Fulham (Away)

[Romey 1878]

Not a pretty sight .......

 

 

 

 

Instead of playing catch-up for the top Five, we are now playing catch-up to get into the top half of the table.

City have now entered the top 4, then you have Red-s, spurs, villa, Birmingham, and Sunderland all spending money and slowly pushing us down the list. I think we have seen the last of the top five and Euro for the foreseeable future.

 

Indeed. Moyes and the players built a good basis but our board has held us back because they don't have the finances to push us on and I feel that we're just going to keep falling backwards now. It's a sad feeling because we were so close to greatness again.

 

Just how far behind will we fall?

[MikeO]

....then you have Red-s, spurs, villa, Birmingham, and Sunderland all spending money and slowly pushing us down the list. I think we have seen the last of the top five and Euro for the foreseeable future.

Liverpool are in a far worse state than us (imo) and a Gerrard injury away from disaster, Spurs have lost to West Ham and Wigan, Villa lost 6-0 to Newcastle, Sunderland and Birmingham are only four points ahead of us despite our appalling start and will be behind us come May I have no doubt. I wouldn't swap squads with any of them (though Spurs might tempt me).

 

Good signs today....two or three wins and it'll all look very different.

 

This season will turn around. I still believe.

[BrotherEstapol]

I don't doubt we'll finish in the top half of the table and hell, mathematically, we could still win the league(as unlikley as it is)...I'm just gutted we're last at the moment!

 

Now lets see the players come out with some cliche "our season starts now" BS...hopefully they'll actually do it this time.

[iggy]

Oh how frustrating was that again, bags of possession with no end product and little to fear from the opposition who were generally equally short of any real threat in / around the box.

FINALLY, Moyes has given Coleman a go in our troublesome right midfield and it had us looking more balanced and at least meant we could threaten to do something from either flank. Hopefully he will keep him there at least until January if not permanently if he grows into the role.

Marks assessment of the game is absolutely spot on so I have nothing more to add.

[Bill]

Liverpool are in a far worse state than us (imo) and a Gerrard injury away from disaster, Spurs have lost to West Ham and Wigan, Villa lost 6-0 to Newcastle, Sunderland and Birmingham are only four points ahead of us despite our appalling start and will be behind us come May I have no doubt. I wouldn't swap squads with any of them (though Spurs might tempt me).

 

 

Oh dont get me wrong Mike, they will turn the season around, but we are further away now from a top six finish than we have been in any other season.

It will be a longer and harder struggle to catch up, and those teams i mentioned will all continue to spend money.

 

Make no mistake, we are now starting to go backwards.

[Steve_E]

Oh dont get me wrong Mike, they will turn the season around, but we are further away now from a top six finish than we have been in any other season.

It will be a longer and harder struggle to catch up, and those teams i mentioned will all continue to spend money.

 

Make no mistake, we are now starting to go backwards.

 

Exactly. If we don't get a serious money injection, eventually about the entire PL will get better than us if they get to keep spending 15 million each year and we "strenghten" our squad with a back up keeper, a League 1 striker and a Ligue 2 youngster.

 

Another thing, despite my emotional attachment to our players, I would swap our squad for that of Spurs.

Edited September 26, 2010 by Steve_E

[joemac92]

Yakubu - He didn't have his shooting boots on today but the man is a cut above anything else we have available to play upfront and he must play as much as possible. His link-up play is just class in all honesty and he's perfect to play the lone striker role (not if we just lump the ball up to him though, we have to keep it on the ground).

Hits the nail on the head for me.

[Bailey]

We certainly looked much much better yesterday, and despite not scoring I thought Yakubu looked sharp. The snap shot on the volley was inches from nestling in the corner. Hopefully when he gets games under his belt and we keep the ball down and get him involved that way he will bring more and more to out overall game play.

 

I thought Felli had a good game yesterday and the defence looked much more comfortable with him there. We need to stop this hoof ball from the back at times (mainly Jags today) but the signs are better than they have been.

 

not muh else I can add to Romey's report but what I would say is that Arteta looked a little more enterprising than he has been but there is still room for a lot of improvement!

 

Roll on Birmingham!

