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Post by luke45 on Nov 6, 2012 10:51:04 GMT
So far this season? I'm not trying to hide the fact we have only won 1 of our opening 10 fixtures, but have we really played as badly this season as many on here are making out?
Reading away - We controlled the game for 75 minutes of the match reducing them to virtually no clear cut chances whatsoever in that period. Palacios and Delap were then brought off the bench with 10 minutes to go and as a result we sat far too deep and allowed Reading the opportunity to get back into the game. Deano was always going to get sent off and should've been subbed off earlier, but it wasn't necessarily a bad team performance, and it was a game we should've won.
Arsenal home - Both teams defended reasonably well and there was very few clear cut chances in the game. A deserved point.
Wigan away - Dreadful for the first 30 minutes but then we bossed the remaining 60 minutes and should've won the game. It took the current save of the season from Al-Habsi to deny us nicking it late on and we recorded 16 attempts at goal, the most we have recorded in any away league game in the Premier League.
Man City home - It's fair to say we had a stroke of luck with the goal, but I still felt we defended impressively enough to be deserving of the point we got. They had a lot of possession but they didn't have too many clear cut chances until stoppage time at the end of the game.
Chelsea away - One of our best away performances in the Premier League in my opinion. We showed plenty of ambition from start to finish and mustered up 13 attempts at goal. We matched them in every department throughout and if Hazard and Oscar had been penalised for blatant diving earlier in the game it could've been a different outcome. We were well worth a point for our efforts in this match and were very unfortunate not to get it.
Swansea home - A deserving and comfortable 3 points in a game we controlled from start to finish.
Liverpool away - Another great defensive showing at Anfield. Liverpool dominated possession throughout but lacked a cutting edge and we arguably had the best chance of the game in the first half went Charlie Adam went through one on one with Reina. Liverpool have 5 shots on target and we had 3, there was very little between us in terms of clear cut chances and we deserved our point.
Man Utd away - Much like Chelsea, I was really pleased to see us show so much ambition throughout the match. The football we produced in the first half an hour of this game was arguably the best football we have produced in any league game since promotion given the calibre of the opponent. Unfortunately it was a very bad day at the office defensively and we gifted Man Utd soft goals at the crucial times in the game, right before half time and immediately after it. I think we probably deserved to lose this game on balance, but there was certainly plenty of positives to take from it.
Sunderland home - Probably our worst performance of the campaign so far at this stage. Neither team looked like scoring and both defences cancelled each other out. It was a poor game and a draw was a fair outcome.
Norwich away - Without doubt our worst performance of the season so far, and despite Pulis's complaints about the officials, I think we need to hold our hands up and accept we deserved to lose this match. It was a soft free kick which they scored off, but we defended it appallingly. We were probably the better side in the second half and looked threatening from 70 minutes onwards when Jones was introduced but I think on balance the best team won.
So in my opinion, out of our 10 league games this season, we have deserved to lose two of them, Man Utd and Norwich away. I'm not saying there isn't serious areas of improvement needed within the team, but let's not lose sight of how well we have played at times this season. A win is round the corner, I'm sure of it.
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Post by cheekymatt71 on Nov 6, 2012 11:09:12 GMT
thank god for some reasoned debate on here, good post Luke
I think theres too much history with some posters having clear anti-TP agendas rather than looking at the facts
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Post by dorsetpotter on Nov 6, 2012 11:22:08 GMT
Excellent post
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Post by scfc75 on Nov 6, 2012 11:28:18 GMT
Our attacking displays at Chelsea and Man Utd are what make the Norwich display the most frustrating. We can do it, so to regress to aimless hoofs and hardly any chances made little sense against a team that we were capable of beating.
Then I suppose Spurs fans were expecting to smash Wigan last week...
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Post by davejohnno1 on Nov 6, 2012 11:34:19 GMT
The concern for me is that whilst there are positives, as highlighted by the OP, there is also the nagging doubt that we haven't done an awful lot to deserve to WIN many of those games.
We didn't do enough to deserve to win against Reading, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Sunderland or Wigan in all honesty and draws were about the best we could have hoped to have deserved.
The only game we deserved to win, we won and in 10 games, that is a bit of a concern to me.
I have seen relatively decent performances not yield results, confidence sap and relegation scraps ensue before.
