6 points from Man U (H), Villa (A), West Brom (A)

[RFUS]

You know youve got problems, when darron freakin gibson is the solution to everything

It's not Gibson so much as Gibson's absence.

We're used to what he does and have no idea what to do when he's not there to do it.

 

[Seamus Colemole]

It's not Gibson so much as Gibson's absence.

We're used to what he does and have no idea what to do when he's not there to do it.

I don't think we went that bad as soon as he went off, we went into the break level and if we'd have got the penalty and Fellaini scored would we have missed Gibson then?

Sure, losing him and gaining Neville is a right [Poor language removed] but its highly worrying if we as a team can't have any shape without 1 player.

 

[RFUS]

I don't think we went that bad as soon as he went off, we went into the break level and if we'd have got the penalty and Fellaini scored would we have missed Gibson then?

Sure, losing him and gaining Neville is a right [Poor language removed] but its highly worrying if we as a team can't have any shape without 1 player.

And what if Howard hadn't made the save before HT when we were carved open?

Gibson wouldn't have won us the game, but his absence and the subsequent midfield/defence reshuffle helped us lose it.

 

[Tubey]

I don't think we went that bad as soon as he went off, we went into the break level and if we'd have got the penalty and Fellaini scored would we have missed Gibson then?

Sure, losing him and gaining Neville is a right [Poor language removed] but its highly worrying if we as a team can't have any shape without 1 player.

The shape completely went. WBA should have been two up by half time. Long missed a complete sitter (hit the bar) and Howard pulled of a wonder save diving the wrong way.

We were notably better before he went off.

 

[Jozzy]

I love your postivity just don't agree with you on this one.

 

[flibbyflob]

Would have taken it before the season started, slightly dissappointed today but a combination of a poor performance and them being better than I realised meant we lost. Something to build on anyway with some winnable games coming up in the next few weeks/months.

 

[Jags..class]

This line of thinking is stupid really, no offence mate.

One good performance doesn't allow a bad one. You can't overperform and then say we have a surplus of good performance so yeah let's excuse an awful one.

This was a tough tie but without Lukaku and Odemwingie on the bench, we should have been more positive. After Gibson's injury it just all went downhill and there are a lot of worrying questions that were posed.

The United game was always going to be an individual game. We showed many great qualities but what separates top sides is how they perform against the teams they should beat. Remember when Liverpool finished 2nd? United won the title even though the RS had an impeccable record against the big teams, and United's was poor. There are more Stokes and West Broms than Chelseas.

And Villa basically surrendered after our early goal. It's hard to judge a game that was over in the first half. This was our biggest test in the grand scheme of things and we failed in every way.

Agree with most of your post as the Man u game was a one off, monday might and all that then we had Villa who are looking pretty poor, West Brom was a good test to see how good we really are?
But to be honest we did look much better with Gibson on, so this was bad news(hope he not out too long, we will struggle with out him), plus if fellaini would have took his chance we could have went on and won it so for that reason i'm not too worried.

 

[RFUS]

Agree with most of your post as the Man u game was a one off, monday might and all that then we had Villa who are looking pretty poor, West Brom was a good test to see how good we really are?
But to be honest we did look much better with Gibson on, so this was bad news(hope he not out too long, we will struggle with out him), plus if fellaini would have took his chance we could have went on and won it so for that reason i'm not too worried.

I don't agree with that line of thinking mate. Ifs and buts are great but there were 90 odd minutes played today. They didn't score until the 65th I think? We had a long, long time to do something and we did nothing.

Similarly Howard denied them an almost certain goal and they hit the bar too. You can't look at our one real chance and say "well if that had gone in we'd have won" as if that means we were just unlucky or we almost got a result. We were comprehensively outfought and outsmarted. They had more chances and they took chances.

 

[manxtoffee]

The simple fact is they smelt blood and went for the kill and we offered very little resistance, hence we got slaughtered. What is more worrying is that we didn't/couldn't offer another dimension to our play even though I think we have the players to do so. Frustrating to watch.

 

[AdeTheJambo]

We had the 6 points in the bag at 14:59 so this should have been 9 after today if our ambitions amount to anything at all. We are talking about West Brom here, they played well enough but we should still have been better. Utterly depressing.

 

[angelwitch]

Most realistic toffees would bite your hand off for 6 points from 3, with Man U first up to the plate, and 2 aways in the pot. WBA are a bitch at home to beat - and a decent grounding excerise will be learned -- you'll defo be in the mix for 4th spot.

 

[leelead]

Aim for 35 pts going into the Newcastle game Jan 1st we could ereally challenge up there I think

 

[Woolly Blue]

What i find funny/worrying is that we're all so distressed that a £1m signing from United whom many regarded as crap has become our lynchpin more so than even Fellaini.

If we'd have knocked in one of our half chances no-one would be mentioning it. Basically WBA closed us down much quicker than Villa so our passing game didn't work and their centre backs coped with anything we went long with to Fellaini. Their first goal was a good one and Howard needed some help shifting the lump in front of him for the second. We lost, though some of the time we were poor, we still looked like we had ideas and skilful players. Today it didn't work out. Compare it to last year at this time when we were clueless and totally awful Hopefully Gibson will be fit in two weeks when we're back at Goodison.

 

[toffeejack]

6 points is a decent return considering we've had 2 away games out of 3, with our home game being against man utd. i would have accepted 5 points from that start, but the performances in the first 2 games were much better than anticipated. hopefully we can get this belgian kid and wont have to see neville in midfield for the rest of the season. think we'll beat newcastle by a couple of goals, just wish we didn't have to wait so long to bounce back. we'll definately give spurs and arsenal a good push for that 4th spot, regardless of todays result. if i remember rightly WBA started with draws at OT and Stamford Bridge last season and i was tipping them to finish 8th before that, maybe this year they will do that. there are definitely quite a few teams like them who could challenge us for 6th, but when you look at spurs drawing at home to norwich and sland so far, whereas arsenal have drawn with sland and stoke, we have to be happy with 6 points from a tougher set of fixtures

 

[Dom1878]

I dont like threads like this. Before hand you may have taken 6 points and thought we would lose against United, but at the end of the day we beat United and our expectation was to beat Villa and West Brom - something we didnt do.

Thats not saying im still not happy with the start of the season btw, just threads like this dont make sense.