Egos and their correlation to our form ?

[Timak]

I've not dismissed a cause being lack of funds but that's far too obvious. We were far superior in the first quarter of the season than lately, same players, same everything, we look like we're about to make that next big step, everyone's bigging us up as a team and then several players suffer a serious drop in form, Moyes seems bereft of the right ideas and tactics and this has been the case for at least the past month if not longer.

Yes we need to freshen up the squad but have severely limited funds but is it not in a man's nature that if his job / ststus is threatened because of the possibility of a new arrival, he gets his arse into gear and makes himself indispensable to his employers / fans ?

I think Davek and Sheeds nailed it and IMO the manager should start doing the job he's paid for and sort it out.

We have a small squad.
The same players play almost every game.
If they are carrying knocks they play anyway as we've nobody to replace them.
Over time the teams with the larger squads do better as they rest players and bring them back in only when they are fully fit.

I'm struggling to see what your point is. We are an extremely consistent team that has only once, in the last 6 years finished lower than a club with a similar budget (Newcastle last year). All the other clubs that have finished above us in that time have much larger squads with much better players.

That we fail to play at 100% maximum potential in every single game is unsurprising. It is impossible to maintain across a 38 game season - no team does it. And no team with a squad of our side comes anywhere near it.

And we are hardly on a bad run FFS.

 

[Jayhow15]

Thought it said Eggs - was intrigued ! No longer.

 

[sportbillyblue]

I simply wish we could build on the success and push-on. I'm trying to understand the reason why that doesn't happen and I simply don't accept that the answer is simply that we have a small squad. Couple of seasnns back we were down to the bone re: squad to the extent Cahill played a few games as the lone forward, we pulled together, faced adversity and had a half decent run at a time when we needed it.

I agree we're not having a bad run, it's average at best but undeniably a drop in form and if it's merely too much to expect the averge players to continue playing abpve themselves then give them a rest when their form dips, at least be a bit more thoughtful and flexible re: substitutions..

 

[sportbillyblue]

Thought it said Eggs - was intrigued ! No longer.

Scotch egss in the Ale House mate.

 

[Christiffa25]

Are we inconsistent.

We've finished on pretty much the same points and same positions almost every year over a 10 year period.

We've lost 3 of 33 league games and accumulated the third most points of any team in the year 2012 (more than the European Champions).

The reason we can't do more than we are currently doing is if we have injuries we have a large drop off in ability from our replacements. A fit Mirallas offers SO much more than whoever replaces him. Likewise Gibson sitting in midfield transforms our ability to keep the ball.

The frustration is if we did have a budget as big as Aston Villa we could bring in the extra midfielder, winger and striker we need and the we'd be serious challengers.

Most sensible post Iv read in a long while.

Injuries really hurt us. We don't have the match winners that the top teams have and we certainly don't have match winners to call from the bench. We are another 2/3 quality players short to really push and win the tight games when were trying to cover injuries or find something different in a game.

The fact we'v only lost 3 in 33 shows we have become very good and consistant at not loosing games, infortunately we run out of quality needed to grab those extra points at times.

We're close....very close indeed, just keep everything crossed moyes can pluck out a couple of gem's before feb 1st.

 

[King Max Old]

You're looking for another answer because the real one is the obvious one. There is no inherent mental weakness to either our players or coach, they're pros. Sure, we know that Everton will always up their game vs man city, probably reflecting an improved performance against better teams- that I reckon is when the team shows their mental toughness.
What you want though is our players to be shining all season, not alternate between purple patches and anonymity- this is unrealistic over the course of a whole season with the exception of the world's best.
The difference is the disparity between our first 11 and the rest of the squad shows- when Rooney or Giroud or Balotelli or Oscar are going through a poor run of games, they can be replaced with other players who get the chance to expose their own good form-we can't do this.