This Stoke defeat?

[jay_mcfc]

I think it's been a game plan to not go out all guns blazing at the start of the season and unfortunately we came unstuck against Stoke. You could tell in the performances against Newcastle and Liverpool that we were holding back and we did just enough to win. I'd say they've talked about easing into the season, peaking at the right time and trying to avoid the muscular injuries our best players seem to have a habit of picking up. Losing a home game to a mid-table team means there is less room for error but if we win at fucking Sunderland then all will be well ;)

 

[Rorz88]

I don't think its because we have lost to Stoke, its more that we have Arsenal, Bayern and then Chelsea for the next 3 games and if we have abit of bad luck we could end up losing all 3. More than capable of winning all 3 too though ! I think we'll beat arsenal and Chelsea and lose to Bayern narrowly or what its worth. come on boys lets pick everyone up around us and kick start the season again !

 

[shemnel]

I don't think its because we have lost to Stoke, its more that we have Arsenal, Bayern and then Chelsea for the next 3 games and if we have abit of bad luck we could end up losing all 3. More than capable of winning all 3 too though ! I think we'll beat arsenal and Chelsea and lose to Bayern narrowly or what its worth. come on boys lets pick everyone up around us and kick start the season again !

people are scared, they see the next three games as the make or break of our season and champs league campaign, which is a bit over dramatic. Yes if we lose all 3 we set ourselves back but bloody hell we've dragged it back 2 times before!! seriously, if we lose all 3, so be it, we just have to keep on chugging.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Yaya & Vinnie are responsible for a lot of the fouls we concede. Toure because he's a lazy bastard who can't be arsed chasing opponents so just pulls them back or trips them. Vinnie has a habit of making absolutely needless challenges which often result in fouls from behind.

I know what you mean but don't buy your logic.

Yaya isn't 'lazy'. He's a big unit and immobile over a yard or two. So players do run past him and he does have to pull them back at times, as a deep midfielder.

One of vinny's biggest strengths is the way he bullies strikers, and the way he comes from behind them and won't let them pick up the ball. He's so good at it that he does it all the time to 'hole' players too, so people like Rooney can't get in the game. But doing that is always going to cost the occasional foul, because of a mistimed challenge or a refereeing mistake. Overall it's a pric worth paying.

Yaya is lazy when we don't have the ball. Yes he's a big unit but 2 examples from the most recent 2 games = Countinho running down the left wing and Yaya had caught him up, all he had to do was jog along side him but he couldn't be arsed so he pulled him back. And a Stoke player down the right wing exactly the same.

Every player with a certain type of body language gets called "lazy" by a section of fans. It's just, well. "lazy" analysis with no basis in reality.

Players pull people back when they have no option because the player is getting away from them. It's a simple, albeit cynical, part of midfield play. ~Ya ya is clever. On these occassions frequently the free kick is a small price to pay compared to getting dragged out of position pursuing a player you aren't going to catch.

The notion that a world class 30 year old player who spends every weekday in full-tempo training and fitness conditioning, and runs 5 miles twice a week during games, thinks "I can't be bothered running these 20 yards" is laughable.

 

[George Hannah]

interesting & frank assessment of the game and what lies ahead by Mark Noble from Goals On Sunday

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S73nQi_37Ys&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[BillyShears]

I have mixed feelings about this. One the one hand, the "all teams lose at some point" argument seems reasonable and we should probably put our single defeat into perspective.

But on the other hand, we should not be complacent enough to imagine that we can afford many slip ups like this. Chelsea ran us pretty close last season, only falling at the final hurdle. Had the dice rolled differently, they might have been champions in a season where even their manager thought they could not.

This season they are enormously stronger. They will doubtless have the best defensive record in the league again and at the other end their 6 past Everton tells you all you need to know. Yes they will drop unexpected points, but not many. Not many at all. I'd be very surprised if they finish on less than 90 points this season and we should be aiming for 6 to 9 points more than last season as our target (92 to 95) if we are going to retain our title, imho.

