after us, Forest are shocking, we've also played Coventry, Bristol and Barnsley. So I wouldn't say it's been particularly hard. We need to up our game over the next few though, especially for Saturday.
After Derby we will have played Derby, Middlesborough, Cardiff, Brighton, and Southampton in a row (with Barnsley thrown in). Those teams are top 6 at the moment and we are unbeaten against them.
Yes it does. Just because you have a good squad, as we do no denying, it doesn't mean you are able to go anywhere and pick up points. These teams have had stunning starts and we have been the only team to have broken some of them down. After our less than impressive start these are good results for us.
Yes, agree - all very 'samey' for me. The diamond formation works if you have a fast nippy player at the front of this this, just like it did for Norwich last year when Hoolahan played very well in this role and a big man to hold the ball up as in Grant Holt. Not sure we have either of these types of players and King certainly isn't the answer for this front of diamond. I thought Johnson may play this but no, he plays a the defensive midfielder when he did so much on Sunday at the more attacking option, albeit on one of the sides of the diamond. I have said it before, and said it when he was England manager, Sven likes to tinker with formations and never gives off the impression he knows what the best line up should be. He picks his favourite 11 rather than those who fit into the 11 and this never ever works in football. Yes, a good point, but I think this league is a load of rubbish again. Everyone beats each other because none of the teams are that good. Alan Young said we would have lost that last season, the season before we would have won it when we had Pearson in charge and a pretty decent side. As I said earlier Saturday is now a big game...apparently if you walk the corridors of the King Power stadium there are many rumours flying around...
If think the diamond could work better with Nugent and Beckford up front Sol Bamba just said sometimes its difficult with the diamond when the back 4 are trying to pass the ball out
Stunning is not a word I would use, stunning would indicate every game won. I guarantee you now that half of these teams won't be top 6 at the end of the season!
Unbeaten yes, because we are starting to defend better (though not so much against Southampton and Barnsley it has to be said). Brighton and Southampton both play open attacking football so we had more space to work with. This was, for me, a major factor in those games. We have seen against other, more organised, less adventurous opposition that we cannot break them down. Who is the creative spark in our team?
And did you see the Mercury today? Sven is desperate to go back to 4-3-3 just so he can fit all his strikers in (especially Vassell). I know it sounds like I'm being negative but he doesn't half frustrate me sometimes
There's a strong rumour in my pants draw that I'll be playing hide the sausage with Cheryl Cole AND the Saturday's this weekend - I hope the rumours are true, but I suspect they are not
As AKCJ is trying to point out, we've played four of the top eight recently and not lost to any of them. We've kept clean sheets at Boro and Cardiff and are still keeping to the maxim of not losing away and winning at home. Once Derby is out of the way (which will mean we've played 5 of the top six in our first 9 fixtures!) the competition will decline in quality and we'll start to win away from home too. Honestly, there's no way this can be seen as a bad result by any stretch of logic. We are clearly starting to gel, OK, not playing great football, but becoming very hard to beat and soon we'll start to hit the back of the net more frequently. We've moved on a great deal since the Bristol C and Reading games, as I predicted we would. Derby will be a tough game as they seem to be scoring for fun, but our defence is becoming solid after three consecutive clean sheets and, so long as someone can grab a goal, I think we'll do 'em.
Stringer just said we are 'capable of scoring 4 or 5 goals in one match'. I completely disagree, and that sums up my concerns.
