Imagine how many points we'd have....

[Amir_9]

I have to disagree in some parts, Smith was a beast in the WBA game(first game of season) I still remember, hes capable, just lazy.

 

That was 25 league games ago

 

Dont be daft, Im only taking an example. Not saying his performance over the season, which in all fairness has been satisfactory.

[Guest Roger Kint]

I have to disagree in some parts, Smith was a beast in the WBA game(first game of season) I still remember, hes capable, just lazy.

 

That was 25 league games ago

 

Dont be daft, Im only taking an example. Not saying his performance over the season, which in all fairness has been satisfactory.

 

Beast to satisfactory in one reply?

[Amir_9]

I have to disagree in some parts, Smith was a beast in the WBA game(first game of season) I still remember, hes capable, just lazy.

 

That was 25 league games ago

 

Dont be daft, Im only taking an example. Not saying his performance over the season, which in all fairness has been satisfactory.

 

Beast to satisfactory in one reply?

 

Are you just reading the descriptive words and leaving out the rest of the sentence?, I said I disagree that hes crap overall, but is satisfactory this season, and was immense against West Brom, so hes capable, but lazy.

[Legacy]

Ive a feeling Hughton will drop Nolan soon.

 

Dont think he deserves much of this "hes an idiot who never sees what we see" style talk that goes round. He's dropped butt, hes tried Guthrie in centre mid, hes played Ranger, hes tried Nolan upfront. Hes brought in a new right winger after seeing pancrate wasnt stepping up, hes tried for a striker upfront when ours hadnt been consistant.

 

Essentially does everything people say he should, just normally a while after we say it which is understandable as its his job as manager to show faith in players when underperforming.

 

He'll know Nolans not been performing at the same level, same with smith to an extent. Hopefully he'll change something up soon instead of persisting for now.

 

I hope you are right. But Hughton's started Nolan virtually every league game that he's been available either in central midfield or playing off the striker. As long as we're top the league, I'm not sure he'll make the change. And I gather Nolan along with Smith is something of a clubhouse leader, which may mitigate against a change.

 

But you're right about Hughton trying different things. When he took over temporarily last season he started Xisco, didn't he? I don't think he'd even made an appearance and Hughton started him two or three times immediately after taking over.

 

If we are truly interested in Huseklepp then we could see nolan being droped/given a rest to regain his goal scoring form unless Hughton has realised we can't get a proper out and out striker this window and is going to revert to a 4-5-1 system.

[Tooj]

Yet again absolutely legless, spineless and gutless. Pathetic really.

[Guest HGB1892]

Yet again absolutely legless, spineless and gutless. Pathetic really.

 

Gerraway, Nolan has more of a gut than Jimmy 5 bellies.

 

The bloke is like a fucking roundabout in our midfield.

[Guest Phil K]

Where are all those who want to sell Barton btw?

He's not much use not playing - whats the reason this time ?

[Guest]

If we use the 'we finished 3rd bottom so we must have been 3rd worst team' argument, then we're still the best team in the league so far. Personally I think it's rubbish. We're not better than WBA the same way I still maintain Hull weren't better than us last season.

[UV]

Disgraceful yet again tonight.

 

Smith's coasting atm. Just sitting there 10 yards in front of his CH's for 90% of the game. Pretending he's the new white Makelele - trouble is he's nowhere near as good as he thinks he is. He thinks he's doing a fantastic job because we've conceded so few goals but he's hindering us because he's refusing to get involved at the business end of the park.

 

Smith has played in 26 out of 30 league games. Nearly half (9 of 21) of the goals we've conceded have been while he's not been on the pitch.

 

Put another way, by my reckoning when Smith has played we've conceded at a rate of 1 goal every 2 games, when he hasn't we've conceded at a rate of 1.6 goals per game.

 

Maybe he's nowhere near as poor as you think he is, and the role he's been asked to play is a major part of why the defence has been so relatively solid this season? 

[Ashley17]

I hate the Smith/Nolan centre midfield beyond all reasoning, Smith sits so deep he's not even breaking up the play, he's just an extra centre half so teams get within 25 yards of goal before he's even in the picture. This is not helped by the fact that Nolan is never anywhere to be seen, mysteriously vanishing into fat air. I'm tired of team waltzing past him and Nolan doing his "dog having a piss" routine by stick a leg out because he's too fat to turn and control, or even worse when he just puts his foot through it because taking it down would involve more energy. Both Smith and Nolan arguably have the best attitude at the club but they're either thick, shit or both but ultimately it's Hughton who should be spotting these things, hopefully Barton can re-discover his Man CIty form when he returns but it's more likely he'll go back to prison than play in centre midfield for us

[Stifler]

So compared to when we last went up, how many points do we now have?

 

Edit: We are 1 point behind.