Rival Watch Thread Watch

Playing without expectation can do some amazing things to a team's confidence, as we found out last year (and the last two times we finished 2nd then plummeted to 7th or so).

 

Sunderland

Wouldn't like to be a defender in that dressing room or in the next training session

Spurs & Arsenal dropping points, good for us. Good chance for us to climb above both of them tomorrow.

 

Some good results for us today. We can move ahead of Arsenal and Spurs on points with a win tomorrow.

 

No pressure on Southampton. The pressure is high on us.

 

Ahem

 

[video=youtube;VWdr9hvrhX0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWdr9hvrhX0&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video]

 

The OG in the Saints v Sunderland game
Top finish

 

Hang on! How does a team that loses some of their so called best players perform better than the team that has acquired these players? That's some puzzle. Shouldn't they be a banker for relegation ? Many pundits thought they were. Could the reason be Koeman their manager??

 

Played different teams.
Playing with players that might not link up as quickly.
Different expectations.

 

Are you saying that Southampton have played much easier matches than us?

Linking up quickly: There was an article from Carragher today about players settling in their team. Good players settle straightaway. Costa in Chelsea , di Maria in United, pelle in Southampton. May be the players we bought are not as good as those bought by Southampton after their mini exodus?

Expectations: should we not make sure we buy players who can meet high expectations ?

 

1 West Ham, West Brom, Spurs, QPR tomorrow and each other?
2 Good players link up with good players if the management is right.
3 All Premier League teams are expected (at least by their supporters) to give a good performance and gain as many points as possible.
The expectation thing is entire bullshit, professional footballers should expect the best of themselves.

 

That team lost to the team they sold three players to.

Clearly it is all down to fantastic management from Koeman.

 

I think its not that set in stone. Some young players will take longer to settle. Markovic for example. Though Moreno and Manquillo have been very good.

Lallana is doing well and Can has not played much.

Lovren, Lambert, Balotelli = Te clock is ticking.

 

Still very early to judge players from either side IMO.

Southampton appear to have bought well and are riding the crest of a wave at the mo,and good luck to them.

We have had a slower start with some important omissions due to injury,and the integration of new players taking longer.

I think in time it will level out and we will be top four.

P.S. Noticed that Villa,after a good start,are already in the bottom half of the table.

Things can change quickly in these early stages

 

3 points between Sunderland in 17th and Untied in 5th. Very very early days.

 

Our only new guys who have had a really decent run in the team so far are Lovren, Moreno and Manquillo, who have all been first 11 since week 1 or 2. Moreno and Manquillo have done well and have improved our team. Lovren has been sloppy and worries me.

Balotelli arrived late and not match fit, Lallana got injured, Can injured, Markovic took a few weeks to play and has not had a run in the team, Lambert has only started 2 games and done well as an impact sub.

Balotelli should be starting to show himself now though.

 

Not always true Diego,look at Forlan for Manyoo.

Very good player who went on to win the European golden boot with two other clubs,joining up with one of the best English teams
full of talent. With a top manager in charge also.

But it just didn't happen for him

 

Never got a real chance, always playing second fiddle. Forlan was top class at the wrong club at the wrong time, many others suffered at Old Trafford because of our success at the time. There is a guy on loan at Madrid now who would walk into most Premiership teams and another at Juventus who is wanted world wide but never got the chance when he wanted it at our place

 

You could apply the same to Veron too. In fact, why not go further and point at Shevchenko, Crespo or Torres at Chelsea too? They had some world class players in their squad to play alongside!

 

Veron, deffinately. When you talk of the Chelsea players it is hard to say, did they have better, established players in front of them that they had to displace?

Edit, better was probably the wrong term and a point of opinion. I should have said successful established players.