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Wheels well and truly come off!


washsaint

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Despite trying to be optimistic, it feels like the wheels have well and truly come off and really don't know where next point, let alone win, is coming from.

 

We have been absolutely appalling for a number of weeks and reckon you could count on the fingers of 1 hand how many real chances we have created in the last 5 or 6 games.

 

We have been sussed out......Mane and Mayuka are not footballers. It is a joke how often they play.

 

We create absolutely nothing and Tadic is a shadow of the player at the start of the season.

 

It is time for Koeman, and the team, to step up to the plate and stop this rot. If the players he is picking week in week out (long, Mane looking at you specifically) are not performing bring in the youngsters cos they sure as hell can do no worse. Surely Seager has to be a better option than Mayuka from the bench?

 

A truly exciting season has evaporated into what could well become a long, hard struggle all season.

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Get a grip of yourself. We have hardly been "absolutely appalling for a number of weeks."

 

We will finish mid table.

 

And that's the plan for this season is it, finishing mid table, I thought Koeman said we need to be Europa League this season.

Still 5th but to me 5 straight losses isn't acceptable at all. Could easily be 6 on Saturday and then 7 out of 8 when Chelsea beat us.

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Well we have, how many weeks ago was the Villa game? Which is the first game we were noticeably poorer/tired looking/injured in.

 

It's been a bit bitty in recent weeks. We played well against Utd and Arsenal, you can't deny that...it's against the 'other sides' where we've simply failed to turn up. I put it down to complacency, coming back from the last international break thinking they had all made it. ''Oh it's only villa away'' and the slide began.

 

Too many players haven't got their heads in the right places at the moment.

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Even 2 weeks before that game, leicester at home, we weren't our usual selves.

 

you can probably trace it back to the Sunderland game, we might have got over confident. Too many internationals playing too many games, too many cards picked up in pointless Capital 1 Cup games, we've driven our players into the ground perhaps.

They were so excited that they wanted to give up their days off, they obviously thought that there was some point in that surely.

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Despite trying to be optimistic, it feels like the wheels have well and truly come off and really don't know where next point, let alone win, is coming from.

 

We have been absolutely appalling for a number of weeks and reckon you could count on the fingers of 1 hand how many real chances we have created in the last 5 or 6 games.

 

We have been sussed out......Mane and Mayuka are not footballers. It is a joke how often they play.

 

We create absolutely nothing and Tadic is a shadow of the player at the start of the season.

 

It is time for Koeman, and the team, to step up to the plate and stop this rot. If the players he is picking week in week out (long, Mane looking at you specifically) are not performing bring in the youngsters cos they sure as hell can do no worse. Surely Seager has to be a better option than Mayuka from the bench?

 

A truly exciting season has evaporated into what could well become a long, hard struggle all season.

 

Mane's an excellent footballer in patches, Mayuka, well, he's my benchmark for squad depth. If he's on the bench we don't have any.

 

As for the overall "wheels fallen off", it's hardly surprising with the injuries and lack of depth in the squad. As I may have mentioned in October, when most of your covering options involve players playing in different positions to those they're used to, it's impossible not to impact on the team overall.

 

We have an EXCELLENT team, and a fairly ropy bench. We can give anyone a game with a fully fit, rested side, and we haven't had that since before the Villa game.

 

Still, it's not like we've got to play Chelsea, Man U or Arsenal in the next fortnight. What? Oh. Plus Everton after their first midweek break in ages and Palace away? Ah.

 

Well, at least we're not losing the AFCON players for two additional games in January, and when Sheff U draw Chelsea we can give a sigh of relief.

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Even 2 weeks before that game, leicester at home, we weren't our usual selves.

 

I'd say we were exactly our normal selves against Leicester, teams can hold on for a lot longer nowadays by just defending and we did well to break them down. We had a load of energy and missed a load of chances. Basically if we don't score early, we usually don't score.

 

If people can't look at the starting line-ups and say "oh, right", then they're missing the point. First fatigue from relying on the same core, then injuries and suspensions to that core caused by being asked to play too frequently (and against better opposition), and now maybe a lack of confidence from losing a couple of matches to teams we'd beat with a rested fully fit first XI.

