Gallowgate End

Burnley got called “Heroic” by the Skysports panel for having 0 shots on target against Spurs.

Timing Point still stands Ranieri has them much more organized They arn’t a easy touch anymore now they’ve got rid of the attacking Jokanovic everyone thought we were playing the Jokanovic Fulham

Wolves can’t even score past 40 goals conceded Fulham. Rafa Nuno Santo out too defensive......

Nout better than starting Boxing day watching a relegation rival get away with a handball that was way worse more blatant than the one we got punished for this season 2 games in a row Fulham have now got away with pens against them had to be Marriner too just to rub it in even more

"I suspect Rafa is too afraid of getting the team to attack because on the one hand our attacking quality is so low that we're not likely to make use of more numbers getting forward, and on the other hand if we open up we leave ourselves exposed to counter attacks. Combine the two (shiite attack, open defense) and it's high risk to go gung ho be a bit more ambitiousat home." Happy? Nobody can make excuses for having no shots on target at home against the worse defence in the league - 7 points out of 27 prove it's not working something has to change either the way we play or replacing personnel who are fixtures in the team despite offering virtually nothing. Was it high risk last year when we competed with Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea by taking a more ambitious approach in those games - were we gung ho then? Rubbish I’d bet around half of the 20 teams in our league have had a match with 0 shots on target it isn’t as rare as the moaners are loving to make out. Burnley had 0 shots on target against Spurs and the Skysports panel called it a “Heroic” effort Yet we’ve scored past EVERY Top 6 team we’ve played this season and scored past ALL the current Top 8 teams. We even scored 2 first 10 minute goals at Old Trafford something no team has ever done in Premier League history at Old Trafford Brighton had a 3 match winning run having just 1 shot on target each match when they played us we had the 2nd most shots in the whole of Europe of a team to lose that weekend only Real Madrid had more The moaners must think all the other teams in our half of the league like Brighton and that play some way more attacking football than Rafa.. such Richard Keys/Paul Merson type rubbish we arn’t playing any less attacking than half the league. Palace took 10 games or something just to score a open play goal at home this season And Southamton went on a run of 5 games out of 6 without even scoring. Cardiff had a touch map that showed their centre half had the most touches in the oppositions box after 10 games not any of their in play attacking players were top There are plenty of examples that a lot of teams in our half of the league arn’t playing some way more attacking football than Rafa that the moaners must think everyone else in our half are playing the only guy that did got sacked after conceding like 40 goals in 13 matches Rafa out Jokanovic in..

Only time Rafa decided to go hit for hit like these moaners want was at home against West Ham and we got ripped to absolute shreds it was like watching a Jokanovic Fulham side. We’d have absolutely no chance staying up playing that way. Credit to Ranieri he came up and did a Rafa gameplan on us and got them their first clean sheet they have a semi chance now they’ve ditched the attacking Jokanovic.

Yep. The only time this season Rafa decided to go hit for hit with a team after going on a really solid run in a defensive 3-4-2-1 was West Ham at home and they absolutely ripped us to shreds in our biggest loss of the season. Pellegrini absolutely loved that we went hit for hit with them he said it could have been 6 or 7. Some fans deserve a Jokanovic honestly

It will be something silly like around £30million vs £300million at a guess

On the positive we’ve won 4 of our last 8 matches and we’ve only lost 2 of the last 8 games

How many years + games has it been since we won a match from a penalty in the Premier League?

Says it all.

Almost 6 years ago. If I didn’t laugh I’d cry. I got it wrong, but there's barely any difference. It was January 2014 the last time an opposition player was sent off, and December 2013 the last time we had any man advantage. Think it’s 18 PL red cards shown to us in a row now since the last one in our favour. 18 in a row......absolutely nothing suspect about that at all. How many pens for and against in the same time also - I know teams get bad decisions but the facts don't lie where we are concerned. Even if you assume that refs are twice as likely to show us a red as opposed to our opponents the odds of 18 in a row against us are still nearly 1500-1

Almost 6 years ago. If I didn’t laugh I’d cry.

What just like last year?

Isn’t it 149 games now since the opposition have had a Red against us?

We had 68% possession last time I checked why arn’t Skysports showing the possession stats do they only show it when we play the Top 6?

If we are setup as open as we were against West Ham with a back 4 it could be 3 or 4 again. Hoping Rafa sticks with the unbeaten base of 3-4-2-1 I’d even like to see Shelvey, Ki and Diame as a middle 3 to bulk it up even more against these. Huddersfield got their success against Wolves by playing a middle 3 and taking away Wolves usual possessional dominance. Fully expecting Rafa to go back to a 4-4-1-1 mind ala West Ham.

They had the second least amount of shots on target of all the Premier League teams tonight.

Almiron will easily make it in Europe. He’d be great at a Real Betis under someone like Setien his agent should really be moving him to La Liga rather than the Premier League though.

Yeah they’ve struggled when teams put 3 against them in a 3-5-2 Huddersfield did it best. We should keep the 3 at the back and play Ki, Diame, Shelvey in midfield for this and have Perez/Muto up top with Rondon Not sure I’ve ever seen Rafa go with a 3 in the middle though.

He is much better in a back 3

Agree Setup far too open it totally suited West Ham matching them in formation and playing hit for hit. They murdered us in the one v ones we needed the extra cover we had in the Burnley game.

Paul Merson has just said if he was Arsenal manager he’d play 10 men behind the ball against Spurs/Top 6 sides. The cheek of it given he slated us for not opening up against the Top 6

Ki scored and got a assist against these in a 4 v 1 win last season. Hopefully he can have the same impact against these for us today.