Just a thought about our recent dip

[Trumo]

You just need a wee bit more self belief, your form took a dip and you threw in the towel. This will be character building for you.

 

U wot m8? I've been out on the training pitch putting in the runs, bustin' my buns, crackin' new puns...

[Babb'sBurstNad]

If you can't support Trumo when his puns are shit, don't support him when his puns are less shit.

[Paco]

Jeez, even the legends who won all there is to win in the game are on board the 'accept this as the norm' bus.

Digger was saying title race doesn't start until march. Not sure if that meant we were still in it if we could get our shit together quick.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Hans Rosling has died today as well... title challenge back on track

Yeah, him and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.  Hardly stellar, is it?

 

This time last year we'd lost Bowie, Alan Rickman, Terry Wogan, Glenn Frey, Maurice White and Ed "Stewpot" Stewart.

 

We need more star-power to kickstart our year.

[VladimirIlyich]

Hans Rosling has died today as well... title challenge back on track

Never heard of the cunt.

[Ipplfc]

We might get a Brucie bonus before Saturday and have a

Good game,good game!!

[Bjornebye]

We might get a Brucie bonus before Saturday and have a

Good game,good game!!

If Forsyth dies before 5:30 pm Saturday I'm coming looking for you. Actually I think I've got him in my dead pool list. I'll shaker yer hand

[therevivalist]

Two basic factors only, as I see it: fatigue, bad bench. All the rest stems from there.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

I'd add predictable tactics and a total lack of mental strength to the list.

 

We've been predictable in attack for some time (before Mané left to be honest), and similar in defensive weaknesses bar a couple of games. Our wide players run and stop on the ball, as if their job is to get down the line and gain ground rather than do anything, which just funnels possession into a crowded area in the middle of the pitch, allowing a defence to organise against us.

 

All any team needs to do is wait until we over-rely on fullbacks being up by their area, then break and run at the midfielders who can't tackle, which we have an abundance of. Shitloads of players who'll harry, jostle, point, cover space etc. but not one in the centre who sees danger and takes the ball or the man in that situation. Well, Lucas can, providing he has a bus to get him there or someone runs into him, but he's now an emergency CB. 

 

When was the last time our gameplan failed, and we saw a positive change that the opposition didn't expect? We're all too often substituting players in the same system, and hoping someone does something different with it.

 

As for mental strength, well as soon as people started talking about the title challenge I got this horrible foreboding feeling, like the ghost from It Follows was walking behind me and getting closer. In the Autumn, it all seems a bit of fun, but as soon as you head into the Christmas period and you're up there, it becomes very real. I'm sure we'll do well enough to be in the hunt for top four from here on out, but I'm also sure we'll only see an upturn while we're in the chasing pack; when we're in a position to truly capitalise, we'll falter.

 

It's like Arsenal's rally to pinch second last season. In the history books it'll look to some like they maybe missed out on the title, but in reality they only performed well enough to nab that spot once Leicester had won it. Spurs fell away too when there was finally something tangible riding on the games. It's hard to build that winning mentality, and when the pressure mounts with each passing shite performance, my hopes that these players can handle it gets smaller. No cups =  all the pressure on the league. "Treat it like a cup final" only works if you've got a side that won't bottle a final.

[Arl arse]

Ever since Trump was voted in we've been shit.

 

Four more years....

[El Rojo]

I'd add predictable tactics and a total lack of mental strength to the list.

 

We've been predictable in attack for some time (before Mané left to be honest), and similar in defensive weaknesses bar a couple of games. Our wide players run and stop on the ball, as if their job is to get down the line and gain ground rather than do anything, which just funnels possession into a crowded area in the middle of the pitch, allowing a defence to organise against us.

 

All any team needs to do is wait until we over-rely on fullbacks being up by their area, then break and run at the midfielders who can't tackle, which we have an abundance of. Shitloads of players who'll harry, jostle, point, cover space etc. but not one in the centre who sees danger and takes the ball or the man in that situation. Well, Lucas can, providing he has a bus to get him there or someone runs into him, but he's now an emergency CB. 

 

When was the last time our gameplan failed, and we saw a positive change that the opposition didn't expect? We're all too often substituting players in the same system, and hoping someone does something different with it.

 

As for mental strength, well as soon as people started talking about the title challenge I got this horrible foreboding feeling, like the ghost from It Follows was walking behind me and getting closer. In the Autumn, it all seems a bit of fun, but as soon as you head into the Christmas period and you're up there, it becomes very real. I'm sure we'll do well enough to be in the hunt for top four from here on out, but I'm also sure we'll only see an upturn while we're in the chasing pack; when we're in a position to truly capitalise, we'll falter.

 

It's like Arsenal's rally to pinch second last season. In the history books it'll look to some like they maybe missed out on the title, but in reality they only performed well enough to nab that spot once Leicester had won it. Spurs fell away too when there was finally something tangible riding on the games. It's hard to build that winning mentality, and when the pressure mounts with each passing shite performance, my hopes that these players can handle it gets smaller. No cups =  all the pressure on the league. "Treat it like a cup final" only works if you've got a side that won't bottle a final.

 

A lot of truth in that.

 

It's been a problem for a very long time.

 

There's been a lot of talk of leaders and big players standing up, but if you look back to 2008/09 when we had them all over the pitch, we started very well, then bottled it for a period, then started playing well again, almost with abandon, from around the 4-1 game at Old Trafford onwards when it was unlikely that we'd get back in the reckoning. Rafa had the added 'hassle' of top level European football that season though.

[Thoth]

Yeah but the dead celebs remember!!

[Bjornebye]

We need to take this dip out of the fridge.

[Paco]

A lot of truth in that.

 

It's been a problem for a very long time.

 

There's been a lot of talk of leaders and big players standing up, but if you look back to 2008/09 when we had them all over the pitch, we started very well, then bottled it for a period, then started playing well again, almost with abandon, from around the 4-1 game at Old Trafford onwards when it was unlikely that we'd get back in the reckoning. Rafa had the added 'hassle' of top level European football that season though.

Coincided with torres being out in December and we tried Keane and kuyt up front. We drew at home with West ham, Hull and possibly Fulham and that fucked us.

[El Rojo]

Coincided with torres being out in December and we tried Keane and kuyt up front. We drew at home with West ham, Hull and possibly Fulham and that fucked us.

 

The £20m spent on Keane that summer was a wasted opportunity among too many. I don't even think the manager wanted him. The right signing then for even less money would have turned a quality team into a title-winning team.

 

Still, we pasted Newcastle at the end of December and then just won two of our next seven league games. That's what did for us. 

[kalasoma]

Macabre.

But I understand.

[Thoth]

Thanks Tara

[Arl arse]

Bill Paxton......

[AngryOfTuebrook]

We might get a Brucie bonus before Saturday and have a

Good game,good game!!

In intensive care.

 

Come on, Brucie, lad, do it for the Reds.

[VladimirIlyich]

In intensive care.

 

Come on, Brucie, lad, do it for the Reds.

Keep chipping away at that tory majority. Next Tarbuck?

[stringvest]

Keep chipping away at that tory majority. Next Tarbuck?

 

 

*** GOLF SALE ***