Andriy.EFC
Player Valuation: £8m
Because we're one of the worst teams in the entire league when it comes to playing the big 4?
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Jamo Martinez
Player Valuation: £70m
A lot of the time it's the luck of the draw. It's not the same facing Arsenal when they're on fire as it is when they're on a blip. And no, I'm not talking about our last game. What I mean is, Everyone has good and bad patches. If we'd played City as we're playing now, and as they were playing at the start of the season, They'd take the points.
The loss (of the tie) against Fiorentina had an effect - it's quite common for teams to lose their way (to a degree) after a major loss. I would say that we've lost the happy knack of sneaking games and suffered a surfeit of bad luck (Brum equaliser, Villa non-penalty, Hammers offside flag) and several injuries impacted our ability to match Chavski and Arsenal.
For me however the key factor has been the absence of Tim Cahill (and, allied to this but to a lesser extent Mikel Arteta and Leon Osman). How could any team expect to maintain the excellent form hitherto enjoyed with the vast majority of the midfield off the pitch. The Fulham game was a case in point - just look at the absentees, the early injury to AJ and who we had on the bench to give us the impetus we needed?
Tim Cahill is so vital to us!! Look how ordinary we were before he came back v Larissa - scraped past Metalist over 2 legs, lost 5 league games (Reading - oh dear! - Toon, albeit after the trip to Ukraine, Villa (ok, fair enough but they weren't setting the world alight at the time) and also the Mancs (0-1 a tad unlucky but we didn't play that well) and ditto The RS (yeah I know all about the Clattenberg errors but we still didn't play that well on the day - compare and contract with the first 45 v Arsenal and the Sunderland game with some of those performances. Look how average we've been since he limped off in his last game. How many games did we lose in the half-season he played - two - a late (silly) penalty at Old Trafford and a second-half collapse v Arsenal (aided and abetted by some quirky refereeing with 2 critical non-handballs on Eduardo turning the game around)
TD
For me however the key factor has been the absence of Tim Cahill (and, allied to this but to a lesser extent Mikel Arteta and Leon Osman). How could any team expect to maintain the excellent form hitherto enjoyed with the vast majority of the midfield off the pitch. The Fulham game was a case in point - just look at the absentees, the early injury to AJ and who we had on the bench to give us the impetus we needed?
Tim Cahill is so vital to us!! Look how ordinary we were before he came back v Larissa - scraped past Metalist over 2 legs, lost 5 league games (Reading - oh dear! - Toon, albeit after the trip to Ukraine, Villa (ok, fair enough but they weren't setting the world alight at the time) and also the Mancs (0-1 a tad unlucky but we didn't play that well) and ditto The RS (yeah I know all about the Clattenberg errors but we still didn't play that well on the day - compare and contract with the first 45 v Arsenal and the Sunderland game with some of those performances. Look how average we've been since he limped off in his last game. How many games did we lose in the half-season he played - two - a late (silly) penalty at Old Trafford and a second-half collapse v Arsenal (aided and abetted by some quirky refereeing with 2 critical non-handballs on Eduardo turning the game around)
TD
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Most of the games you have mentioned that we played awfull where before the fiorintina second leg. not to mention the fiorintina first leg and the two semi final legs against chelsea and getting knocked out the F.A cup by oldham.it the signs were there before the uafa second leg.
coyney
Player Valuation: £35m
to be honest I agree its 38 games that matter not just top 4 but I am concerned that after two major setbacks in europe the pen kicks and the earlier one in Spain when Duncs goal was chalked off we have gone in a nose dive for weeks with out anyone being able to restore confidence or morale or what ever the cause
It is intresting to note, that we were only beaten by one goal in all those except the home defeat to Arsenal. It would be intresting to see how many goals other teams got dumped by!
Thinking back to all the other games i seem to remeber really bad luck, what with pens, and pienaar giving a pen at old trafford. we are not miles away!
If i had told you all at the start of the season, we would be three points ahead in fifth place with a game to go even though we had Cahill, arteta, Johnson, Vaghan missing for large chunks of the season, you would have bit my hand of, if not then your chicken oriental!
What we are is the best pound for pound team in the leauge!
Thinking back to all the other games i seem to remeber really bad luck, what with pens, and pienaar giving a pen at old trafford. we are not miles away!
If i had told you all at the start of the season, we would be three points ahead in fifth place with a game to go even though we had Cahill, arteta, Johnson, Vaghan missing for large chunks of the season, you would have bit my hand of, if not then your chicken oriental!
What we are is the best pound for pound team in the leauge!
- Status
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