I´m going to go for "we have gone into the premiership with a championship team" If we can keep most of the players next season we´ll do well again in the championship... ...BUT the problem is we´ll be a `yoyo team` until we lose all the best players & become an average championship team again. This is all unless we really spend some serious cash & get quite a few over priced prem players in so we can fight relegation comfortably & progress in a sort of MO´N way. Playing championship football in the prem ain´t going to cut it & NP should see that & as of now do some thing positive about it for the remainder of the season. Our DEF is no where near good enough (Andy Carrol goal) & now (Harry Kean´s) but to name a few. Our FOR´s are all firing blanks aswell. As we are it´s relegation this season, 2 points out of a pos 30 is relegation form. No complaint about our effort btw, we´re having ago but we ain´t got the quality, simple as. Don´t forget we lose Schlupp & Mahrez in Jan as they go to the ACN.
Schlupp and Mahrez are the only players I can give any credit to in the last few games, and they're going to be gone soon! A large reconstruction of the team needs to happen if we are going to stay up, especially the defence, and possibly Nigel if he doesn't get his act together. Drinkwater looks a shadow of his former self, and Morgan is just shambolic. I know there's a big gap between the Championship and Premier League, but many of our players seem to have got worse, especially those two but also Konchesky, Knockaert, Vardy, and Nugent. I would even go so far as to suggest we are worse than last season.
Agree big problem at CB but also LB and King James and Drinkwater, who I thought would shine in the Prem are not doing it against prem sides, plus a quality striker which I don't think we have a chance of getting. Unfortunately we are what we are a side with championship players.
The spine is weak throughout from goalkeeper to centre forward all of them in these key positions are not good enough for this league.
We need at least 4 players. A Left back, Centre half, Winger, Striker are all musts for January. Tonight Eriksen's free kick sneaks in, Mahrez's hits the bar. Fine margins
The problem is Ulloa hits the post, Mahrez the bar, two penalty shouts, Morgan misses with his bum. When you are down the bottom these breaks don't go for you and then we get one piece of luck against us with the Eriksson goal. Good on him for trying it but gosh there is such a fine line. We just need one of these to go in like Burnley got against us and I think we will be away.
Quite honestly i think a SETTLED Drinkwater and James combination is fine, Wingers are fine, RB is fine and Konch is much better than people give him credit for. We look good and threatening and competitive for a lot of the time, but the problem is that when teams break on the counter against us they always look like scoring. Our CBs are dire and, unfortunately, our worse atm is Wes.
Only saw the game on MOTD, but it was enough to highlight what has been obvious for a long time now. A pretty good, competitive and spirited performance was again undone by individual errors. I'm afraid Morgan should never be allowed to play in the Premier League again. He just isn't good enough - too slow, awful in positioning and in possession. His mistakes are just making things more difficult for the team and must be killing them. What is wrong with his balance? He fell over himself when trying to tackle Kane for their goal and then did the same when he had the chance to redeem himself at the other end. Has he got someone else's legs attached to his body? Liam Moore has to step up and be counted now. He's an England under 21 and needs to show what he's made of. But we definitely need to bring in an experienced and dominant central defender who can organise the whole of the defence. It would be good to get a tough tackling defensive midfielder to shore up the hole in front of the back four - a Mascherano type, or someone like Matic . Hammond is probably the nearest thing we have (obviously not in the same league as those I just mentioned, but you get the idea!). As much as I like Ulloa it would be nice to have an alternative in the mould of Suarez or Aguero; someone strong, pacey, low centre of gravity who is capable of playing up on their own and prepared to run all day and chase lost causes (and maybe even score goals!). I don't think it's a good idea to bring too many new faces in, because team spirit still looks to be good. If we can get a couple of key positions sorted and stop the crazy self-inflicted cock ups that are undoing all the good work then I think we'll get a better idea of what the team is really capable of. I think we have a few players who can compete in this league, but they need the confidence of a win behind them so they can throw off the shackles and start performing without fear.
Harry Kane's goal should have been offside, he was offside in the build up and before people say he wasn't activive thats a load of bollocks. Danny Simpson had to mark Chadli and keep and eye on Kane who was offside therefore interfering in play
I think that's probably more an indictment of our terrible defence. We know from experience that Kane's hardly pacey- what was Morgan doing not tracking him?!
If we wanted to pick faults in our defending we would be here all day. Shocking goal to succeed but IMO it shouldn't of stood
Well looking at our defence for a minute Kasper has done well except his weaknesses have been horribly exposed Hamer has done well except for Eriksen's goal but has shown he is more then capable back up De Laet going forward has done well but falls asleep defensively too often Simpson hasn't played much but has done ok Moore has done well but his inexperience has cost him Morgan is getting a lot of unfair stick IMO. He has done well, but a few mistakes have cost a few goals which will be expected every so often from a team coming up to the prem Wasilewski gives his all and uses his experience very well but isn't good enough Konchesky is a liability at times but solid at others. Without any decent competition/cover at left back it will always been a long season I think we need at least 2 new centre halfs in January, IF Matt Upson returns then we only need 1 but if he doesn't then we need 2. We also need a new left back IMO.
Too many individual errors, the Premier League teams are a lot more ruthless than what we're used to, cut them out for starters.
The Problem is down to the fact we are not PL "streetwise" We don't make enough fouls to break up play in the middle, we don't take the dramatic tumbles in the box and our players are more than happy to jump up instead of play acting. I watched Chelsea prior to the City game and given half the chance hazard, costa, oscar and ivanovic are just looking for the challenge to go down. On the flipside Vardy, Mahrez and Ulloa didn't against Spurs. it is cynical but unfortunately that (and our near misses) against spurs was the difference. Even Rose was overdramtically pulling off front flips anytime a challenge came in! Time and time again opposition players are buying fouls and cards against us!
