Check the table. It's a fair point but it's hardly knee jerk. I was saying the same things friday, and last month, and last year but some fans live in cloud cuckoo land and think we are equipped for 4th rather than 14th. Well we aren't. Granted we could have had better results against Spurs and Swansea but then we could have lost to West Ham and Chelsea and weren't exactly brilliant against Saints. Villa are **** yet they beat us 3-1 at home. I saw it with my own eyes and if BR thinks we're equipped for anything other than midtable mediocrity then he needs a slap and quickly. Its no use using Blackburn vs United as an example unless we are in and around the top of the league. I've no idea what United did before and after losing to Blackburn but I know where they finished so their result was a freak. Ours wasn't. Yeah we've had a half decent run. That's now been flushed down the ****ter in the space of 90 minutes but is anyone that surprised?
Nope! As I said yesterday, I have a wee rant after a bad performance that I suppose could be called knee jerk but in the cold light of day we are performing exactly as I expected us too more or less in Brendan's Year one. We have the following; Youngsters: who will get better or plateau but even if they end up excellent they will fade in and out this year. Sterling is a perfect example. The fact we have no senior player to replace him in the "out" phases is the problem. We have average players . Either because they've never performed or because time has caught up on them. One in the first 11 is a problem, 3 makes us mediocre. Our best midfield player is recovering after long injury and does not contribute to winning games. At his best he stops us losing them. Our best forward is being asked to support a youngster and an attacking midfield that is too comfortable lining up around the 18 yard box and passing side to side. He & our Full backs are our only chance of scoring which you would think would free up the AM's but they're just watching everything from the 18 yard line. We have no leadership from defence up. We are asking a defence of two (as our LB & RB spend more time forward) to perform miracles with a midfield that refuses to get back when possession is lost and a keeper that runs away and hides these days or at least no longer commands his box: he waits to see what is going to happen which usually means he's picking it out of the net by the time he's figured it out. Its not just strikers we need. We need to find or develop a leader in the middle. We need a new keeper. I can only hope that happens over the next 18 months or so. In the mean time: we get results like yesterday. But my anger is justified when mediocre players can't even get mediocre right.
Agreed - People were expecting Lucas to perform miracles and instantly make Gerrard and Allen play better. In addition, Suarez is 25 which is still pretty youngish. He is still learning and developing. I've maintained that BOTH Enrique and Suarez in the front 3, our attack is toothless and lacks penetration. Agreed - from Reina to Lucas, we have title winning team. Suarez and Lucas aside, the attack and midfield is not good enough. This was my concern. Again, people are expecting Lucas to come in and sort everything out. I think the deeper issue are the tactics which leave our defence and Lucas incredibly vulnerable on the counter attack. There is so much space and Lucas cannot expected to cover it all.
