It was also frustrating because we lost another two players to injury at a time where fixtures start to come thick and fast and with our league position in need of improvement it can be argued that we can ill afford to lose many more players anyway, let alone when we’re in the league position we currently occupy.
Yer for some there is no need for concern. At least not yet anyway and I include myself on that. Personally I can see improvements in how we are playing week by week and we’re playing better football now than we did under Pardew, Carver and than we did at the start of the season.
Mind you there will of course have to be a time where the panic button gets pressed.
For others they see struggle. A nod towards the league table will back up their concerns because you can’t get away from the fact that it’s not exactly good reading at the moment.
I’ve also heard that “playing passing football is no good” yet the amount of people critical of our direct style under Pardew was high, myself included.
Ultimately I’m of the belief that we have enough to get our of this and start picking up victories and the points that go with it. We’re creating chances and sooner or later they will get put away but overall I don’t feel panicked yet and have been impressed with the improvement we’ve shown despite the results.
That’s just my opinion though. I’d like to hear yours. Please also take a moment to cast a vote in our poll.
[poll id=”87″]
I think the style of play is better if I’m honest, but right now I would swap it for a few wins…
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Performances yes without doubt. Results, however have not – do I see that improving – yes I see us picking up the wins.
But we need to further improve our squad in Jan too.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Is time we find someone to replace Cabaye. A playmaker spraying accurate passes.
We definitely need cover in behind.
Our attacking side is decently good. Balance it well at the back.
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
Our general play has improved going forward but still having a problem putting the ball in the net got to be some sort of change we do lack good wing play with balls into the box from cut backs imo we need a change in m/f to help with forward play two defensive m/f insnt working problem is we lack quality in that dept,got to be improvement in Jan window.
TOONSY great to se you writing a few threads mate,well done
icedog(Quote)
For once the International Break will come at a good time for us. It will allow Darlow and Janmaat recovery time and maybe even Colback. That thigh injury put Elliot out for almost a year last time so I am not too optimistic of an early recovery. Sorry to dwell on ‘keepers, but it means we need another in January – Valdes on a 6 month loan?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Ice 😉
I think we’ve improved no end. We can control games now.
It’s worrying that we aren’t scoring so much but at least we’re creating the chances to score. If we weren’t I’d be more worried.
We were better in defence yesterday too for a change.
AOD is right. We’ve never really replaced Cabaye
toonsy(Quote)
Wasn’t De Jong outright called the Cabaye replacement?
We need to try and integrate him into the team. What use is he never playing, gaining fitness or getting used to the league?
He is a money drain.
funkyjesus(Quote)
FJ: at the moment de Jong is the Gosling replacement. Luckily we will be coming up against him next week. I don’t want to tempt fate or anything but Goosy Gossy is about as inconsequential for Bournemouth as he was for us.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Style of play is better, but let’s be honest it could be have been any worse. But that’s probably down to the fact we spent £50m in the summer so it should be better with better players.
However the reality is that we don’t score enough goals and concede too many so in the things that matter like goals scored, goals conceded and point got we are worse. Unfortunately for the people who live in the land of milk and honey it’s only them three things that matter, not style of play.
Can only reach the conclusion that we haven’t yet improved at all!
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart: the games are more interesting. At least we seem like we have a chance of winning if the Ref does not intervene. Last year I almost didn’t even want to watch some games because I already knew the script.
The other thing is that if we only have about 15-18 points come January that might force Fatty’s hand a bit and make us upgrade where we all know we need to. Of course we all want us to win every game but that could be the silver lining in our cloud of few points gained so far.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
That’s maybe, Eric but the truth is we have sent £50m and are worse than last season. That’s not acceptable.
Stuart79(Quote)
I see improvement absolutely, thanks to players like Gini, Mitro, Perez and at times Sissoko. We needed more than Mbemba to come in at the back though and that’s our downfall along with no playmaker or winger to supply ( Thauvin doesn’t look the answer in that dept unfortunately ). And now we have 3 senior keepers crocked for the second season in a row.
Mr Carr needs to stay out of france a while and look at the PL players, stop trying to fix us on the cheap and pay the going rate for once.
kimtoon(Quote)
defo improved.
this was never going to be a quick fix,after 4 years of percy.
macca has had to change the hole ethos of our play,that takes time.
hitman(Quote)
Hitman – Agreed.
