BillyShears said:
BlueAnorak said:
Equally playing with such an open defensive formation away from home will give teams like Villa and Cardiff chances to score and if have a bad day conversion rate wise (1 in 7+) it will cost us. Lose another two before Christmas and the title is gone.
I think Arsenal, United, Chelsea, and Spurs will all drop another six points between now and Christmas.
We really can't be sure how this season will pan out but I there's a good chance it won't be one where you can only afford to lose four or five games in the season if you want to win the title. I wouldn't want to be any further behind the top team than we are now come 1 January but how many more defeats we can afford to ensure that we are no worse off than that, I couldn't say. I do think we are going to need to to go on a really good run before too long though if we are to win the title.
I don't think Villa scored three goals because we were open defensively; you can aim that criticism at the third but not the first two of their goals. I am not really convinced that being open was to blame for the third; shit play from back to front was. Aside form our CB's cocking-up, one of our forwards should have slowed Guzan down and Hart should have done better. Hart needed to have had a higher starting position to defend the third or should have stayed in his box and made the attacker do more work to beat him.
Anway, I'm getting bored with discussing yesterday, people can nitpick all they like but I am writing it off as a "shit happens" day. If we have several of them, I'll reappraise that view.