KeiranShikari
New Member
Sunderland showed a lot less fight than I thought they would today. Was always going to be tough for them but well, we should have won at Leicester.
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Fimbo
Member
Phew. Still in with a decent chance of survival. I expect to see a bit of a fight from Newcastle or Sunderland and think we will need at least 6 more points. It's still a tough task. Like others, I played out in my mind how we could beat palace, then Sunderland, and be safe with 4 matches to go. Nice fantasy while it lasted. But beating Sunderland is real possibility. Can't wait.
ZLF
Well-Known Member
A disappointing display all over - with ruddy probably my motm with too many saves needing to be made even though he and the defence were shaking in the first half - even with Klose on we were already in for a long day.
I thought we should plenty of graft but no quality; we were far too reliant on the long ball to mbokani who lost out too often to the dominant delaney with naismith and the wide players too far off an isolated striker to pick up enough second ball.. We did get players forward but the quality of movement as well as the passing was poor.
Tactically I thought we struggled with our 4411 losing the midfield battle to the 4231 from palace - the goal from puncheon exploiting and highlighting that extra player with Gaz and Jonny struggling to get in enough tackles or interceptions to slow the flow or build attacks - both their best moments were going forward but not enough of them and defensively I thought they were well below recent levels. Hindsight is great - sometimes keeping a winning team simply does not work.
We are a different team at home and, as seems to be my mantra nowadays, if the good norwich turns up we can take the win sat lunch time whether klose starts or not - martin and bassong marked defoe out of the game at the stadium of light so I have every confidence that Bassong and Bennett are capable of doing so on saturday.. It will be a battle - but I remain very optimistic our home form will see us safe. Just turn up focused city.
I thought we should plenty of graft but no quality; we were far too reliant on the long ball to mbokani who lost out too often to the dominant delaney with naismith and the wide players too far off an isolated striker to pick up enough second ball.. We did get players forward but the quality of movement as well as the passing was poor.
Tactically I thought we struggled with our 4411 losing the midfield battle to the 4231 from palace - the goal from puncheon exploiting and highlighting that extra player with Gaz and Jonny struggling to get in enough tackles or interceptions to slow the flow or build attacks - both their best moments were going forward but not enough of them and defensively I thought they were well below recent levels. Hindsight is great - sometimes keeping a winning team simply does not work.
We are a different team at home and, as seems to be my mantra nowadays, if the good norwich turns up we can take the win sat lunch time whether klose starts or not - martin and bassong marked defoe out of the game at the stadium of light so I have every confidence that Bassong and Bennett are capable of doing so on saturday.. It will be a battle - but I remain very optimistic our home form will see us safe. Just turn up focused city.
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GJP
Well-Known Member
Quite a bit.
KeiranShikari
New Member
I thought we were unlucky at Swansea, certainly not the worst team on the day.
We've beaten plenty of teams that were struggling this year, Albion aside pretty much every single one of our wins in fact have come against teams going through rough patches. So yeah, those of us that don't get off being miserable will not buy that argument.
Our main problem has been not scoring whilst we're on top and then letting games slip when we're on course for pretty easy wins. It's quite a big problem, yes, but certainly better problems than what we've had in previous Premier League seasons. We can go 7 points clear of the relegation zone in the next match btw.
We've beaten plenty of teams that were struggling this year, Albion aside pretty much every single one of our wins in fact have come against teams going through rough patches. So yeah, those of us that don't get off being miserable will not buy that argument.
Our main problem has been not scoring whilst we're on top and then letting games slip when we're on course for pretty easy wins. It's quite a big problem, yes, but certainly better problems than what we've had in previous Premier League seasons. We can go 7 points clear of the relegation zone in the next match btw.
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GJP
Well-Known Member
Hmm, I feel that might have been aimed at me. Am I right?
ZLF
Well-Known Member
Quite a bit of it is ANs responsibility, but the core of this squad has a history of turning up when they want under 3-4 managers now so its as much the players as the manager.
For that to happen on sat would be unforgiveable.
Canaryboy
Well-Known Member
And we believe in omens, we've not lost in the last 10 league games at home to Sunderland B)
hogesar
Well-Known Member
Fine, but none of our last 4 managers have been able to get a similar core group of players to turn up for some of these kind of games. I wouldn't even say Palace turned up on Saturday, certainly no more than us.
I just don't think its a level criticism of AN, as it's the case across the league and I don't think any other manager would have seen a different response.
ZLF
Well-Known Member
by sat I meant the coming week, not the one just gone.
agree on selhurst - never a happy hunting ground, for decades now. but we have no reason to be fearful against sunderland; bring the right mentality & we should take the points.
agree on selhurst - never a happy hunting ground, for decades now. but we have no reason to be fearful against sunderland; bring the right mentality & we should take the points.
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GJP
Well-Known Member
Well you've got me wrong.
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