Agreed. Same at Arsenal in the previous away game. Maybe he used up the one plan that he had at liverpool?
2 Dec 2024
62
-
Remember when we used to score 2 when the opposition scored 3?
-
Not against the top sides, no. Unless you are going back to the last millennium?
-
I'm sure we lost 3-2 most weeks last season. It felt like it.
-
I've checked. Man U, West Ham, Brighton, Muff, Brentford, Newcastle, Chelsea.
-
Ah figured this one would be a thrashing as soon as I saw the line up. Someone definitely should have given Doku an almighty kick. He was taking the piss and I think a thumping yellow card would have made him think twice.
This was kind of a cowardly lion performance. Citeh looked a little tentative to start with but we weren't too aggressive which allowed them to feel confident. Once they scored there was only going to be one winner even if Wood missed one he normally puts away.
Not sure where all the fight has gone. We are no doubt much classier but somehow still play with the handbrakes on against Citeh and the top sides apart from the Scouse cunts.
Bah. We are slump busters and Villa will be happy to play us soon.
Chicago: Not altogether surprised.
-
Not saying these would be urgent signings, but perhaps the most important upgrades to the team to take us to the next level where we reliably compete with superior clubs would be highly mobile striker, dominating goalie and bullying physical midfielder (like Sangare ought to be)?
We'll be fine against United who aren't top tier. -
I think we are a bit too timid against the top teams. That’s ok in terms of results, [cliche alert] our season is not defined by away defeats at City and Arsenal. In both cases, they had talismanic players returning (KDB, Odergaard) and clicked back into gear. So we were unlucky but had we hassled them both, who knows if they would have found their groove so easily?
I still don’t think Nuno really knows what to do against the top sides, hence he keeps chopping and changing players in the midfield. Contrast teams like Fulham or Brighton (who we apparently aspire to matching): they stick to their strengths and have a real go. We didn’t show up at Arsenal and we were scratchy yesterday with no real confidence to put away chances and no shape/system to deal with the different threats that City have. It’s still a massive improvement but being timid in games like this will knock confidence and self belief. We have to believe we can compete with United, Villa and Brentford, otherwise it will be a pretty sobering Xmas.
Yates has definitely improved but he still looks lost against the really top sides when they are on song (Chelsea and Liverpool were not when we played them). Which is no surprise and not a criticism. But we should be honest. At least Nuno bought him off (maybe thought he was a yellow card waiting to happen and not really impacting the game).
-
Watching on the telly, we seemed timid in defense and timid in attack. When we did get forward, we didn't seem to support the attack with numbers in the box. I thought Elanga looked better but when he did get crosses in, too few there to pick up the pieces.
-
Elanga was poor (guy behind me was screaming for him to be hooked after seven minutes!). If that’s “better”, he must have been terrible recently.
Really disappointed by Milenkovic who looked miles off the pace (see Citeh’s third). Morato did well. -
Think we have got less timid in these games but you have to face up to the fact they've got much better players than us. Goals change games, as they say, and conceding that early was always going to fuck us up - to get anything at these grounds, you need to ride your luck - they need to miss chances and you need to take yours and it just didn't go that way.
Brentford, by the way, aren't all that. 1 point away all season (at Everton), great home record inflated by the fact they've played the other 7 of the bottom 8 at home. Haven't taken a point off anyone higher than 12th yet.
-
This is an excellent thread title with regard to the tab at the top o the browser. More of this sort of stuff.
-
That wasn't it, for me. Against Wet Hams I was struck by how consciously and deliberately we all took up positions, checking them against those around us. If someone pressed the ball it was accompanied with a glance over the shoulder to check that the space being vacated was covered. That deliberation has declined since. I thought that the energy levels and desire to get after people was good yesterday...but there was none of the positional checking or awareness. It seems all a bit naive to me. We got after people and chased the ball, but left massive gaps in our shape...that good players who can hold the ball and play around the press can exploit. and they did.
On a hard to beat 1-10 scale, I would have rated us a solid nine against wet hams. A generous three last night.
To get a result against a better bunch of players you have to be absolutely disciplined, and ride your luck. As a consequence of the structure (or lack thereof) we were absolutely never in the game. Of course good players can beat you one on one and cause problems, expert technicians can thread a pass where others can't...but that needs more diligence, not less. Keep the spaces tight, don't get lopsided or leave gaps.
I can only think that in good confidence, we wanted to approach the game loose and give it a go. Unfortunately, it seemed to me, the consequence of that was the other thing.
I thought he was decent, in terms of offering a threat, and his set piece delivery was pretty good. Nothing substantial in terms of action and outcome, but he was hardly alone in that. I've sat next to that bloke before, and they often rant at a particular player based on historical perception, bias, or other perceived shortcomings not necessarily directly football related. You win as a team, and lose as a team. I thought that we very much lost as a team in this one.
-
If Chicago hadn't started a second match thread we would have got a result in this game.
I will take charge for the Manchester United game.
-
What the fuck are you talking about? I only did one match thread you mental weirdo. You almost screwed up the Ipswich thing not me. Just as an aside Man Poo did better against Arsenal than we did. They were pretty disciplined and got undone by good set pieces. If they come out to play against us then I think we will get a result but if they try and frustrate us and break line we do we might very well be undone.
Anyway your scrotum issues seemed to have addled your mind so maybe add more ointment.
Chicago: Taking the bait.
-
Their result was better but they conceded more xG and created less.
-
So....err, these metrics are complete bollocks?
-
Arsenal absolutely battered us. Arsenal struggled a bit to beat Spam Yoo because they were playing hard to beat. Luckily they don't seem very adept at defending set Pieces. Maybe JWP will have to play for us against them after all.
Chicago: Grasping at straws.
