Lovebitesandeveryfing
Well-Known Member
Well, I know this much.
We may not be playing particularly well, but we're certainly not playing worse than we were at this stage last year. People forget. Think on this…
We really struggled to beat Sheffield United, then got a fairly comfortable series of victories. But it's noticeable that we kept shipping goals. Clean sheets were rare. We were put out of the League Cup towards the end of September by Newcastle, then beaten in short order by Wolves and Arsenal. By early October we'd been beaten twice. Furthermore, not very convincing performances which involved the shipping of goals continued until late into the autumn, because we drew against Spurs at our place, Chelsea at theirs, Liverpool and Palace at our place (in all cases, shipping goals), and were defeated for the third time before Christmas at Villa in early December. Really not a particularly scintillating autumn.
There are problems, most obviously the screening of the defence by two fine footballers who are neither of them in the first flush of youth, to put it mildly. But we are towards the end of October, and unbeaten. I think our two rivals have both got weaknesses, but the media get giddy about Arsenal, then get giddy about Liverpool, on alternate weeks, simply because they just want to see anyone beat City to the title. The headlines this morning are instructive: ‘Liverpool can go all the way’ because Micah Richards says so (yeah, thanks for that insight, Micah), but, grudgingly, there was ‘drama’ at Molineux (sub-text: City stole it). There was no drama whatsoever at Molineux, and if Chelsea had anyone apart from Palmer who can finish properly that would have been a draw at Anfield. One becomes weary of the way the media constantly puts its thumb in the pan to weigh down the scales. But it will continue… sigh.
I think this guy from Catalonia will find the solution to the defensive midfield. I also think he'll renew. And hearts will sink in Liverpool and north London when he does.
We may not be playing particularly well, but we're certainly not playing worse than we were at this stage last year. People forget. Think on this…
We really struggled to beat Sheffield United, then got a fairly comfortable series of victories. But it's noticeable that we kept shipping goals. Clean sheets were rare. We were put out of the League Cup towards the end of September by Newcastle, then beaten in short order by Wolves and Arsenal. By early October we'd been beaten twice. Furthermore, not very convincing performances which involved the shipping of goals continued until late into the autumn, because we drew against Spurs at our place, Chelsea at theirs, Liverpool and Palace at our place (in all cases, shipping goals), and were defeated for the third time before Christmas at Villa in early December. Really not a particularly scintillating autumn.
There are problems, most obviously the screening of the defence by two fine footballers who are neither of them in the first flush of youth, to put it mildly. But we are towards the end of October, and unbeaten. I think our two rivals have both got weaknesses, but the media get giddy about Arsenal, then get giddy about Liverpool, on alternate weeks, simply because they just want to see anyone beat City to the title. The headlines this morning are instructive: ‘Liverpool can go all the way’ because Micah Richards says so (yeah, thanks for that insight, Micah), but, grudgingly, there was ‘drama’ at Molineux (sub-text: City stole it). There was no drama whatsoever at Molineux, and if Chelsea had anyone apart from Palmer who can finish properly that would have been a draw at Anfield. One becomes weary of the way the media constantly puts its thumb in the pan to weigh down the scales. But it will continue… sigh.
I think this guy from Catalonia will find the solution to the defensive midfield. I also think he'll renew. And hearts will sink in Liverpool and north London when he does.