 

It's only going to get worse in the next couple of weeks, so enjoy Christmas and New Year and we'll see where we are in mid-January. We'll also see what we can manage in the transfer market too.

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And that's the plan for this season is it, finishing mid table, I thought Koeman said we need to be Europa League this season.

Still 5th but to me 5 straight losses isn't acceptable at all. Could easily be 6 on Saturday and then 7 out of 8 when Chelsea beat us.

 

Koeman also said the club budgets for finishing 10th (but would like to do better) we have the smallest squad in the PL at the moment. Considering the summer finishing any where in around last seasons finish would be a decent achievement the issue here is to many people got a hard on over our start and are know suffering from the reality of our situation.

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Let's calm down. We're in 5th and we are well placed to weather the storm. At Arsenal and Manchester United, we were far from out of it and we could have beaten Burnley with a bit more umph. We'll be alright, I have faith we'll get out of this and finish in the top 8 come end of the season.

 

However Koeman was very specific the other day, we need to finish in a EL position and higher if possible (although he seemed to think that unlikely). I'm not making this target up, he said it was what we need to achieve, not hope to achieve or some other expression that could be construed as maybe,maybe not. we need to do that...definite no messing.

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Let's face it, if someone had offered us 5th running up to Xmas after the summer we had we would have bitten their hand off. If the losses had been spread through the season we would also be ok now. We had an amazing run of wins that was never going to continue and we have had a run of losses which will also come to an end. This season has surpassed anything I had expected at the start so to start slagging off Koeman or finding players to be scapegoats is ridiculous.

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We outplayed United and were decent against Arsenal you are right.

 

And then Koeman said we don't handle mistakes as well as those clubs, he's pretty definitive about these things, t'were that many of our fans would be as definite. Then we'd have a jolly sight less of this we played well and lost so that's ok stuff and a bit more of the Koeman approach who's said that our last 2 performances are not good enough. The bloke is saying this stuff, so why dull it down really.

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I am not saying we didn't gift the game to United but would you agree that we were by far the better footballing side that night?

 

We couldn't score, scoring is the ultimate decider in football, you can be **** as you like and then score 2 goals and win, at the end of the day you get the 3 points and the others don't. Too much emphasis on quality and not enough on result. You play football at that level to win not be the unlucky loser.

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There is a difference to be unlucky and to playing crap. Just look at QPR. To me we have only had two really poor performances this season - last night and against City. We are not 5th because we have been lucky. We have been a good side. Yes we need to score more goals but you could say the same about Pochettinos sides. Adkins teams scored goals but also conceded. We haven't got the balance right yet but I would rather be us than any of the teams below us.

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There is a difference to be unlucky and to playing crap. Just look at QPR. To me we have only had two really poor performances this season - last night and against City. We are not 5th because we have been lucky. We have been a good side. Yes we need to score more goals but you could say the same about Pochettinos sides. Adkins teams scored goals but also conceded. We haven't got the balance right yet but I would rather be us than any of the teams below us.

 

By the same token, we have flattered to deceive on quite a few occasions, even while winning. We haven't dominated teams or controlled play as we did last season. Yes we struggled to score under MP but I never felt the concern I have this season that a game could quickly turn against us.

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However Koeman was very specific the other day, we need to finish in a EL position and higher if possible (although he seemed to think that unlikely). I'm not making this target up, he said it was what we need to achieve, not hope to achieve or some other expression that could be construed as maybe,maybe not. we need to do that...definite no messing.

 

We don't have the squad to cope with two cup competitions and the league at the moment Europe would ****ing ruin us.....

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By the same token, we have flattered to deceive on quite a few occasions, even while winning. We haven't dominated teams or controlled play as we did last season. Yes we struggled to score under MP but I never felt the concern I have this season that a game could quickly turn against us.

