Decky Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I'd be more concerned about our home form if it was December. As it stands there's 9 games left and we're top and 6 points clear of 3rd. We'll be fine. 5 of which are at home, which means we have a maximum 12 points left to play for. Playoffs here we come I'm afraid. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I'll even entertain this shit actually because I'm bored. But we've won 74% of our home games. So that'll be 3 wins from that 5 and a draw as well. Guess we're on 87 points with 12 still to play for. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEEJ Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I'd be more concerned about our home form if it was December. As it stands there's 9 games left and we're top and 6 points clear of 3rd. We'll be fine. 5 of which are at home, which means we have a maximum 12 points left to play for. Playoffs here we come I'm afraid. What a rectangle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paullow Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I'd be more concerned about our home form if it was December. As it stands there's 9 games left and we're top and 6 points clear of 3rd. We'll be fine. They do have a game in hand though. Before yesterday we could afford to lose 2 games and then match their results, now we just have that 1 game buffer. You'd obviously still prefer to be in our position but they aren't going to go away easily and yesterdays result hasn't just come out of the blue, we may have been unbeaten in 10, but we were pretty poor in a few of those games, that first 40 mins vs Villa in particular. Massively important that we win next week to take us into the international break. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heron Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 How many teams can not finish above us? We'll be fine chaps. Relax. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Think nerves are just kicking in a bit. We are so close, and so used to not having things go our way, people are fearing the worst. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Crooks Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Get a catheter fitted and look out a window or something. Shit day for Rafa and the team all round but we're fine. Only thing I'm worried about now is getting Tim sherwood in the summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I love Rafa and I never want him to leave but I do find it a bit strange when people on here think he's immune from criticism Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I love Rafa and I never want him to leave but I do find it a bit strange when people on here think he's immune from criticism aye Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heron Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Rafas tactics were the main reason we lost yesterday. That and the fact Shelvey and Colback were 5 yards off the pace Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I don't think he's immune from criticism but he's only been here 12 months and implementing his methods and tactics, with lesser quality players than he is used to working with, isn't going to be perfect quickly. So I'm not going to panic when it doesn't work every week as I trust that the longer he is here, the better we will become. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Crooks Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Except people don't. Strawmantastic. People take exception to daft comments by our quasi-WUM pal Chris and others who claim were likely to blow it. We have a squad with marginal quality above championship league standard, a top manager who's juggling that with underinvestment in January and yes sometimes a lack of dynamism due to tactics and a mix of those factors. We're top 6 points ahead of third and 9 games left - perfectly fine to take issue with those overly criticising. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bimpy474 Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I love Rafa and I never want him to leave but I do find it a bit strange when people on here think he's immune from criticism Very true. At Huddersfield i thought Rafa got it tactically superb, the perfect way to play a team who have the ball a lot and we hit them on the break brilliantly. And yesterday it was tactically inept, as bad as anything Pardew or Island Heed served up, not sure why it can't be called as you see it without it being bed wetting or over reacting. We all know how great Rafa is, he got it wrong (along with the players) like he has a few times at home. It doesn't mean we are doubting him long term, he is our best hope going forward without a doubt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Very true. At Huddersfield i thought Rafa got it tactically superb, the perfect way to play a team who have the ball a lot and we hit them on the break brilliantly. And yesterday it was tactically inept, as bad as anything Pardew or Island Heed served up, not sure why it can't be called as you see it without it being bed wetting or over reacting. We all know how great Rafa is, he got it wrong (along with the players) like he has a few times at home. It doesn't mean we are doubting him long term, he is our best hope going forward without a doubt. Our tactics weren't inept yesterday, the performance of most of the players was inept and tactics are not to blame for that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
