Next 4 League games

[calvoboy]

Was just looking back at this thread: Next 4 league games

It makes interesting reading. We've remained unbeaten during an injury crisis against 4 tough sides (and won the derby!), but are 2 points off from where I thought we would be, and 6 from where I hoped we would be. Having said that, looking at our next 4 league games it has to be 10 points out of 12 doesn't it?

Fulham (h) - If you can't beat the likes of Fulham at home then you don't deserve to be in the premiership, never mind winning it.
Newcastle (a) - In poor form, and Torres should be back to rip their piss-poor defence to shreds.
Bolton (h) - They will be very defensive after another three weeks with Megson in charge, and could be tough to beat, but we should still expect to do the job.
Reading (a) - They play some good stuff at times, but it's not exactly fortress Madejski is it?

Even allowing for a slip-up I think we should get 10 points out of 12, and things will look a lot better in time for the Mancs on December 16th.

[fred_plasticine]

Was just looking back at this thread: Next 4 league games

It makes interesting reading. We've remained unbeaten during an injury crisis against 4 tough sides (and won the derby!), but are 2 points off from where I thought we would be, and 6 from where I hoped we would be. Having said that, looking at our next 4 league games it has to be 10 points out of 12 doesn't it?

Fulham (h) - If you can't beat the likes of Fulham at home then you don't deserve to be in the premiership, never mind winning it.
Newcastle (a) - In poor form, and Torres should be back to rip their piss-poor defence to shreds.
Bolton (h) - They will be very defensive after another three weeks with Megson in charge, and could be tough to beat, but we should still expect to do the job.
Reading (a) - They play some good stuff at times, but it's not exactly fortress Madejski is it?

Even allowing for a slip-up I think we should get 10 points out of 12, and things will look a lot better in time for the Mancs on December 1st.

looking at these games it has to be 12/12 points. we don't wanna lose any more ground on arsenal we have to start winning and we have to start winning games in a row.

[kewellnthegang]

i see nothing but 12 points there

[SB]

i see nothing but 12 points there

I hope to see nothing but 12 points there

[Nicey]

I hope we get 12, anything below 10 is a disaster

[sonsofthedesert]

I hope we get 12, anything below 10 is a disaster

[SB]

I hope we get 12, anything below 10 is a disaster

And the call for Rafa's head will get louder I'm afraid

[calvoboy]

I reckon we will get 12, and was just allowing for the usual slip-ups that happen from time to time in a season. None of those four should beat us though.

I'm actually quite calm and content about where we are at the moment.
21 points from 11 games isn't too bad at all. We are 6 off the top, with a game in hand over the mancs, and we all seem to be agreed that even with the way we are playing that should turn into 31 points from 15 games (after the next four) as a minimum and 33 points from 15 ideally. That puts us on course for 83-84 points for the season which is title winning form.

If we can keep ticking over averaging 2 points a game until the new year, then I will be more than happy. We always do better in the second half of the season, that's the whole point of rotation, so if we can keep on at 2 points a game then we will be well in contention with a good run in the new year.

All this "not playing like champions" bollocks in the press is rubbish. The Mancs were awful at the start of last season and went on to win it. Arsenal have always played the best pretty football to watch, so it's daft to compare us with them. Chelsea's squad cost £240,000,000,000,000 so of course they will always be up there and in contention. I'm not happy with the way we've been playing lately, but we have had tough games and the only result I've been disappointed with is the Spurs one.

The press got their man sacked in Martin Jol and have moved on to Rafa now.

[Redbug1]

The press got their man sacked in Martin Jol and have moved on to Rafa now.

...and he might be doing his bit to help them. If we dont win these 4 games then it will be a pretty poor show and we'll be battling it out with the likes of Portsmouth and Blackburn for a Uefa cup place

[kewellnthegang]

I reckon we will get 12, and was just allowing for the usual slip-ups that happen from time to time in a season. None of those four should beat us though.

I'm actually quite calm and content about where we are at the moment.
21 points from 11 games isn't too bad at all. We are 6 off the top, with a game in hand over the mancs, and we all seem to be agreed that even with the way we are playing that should turn into 31 points from 15 games (after the next four) as a minimum and 33 points from 15 ideally. That puts us on course for 83-84 points for the season which is title winning form.

If we can keep ticking over averaging 2 points a game until the new year, then I will be more than happy. We always do better in the second half of the season, that's the whole point of rotation, so if we can keep on at 2 points a game then we will be well in contention with a good run in the new year.

All this "not playing like champions" bollocks in the press is rubbish. The Mancs were awful at the start of last season and went on to win it. Arsenal have always played the best pretty football to watch, so it's daft to compare us with them. Chelsea's squad cost £240,000,000,000,000 so of course they will always be up there and in contention. I'm not happy with the way we've been playing lately, but we have had tough games and the only result I've been disappointed with is the Spurs one.

The press got their man sacked in Martin Jol and have moved on to Rafa now.

good lad

[enema of the state]

I reckon we will get 12, and was just allowing for the usual slip-ups that happen from time to time in a season. None of those four should beat us though.

