bose Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 The Sheff Utd match has suddenly become huge. It's not just tactical - it's also a lack of aggression, tempo that was there earlier. Maybe some players have become over confident? I love Douglas Luiz but in recent games he's been much less influential, takes it too slow and a big difference from earlier in the season. We really need to wake up, still lots of matches too be played. We're in a slump but we'll get through it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 (edited) I think a bit of perspective is needed. Anyone who thought we wouldn't go through a slump in form/run of poor results and/or performances was living in cloud cuckoo land. It happens to all but the best couple of sides in the division and to teams that are much better than us. The last few weeks have been disappointing performance wise but in terms of results the only real disappointments have been the draw against Sheff Utd and the loss last night. We are nowhere near the stage of considering losing to Man Utd at Old Trafford as a real disappointment. Therefore results wise let's say we'd have lost to Man City and drew with Arsenal but beaten Sheff Utd and Newcastle. We'd still have the same 7 points from those games, still sit 4th but I guess today we'd feel better about where we currently are. I do have some concerns about our form performance wise over the last few weeks but with a relatively small squad, having Torres, Kamara, Digne, Ramsey, Tielemans all missing a number of games over what was a really congested period, I can't say that the slump has come as a total surprise. Going forward though I am confident our performances will again pick up and one good performance will be the spark for us to start another good run. It is fine margins and I think if Watkins is onside last night when he scores his second and the game is 2-3 with 15 minutes to go we go on to get the equaliser and that is the spark and we are bouncing today. Clearly we are not going to finish top 3. That was never a realistic aim. 4th/5th is very much in play though and despite a slump in form we have put ourselves in a great position to fight for that. Let's keep the faith. Edited January 31 by markavfc40 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Arsenal loat three games in a row, Spurs were in a terrible run in Nov. Newcastle had a bad run last season around March. It's not about avoiding the bad runs they come in one form or another regardless. What matters is how you come out of them. We can still win our next 5 games they are there to be won. We just need to work through it like we did last year after losing 3 on the bounce we recovered and went on a run. I feel top 5 is CL places so we have what it takes to stay in those top 5 places for sure. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlobalVillan Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 (edited) 7 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said: Calling people “delusional” for suggesting the club will finish 4th is equally as bad as those calling people “negative” for believing the club will finish 5th. Two glass houses. Plenty of stones have been thrown at both. Add to that the all encompassing “I told ya so” glass house that surrounds both, once again waiting to be broken. Read it again and stop strawmanning me! It was being attacked for not agreeing we would win the league that was delusional. I also mentioned that Spurs were favourites for 4th and saying that would get you shot down. I didn't say getting 4th was delusional. Ffs, this is ridiculous. Edited January 31 by GlobalVillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Really just depends on fitness and Unai making the correct tweaks in certain areas. Getting any of Pau, JJ, Bailey (fully fit), Digne, Rogers up to selection would immensely approve us in a few areas that we are missing. Giving up (temporarily) on Diaby at the 10 role would be a boon all around. Move him out wide if Bailey isn't fully fit and rotate them. With Rogers fit - Unai can have additional selections at the LM and 10 position finally. Still a lot to play for and Buenda/Mings aside, we were fortunate in the first half of the season with our fitness where as other teams - notably Newcastle - were not. Now, we're on the bad side of fitness and need to make some corrections to stay in the race. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinebro Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Some of us has been suggesting the way we have performed is not sustainable. Results despite playing bad has been ok but it will eventually catch up to us. I don't want to qualify for something if we don't deserve it. Maybe we're just not ready yet for CL football. Simple as that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 3 minutes ago, Pinebro said: Some of us has been suggesting the way we have performed is not sustainable. Results despite playing bad has been ok but it will eventually catch up to us. I don't want to qualify for something if we don't deserve it. Maybe we're just not ready yet for CL football. Simple as that. It’ll be close and if anything this January has highlighted how thin of a squad we have once a few injuries takes its toll. If we make UCL, it will because we find a vein of fitness at the right time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 31 VT Supporter Share Posted January 31 (edited) 1 hour ago, GlobalVillan said: Read it again and stop strawmanning me! It was being attacked for not agreeing we would win the league that was delusional. I also mentioned that Spurs were favourites for 4th and saying that would get you shot down. I didn't say getting 4th was delusional. Ffs, this is ridiculous. I’m ever so sorry. Re reading your post. 15 hours ago, GlobalVillan said: Being realistic isn't for everyone, which is fine, but certain posters need to stop calling those who aren't delusional, negative. We were never getting top 3, that was fantasy land, and Spurs are most certainly favourites for 4th (even saying that would get you shot down on here by some!), so 5th, in my view is our ceiling and I still think we can do it. So the order is - 3rd - “fantasy land” 4th - dunno, something? 5th - stone cold realism That about right? Those who think 3rd was a possibility aren’t delusional per se, but they are residents of Fantasy Land? The point is, if you want to have fewer people calling you negative for your view, you’d likely be better served not calling others delusional. You can’t control how others reply to you, that’s on them. But you can control how you phrase things. If you want less name calling, practice it. Edited January 31 by Mark Albrighton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted January 31 VT Supporter Share Posted January 31 Not sure everyone's noticed Unai speaking about seven teams better than us in just about everything. He's trying to tell us we're expecting too much too fast. And he's right. