Just posing a "quick" question here. Whenever I watch MOTD, most of the teams seem to be playing at a far quicker tempo than we can manage. I look at the pace of the games and can't help comparing it with the studied, measured approach that we seem to have fallen into. Predictable is another description that comes to mind. I was almost drooling at Lallana's performance for Southampton, for instance. How we could do with him in our team - or at least a clone. Whenever he got the ball, he was straight into top gear driving hard and fast at the Hull defenders and causing them all sorts of problems. The rest of the team seemed to take their cue from him and ripped Hull to shreds with the power and pace of their game. Impressive stuff that we definitely need to take a long, hard look at. Or is it just me?
Its not just you, we have slowed down from what we played at the early part of last season. Im watching the Spurs game, and it reminds me of us, Newcastle being quick and getting forward fast, Spurs struggle with it, where as Spurs, liek us this season are slow and lethargic with no effort to get up the pitch. Newcastle are closing down (us of last season) where as Spurs are not (us of this season) We need to pick up the pace, take Liverpool, they are great to watch because they get forward in numbers, they close down as a team, they have always been pretty much the same. We played great last season until the cup final, we were quick, we were working hard to close the ball down, we don't do that anymore, and I honestly cannot understand whether its the players not so into it now, or if its tactics.
I've been saying all season that our tempo has dropped off a cliff. It's there for all to see. Hernandez makes a difference I think and we're going to continue to miss him.
I agree with both of you. We are pedestrian going forward at times and I really don't understand it, especially as we have pace out wide. Lamah on Thursday showed some desire to take on his defender and I hope he gets a crack again today. For me, Dyer too often slows things up and he really should exploit his pace and trickery...create some fear in the defense whenever he has the ball and it will open up opportunities for others.
The problem for me, is what I have been saying for some time, our midfield don't work hard enough. Looking at Newcastle today and Tiote and Cabaye are working their socks off. Look at us in seasons gone, Britton, Pratley, Bodde and so on, all worked their bollocks off in midfield. We don't have that this season. There is also my disliek of our wingers coming inside so often, you look at teams and they are making the game as wide as possible, it stops a bottleneck in the middle and it pulls defences all over the shop. We haven't done that for some time, they tend to prefer to try and come inside, we need byeline runners, and we need them fast, we need a midfield general who is willing to work his bollocks off for the cause, as we don't have that anymore.
Mind you saying that, on another day, Newcastle would be about 7-1 down lol, Krul has made some fantastic saves today.
Don't agree about missing Pablo - after the cup final he passed to the opposition as much as us - also part of the problem
No it's not you Ivor! Our pace and tempo has dropped, even our wingers have been stagnant this season, we are very deliberate of late, and far too predictable!...............
Too slow and pedestrian ,and with no one in space in front the ball goes back the across the back line then forward again then repeat for effect in the meantime the opposition have reset their positions ready to defend .There is an instruction that we cannot attack the space behind the fullbacks but looking at today's game thats where our goal came from so not only were the substitutions spot on but also the subtle change in tactics .We're not good enough to go 2 goals down against anyone at this level so regardless of how poor the ref was he didn't cost us two goals in the first half and yes it was a fight back of epic proportions but we should never have been in that position in the first place.
I disagree, if we are not good enough to go down 2 goals, we would never have scored 3 in the end. We have a team that when on song can beat any team, we are just in a bit of a strange patch, and things haven't been going our way, that will change.
mathew your right we have lost our sharpness and pace and its not just today either its been since the middle of last season. We can keep on saying next game we will get it right but its just words that are uttered on here every week by the deluded that never happens...The same thing will be said after the next game..."next game we will be better"
That's called supporting your team, I go into every game thinking, we will win, and in the current state, that this game is where we will turn it around. If your not thinking that, then wtf you doing watching the game? And today we were great in the second half, and good in the first, if you cannot see that then the only deluded one is you. If we were Stoke you would be saying, oh we were lucky to get a point, they were all over us, we got lucky with being awarded the penalty, cannot win with you, doom and gloom every time.
Pablo makes a huge difference when he plays. He came on second half recently (West Ham?) and injected bags of intensity in our game. He's also one of the few players we have who can actually cross the ball. I cannot believe anyone would say he's 'part of the problem' because we've been like a drugged slug since he's been out.
Hell they even gave us a well done from coming back from Europe, and putting in the performance to get back into the game, yet tehre are some who think we played badly......they didn't turn the tv on, either that or sitting there with their prawn snadwiches. Today was a great performance bar the first 20 minutes, of which Stoke capitalised on a slip and a defender off the pitch and capitalised thanks to our midfield not doing their defensive roles. We should have had a goal or 2 by half time. Which if the case the odd few moaners would say nothing, but alas it didn't happen, but second half we were great. The tempo was upped when Dyer came on, just 1 little run which resulted in a corner, lifted the crowd and also lifted the whole team, the goal came and the rest just went as planned. As for stoke getting in our half, am sorry, but 2 instances of the ref giving handballs, when no-one in their right mind would give them, robbed us of all 3 points today. I mean even Mark Hughes didn't say it was a penalty, he was careful with how he said it, as after all, he cannot say it wasn't a penalty could he, the stoke fans wouldn't be too happy.
Exactly, Mark Hughes knew it wasn't a pen and if that had been us against them, then Hughes would be spitting feathers.
As is your right , the point I was trying to make was against better sides than stoke we'd be hard pressed to get a draw let alone win after going behind .We used to come out of the blocks flying (Crystal Palace e.g.) but recently it'd taking us an age to get going .How many at the game or watching from a distance have commented "get them in for a half time for a rollocking" .It used to be we'd set the pace of the game but for a number of games it's us playing catch up. My comments yesterday were made just after getting back from the game without a chance to have another look at the contentious decisions and I was right at the time that the ref was poor ,Was I the only one who saw a straight arm tackle in the first half , a yellow card ffs .
Huth did a professional fould in dragging think it was Pouzelo back, he was luck that another man was behind him to not see red. A red should have been shown but the games laws say only yellow. I'm still seething after that penalty decision, were a mixed bunch here in work, Soton, Spurs and Pompey and everyone can't understand how the hell a pen was given.
next game maybe....or will it be the game after that. we have been saying the same thing now that patience is running out and more importantly the home games are running out too....40pts is becoming distant with every game and i can't see where the points are going to come from when we can't beat sides around and below us.
Well seeing as you like form (reference to all your posts going on about form over the last 20 odd games) our 11 games this season have resulted in us earning 12 points, which over a 38 game season averages out at 41. So nothing to worry about yet. Your a drama queen.
