OHAI.

[simon23]

i said at the start of the season i thought we would finish 6th.....i think we may push villa for 5th but i think spurs will get 4th...these have always been my main thoughts

as for th 7th or 8th prediction......im ont sure if i said that but if i did it may have been baceuse we started to play such negative football under mancini at one point that i thought we might underachieve....but ive noticede a slight improvement in mancinis tactics and he has become ever so slightly more attacking ( i still think we shold do more going forward however)

 

[mad4city]

What slight improvement in Mancin's tactics (re going forward) have you noticed, Simon?
As far as I can see, we got two lucky goals v Chelsea and then were able to pick off a team that was in all-out attack/ disarray.
Take those four goals out of it and we've been very negative, home and away, at times.
That said, eleven 1 nil victories will do me nicely.
Sod attractive football. Let's be winners first and then we can set about entertaining.

 

[simon23]

What slight improvement in Mancin's tactics (re going forward) have you noticed, Simon?
As far as I can see, we got two lucky goals v Chelsea and then were able to pick off a team that was in all-out attack/ disarray.
Take those four goals out of it and we've been very negative, home and away, at times.
That said, eleven 1 nil victories will do me nicely.
Sod attractive football. Let's be winners first and then we can set about entertaining.

it was noticeable ever so slightly against liverpool in the first 20-30 mins....we looked a little better going forward though not as good as wee were under MH

and against stoke in the game we ended up losing...until Ade was sent off we were at least trying to attack with a few more men and with a little more pace

and against chelski int eh second half we were playing to our strenghts...teh first goal was a bit lucky but the second by bellamy was a swift counter attack and when he put the ball in the net there were at least other players in support

previous to this we looked like we didnt even want to attack.....lets see what his tactics are at sunderland where we must go and get a win

 

[Padre]

The Contenders:

Spurs - 49 pts (10 games left)

Blackburn (H)
Stoke (A)
Portsmouth (H)
Sunderland (A)
Arsenal (H)
Chelsea (H)
Man Utd (A)
Bolton (H)
Burnley (A)
Man City (A)(TBA)

City - 49 pts (11 games left)

Sunderland (A)
Fulham (A)
Everton (H)
Wigan (H)
Burnley (A)
Birmingham (H)
Man Utd (H)
Arsenal (A)
Aston Villa (H)
West Ham (A)
Tottenham (H)(TBA)

Liverpool - 48 pts (9 games left)

Portsmouth (H)
Man Utd (A)
Sunderland (H)
Birmingham (A)
Fulham (H)
West Ham (H)
Burnley (A)
Chelsea (H)
Hull (A)

Aston Villa - 45 pts (12 games left)

Stoke (A)
Wigan (A)
Wolverhampton (H)
Sunderland (H)
Chelsea (A)
Bolton (A)
Portsmouth (A)
Birmingham (H)
Man City (A)
Blackburn (H)
Everton (H)(TBA)

 

[mad4city]

Fair enough mate, we'll have to agree to disagree about the first 20mins v red scouse but you're probably right about the performance v Stoke and yeah, I suppose there were more supporting players for Bellamy's goal (still lucky that their goalie was half guarding the advertising hoarding, though - bless him).

You're right, too, that tactics against Sunderland (and Fulham) will need some more impetus than some of our other recent games. Thing is, with Vieira coming back, I'm not sure that we'll be getting that impetus. Hope I'm wrong, obviously.

 

[simon23]

Fair enough mate, we'll have to agree to disagree about the first 20mins v red scouse but you're probably right about the performance v Stoke and yeah, I suppose there were more supporting players for Bellamy's goal (still lucky that their goalie was half guarding the advertising hoarding, though - bless him).

You're right, too, that tactics against Sunderland (and Fulham) will need some more impetus than some of our other recent games. Thing is, with Vieira coming back, I'm not sure that we'll be getting that impetus. Hope I'm wrong
obviously.

thats my worry as well....but we shouldnt need viera against sunderland

ferguson just summed it up well at half time on tv

"you dont defend a 1-0 lead"......this is spot on....but its waht mancini does and we will get punished in future if we do that......it shows fergusons tactics are always to go out and score goals whereas mancinis is one of containment and little attacking play

 

[Failsworth_Blue]

Fair enough mate, we'll have to agree to disagree about the first 20mins v red scouse but you're probably right about the performance v Stoke and yeah, I suppose there were more supporting players for Bellamy's goal (still lucky that their goalie was half guarding the advertising hoarding, though - bless him).