 

We dominated Manchester United and did well against Arsenal. I haven't seen all of the stats but we seem to have the same amount of possession we had last year too. Winning games when you don't play well is what the top teams do and what United did against us. We just don't have the depth of squad to continue playing the way we play all season as Poch found out too. For the first time RK is coming under the microscope. He needs to take a breath and regroup. I still think we have had an excellent season and am not going to start wetting the bed over two poor matches. If things are still cr*p come the end of January though I may invest in some rubber sheets ;)

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To put this in context guys we have had a great start as we did last year and are having a tricky patch, as we did last year.

 

I maybe wrong but I think it's maybe because we are basically the same team with no more depth than we had last year just a few different players.

 

We have replaced those who left with great alternatives and shrewd buys but to have really kicked on we needed to buy all those players whilst hanging on to what we had. That would have given us the squad to move on. As it is I think we all hope the squad will get bigger and better either in Jan or next year without losing to many.

 

But I maybe wrong its just an opinion.

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To put this in context guys we have had a great start as we did last year and are having a tricky patch, as we did last year.

 

I maybe wrong but I think it's maybe because we are basically the same team with no more depth than we had last year just a few different players.

 

We have replaced those who left with great alternatives and shrewd buys but to have really kicked on we needed to buy all those players whilst hanging on to what we had. That would have given us the squad to move on. As it is I think we all hope the squad will get bigger and better either in Jan or next year without losing to many.

 

But I maybe wrong its just an opinion.

 

That's pretty much how I see it. We have a small squad we need to make it bigger with good PL level players. That was never going to happen last summer with all the turmoil but some new players in Jan is a must I reckon.

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Don't want to blow this out of proportion, but it was unacceptable in many ways.

However I'm not pleased with Koeman's attitude in the last few games. Often looking hopeless, passive, angry at post-match press conferences (he took the Man U. result too personally, his spat with Van Gaal was really evident), and more recently reacting badly to us going 1-0 down despite Clough Jr's Brian side coming out of him very evidently last night.

 

We have a team of players that are in their 1st PL season, and after a really good start they are having their first big moment of adversity, which we all know how bad it can get. Surely they need someone encouraging them on from the touchline a bit more actively rather than just expecting them to deal with it?

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We can still finish in the top 6, if Liverpool continue to be rubbish. That position is up for grabs Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man U, Spurs, then one of Southampton, Liverpool, West Ham, Swansea or Newcastle?

 

We had a terrible blip and let's face it a lucky break today seemed to have turn things back around. Still fingers crossed we collect some vital points to keep us in the top 6.

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The wheels aren't off but this thread proves that some of our fans have a screw loose.

 

We've played well bar Burnley and SU despite injuries and suspensions; all with key players who are new to the PL's pace and intensity.

 

Having said that, it's always good to identify the bed wetters, when we're winning you forget who they are.

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Really! I thought they both played well today. How you can criticise Yoshida when we kept a clean sheet and he set up and scored the third goal I don't know.

 

I was mocking the hysterical responses of some when we lose. Both are assets and both excellent today.

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Let's not get too carried away with the negativity or the positivity.............

 

Please think back to our 8-0 win against Sunderland. For the first 20 mins they dominated us and looked like they were going to score. What happened next is history.

In games we lose e.g. Man U, we are soemtimes the better team.

 

Overall I think our style of play is more convincing than last season, but we are not Real Madrid, Barca or Bayern Munich. we will lose games we think we should win and vice versa.

 

What's critical is how we react when things don't go our way, yesterday was a great reaction. Let's hope we can maintain it against Palace and Arsenal but i think Chelsea will beat us even if we've got our best team out!

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Let's not get too carried away with the negativity or the positivity.............

 

Please think back to our 8-0 win against Sunderland. For the first 20 mins they dominated us and looked like they were going to score. What happened next is history.

In games we lose e.g. Man U, we are soemtimes the better team.

 

Overall I think our style of play is more convincing than last season, but we are not Real Madrid, Barca or Bayern Munich. we will lose games we think we should win and vice versa.

 

What's critical is how we react when things don't go our way, yesterday was a great reaction. Let's hope we can maintain it against Palace and Arsenal but i think Chelsea will beat us even if we've got our best team out!

We're fifth at Christmas.

 

When are we allowed to get carried away, because it isn't really ever going to be much better than that.

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