Was this a surprise?

herrock said:
After the Sunderland game anyone that moaned about the performance was given the same old line of it being about the 3 points. Anyone that moaned were told that compared to the days of old there is nothing to moan about. Anyone that moaned was reminded that we are still on for 4 trophies. Well that performance at Sunderland was a good clue to what was going to happen against a good side. We should expect more of the team today than years gone by. We are still on for the 4 trophies but play like today, Liverpool will stuff us again, will we honestly beat Barcelona or Bayern, Chelsea will fancy their chances against us and to win the title there will have to be a big change in attitude. No ,today was not a shock.
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To be honest for 80 minutes against Watford we were poor, for 50 minutes in the middle of the West Ham game we were poor, Everton away in the cup we were poor. In the first half of the nil nil v Everton we were poor and should probably have been behind. Pre Xmas we were poor at Stoke. We were poor at Villa and poor against Liverpool. We have been poor for the vast majority of the season with the exception of the first 5 games. This recent little run of reasonable results has most definitely papered over the cracks.

We have acquired. 32 points in 20 games. That's 1.6 per game and form of a team who would normally finish on 60 points. In fact based on the consistency of the poor performances, we will probably finish on around 68-72 points.
 
The problem with so many being happy with us winning "without getting out of second gear" is that they fail to notice the gearbox is fucked and third, fourth and fifth aren't available.
It's simple: We haven't played well for a while. You can't ignore the injuries of course, but we have one of the worst injury records in the division so why the hell haven't we ditched the medical team and fitness coaches? We know Vince can't walk onto the pitch without picking up another injury so why didn't we bring in a central defender or two on loan in January?
It's the same up front: Sergio picks up too many knocks, Wilf has been out of sorts since we bought him and Nacho is a kid so why didn't we loan some cover? We play one up top so need goals from midfield but Sterling doesn't score enough, Navas hardly ever scores and Silva and Yaya should also be getting more. KDB looks a good buy but is out for another couple of months.
But the main problem is we lack fight. Everything is too tippy-tappy, we want teams to fold in front of us as they did two seasons ago. Was Negredo such a great player, or have teams learned how to play against us?
And even those who think the sun shines from Manuel's posterior can't have failed to notice that he never seeks to stop the opposition and just hopes we out-score them.
I know we're only down to third (4th if Arse win tomorrow) and still in three cups, but add a touch of honesty and we've not had a difficult draw in either domestic pot. Norwich and Villa are relegation candidates as are Sunderland who we beat along with Hull and Palace in the League Cup. And wouldn't most other top four candidates fancy their chances against Everton (who were 11th) if drawn against them over two legs.
It's not good. But it's certainly not over.
 
East Level 2 said:
The problem with so many being happy with us winning "without getting out of second gear" is that they fail to notice the gearbox is fucked and third, fourth and fifth aren't available.
It's simple: We haven't played well for a while. You can't ignore the injuries of course, but we have one of the worst injury records in the division so why the hell haven't we ditched the medical team and fitness coaches? We know Vince can't walk onto the pitch without picking up another injury so why didn't we bring in a central defender or two on loan in January?
It's the same up front: Sergio picks up too many knocks, Wilf has been out of sorts since we bought him and Nacho is a kid so why didn't we loan some cover? We play one up top so need goals from midfield but Sterling doesn't score enough, Navas hardly ever scores and Silva and Yaya should also be getting more. KDB looks a good buy but is out for another couple of months.
But the main problem is we lack fight. Everything is too tippy-tappy, we want teams to fold in front of us as they did two seasons ago. Was Negredo such a great player, or have teams learned how to play against us?
And even those who think the sun shines from Manuel's posterior can't have failed to notice that he never seeks to stop the opposition and just hopes we out-score them.
I know we're only down to third (4th if Arse win tomorrow) and still in three cups, but add a touch of honesty and we've not had a difficult draw in either domestic pot. Norwich and Villa are relegation candidates as are Sunderland who we beat along with Hull and Palace in the League Cup. And wouldn't most other top four candidates fancy their chances against Everton (who were 11th) if drawn against them over two legs.
It's not good. But it's certainly not over.
Click to expand...

Excellent post. To add to this why the hell did Pellers play our slowest full backs against two out and out wingers, they've hardly played this season. He really looks like he doesn't think or prepare for the opposition.
 
Apart from the first 4 or 5 games of the season, the odd half here & there, Seville away, second half against Everton in the league cup & FA cup against weak opposition, we have been poor in the rest of the games all season in my opinion. We have got away with it in some games, but have been battered in others, Stoke, Liverpool, today etc. We are not showing any kind of decent form. Today was not a surprise at all.
 
The squad looks jaded and worn out, we were crying out for reinforcements in the January window, it's madness to play all these games with so many long term injuries and so many out of form players.
Now that we are stuck with this situation, we should probably be prepared to change our 'one size fits all' tactical approach.
When we are up against teams that can hurt us maybe we need to defend deeper and protect the back 4. It's all well and good having this attacking mindset but since only Sergio is getting us goals anyway I'd like to see us re-group and shut the door at the back when we play teams like Leicester. Not going to happen of course.
Top teams are built from the back, I seem to recall when Mancini came in he spent the first few weeks entirely working at defensive work to counteract Hughes' leaky formation.
 
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