That result has been coming for a while. Our attack remains totally ineffective. All thats changed from last season is our defence has got a bit worse!
I'm concerned. Its not just how difficult our fixtures get in winter, its how they end. We need points on the board.
So am I....we need those points. The 5 we already have proved useful while others are worse than us....keep it up bottom three. Logically I can't see us being truly dire....but I want us to be better than not quite dire. Analysis of league matches so far: Swansea....a lot that was promising, but also that continuing problem of not finishing. No immediate cause for alarm. West Ham....good start and goals. Let them in, but escaped with 3 points. Still no alarm. Huddersfield....worrying game as a newbie on the block looked better than us, though we improved second half. Could have won. Sweating a bit. Watford...losing a game at home, though the worst bit was not scoring. Starting minor meltdown...with real doubts for the season. Losing the League Cup game just threw petrol on the flames. That was plain disgraceful. My concerns are that we are struggling to score as I hoped that was just a mental thing that would be overcome by a new manager....well, it isn't! We needed a strong start as it gets worse near Christmas and more points on the board now would improve team confidence in themselves and Mauricio. My only hopes are that we have good players and we have strikers...just need to discover how to score goals....and there are worse teams than us, although fewer than I thought.
I think it's a bit early for panic stations yet. But with the fixtures we do need to get going sooner rather than later.
We need a commanding VvD back in the team. Don't feel great saying that. Stick Mario next to Oriol & then get a little brave with the attacking players. Tadic & Redmond need theirs heads banging together, no excuse for being so poor, they need to sort themselves out.
Good job we've already got 5 I suppose. Next Saturday is crucial though, cos it's Man Utd at home after that - mind you, we'll probably beat them.
Going to have to disagree: Austin looks a solid striker but needs service, lots of it. His movement ain't great though Gabba looks great. Good touch, great movement, looks great in tight spaces and a good finisher Long is just a work hard merchant. He works great in a 2 up top as he is great at doing all the donkey running. He'd be great if he could actually finish Redmond and Boufal look like they could be good players but suffer from being too selfish and having a football IQ of 5 (too busy dribbling and shooting all the time) JWP is just a bang average premiership midfielder whos only decent attribute is that he can deliver decent set pieces. I don't think any of that lot apar from Gabba is at a level that you could say are higher than your average premier league team imo
Does anyone think that this was the "Curse of the International Break" hitting us yet again, we never seem to be able to cope with it?
I'd agree with most of that. I think Shane Long's running scares the **** out of teams, let him cause the havoc which creates for others.
Fran is the one with the pins if you need any. There must be a reason for our inability to score goals, can you prove that it isn't some kind of curse that is creating the problem? It has happened before don't forget, we brought in a Witch to sort it out last time.