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Post by Gods on Nov 6, 2012 13:39:37 GMT
The concern for me is that whilst there are positives, as highlighted by the OP, there is also the nagging doubt that we haven't done an awful lot to deserve to WIN many of those games. We didn't do enough to deserve to win against Reading, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Sunderland or Wigan in all honesty and draws were about the best we could have hoped to have deserved. The only game we deserved to win, we won and in 10 games, that is a bit of a concern to me. I have seen relatively decent performances not yield results, confidence sap and relegation scraps ensue before. I agree with this. Our problem is that we almost never win. We avoid defeat all the time, we are very good at that. |
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Post by jbdotco on Nov 6, 2012 14:19:36 GMT
Our attacking displays at Chelsea and Man Utd are what make the Norwich display the most frustrating. We can do it, so to regress to aimless hoofs and hardly any chances made little sense against a team that we were capable of beating. Then I suppose Spurs fans were expecting to smash Wigan last week... That's because the likes of Chelsea and Man United don't have a game plan of shutting us out. Their attacking usually deals with that. With the lesser teams, we're falling victim to the defensive tactics that we usually deploy to not be broken down. Inevitable irony of this transition I'm afraid. Just need to be patient and I'm sure we'll find the balance. |
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Post by RAF on Nov 6, 2012 14:25:54 GMT
thank god for some reasoned debate on here, good post Luke I think theres too much history with some posters having clear anti-TP agendas rather than looking at the facts Equally there are those who won't have a word said about him ever, while we are on the agenda subject. H |
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Post by jbdotco on Nov 6, 2012 14:31:50 GMT
thank god for some reasoned debate on here, good post Luke I think theres too much history with some posters having clear anti-TP agendas rather than looking at the facts Equally there are those who won't have a word said about him ever, while we are on the agenda subject. H I hope you weren't expecting middle ground? ;D |
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Post by RAF on Nov 6, 2012 14:34:50 GMT
Equally there are those who won't have a word said about him ever, while we are on the agenda subject. H I hope you weren't expecting middle ground? ;D Don't be daft Bazza. H  |
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Post by thestatusquo on Nov 6, 2012 14:35:47 GMT
The concern for me is that whilst there are positives, as highlighted by the OP, there is also the nagging doubt that we haven't done an awful lot to deserve to WIN many of those games. We didn't do enough to deserve to win against Reading, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Sunderland or Wigan in all honesty and draws were about the best we could have hoped to have deserved. The only game we deserved to win, we won and in 10 games, that is a bit of a concern to me. I have seen relatively decent performances not yield results, confidence sap and relegation scraps ensue before. I think that is the point. You could argue we set out not to lose rather than trying to win. |
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Post by luke45 on Nov 6, 2012 14:39:52 GMT
The concern for me is that whilst there are positives, as highlighted by the OP, there is also the nagging doubt that we haven't done an awful lot to deserve to WIN many of those games. We didn't do enough to deserve to win against Reading, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Sunderland or Wigan in all honesty and draws were about the best we could have hoped to have deserved. The only game we deserved to win, we won and in 10 games, that is a bit of a concern to me. I have seen relatively decent performances not yield results, confidence sap and relegation scraps ensue before. Fair point, but I thought we deserved to win against Wigan. We dominated 2/3's of that match once Adam was introduced and we recorded nearly twice as many attempts at goal as Wigan did. I would argue we deserved to win against Reading as well, we controlled the majority of that match and didn't look in any danger whatsoever until the final 10 minutes where Delap and Palacios were introduced and we allowed them too much space. We have faced Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Man Utd so far, could anyone honestly say they would've expected us to beat any of these teams deservedly at the start of the season? We've competed against these teams far better than most would've expected this season I would say. Sunderland are probably on par with us in terms of ability and have invested a further 25-30 million on their squad over the Summer. I would've hoped we could beat them at home but it was always going to be a closely contested game. Reading, Norwich, Swansea and Wigan are games I accept we could have hoped to win. We did only lose 1 of these games though despite 3 of them being away, and I believe we did enough to deserve to win 2 of them. Has there really been any game this season other than the Norwich defeat where the result has failed to meet the expectations of the supporters? Most people would've probably been content with a point from Reading and Wigan away prior to kick off, I know the one's I spoke to before the game were. As I say I accept there is obvious areas within the team that need addressing, but we need to keep things in perspective, there's been very few games this season where the result has failed to match the expectations of the fans prior to kick off. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2012 14:51:44 GMT
We have 9 points form 10 games table and form don't lie we are in a relegation battle at that ratio and it will take a quite extraordinary run of say 3 wins to pull us clear , despite being in the top 5 net spenders over the last three years .
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2012 15:16:47 GMT
All about opinions Luke. I don,t like the way we are playing at the moment and don,t believe that we,ve deserved to win any more than we have already, apart from the Reading game, which in my view Tony threw away with his negative attitude once again. I sincerely hope that things improve come Saturday or we,re in for a struggle. I also hope that the transfer window brings us what we want, I.e. a proper full back and possibly a decent striker. I was hoping that Michael Owen would come good, but that doesn't,t seem apparent at the moment.
