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bit on an enigma you mate, failing to realise that when big confident keepers come out at a rate of knots to claim a ball that is palpably theirs, hardly anybody does...just like when big CB's do it
Foot Long Hot Dog
Player Valuation: A packet of pork scratchings
We were absolute gash yesterday. First half there was only Gueye putting a shift in.
Barkley, Rom, Bolasie weren't pressing the ball hard enough, a lack of effort and commitment that I found sickening
McCarthy hiding yet gain as soon as we got possession. Useless.
Jags is showing his age now, as much as I've always respected him, his time has come.
Second half was little better albeit it was obvious they'd had a shoeing at half time.
I left on 75 minutes, not done that for years.
Barkley, Rom, Bolasie weren't pressing the ball hard enough, a lack of effort and commitment that I found sickening
McCarthy hiding yet gain as soon as we got possession. Useless.
Jags is showing his age now, as much as I've always respected him, his time has come.
Second half was little better albeit it was obvious they'd had a shoeing at half time.
I left on 75 minutes, not done that for years.
Could it be that certain players know that their days are numbered and as such aren't really arsed anymore ?.
With Koeman being forced to play them through the lack of strength in depth of the squad.
There seems to an all round malaise with certain players, who just don't seem to be arsed anymore.
With Koeman being forced to play them through the lack of strength in depth of the squad.
There seems to an all round malaise with certain players, who just don't seem to be arsed anymore.
Toffeelover
Player Valuation: £80m
Say thank you to RM. Last season never wanted Lennon at all and said so.
Stanley Parker
Player Valuation: £15m
We started with the wrong formation. We certainly looked better after the substitutions - even if they were far too late.
But Swansea are a modest team - and were tiring badly by then. I'm not sure that it would work against the top teams.
Swansea didn't play a striker. We could have played three at the back and attacked through Baines and Coleman.
Koeman seems undecided about the wingers - he's now played Bolasie, Deulofeu and Lennon. I expected Bolasie to be the player to support Lukaku - but yesterday it was Mirallas.
The games before Christmas are going to be very revealing.
But Swansea are a modest team - and were tiring badly by then. I'm not sure that it would work against the top teams.
Swansea didn't play a striker. We could have played three at the back and attacked through Baines and Coleman.
Koeman seems undecided about the wingers - he's now played Bolasie, Deulofeu and Lennon. I expected Bolasie to be the player to support Lukaku - but yesterday it was Mirallas.
The games before Christmas are going to be very revealing.
ultra
Player Valuation: £15m
A ball into the box is only "palpably theirs" if it is not attacked, which is the point I am trying to make. None of our players could be bothered attacking the ball, so it is easy therefore for the GK to claim it under no pressure at all. It doesn't matter if they are a "big, confident" keeper or a short timid one! Allowing a keeper to catch the ball in this way just boosts his confidence and makes him look good. The fault lies jointly with the corner-taker and the attackers: don't they practise corners in training??
It is not where we are, it is the way we have arrived here that is the problem.
When we were sitting second and still unbeaten in the middle of September and a with "favourable" (lol) run of fixtures coming up I for one did not expect to see us drop like this.
To be sitting seventh at this moment in time, given the start we had, is nothing short of very disappointing, Toff.
It can't be glossed over or sugar coated....we are in a horrendous slump and I doubt there iare more than a few among us whom believes things are about to suddenly improve given the fixtures we face between now and Boxing Day.
At the start of the season before a ball was kicked the aim was top seven.
We're still in line to do that.
The slump we are in at the moment is bad. Nobody is saying otherwise.
But perspective really is required.
Bolasie actually was pressing the ball. He just wasn't doing enough with it when he won it back.
Why leave early though?
I mean, you have every right to, but it just seems a little pointless to me - given the situation of the game.
You're a reasonable poster mate.
As are lots of others and I'm in no way trying to say we're not in bad form. We absolutely are.
Am I concerned? Absolutely not.
It's far too early.
Does the squad need a overhaul. Yes.
You may not be "saying otherwise" but those comments show you are in denial of what you are witnessing before your own eyes.
Based on the results and performances over the last two months we are not "in line" to finish 7th or anywhere near it.
If we keep on at this rate we will be closer to 17th than 7th.
Only a complete ostrich would be oblivious to our current plight with six really tough consecutive fixtures coming down the pike.
Having watched a lot of football for work Khal, observably so, I still don't think there is another side that is better than ours outside of the top six.
We definitely have to improve. But realistically we are the seventh best team in this division.
Form is different. And we have some real issues with our form/confidence at the moment.
But I've never known our fan base to be so miserable or acting like such turnips tbh.
12 games in after two years of tosh. It's going to take time.
The football this time last year was better, but we had less points...
We're level on points with United fgs. They spent £200mil this summer.
streeky
Player Valuation: £35m
Excellent point Esk, when del came on he had 2 men marking him and another 2 sheilding to the front post area. Not once did we have a player get across the front post, and watch it every week we will never have a player getting across the first defender.
It wasn't "two years of tosh" though, Toff.
You know that as well as I do.
That is why your good self and me were still with Roberto up until March......we kept hoping that the balls would fall into place and we would start defending properly to complement the excellent attacking play Roberto sent his team out to play.
This time last year the football was free flowing, exciting and we were in a good little run up until Bournemouth.
Two years ago the team was in decent form and we were a week away from returning from Wolfsburg after a stunning victory which put the group to rest.
Don't let the revisionists cloud your thinking.
It was very bad in parts over the past two years.....but it was also very good in parts.
Forget about the past and judge on what you are seeing right now.
It is abysmal.
Forget about what United spent and get your head round the fact we have taken 6 points from the last 21 possible points.
That is relegation form.
Look at the next six games and realistically predict what you think we can get from them.
I am going for 6 at best
If it pans out that way we are going to be mired in the bottom half of the table.
This is not good, Toff.
This is very bad.
You say we are "realistically the seventh best team in the league".
Happen......but we have lost at Bournemouth and Burnley plus dropped home points against Palace and Swansea.
If we are better than those teams then the manager must be doing sommat wrong in setting our team up.
This is why the more realistic among us, the one's whose heads are not buried in the sand, are miserable and behaving like "turnips".
We have lots to me "miserable" about
Even back in the day when the contact rules were none existent, a ball into the 6yd box or there abouts ( why it was/is called the goal area is lost in the midst of time - were the rules about Keepers once somehow different in this box - or was it just a handy line for the keeper to place the ball for a goalkick?) was always expected to be the keepers.
Now a days when you only have to frown at a keeper to get a yellow card, it is or should always be the keepers unless the keeper is a bottleless wimp.
I do agree that the ball has to be attacked - by both defenders and attackers...but you can't put Cahill's guts into big daft lumps like Lukaku or Barkley, or anybody else for that matter, it's either there or it isn't.
digresses slightly; Say what you like about Osman - and we do - For a little bloke he wasn't afraid to throw his head in amongst the big lads...and score a fair few
Sorry, but not sorry; so again with the back in the day, if you saw the keeper was not coming on a regular basis you tried to put them down his throat as they say - or if he was coming and more often than not claiming the ball, especially if it was only sat 3 or 4 yds out...and remember the keeper has a 2foot reach advantage with his arms...the old cry from the crowd was 'keep it away from the goalie ffs' - not as today - 'beat the first man ffs'
There seem to be some gaps in your knowledge and understanding, which stop you from correctly viewing the bigger picture...well I would say that wouldn't I?
We will, as is said, probably agree to disagree on this topic.
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