Also think it’s too early to write Thauvin off. He had a stormer against a League Two side and was the next coming of jesus then had a stinker in the next match, is now ***** and hasn’t really featured
toonsy(Quote)
Toonsy, there were reports a couple of weeks back saying thauvin wants back to France already.
kimtoon(Quote)
http://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/newcastle-united/newcastle-eyeing-budget-striker-smash-and-grab#By4TYIkzZcukT7AH.97
Saw the Koura link a while back, again we are looking at the wrong areas if this is true.
kimtoon(Quote)
Toonsy: I added up Thauvin’s total PL playing time on another thread and it is 292 minutes. That is a little over 3 games. He might be taking a while to adjust and we don’t really have room for flair players at the moment as we try to dig ourselves out of a hole. There is enough blame to spread around for who got us in the hole in the first place.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
KIM@16 hope that’s not true neither of them is the answer if fact poor jabba had the chance to buy Ayew he offered 4mil for the free player the storey is Swansea gave the lad 5 bloody cheap would have cost 15mil or so on open market, jabba on the cheap again
icedog(Quote)
Kimtoon: when Thauvin sees his bank balance go up and up he will sharp change his mind. He probably doubled his wages and there is plenty of time for him to return to Provence.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Now, Bournemouth stats: 3 straight PL losses. Outscored 12 to 2. A real clash of the Titans in the early game next week 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Ice, yeah worrying
kimtoon(Quote)
All we have to do to get out of the relegation zone is beat Bournemouth. Can you believe that!!! Our saving grace might be how **** the Mackems and Villa are and that the players Bournemouth spent money on all got injured leaving them to start Dan Gosling.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I have never heard any club mention the phrase “flair players” as much as we do.
Granted, it is in a league with a different style in France but Ben Arfa is eviscerating the division again. He is back to being the lesser, French version of Messi like he was when we signed him. That is not a “flair” player, that is a winning player. Would Madrid call Ronaldo or Barca call Messi a “flair” player? No, they are just the best players. Who also happen to be the world’s most flair based players.
We eliminate anyone with a mind to try something and basically want a team of 11 Tiote’s. Tiote, when fit and interested, is good at his job but that is only because he is the main guy to do that. If we had 11 of that, he’d be awful.
What did Leicester do when almost certainly relegated? They just gave the ball to Mahrez and Albrighton and they stayed up and are now flying, with the same logic and now Vardy is on fire due to the form of the others.
We are in the same situation and our team eliminate any trace of a Mahrez type and want more Cattermole. It is ludicrous. It is also about 3 different managers and a totally new coaching team that has done it so it is clearly a British mentality of a certain time period.
When a notoriously defensive Italian coach like Ranieri has his team playing like Klopp-era Borussia Dortmund and we have, on paper, a more talented squad player for player and we are terrified of anyone going forward without immediately becoming a second full back….. we’ll never succeed.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Also annoyed I spent a hell of a long time saying we should sign Virgil Van Dijk from Celtic last time I posted on here (not a shock to most due to my Celtic connections, I guess) but he is proving exactly why now he is at Southampton. Same as Wanyama and Forster too.
I wish Southampton would stop using Celtic as a personal shop, quite honestly.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Huge game coming up. If we can’t beat Bournemouth then it’s time to start panicking.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Mackems holding six fingers up… Yep that’s what your team is about to get stuffed by… Haw haw.
DJG(Quote)
Aye FJ the need for two defensive midfielders boils my pissa.. Anita looked a bit more attacking yesterday but we certainly need a play-maker in the middle. I’d even be tempted to put Marv alongside Colback or Tiote.
Hopefully things will improve with the return of Aarons..
Van Dijk would of been excellent with Mbemba.. 🙄
Gashley(Quote)
Remi garde signs for Villa
Gashley(Quote)
We’ve improved for sure, although as others have said, right now I’d swap it for a few wins. Hopefully we get them, start banging the goals in, and our football should really improve then – we still lack confidence and Schteve needs to get some belief in the squad. Must be hard seeing Everton destroy the same poor sunderland side we couldn’t even score against, but hopefully it won’t knock our confidence too much….There was a stat this morning saying we’d had 35 shots in our last two games and still hadn’t scored, not good…
On the plus side, hopefully whatever confidence the scum got after beating us again has been destroyed by Everton. We really will be relying on them to go down this season if we want to stay up.
Newkie(Quote)
I have previously been a proponent of the “relegation would help” theory as it did the last time but the new money deals mean relegation is doom now. Wed never get straight back up this time and the money would set us 10 years behind even the likes of Watford.
Ashley needs to use the emergency button this January. Support McClaren and no more gambling on survival.
funkyjesus(Quote)