Call me a pedantic ****er but the last comment from Hansen on our game irritated me a little bit. "With the ball they're as good as anyone, without the ball they STRUGGLE." How many times does the fact that ONLY MAN CITY CONCEDED LESS THAN US LAST SEASON have to be cited for pundits and journalists to adjust their opinion?
That might be the case, but.....With the ball we're as good as anyone, but without the ball we struggle.
Not about how many you concede it's when you concede and to whom. Zero clean sheets against United, City, Chelsea and Spurs home and away last season with a total of 14 goals conceded. Can't expect to compete with stats like that.
They didn't even notice that the whistle affected how things played out after the foul, so I wouldn't pay much attention to anything they say.
As I have said a time or two before, there were some great quotes from the pundits the summer before we went unbeaten. Our defense wasn't good enough then either - apparently. The problem is when people start stating their opinion as fact. It really makes things a lot easier if people state their opinion as that, so instead of saying, "With the ball they're as good as anyone, without the ball they STRUGGLE," saying, "I think they tend to have more problems when they don't have the ball." They also tend to suggest that because (in their view) something is wrong, that it will always continue to be wrong. For me, I think the first goal is very significant. If a side can score first, defending is a lot easier. If you don't have problems scoring goals the defence is a lot less tight. Things are a lot more connected than this statement suggests.