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 It's important to remember there's still loads of football to be played. If we can win 8 more games we've still got a very good chance of top 4 I think. It's still possible (although considerably less so if we can't beat Sheffield United). At least we aren't doing these performances in April/May as that would cost us top 4 and probably some silverware. Given what UE has shown so far and his overall genius I can't believe we'll just continue playing like this for months on end like would perhaps happen under MON or Dean Smith. I'm actually fascinated by how we approach the Man. United game now. They've exposed our high line in three of the four games we've played them under UE so will we just keep doing what we're doing and trust the process or will we just low block ourselves and try to win the game by a set piece (as which worked very well at Old Trafford). That's where I'd like to think a world class manager would do things differently at crucial point in the season. Oh and start Bailey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 11 hours ago, YLN said: Would you say it's a must win? How can playing the 20th team be anything other than a must win? Get to end of the season and pretty much every team in the league will have beaten Sheffield United (Burnley and Luton already have this season) so to not come up with a performance to beat them home or away would be highly embarrassing and that would cost us top 4 alone you'd suspect. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 10 hours ago, Jareth said: Are we looking at a drop off due to the squad? There are a few areas without competition and some players are guaranteed to start. I think we need a kick up the arse, so am hoping the likes of Rogers or returning players are able to do that - or we'll drift further. I'm actually a bit concerned at 3-0 down we just didn't give some minutes to Tim and Kesler Hayden. If we won't play them when we're in that situation when will we? It's a concern to me given we've trimmed the squad by letting Donk go and yet the young lads aren't getting minutes in league or cup so we're still relying on a small core of 15 senior players. Newcastle had all these injuries and started Miley at 17 and he's started the vast majority of games for them in last three months and done very well by all accounts so I'd like to see those two get minutes soon just to freshen things up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 46 minutes ago, AVTuco said: Not sure everyone's noticed Unai speaking about seven teams better than us in just about everything. He's trying to tell us we're expecting too much too fast. And he's right. In financial terms (i.e. what we've spent), we should probably be battling with Newcastle and West Ham for 7th/8th. The Sky 6 bring in far higher revenue than us and can therefore spend more money on proven quality, it's pretty obvious, but I don't think that will ever change unless we can get our revenue up to £400m+ very quickly which is highly unlikely. But I'm pretty sure when Spurs finished 4th in 2010 (when there was an established top 4 and City were outspending them), or Newcastle last season, or even when Leicester won the bloomin league, all of those teams at those times brought in far less money than the established teams. It's about having the brave mentality to go above and beyond and achieve that, which seems a task too far for this squad it seems unless they can find a second wind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 4 hours ago, Pinebro said: Some of us has been suggesting the way we have performed is not sustainable. Results despite playing bad has been ok but it will eventually catch up to us. I don't want to qualify for something if we don't deserve it. Maybe we're just not ready yet for CL football. Simple as that. The issue with that is next season could be the year where Chelsea finally do something in the league under Boehly's ownership. They've been wretched for nearly two years but I can't believe they'll be like that for many more seasons. Man. United could get a new manager in and make 2-3 decent signings and have a season like they did last year, 3rd and a cup win. Newcastle will likely be better with more signings in key areas once they sell players to Saudi. This is a key season for us imo with so many of those teams at least 10 points behind us still. We can't keep saying next season we'll do it as we were lulled into that in the MON years and it never happened and then key players started leaving and we couldn't recover. Have to seize the chance now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 14 minutes ago, VillaChris said: The issue with that is next season could be the year where Chelsea finally do something in the league under Boehly's ownership. They've been wretched for nearly two years but I can't believe they'll be like that for many more seasons. Man. United could get a new manager in and make 2-3 decent signings and have a season like they did last year, 3rd and a cup win. Newcastle will likely be better with more signings in key areas once they sell players to Saudi. This is a key season for us imo with so many of those teams at least 10 points behind us still. We can't keep saying next season we'll do it as we were lulled into that in the MON years and it never happened and then key players started leaving and we couldn't recover. Have to seize the chance now. I think we still have a very good chance this season and would much rather be in our position than Chelsea/Newcastle/United/West Ham/etc. But we need some players to come back from injury and full fitness. Feel like we've played with half a team since City. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thabucks Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 (edited) We've lost 5 league games out of 22 played so far this season … And won one less than Citeh, Plop and Arsenal … Edited January 31 by thabucks 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted January 31 VT Supporter Share Posted January 31 Come on the bees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvonVillain Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Ah crap Spurs ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 **** joke Brentford conceding two goals in 2 mins. We just needed a bit of luck tonight but not getting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom13 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On current form, it would take a miracle for us to finish above Spurs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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