I don't want them playing like men possessed, I want them playing calmly and collectively in the way they've been coached to play. Our results against bottom half teams are perfectly good on average. Our tactics against them are fine and usually win. Why do you think different tactics would work better?
I agree with that. It's the gloom and doom before it has happened that gets me. At the beginning of the season everyone thought we'd be 5th or 6th and out of the CL at group stages. Now people are saying we are not good enough because we lost to Juventus and Man Utd in knock out matches?
I guess it’s that Deja Vu feeling. The common allegation that when it really counts, we bottle it. I agree that before the start of the season top six would have seemed acceptable to me, given the inevitable disruption. But having come this far, and having been 10 pts ahead of the Chavs, it would just provide more ammunition for those who claim that we can’t handle it when the pressure is really on.
I suspect Poch, like me, believes that if you play the right way that maximises the difference between the numbers of goal scored and goals conceded and therefore the number of points gained. Exactly when you score and concede goals is more down to chance. Changing to a less effective way of playing during a match is not going to increase your chance of winning it. We play the way we did yesterday against most bottom half teams and win most of them.
Which is another reason why we shouldn't be assuming that to be the case. It's complete nonsense by the way. If Chelsea get more points than us over 38 matches then most likely they are better than us. I don't see how the order we get the points in matters at all. That is mostly down to luck.
The claim has basis in fact. The slumps in 2012/13 (well collapse is the truth for 2012) occurred in the business end of the season (the final third) and when there was sufficient daylight between Spurs and the team who actually took the CL slot from us.
I think Pochettino knows all that better than any of us. But he has worked out a way of winning and it would be hugely risky to change that. I agree that if we could replace those players you list with better ones we'd likely win more matches, but it's not in any way easy to improve on those.
I disagree. It’s not nonsense at all. We were 10 points clear of Chelsea. If we allow them to overtake us now, particularly when we know full well that the situation is still under our control, then we will rightly be accused of bottling it - once again.
Of course it matters - effectively we gained our points when sides were not under the same pressure as they are now, fighting relegation or striving for high positions. We are now dropping points and form when the pressure is really on. That screams to me of poor preparation or an issue with attitude or (dare I use the term) plain bottle. Either way, there's something to address - and hopefully before Wednesday, because if we feck up against Newcastle we can wave bye-bye to the CL. And the repercussions of that slip are too serious for the club to imagine.
Not sure if I actually irritated you or you are being drier than the Sahara ... if the latter to me...If the former...apologies...been a ****e week in work and for my youngest so was just being football cross...but never meant offence.
The Toon game is the one we really must win, because Leicester nowadays see us with "cup final" eyes. Yet as you say that is the attendance that is most likely to NOT lift the team if things go vaguely like the WBA game.
So according to you, Chelsea got fewer points early on when it was easier and are getting more now when it is harder and that makes them good and us bad. There are several possible explanations. The simplest one is that randomness in results is working against us over the last few matches. The second one is that Chelsea have better players than us and a more experienced manager and will indeed win more matches when the going is hard. The third is that Pochettino's method for getting the most out of a poorer set of players leads to some additional tiredness towards the end of the season. The theory that we somehow have a lack of mental resolve and can't win when it matters is what rival fans say. The randomness explanation is almost certainly right. Try this one. It is well documented that we've lost 8 FA Cup Semi finals in a row. That's over a period of 25 years do it can't be due to players, managers etc so must be down to something in the DNA of the club. The problem is that we won the first 8 FA Cup finals we played in. That is equally unlikely so apparently proves that there was something in the club's DNA back then that made us invincible. Both explanations are nonsense. They are both random sequences
