The trouble with that Andy Carroll is he’s only any good in the air isn’t he?
Well the big fella nailed that nonsense once and for all today and I hope you won’t mind me saying I’ve always said he was good on the deck.
That was one blinding goal and the celebration which followed was brilliant. he’d been getting a lot of stick from the Swansea fans and had a great time putting it up to ’em.
We played some really good football at times today and had we come away with a point this time last year we would have been doing some big time celebrating.
But we let ourselves down a bit in the second half and started to defend what we had. It’s as much to do with the players as the manager. When you haven’t won for a while there’s a collective psyche kicks in but it’s the wrong way to go.
We started defending deeper and deeper and you just knew what was going to happen. It was a real shame to see it happen because the further we went into our shell the harder it was always going to be to come out.
The goal was really unfortunate for Mark Noble but there was nothing he could do and to be fair we responded really well, creating a lot of chances towards the end.
The fact is though that we’ve now gone five without a win and we need to get that one on the board either against Everton on Tuesday, Hull on Saturday or both of course.
After that it’s Liverpool at their place and Man United at the Boleyn. These are free hits and both teams are beatable. They are definitely not what they once were.
Every team will have its little disappointing run but once we have sorted Everton, Hull or both we’ll be back on our way again. No problem.
Come on you Irons.
How many times in a season recently have we read the same thing about us.’Defending to deep’,’Protecting what we have’,’Respecting the point’.It is a long running theme.Yes a point away from home is a decent return,but how many times could we have come away with 3 points.It maybe in a players psyche after a winless sequence to take what you got & defend it,but this also comes from the management.If the players are continually having it drilled into them to defend what they have & this damn ‘respect the point’ principle is it any wonder they play this way.It has happened twice in 5 days,it isnt just coincidence,it has become a mindset that stems from one person.Is it any wonder they think this way when they continually see a forward or attacking player come off for a defensive midfielder or defender,sometimes with 30mins to go.As a player this sends the message that we will defend our lead.It hardly gives them the impression that they are going to try to kill the game off.If you sit back & let teams come at you then you are giving them numerous opportunites to get a goal.How often do teams sit back & it costs them.Instead give them something to think about & make them do some defending.1) you might get another goal,2)They aint continually putting pressure on your goal.Still nothing will change in the near future,we will just read the same thing again this season as we lose points trying to hold on to what we got 🙂
As you write this we are sitting seventh in the league,the Premiership,and talk of going for a European place.I do agree with you about not sitting too deep,but dont blame Sam,blame the ludicrous xmas schedule.We have only lost three on the road. C.O.Y.I.
Imo there’s nothing wrong with respecting the point but what has started to concern me is our inability to kill teams off once we have taken the lead. Recently It has costs us against the toffees and again at the swans today. We simply must concerntrate better!
But having said that I fully expect us to beat Everton in the replay and then hul at the boleyn on Saturday.
Then as you say leroy mate the mousers away and Man U at home are largely free hits and I would expect more from the two games in terms of points and performance than chelski and the arsenal at Xmas. COYI!
Bear in mind the players we are missing at the mo! Kinda lost our flow, pace and ability to boss the game!
First I watched the Magnificat 7 then we had the 300,this season is fast turning into The valiant 10, yes when you look back at the fixtures they look like good results away draws at Everton WBA and Swansea and a lost to Cheski and bad luck at home to Arsneal but it could have been so more with a different approach , we need to start with more than Downing with any ability to create for the forwards and we do not need 5 defenders,sorry to winge again but KN cannot start another game this season if we are going to change things around,we now need to change our bench also no more O,Brien ,Cole or Vaz Te let’s give some of the youngsters a chance like Potts,Whitehead,Lee and the new boy and if they aren’t good enough move them on ,and it don’t mean all at once BFS like at Forrest last year which caused so much damage to all there confidence and started the demise of Morrison,COY!
Only one person started the demise of Ravel Morrison,and that was Ravel Morrison. C.O.Y.I.
Respecting the point is fine away from home if your in a relegation battle.But if you want to progress in this league then it just gets you nowhere.With the team/squad we have now & the position we are in in the league then we can afford to take risks,go for the result.We will win more than we lose with this team.I appreciate the squad is missing valuable players atm but i think Sam summed up his way of thinking against WBA.What manager when playing at home complains that at 1-0 up we pushed too hard for the second goal.That was a crazy comment & pretty much tells you his way of thinking.We havnt kept a clean sheet away from home this season,so it has been proved that trying to sit back on a 1-0 lead isnt going to end well 😉
Dear Leroy,
I am afraid that one of the problems with your beloved Carroll, is not that he can’t play, but that his positional sense is poor.
He does not make himself available at or near the centre circle, when we desperately need an out ball. Secondly, he does not hold on to the ball well enough. He can work on these – but will he? I would like to see his pass completion regularly top 80%. It is not too late to work on this.
Hi Leroy
It is nice to get an opinion of someone who has been there and got the tee shirt. I appreciate your comments about mind set and can relate to that. However, as Rads 45 says I feel that attack is always the best line of defence. We keep giving the ball away whilst pinned in our own half, so that automatically makes us defend deeper & deeper. Long balls out from your own box continually being picked up by opposing midfield players. Britton (Ex hammer!) is the best passer in the league according to the stats so don’t keep giving him the ball in places were he can hurt you. Crazy. It happened at Goodison, and far too often in most games. I predicted 47 points before Christmas when we had 31, 5 games later 33. I could see the writing on the wall the long ball was back………I really hope its not for good. Europe is not an option next season, but a decent Cup run this season would be nice. Sadly thanks to BFS I am very cynical know as to what style we will play with the old guard still dominating the team sheet.