My, My, Our Year Is It...?
Coming from two goals down to beat the new powerhouse to be (Man City), and one hears of the 'spirit of Istanbul....' It's a good result, but what can one make of it?
One thing is for sure-bar the MU match, the team has yet to play particularly well, yet has won 5 and drawn 2 matches thus far. A team that can pick up so many points while playing at less than their full capabilities is more than just a lucky team. Class teams do it, and if this carries on, then despite playing at less than its best, the team can probably be deemed a 'class' team rather than being a team with some 'class' players.
Scoring last minute goals a la MU is also telling. The team can heap huge pressure on the opposition, forcing them deeper and deeper into defense and yielding the ball back to players in red jerseys. More often than not, this results in late goals.
The self-belief is there as well now, and there is consistency in the line-up and tactics, though Rafa the Faka did alter it against Man City and it nearly killed us.
I don't know if I care to say 'this is our season' as I gave up on that a few years ago-as well, it is still early days and MU and Arsenal will get over their hiccups while Chelsea look super impressive, despite all their injuries. It is their title to lose, quite frankly. As well, our left-back spot looks so very weak and it is only a matter of time before it is cracked open for good, as Middlesbrough and Man City showed in flashes. A January signing there is imperative.
ain't gonna hold my breathe yet, still 31 games to go. but like u said, there's of course signs of improvement from last 5 seasons. ie, winning games w/o its best performance & still not conceding too many goals w/ an attacking oriented team
ReplyDeletewe always peak early in the season, slump before winter and pick up again near the end of the season, hopefully this doesnt happen again as we are yet to reach our peak, hopefully it builds up slowly and peak at appropriate time
ReplyDeleteey, would you put carra on the right back seeing that our fullbacks are below par and we have a selection of center backs, assuming skrtel isn't injured. i know it's not his favourite but he's done well recently and in the past in that position
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea-problem is our main weakness is at LB, not RB where Carra can slot in more easily. Arbeloa is good enough, but is not so consistent and there is no real back-up. Now Skrtel is out till Xmas, I doubt that'll happen unless Rafa thinks Hyppia's doing well at training but he won't want to change CD too much, so a long shot really.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Rafa has both LBs and RBs overlappinga lot, which does sometimes make them look weak defensively-that is not Carra's strength. I say if Deggen proves all right once he is fit, then there is adequate cover at RB though we should still look at buying a better RB, but LB is the real achilles heel.