magorific Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I love Rafa and I never want him to leave but I do find it a bit strange when people on here think he's immune from criticism Very true. At Huddersfield i thought Rafa got it tactically superb, the perfect way to play a team who have the ball a lot and we hit them on the break brilliantly. And yesterday it was tactically inept, as bad as anything Pardew or Island Heed served up, not sure why it can't be called as you see it without it being bed wetting or over reacting. We all know how great Rafa is, he got it wrong (along with the players) like he has a few times at home. It doesn't mean we are doubting him long term, he is our best hope going forward without a doubt. Spot on. You'll still get called a bed-wetting WUM, though... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Except people don't. Strawmantastic. People take exception to daft comments by our quasi-WUM pal Chris and others who claim were likely to blow it. We have a squad with marginal quality above championship league standard, a top manager who's juggling that with underinvestment in January and yes sometimes a lack of dynamism due to tactics and a mix of those factors. We're top 6 points ahead of third and 9 games left - perfectly fine to take issue with those overly criticising. I'd like to see these posts that state he's immune from criticism. Total load of bollocks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bimpy474 Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Very true. At Huddersfield i thought Rafa got it tactically superb, the perfect way to play a team who have the ball a lot and we hit them on the break brilliantly. And yesterday it was tactically inept, as bad as anything Pardew or Island Heed served up, not sure why it can't be called as you see it without it being bed wetting or over reacting. We all know how great Rafa is, he got it wrong (along with the players) like he has a few times at home. It doesn't mean we are doubting him long term, he is our best hope going forward without a doubt. Our tactics weren't inept yesterday, the performance of most of the players was inept and tactics are not to blame for that. Hoying it forward was a tactic unless you think Rafa didn't want us to do it and the players ignored him, it was an inept display from the manager to virtually every player bar Murphy. The players take as much blame, if the instructions are to go direct there's no excuse for over hitting balls like yesterday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 The plan was clearly to press high and then get early balls over the top and Gayle in behind. It was executed appallingly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Did we press them much? On the radio it sounded like just sitting off and letting them play. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Hoying it forward was a tactic unless you think Rafa didn't want us to do it and the players ignored him, it was an inept display from the manager to virtually every player bar Murphy. The players take as much blame, if the instructions are to go direct there's no excuse for over hitting balls like yesterday. Hoying it forward wasn't the problem, it was the way that we did it that was the problem and I doubt he told them to just hoy it forward anyway. I would expect that he did tell them to get at them and try to hit them early and on the break which we didn't do. We either hit it too long or hit it into space where nobody was or was prepared to run into. At least you've hit the nail on the head with your last sentence. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leazes_End_Mag Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I love the bloke but I've said a couple of times this season that if you take away the results, the football and the style of it is horrendous and I was slated for it. As of yet, nothing has changed to make me think differently and Rafa comes across as the type of manager who isn't going to go out and set his teams up to go gung-ho just to please fans. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Did we press them much? On the radio it sounded like just sitting off and letting them play. We didn't, our back line was far too close to Darlow for too much of the game because we had no movement, we seemed to push them further back once they scored their second goal and that was probably them going back slightly to protect the lead. We had virtually the whole of the Fulham half in which to hit the ball for somebody to run onto and we couldn't even do that. We either sent it out of play or we hit one of their players because we had no movement in the middle of the park. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cp40 Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 The plan was clearly to press high and then get early balls over the top and Gayle in behind. It was executed appallingly. It worked to some degree before Gayles injury, but I think we cant rely on it as our go to game plan, need something else, I would go Murphy with Gayle off at the expense of Colback or Diame- they are both shit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Did we press them much? On the radio it sounded like just sitting off and letting them play. We didn't, our back line was far too close to Darlow for too much of the game because we had no movement, we seemed to push them further back once they scored their second goal and that was probably them going back slightly to protect the lead. We had virtually the whole of the Fulham half in which to hit the ball for somebody to run onto and we couldn't even do that. We either sent it out of play or we hit one of their players because we had no movement in the middle of the park. It was clearly the game plan from the off, but Colback and Dummett either weren't following or not capable of executing this. First 10 mins we tried to press high but it didn't work because only Gayle, Diame, Atsu and Ritchie were doing it and we just fell apart. This type of press only works if the whole team is in on it, we were so disjointed it was a mess and made it easy for Cairney to run the show between the lines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 They played a front three from the get go and their left caused us horrendous problems, nothing was done to combat this all game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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