[quote author=Vlads Quiff link=topic=37418.msg998428#msg998428 date=1259147622]
[quote author=the_khl link=topic=37418.msg998382#msg998382 date=1259145200]
[quote author=Vlads Quiff link=topic=37418.msg998350#msg998350 date=1259142253]
[quote author=the_khl link=topic=37418.msg998329#msg998329 date=1259138891]
Last nights results were sour pills to swallow.
I watched the last ten of the Lyon game and they actually had a few 'more than decent' opportunities to equalize highlighted by a throughball to Lisandro Lopez playing him one-on-one with the keeper. Only difference this time around was that his shot went straight at the keeper instead of into the top corner as were the case when they played us.
Football is still football and not something you can control no matter who you are. We haven't played to our best but we probably would've gone through a different year where scorelines would've suited us better than say Fiorentina.
It really isn't the end of the world though, just imagine if we were to actually find our feet in the Premiership and go on a prolonged series of wins starting against Everton. It seems almost impossible I know but I'm still certain Chelsea, United and Arsenal will drop points everywhere this Season as well, and then it could somehow turn into a very well hidden disguise, that we actually not are going to play in the Champions League but in the less strong Europa League come Spring.
We will now use all of our focus in the Premiership and this may just come in handy after all, if we start to pick ourselves up that is. Starting this weekend.
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Can people get this idea out of their heads, some fantastic season saving run it isn't going to happen. The only way it is is if we have a first choices team permanently fit and availbale. We are not punching below our weight for some reason, we are performing at the level of the players available.
The very best we can hope for is to grind out results and hope that both Spurs and City have poor runs.
In some ways having a great player like Torres available has done us no favours and papered over the cracks that were forming, just as having Gerrard, playing like he did, a few years ago did.
I keep trying to avoid the told-you-so line, but a few of us did. One of the few things that Ryan and I admit agreeing on. We seemed completely disinterested in signing a forward, to either back-up, or compliment Torres, since Keane went last January. Even if Keane had worked out , we were still going to be short of firepower, a top team needs THREE top strikers to get by on.
The sad thing, one of them, about last night is that people are being kidded into thinking N'gog is actually beginning to look a half reasonable player, he's not, it's because every other option is much worse.
The other sad thing about last night is that Rafa was back to his baffling worst over his use of substitutions.
Imagine how we would have felt if the Fiorantina result was different and we ended up going out because we had not scored enough goals last night, it was a possibility and we huffed and puffed all fucking night.
I don't know when I want Rafa to go, but I have known for a couple of year now that I want him to, I would hope it would be the summer, I can see no point now and our position is too fragile. I think a change of ownership will decide that anyway.
As regards we can't afford it. Apparently this hinges on his ability to walk into another job or not. Rafa is the luckiest manager in the world , if the fans did not have a bigger perceived problem with the owners they would have turned on him by now. It's a shame, I have a high regard for him on many other issues.
I know the owners are partly culpable for this , but they seem to have given Rafa enough rope for him to hang himself, the priority in the summer was a striker and we never got it. The Aqualani gamble has blown up in our faces and the squad has been allowed to become paper thin all leading to the situation we have now, it's not bad luck it's bad contingency management.
Four months since Rafa signed his new contract? It's hard to think of us being in a worse position had Parry stayed. I am asking myself the question - Was he as bad as everyone was making out or was he keeping Rafa in check?
regards
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The funny thing is Vlad, for as much as I actually agreed Pre-Season, it's certainly not the lack of fire-power that has let us down so far, it's been the complete lack of any stability in the back however.
We have scored more than say United so far in the League, we even scored in both games against Lyon and had two against the likes of Citeh and Birmingham at home just to mention a few. We just conceded the same ammount of goals or more. Very unlike us really.
Can we play Johnson, Carra and Agger for a prolonged period of games we'll soon enough be enjoying loads of clean-sheets I'm sure and when the likes of Gerrard, Torres, Riera, Aquilani, Kuyt and Benayoun find their best form we'll score goals in abundance too. Ngog is a decent squadie but obviously not the player to hang all our hopes upon.
It's easy to see all the negatives right now mate, but there are positives as well. You just have to look a bit harder these days admittedly.
NB The way we won against United should, if nothing else, inject at least some positivity in the most deflated of confidences. Same team. Same squad. Same manager. Same Lucas.
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Christ there is nothing like selective statistics is there? My argument is we have a good team but no squad, a great forward but no back up.
Try taking the stats without Torres in the side or with a couple of injuries.
Taking the last six league games (about half the season so far), it puts us in the relegation zone. Level on points with Wigan (5), and with just Bolton and Wolves below us (4 and 3 respectively). Ha, if United had beaten us we would be bottom.
We scored 8 goals in the last six premier games, and in the six before that we scored 21.
How long has Torres been missing? We have conceded 12 goals in our last 6, and 8 goals in the six before that. Spot the pattern? Yes the defence is an issue, but not the biggest fucking one by a mile !!!!
Keep the faith and keep sticking your heads in the sand in some blind belief that it will all come right, God knows I hope it does, but the reality is unless we get a forward or forwards scoring goals, we are heading towards a very dark place - mid table at best, I at least am very worried by that, I can't see the glimmer of hope that I usually do, this is reality...We must do something really clever in the January window.
regards
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I would love a good back-up striker but I'm baffled as to how you can claim that it's the lack of firepower that has put us in this current pickle. I simply don't agree.
It's obvious we'll struggle without Torres, any team would, and as we've had to endure without our most influential player of them all in Gerrard we'll struggle even further. Add to this the injuries to Johnson, Riera, Agger, Aurelio, Benayoun, Skrtel, Aquilani and even Babel and Kelly (who impressed us all) and you'll see another pattern as to why we've seen this immense dip in form and stability.
We've still however managed to score goals in most matches and again only Chelsea and Arsenal (and Spurs, down to one game) has scored more so far than us.
And when we manage to score two goals at Anfield I'll usually expect us to win, wouldn't you? Our defenders - Carra included - has been way below par and has looked like they'd concede everytime they had to defend a corner or a free-kick. It's been a shambles really and has got nothing to do with the lack of decent back-up strikers.