You're right, too, that tactics against Sunderland (and Fulham) will need some more impetus than some of our other recent games. Thing is, with Vieira coming back, I'm not sure that we'll be getting that impetus. Hope I'm wrong
obviously.

thats my worry as well....but we shouldnt need viera against sunderland

ferguson just summed it up well at half time on tv

"you dont defend a 1-0 lead"......this is spot on....but its waht mancini does and we will get punished in future if we do that......it shows fergusons tactics are always to go out and score goals whereas mancinis is one of containment and little attacking play

In what games has Mancini settled for a 1-0 nil lead and we've been made to pay? You'll point to the United first leg semi final by saying we should have gone for the kill and while i don't think it's as easy as that as United obviously knew they had to push on and try and get a second. So United game apart in what game have we sat on a 1-0 lead?

Spurs have done alright recently but since Mancini's came in we've been in better form than them and they've got a lot of tough games coming up so no reason why we can't and won't finish above them

 

[simon23]

ok so we havent had the chance to sit on a 1-0 lead but the utd first leg was an example of what i was thinking about and it did nearly cause the game to be a draw and i have to disagree with you....utd at that point in the game were there for the taking.

the liverpool game was very frustratin as well.....again they were there for the taking but we werent positive enough (any where near positive enough)

look at the stats for the games before the chelski game.....look at the shot count...in some games it was literally 1 or 2 shots on target

mancinis tactics are mostly defensive and negative in comparison to that of fergusons. there is no argument in that

the recent comments by barry about killing off teams of lower stature are also an indicator of this and maybe what some of the players are thinking.....and it also explains some of the grumblings we have been hearing about that are coming from players.

i have said in another thread however that i think mancini may be starting to adapt his tactics......i hope he is and i hope he carries on......the sunderland game will tell us a lot

 

[Anonymous]

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Think the OP has been on the ale. I can't fathom out the relevance of the thread title to his post. Also, he seems to be suggesting that Dipperpool are our only competitors for that fourth spot. I think that Spurs, Villa and even (though a long shot) the blue dippers might have something to say about that. Now; where did I leave those fail pics?

Yep , i agree .........

if the OP thinks Liverpool are our only challengers for 4th spot , he must be either deluded or punch-drunk!

I'd say that with 9 -11 games left , depending on which club you're talking about , probably everyone from Everton upwards will still fancy their chances , and rightly so too ....

a lot can happen between now and May , and we are more than capable of totally fuckin' things up ourselves yet!

Our trip to Sunderland won't be an easy one , and especially so after they trounced Bolton the other night ...... but it's 'winnable' ....... even though we are probably due a defeat there!

 

[jimharri]

Think the OP has been on the ale. I can't fathom out the relevance of the thread title to his post. Also, he seems to be suggesting that Dipperpool are our only competitors for that fourth spot. I think that Spurs, Villa and even (though a long shot) the blue dippers might have something to say about that. Now; where did I leave those fail pics?

Yep , i agree .........

if the OP thinks Liverpool are our only challengers for 4th spot , he must be either deluded or punch-drunk!

I'd say that with 9 -11 games left , depending on which club you're talking about , probably everyone from Everton upwards will still fancy their chances , and rightly so too ....

a lot can happen between now and May , and we are more than capable of totally fuckin' things up ourselves yet!

Our trip to Sunderalnd won't be an easy one , and especially so after they trounced Bolton the other night ...... but it's 'winnable' ....... even though we are probably due a defeat there!

We could do with another Vass-like 30 yd screamer!

 

[Sleeping_Easy]

My predictions

Spurs - 49 pts (10 games left)

Blackburn (H) 3pts
Stoke (A) 1pt
Portsmouth (H) 3pts
Sunderland (A) 3pts
Arsenal (H) 0pts
Chelsea (H) 0pts
Man Utd (A) 0pts
Bolton (H) 3pts
Burnley (A) 3 pts
Man City (A) (TBA) 0pts
finish - 65pts

City - 49 pts (11 games left)

Sunderland (A) 3pts
Fulham (A) 1pt
Everton (H) 3pts
Wigan (H) 3pts
Burnley (A) 1pt
Birmingham (H) 3pts
Man Utd (H) 1pts
Arsenal (A) 0pts
Aston Villa (H) 3pts
West Ham (A) 1pt
Tottenham (H) (TBA) 3pts
finish - 71pts

Liverpool - 48 pts (9 games left)

Portsmouth (H) 3pts
Man Utd (A) 0pts
Sunderland (H) 3pts
Birmingham (A) 3pts
Fulham (H) 3pts
West Ham (H) 3pts
Burnley (A) 3pts
Chelsea (H) 0pts
Hull (A) 3pts
finish - 69pts

Aston Villa - 45 pts (12 games left)

Stoke (A) 1pt
Wigan (A) 3pts
Wolverhampton (H) 3pts
Sunderland (H) 3pts
Chelsea (A) 0pts
Bolton (A) 3pts
Portsmouth (A) 3pts
Birmingham (H) 3pts
Man City (A) 0pts
Blackburn (H) 3pts
Everton (H) (TBA) 1pt

finish - 69pts

(cheers irish blue)

 

[Anonymous]

Win 7 (inc Villa and Spurs) out of the last 11 and we will finish 4th.