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Post by luke45 on Nov 6, 2012 16:21:42 GMT
All about opinions Luke. I don,t like the way we are playing at the moment and don,t believe that we,ve deserved to win any more than we have already, apart from the Reading game, which in my view Tony threw away with his negative attitude once again. I sincerely hope that things improve come Saturday or we,re in for a struggle. I also hope that the transfer window brings us what we want, I.e. a proper full back and possibly a decent striker. I was hoping that Michael Owen would come good, but that doesn't,t seem apparent at the moment. Yeah, everyone see's things differently. I agree about Tone's substitutions in the Reading game, we looked comfortable until he brought Delap and Palacios on and we dropped too deep. I hope we bring in a striker and a full-back as well, we are still really lacking in pace throughout the team so I'm hoping we'll start Jerome on Saturday who can at least provide us with that. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2012 16:53:37 GMT
So far this season? I'm not trying to hide the fact we have only won 1 of our opening 10 fixtures, but have we really played as badly this season as many on here are making out? Reading away - We controlled the game for 75 minutes of the match reducing them to virtually no clear cut chances whatsoever in that period. Palacios and Delap were then brought off the bench with 10 minutes to go and as a result we sat far too deep and allowed Reading the opportunity to get back into the game. Deano was always going to get sent off and should've been subbed off earlier, but it wasn't necessarily a bad team performance, and it was a game we should've won. Arsenal home - Both teams defended reasonably well and there was very few clear cut chances in the game. A deserved point. Wigan away - Dreadful for the first 30 minutes but then we bossed the remaining 60 minutes and should've won the game. It took the current save of the season from Al-Habsi to deny us nicking it late on and we recorded 16 attempts at goal, the most we have recorded in any away league game in the Premier League. Man City home - It's fair to say we had a stroke of luck with the goal, but I still felt we defended impressively enough to be deserving of the point we got. They had a lot of possession but they didn't have too many clear cut chances until stoppage time at the end of the game. Chelsea away - One of our best away performances in the Premier League in my opinion. We showed plenty of ambition from start to finish and mustered up 13 attempts at goal. We matched them in every department throughout and if Hazard and Oscar had been penalised for blatant diving earlier in the game it could've been a different outcome. We were well worth a point for our efforts in this match and were very unfortunate not to get it. Swansea home - A deserving and comfortable 3 points in a game we controlled from start to finish. Liverpool away - Another great defensive showing at Anfield. Liverpool dominated possession throughout but lacked a cutting edge and we arguably had the best chance of the game in the first half went Charlie Adam went through one on one with Reina. Liverpool have 5 shots on target and we had 3, there was very little between us in terms of clear cut chances and we deserved our point. Man Utd away - Much like Chelsea, I was really pleased to see us show so much ambition throughout the match. The football we produced in the first half an hour of this game was arguably the best football we have produced in any league game since promotion given the calibre of the opponent. Unfortunately it was a very bad day at the office defensively and we gifted Man Utd soft goals at the crucial times in the game, right before half time and immediately after it. I think we probably deserved to lose this game on balance, but there was certainly plenty of positives to take from it. Sunderland home - Probably our worst performance of the campaign so far at this stage. Neither team looked like scoring and both defences cancelled each other out. It was a poor game and a draw was a fair outcome. Norwich away - Without doubt our worst performance of the season so far, and despite Pulis's complaints about the officials, I think we need to hold our hands up and accept we deserved to lose this match. It was a soft free kick which they scored off, but we defended it appallingly. We were probably the better side in the second half and looked threatening from 70 minutes onwards when Jones was introduced but I think on balance the best team won. So in my opinion, out of our 10 league games this season, we have deserved to lose two of them, Man Utd and Norwich away. I'm not saying there isn't serious areas of improvement needed within the team, but let's not lose sight of how well we have played at times this season. A win is round the corner, I'm sure of it. Good post. My biggest fear is this weekend. If we don't get a result then we're in trouble. A change of tactics, emphasis and mindset is needed as QPR are in the same boat as us; they are desperate for a win. |
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Post by thehoof on Nov 6, 2012 17:55:39 GMT
Luke,
I understand your post, but that sort of mentality is what affects TP - he is more concerned with avoiding defeat, than going for a win. 5 wins in 31 premier league games tells it's own story - we may have deserved to win a couple more? QPR are a bogey team who may well jog some of the "everything will be OK " brigade into perhaps questioning our performances a little more?
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Post by jarhead on Nov 6, 2012 18:15:50 GMT
How many have we deserved to win is the question that needs to be asked and like jonno says 1 out of 10 aint good enough.
Im worried very worried.
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