I've got opinions about the club and what I believe we need to do going forward. Not sure some of you are ready to hear them yet. I might have a go when you stop throwing your dummy about quite so much.
lol says the guy that wrote a massive essay earlier in this thread that I can sum up in 3 words "get fox on". Bravo. He was well good against Luton.
Come on now, you know theres no point in arguing. We'll win and you'll go into hiding untill we lose again. Lets not dress this up any more than that. Lets be "Realists" as you guys say.
I think you'll find I'm just the same win, lose or draw. If the performances are bad then I'll say so. You know that's true, as does everybody else on this forum.
Have you got a link for the Marco Boogers press conference? Or the one where he convinces the Rodent we got ourselves a "lovely little mover" in OJ Koroma?
Have you one shred of evidence to back up the claim that "the midfield aren't allowed to join in"? Are you privy to the team talks and training sessions? I doubt it. You are simply drawing your own absurd conclusion from the fact that our midfield play has been particularly poor in recent games.
The past few games have shown us how much we miss an on-form Tetty in the midfield. He and BJ were both on top of their game when we went on our decent run earlier in the season and it is no co-incidence that since Tetty lost a bit of form and has then been out injured we have struggled. Howson (who I really rate and I thought would kick on to be one of our top players) has not been in great form and Wes's levels have dropped a bit and Fox has not looked up to speed when he has been given a (rare) chance. We do not have the strength in depth of other sides - we have a pretty decent first XI but our back-ups are just not up to it and a lot of our players have played a lot of matches this season as CH does not rotate the squad the way PL did last season so it is no surpirse that some players have lost a bit of form or are just tired and need a rest. If we had the sort of player that gave 30-35 top level performances a season then they would be signed up by someone richer than we are. This is not a criticism but a reality. In the summer we will need to sign at least one decent CM to provide cover/competition and someone to finish such chances we are able to create as it does not appear that Becchio is going to givem us something we haven't already got. The good news is that assuming we stay up we will have cleared our debts and have a bit of cash to spare. The defence is pretty good (although I wouldn't weep if we signed someone like Curtis Davis) and we have an excellent understudy for Ruddy in Bunn. Hopefully we can hold onto Garrido and concentrate our resources of strenthening the midfield and forward line with a couple of decent players.
I touched on this in another thread, and completely agree. Before christmas he looked so assured on the ball, and to me, he showed just a little more quality than anyone else in our side. He was comfortably on the ball, made some very good, positive passes, and wasn't afraid to maraud forward with the ball, knowing Johnson would cover him. More recently, when he's played, his passing has been poor, and the runs forward haven't happened.
everyone is talking about the players and their shortcomeings but i put a lot of it down to the coaches, i.e Calderwood and Trollope. as far as i can see they are well short of the standard to coach in the PL. there has been no invention or ability to change shown all season. their philosophy seems to be see ball, kick ball and no plan B.
I'm privy to what happens on the pitch, if you need further evidence then I can't help you, try looking a bit harder during the game you may well spot how the midfield relates to the forward line. It doesn't, except on rare occasions. There is of course Hughtons own declaration that he doesn't care how we get the points which might indicate that this "absurb" idea is really quite reasonable assumption let alone a personal conclusion. I'd quite like to hear your own alternative explanation.
If you can see explanations of what is happening on the pitch, as opposed simply to what is happening on the pitch, I am sure you will be able to spot me with my white stick and blind dog. There are various reasons why midfields play too deep leaving forwards isolated, and why they fail to get forward quickly from defensive positions. It is a common problem afflicting many teams, and a constant theme in match commentaries and analysis. But the suggestion that a manager bans his midfielders from playing higher up the field, or from breaking forward when the ball is won back in defence is not among them, certainly not as a general strategy (I suppose it might be the instruction in the context of a particular one-off game e.g. Barcelona v Chelsea last season). Suggesting that Hughton's comment (that he'll take points however they come) somehow implies that he bans his midfielders from doing anything but sit deep in front of the back four leaving the front players without support just shows how illogical you are being. It implies nothing of the sort, nothing more than that any point towards safety is welcome however it is gained. To suppose he meant that his strategy is to eke out 0:0 draws until we are safe is a travesty, just wilful misinterpretation.
Ok, what do the present performances, style of play and Hughtons comments imply to this wonderful almost super human perception of yours.
In a interview I heard over the weekend, Chris Hughton said "we are what we are"! I'm not sure what that means, but it seems to imply things won't be changing anytime soon!
I seriously doubt we'll see any change of style in the next 9 games as we cannot improve the squad and the first XI are not going to get less jaded. Maybe if Tetty gets back to full fitness and Whittaker is brought in then maybe this will beef us up offensively but realistically if we can stagger over the line and stay up then we should see some squad improvements over the summer which will, I think we all hope, allow us to play with a bit of style rather than just scrape by hoping for 17th place every year
"we are what we are"! Roughly translated that probably means "we're probably not really good enough to go out and win matches so I'm gonna make damn sure we don't lose 'em either"
realistically we will be aiming to be 17th or just above next season as well imo. clubs like Sunderland, Stoke & Wigan, a lesser extend Fulham, that is pretty much their aim every season (they aim a bit higher, but that is the reality of it). I see the same for us in the foreseeable future. I just don't see how this 'warchest' of extra TV money and no more external debt repayments is going to make our squad dramatically better compared to the (bottom half) competition.