[inertia8]

Indeed roll on.. hoping that they get a win so we can prepare to beat Liverpool after the break... they're currently laughing at us, which is pretty stupid considering their plight

[jamiemaher85]

I'd have taken a clean sheet and a point before hand but still came away from the game disapointed, perhaps if West Ham had lost to Spurs I would look on this as an even better point. I was pleased with Pienaar and despite missing a few good chances I thought that Yakubu is slowly starting to get back to where he once was. The hesitancy in front of goal is running through the whole team, and after missing out on about 18 months of first team football that hesiticany will be even worse for Yakubu. I think that it will be interesting to see how Yakubu continues after he scores his first goal this season. Hopefully the first goal will boost his confidence and he will start to vary his attacking style a little, as you can tell he's playing it safe at the moment by the fact that almost every chance he tries to play it along the ground into one of the bottom corners. It's easy to forget just how good he was prior to his injury. He consistantly brought what our team lacks at the moment, and that's goals.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

I'd have taken a clean sheet and a point before hand but still came away from the game disapointed, perhaps if West Ham had lost to Spurs I would look on this as an even better point. I was pleased with Pienaar and despite missing a few good chances I thought that Yakubu is slowly starting to get back to where he once was. The hesitancy in front of goal is running through the whole team, and after missing out on about 18 months of first team football that hesiticany will be even worse for Yakubu. I think that it will be interesting to see how Yakubu continues after he scores his first goal this season. Hopefully the first goal will boost his confidence and he will start to vary his attacking style a little, as you can tell he's playing it safe at the moment by the fact that almost every chance he tries to play it along the ground into one of the bottom corners. It's easy to forget just how good he was prior to his injury. He consistantly brought what our team lacks at the moment, and that's goals.

 

 

Shouldnt that say 8 how good he was 8 months before his injury?

 

If the Fulham game is anything to go by he is already playing better than he was when he got injured

[jamiemaher85]

Shouldnt that say 8 how good he was 8 months before his injury?

 

If the Fulham game is anything to go by he is already playing better than he was when he got injured

It's still around 18 months without regular first team football though, and prior to his injury Yak had still been scoring a few goals despite not performing hugely well, if I remember he'd started scoring a fair few headers prior to injury.

 

And if you want a reminder of how good he can be just watch the video posted in the Everton section earlier today. He was class and it shouldn't be too late.

Edited September 27, 2010 by jamiemaher85

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

It's still around 18 months without regular first team football though, and prior to his injury Yak had still been scoring a few goals despite not performing hugely well, if I remember he'd started scoring a fair few headers prior to injury.

 

And if you want a reminder of how good he can be just watch the video posted in the Everton section earlier today. He was class and it shouldn't be too late.

 

 

I can remember how good he can be but I can also remember how frustratingly poor he can be.

 

At the time of his injury he was getting regular football, the reason he was so poor was because he had decided he was on his way and so couldnt be arsed

[inertia8]

A couple of times I saw yakubu take the ball and run like no other player, the transition from first touch to 'on the move' was a very welcome sight.. I also think the team is missing the confidence to drill at goal, if you look at Bily's wonder goals, they all seem like reflex goals, the one against Man Utd and Portsmouth, both rockets from almost nothing.. we need other players to believe they can do that.. I want to see Bily get more game time, I cannot see him improving leaps and bounds without it.. give him the final 25mins or so, whatever.. same with Yak, keep him on the pitch.

 

What hurts a lot is looking at how shite liverpool have been and we've not been able to take advantage of it!

[Bill]

What hurts a lot is looking at how shite liverpool have been and we've not been able to take advantage of it!

 

Its always the same, if they finish 7th we would finish 8th, we have an inferiority complex concerning Liverpool, its as tho the club believe that we are not good enough to finish ahead of them.

[WillAct723]

This bottom of the table stuff is just pure shit. Plain and simple. We're so much better than that, but I'm tired of hearing/saying that. Something has to be done. We don't need new players or a new manager. (Although MAYBE i'll take someone who legit plays RM) We don't need a new formation. We need this team to remember what it feels like to play class football. The goals will come. Not because we're "better than that", but because these guys are going to realize the alternative is just unacceptable.

 

I think it's perfectly reasonable to come into every game, from now on, expecting this game to be the game we turn it around. It's not irrational, we just plain have that ability.

 

There is no reason we don't walk into St. Andrews and give 'em complete hell. They got mauled by the baggies (who granted are playing good football) and drew with the pie eaters. Sure, it gets old talking about our opponents as, honestly, no one has played worse than us as a whole this year. But it's going to come together. NSNO