The curious case of dropping pts to lower half teams yet kopies/spurs win?

[Allezfan]

Ah how did I guess it would be due to our manager being ****e rather than the other two clubs spending roughly £50m a year more than us on our squads.

The thing is they vastly vastly outspend us. Which means we can't afford to get anything wrong, not in terms of transfers or tactics or motivation.

In order to finish 4th we need to be at 90% effeciency while Liverpool and Spurs only need to be run 25% competantly to do it.

But it's much more useful to talk about ways of improving our performance and getting everythign we can, reaching 90% and 100% then just giving up because of the difference in resources.

 

[Little Ralphy]

We've played some really good attacking football this season, though. Not so much of late but from august through november we did.

August and September (bar WBA and Newcastle 2nd half) were really good at times. But October-November we got 9/24 points I believe with our only win against Sunderland. Playing sides like QPR, Wigan, Fulham, Reading, Norwich, Arsenal and rs we should have been doing much better.

I think the form of the two Belgian's really gave us that little bit extra to pick up the points. When they didn't produce the side struggled to get maximum points IMO. How long before Mirallas' attacking instincts are coached out of him, so that he has the legs to track back and defend? Jelavic has been working hard all season trying to provide a wide option for the man on the ball, holding it up etc. but his goal scoring has suffered as a result. And with him wide we don't tend to have many options in the middle to score.

They don't seem to be able to find the right balance between attack and defence, against the lesser sides I think sometimes you need to go for it, 1 win gives you more points than 2 draws.

I personally think if Moyes stays that he needs to rotate his assistant a bit more, and hopefully bring someone in who can give a fresh approach to the attacking side of our play.

 

[Allezfan]

I'd be happy if we played the way we did against Fulham and Newcastle every game, tbh. The result doesn't always reflect the performance.

 

[riddick]

And they're four points behind us because they choke whenever they play anyone in the top half.

and Everton choke when playing teams in the bottom. I'm not saying Liverpool are the shining example because they are [Poor language removed]. I'm saying they have belief that their kids can see out games and start them because, rightly or wrongly, they see them as their future. We play Phil fn Neville in midfield.

And those kids ARE only 4pts behind even tho they lose against tabs in the top half.

 

[Allezfan]

But again Liverpool's squad cost three times what ours did, earn nearly three times as much and they spent 32 times as much to get there.

Four points behind us isn't something to be proud of.

 

[Brennan]

and Everton choke when playing teams in the bottom. I'm not saying Liverpool are the shining example because they are [Poor language removed]. I'm saying they have belief that their kids can see out games and start them because, rightly or wrongly, they see them as their future. We play Phil fn Neville in midfield.

And those kids ARE only 4pts behind even tho they lose against tabs in the top half.

Liverpool haven't beaten a team in the top 10, we've beaten plenty of teams in the bottom half.

 

[toffeejack]

I'd be happy if we played the way we did against Fulham and Newcastle every game, tbh. The result doesn't always reflect the performance.

same, i understand we haven't quite been able to do that as of late because of our right hand side being out injured and replaed by the adventerous jags/neville & Naismith partnership. I hope when these two get back to full fitness we'll see our more attacking football come back and then we'll walz past these bottom half teams and actually be able to break them down. lets be honest here, only man utd have found it easy to break down the lesser teams, especially at home. I know man city keep winning, but it's only 1-0. 2-0's etc. The premier league has actually become easier to beat mid-table teams like newcastle, fulham and west ham because they actually have sort of a go away from home.

 

[TheFinnFan]

this thread is a curious case

 

[Loz]

But again Liverpool's squad cost three times what ours did, earn nearly three times as much and they spent 32 times as much to get there.

Four points behind us isn't something to be proud of.

Well said.

 

[riddick]

But again Liverpool's squad cost three times what ours did, earn nearly three times as much and they spent 32 times as much to get there.

Four points behind us isn't something to be proud of.

I'm not disputing any of that, merely playing devils advocate. Just stating if you are using 'but we have kids on our bench' as reasoning for this, they have kids on the pitch affecting the actual outcome.

 

[Timak]

I'm not disputing any of that, merely playing devils advocate. Just stating if you are using 'but we have kids on our bench' as reasoning for this, they have kids on the pitch affecting the actual outcome.

Helps that they have a £20m striker bang on form too.

They are playing Sterling regularly (who will cost £5m) and occasionally Wisdom and Suso. They very rarely play more than one of these in a Premier league game. For all their "we play the kids" talk their last line up only had one player under 22 and cost almost £100m in transfer fees.

 

[Ralphie Boy]

It's not about how much you spend, I think we have proven that over the years. It is down to the team selected been arsed on the day.

Once again we just cannot break **** teams down and the reason is - we are ****.

No I'm not a red, had A season ticket for over 25 years, but they have players on par with ours, a **** manager but still put up a performance.

Will we make top 4? No, but unfortunately both Spurs and the ****e have more of a chance of achieving it, but would love to eat my own words.

 

[Walter Ego]

Test.

 

[EFC Si]

they buckle under any sort of pressure or expectation and have no plan b other than 'lump it to felli'.

The standard of football we played at times last night was actually embarrassing. The long balls were outrageous

 

[Bluenose1995]

Lescott, Mvila and a striker that can score will change this guys. time for heitinga, gueye and to an extent anichebe to go and use the combined cash from the summer funds to bring these guys in.