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By god I'm blue
Banned at own request
I disagree.
Any team that goes on a decent run can grab a spot.
Southampton will drop more points over the next few games, Man U look like they are hitting a bit of form but they could go either way, Arsenal are incredibly inconsistent but I think they have enough in their squad, so 1 place up for grabs for me.
Del
Ric Wee fan club member 2014
toffee matt
Player Valuation: £60m
We keep missing the opertunities we need to take to get in to the top 4.
It's all good being 5 points off but we've virtually missed every opportunity so far to close that gap
It's all good being 5 points off but we've virtually missed every opportunity so far to close that gap
By god I'm blue
Banned at own request
Yep....seems yesterday was the perfect chance, especially going 1-0 up too and looking semi comfortable at that point.
Let's hope this midweek game is the starting point.
He can play a second string in the next Europa League game, league form is now top priority until the new year.
The Mighty Quint
Player Valuation: £40m
He got a couple of selections and positions wrong, that's all.
Never seen us have so little going forward down the flanks in 5 years.
Pienaar instead of Eto'o would have got the left working and opened up the game, and put Barkley in the number 10.
Never seen us have so little going forward down the flanks in 5 years.
Pienaar instead of Eto'o would have got the left working and opened up the game, and put Barkley in the number 10.
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Yeah, this was telling. In the first fifteen minutes we were bright and confident and showed decent movement going forward. The moment Eriksen scored we dipped, suddenly became static in attack. It was the absolute worst reaction.
Some general observations:
Eto'o: Burnley aside, he's looked much more effective coming off the bench. Playing him deep or wide tends to emphasise too many limitations and emphatically slow down our play.
Barkley: too much freedom. It's clear the rest of the team don't really know what he's going to do with the ball. They either stay completely still or move all over the place, neither of which seems to work. I'd have my reservations even if Ross was single-handedly winning games for us (see the black hole Bale, Suarez et al leave when they go) but he's nowhere near doing that right now.
Attack generally: our movement is poor, hence the sideways passing. Lukaku didn't do anything of note yesterday, compared to his excellent performance in midweek. I don't think he received one good pass all game. Behind him, both Barkley and Eto'o seemed vague about their positions and instructions, almost like it had been assumed things would come together through instinct rather than planning.
Tempo: this is partly the reason for our sideways monotony. We're far too content to slow down the tempo and give opposition the chance to set up their defensive formation. Spurs, Sunderland and Swansea all did it fairly comfortably. We're then left with two options - try to play our way through a swamp of players (Eto'o tries to do this with neat little one-two's a lot, although it invariably breaks down), or pass it sideways and wait for something to open up. This is particularly frustrating considering the last three goals we scored before Spurs (the two at Wolfsburg and Osman's winner against WHU) were all through incisive breaks, proving we're capable of doing it. The slow tempo can also nullify a great deal of the attacking threat of our fullbacks at times, which is a shame considering they're the best in the league.
Distin: finally stopped defying the human understanding of linear time
Martinez: I still think he's a good manager. I don't think he's overly focussed on the EL, but rather that our style is more effective against continental teams. He's yet to figure out a way to consistently open up the well organised opposition defence of your average PL team, which is now the biggest test for him.
Donald Twain
Vide cor meum
I lost count the amount of times Coleman turned the ball back wards , never seen him do it so much in one game. I still think the game went when Howard passed the ball to their player. Away from home, 5 minutes after we score, playing well, no shots on our goal, crowd on their backs and wham ! all change.. and you know what I knew it was coming , these balls ups are common place now with the aul arses and Howard seems to throw one every game now!
The Mighty Quint
Player Valuation: £40m
Never ever seen Coleman play like that, but Eto'o was not supporting him, he had nobody to bounce give and goes off so he just passed it inside or back.
Coleman started to play once McGeady came on.
streeky
Player Valuation: £35m
B I B ,that's exactly what I was saying about our front four yesterday. one of them should have been on the bench either ross or eto'o and another set of legs in midfield.
toffee matt
Player Valuation: £60m
This week last year we battered United and arsenal
I miss those days
I miss those days
This week last year we battered United and arsenal
I miss those days
It already seems like another era.....
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