I'm actually quite calm and content about where we are at the moment.
21 points from 11 games isn't too bad at all. We are 6 off the top, with a game in hand over the mancs, and we all seem to be agreed that even with the way we are playing that should turn into 31 points from 15 games (after the next four) as a minimum and 33 points from 15 ideally. That puts us on course for 83-84 points for the season which is title winning form.

If we can keep ticking over averaging 2 points a game until the new year, then I will be more than happy. We always do better in the second half of the season, that's the whole point of rotation, so if we can keep on at 2 points a game then we will be well in contention with a good run in the new year.

All this "not playing like champions" bollocks in the press is rubbish. The Mancs were awful at the start of last season and went on to win it. Arsenal have always played the best pretty football to watch, so it's daft to compare us with them. Chelsea's squad cost £240,000,000,000,000 so of course they will always be up there and in contention. I'm not happy with the way we've been playing lately, but we have had tough games and the only result I've been disappointed with is the Spurs one.

The press got their man sacked in Martin Jol and have moved on to Rafa now.

good post

actually there are some very positive points out of this weekends game

firstly the context:

we are missing agger/alonso/torres, now you can disagree, but as far as im concerned these are 3 of the core 6 of our team (others being reina, carragher and gerard) ie the current side has a VERY VERY SERIOUS injury problem

blackburn away is the 4th hardest away fixture on the program

at 4-5-1 we looked tight at the back and ultimately we shut them out but didnt offer much of a goal threat but we limited blackburn to 2 chances: bentleys run onto a flick on down the middle - which id disregard as with agger in the side he wouldnt have got clear - and dunns shot from outside the box which was speculative and something you probably cant defend.

By the end of this game we were punching huge holes in their defence and had 4 very good chances in the latter stages of the game. ie. we OUTLASTED blackburn physically (this after a really hard game 6 days prior and a cup tie). In this way we reminded me of lfc in the old days when we won that kind of away game without dominating for 90 mins. it was also a feature of valencia in the early part of the decade.

I think the key absentee is agger and once hes back well concede about 1 goal every 3 games. at that well be title challengers.

considering the context of this season, what fixtures weve had and the disruption of ayesteran leaving, i think were doing fine. this time last year, wed left ourselves so far out of it we needed a miracle. this time all we need is a weeks worth of results to go our way and we could be top.

[Nicey]

I reckon we will get 12, and was just allowing for the usual slip-ups that happen from time to time in a season. None of those four should beat us though.

I'm actually quite calm and content about where we are at the moment.
21 points from 11 games isn't too bad at all. We are 6 off the top, with a game in hand over the mancs, and we all seem to be agreed that even with the way we are playing that should turn into 31 points from 15 games (after the next four) as a minimum and 33 points from 15 ideally. That puts us on course for 83-84 points for the season which is title winning form.

If we can keep ticking over averaging 2 points a game until the new year, then I will be more than happy. We always do better in the second half of the season, that's the whole point of rotation, so if we can keep on at 2 points a game then we will be well in contention with a good run in the new year.

All this "not playing like champions" bollocks in the press is rubbish. The Mancs were awful at the start of last season and went on to win it. Arsenal have always played the best pretty football to watch, so it's daft to compare us with them. Chelsea's squad cost £240,000,000,000,000 so of course they will always be up there and in contention. I'm not happy with the way we've been playing lately, but we have had tough games and the only result I've been disappointed with is the Spurs one.

The press got their man sacked in Martin Jol and have moved on to Rafa now.

Top post ..

[fred_plasticine]

good post

actually there are some very positive points out of this weekends game

firstly the context:

we are missing agger/alonso/torres, now you can disagree, but as far as im concerned these are 3 of the core 6 of our team (others being reina, carragher and gerard) ie the current side has a VERY VERY SERIOUS injury problem

blackburn away is the 4th hardest away fixture on the program

at 4-5-1 we looked tight at the back and ultimately we shut them out

i have to disagree with this - we did not look tight at the back. we granted them enough chances to go ahead themselfes. our defence was poor, they made too many silly mistakes that could have easily cost us the game. blackburn were not good enough up front that's why they didn't score.

[Armchairkopite]

Yes we did look tight

[enema of the state]

we granted them enough chances to go ahead themselfes. our defence was poor, they made too many silly mistakes that could have easily cost us the game. blackburn were not good enough up front that's why they didn't score.

we granted them precisely 2 meaningful chances which i described and qualified.

in the context of having to struggle on with an ageing legend like sami instead of agger - who in my opinion if the best CB in the league bar NONE (accepted that a controversial opinion, but i watch the centrebacks very closely), i think that makes our defence "tight".

i think our best back 5 is finnan/carragher/agger/arbeloa in front of pepe and if we get that side out on a regular basis we will concede no more than 1 goal every 3 games. wait and see

In addition, that defence requires only a single screening CM player which will allow us to play a more attacking 4-4-2 with either gerard behind 2 strikers, or even kuyt behind 2.

if we can get a fully fit:

reina
finnan agger carragher arbeloa

benayoun Gerard Alonso Kewell

Torres Voronin (or other)

Then weve got a side to blow away weaker teams or break down defensive sides at anfield. When we meet really strong sides, we bring in mascherano for either the right midfielder (and put gerard there) or one of the strikers.

Thats the valencia blueprint - in fact its the lfc bluepring from the last 3 seasons.