In that context, 3 points dropped to Stoke is a huge blunder. We can ill afford many more cock ups like that or it will be a repeat of the 2012/13 season with one team running away with it... and it's not us.

Admit it. You just cut and pasted this from early last season! :)

Seriously though, I've got us down as finishing this season with over 90 points. Comfortably. I could be well wide of the mark but the Stoke game has done nothing to change that opinion. We're better than last season, stronger squad wise (even with the loss of Negredo which for me is mitigated by Jovetic's fitness and the potential signing of Kelechi), have more continuity in terms of the manager's methods, more stability with the new contracts for Sami, Kun, Silva, Dzeko, Vinny, etc.

I'm genuinely gutted at how little optimism there is around Bluemoon. I can understand a little trepidation had Liverpool taken us to the cleaners, but losing such a one sided game as Stoke occasionally happens to all top teams. Beyond that we should be fucking pumped up instead of bigging up Chelsea - which by the way was EXACTLY the same story last season.

Mourinho's cloak of invincibility is gone. Looking forward to that game more than any other.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I have mixed feelings about this. One the one hand, the "all teams lose at some point" argument seems reasonable and we should probably put our single defeat into perspective.

But on the other hand, we should not be complacent enough to imagine that we can afford many slip ups like this. Chelsea ran us pretty close last season, only falling at the final hurdle. Had the dice rolled differently, they might have been champions in a season where even their manager thought they could not.

This season they are enormously stronger. They will doubtless have the best defensive record in the league again and at the other end their 6 past Everton tells you all you need to know. Yes they will drop unexpected points, but not many. Not many at all. I'd be very surprised if they finish on less than 90 points this season and we should be aiming for 6 to 9 points more than last season as our target (92 to 95) if we are going to retain our title, imho.

In that context, 3 points dropped to Stoke is a huge blunder. We can ill afford many more cock ups like that or it will be a repeat of the 2012/13 season with one team running away with it... and it's not us.

Admit it. You just cut and pasted this from early last season! :)

Seriously though, I've got us down as finishing this season with over 90 points. Comfortably. I could be well wide of the mark but the Stoke game has done nothing to change that opinion. We're better than last season, stronger squad wise (even with the loss of Negredo which for me is mitigated by Jovetic's fitness and the potential signing of Kelechi), have more continuity in terms of the manager's methods, more stability with the new contracts for Sami, Kun, Silva, Dzeko, Vinny, etc.

I'm genuinely gutted at how little optimism there is around Bluemoon. I can understand a little trepidation had Liverpool taken us to the cleaners, but losing such a one sided game as Stoke occasionally happens to all top teams. Beyond that we should be fucking pumped up instead of bigging up Chelsea - which by the way was EXACTLY the same story last season.

Mourinho's cloak of invincibility is gone. Looking forward to that game more than any other.

I suspect you're right and it's the same people flapping now as were flapping at the beginning of last season. But not the same ones from the season before.

Not everyone. but most... ;-)

 

[middleton___blue]

As many have pointed out, it sucks to loose to a team like joke city but it happens to all the big teams.

All our players still need a little time to jel with one another and i suspect the likes of aguero, mdm, Komps etc, are still recovering from the WC.

Yes, chelsea look good but 2 of them 3 games were against the 2 newly promoted teams. Another way of looking at it is that theyve conceded 4 goals so far and we've only conceded 3. Can you draw any conclusions from this this early on in the season?

Last seasons start wasnt the best but we won the league didnt we? They'll come a when chelsea loose a game to a lesser side, in which case, we've most definatley got the the potential too take advantage of rivals losses once our team is fully fit and we've actually more than 3 games into the season.

Chin up everyone! It just happens.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Beat arsenal draw at bayern and beat chelsea stoke will be well forgotten!

 

[BillyShears]

I suspect you're right and it's the same people flapping now as were flapping at the beginning of last season. But not the same ones from the season before.

Not everyone. but most... ;-)

I'm ignoring the Txiki Chimpanzees. They're going to keep making noise after every defeat/draw until such time as Pellegrini is no longer manager.