The trip to Anfield is the one I'm most worried about to be honest. They have found some form and they will come at us just like Burnley did in the first 30 minutes yesterday, only with far better players. Lets just hope Evans is nowhere near our first 11 come the day or we'll be picked apart. I'm not so worried about City though for some reason.
Bye bye top 4
- Thread starter Devil_forever
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I just think we are a better side than liverpool, they will huff and puff and throw the kitchen sink at us, but I expect LVG to set us up to keep possession and frustrate them a'la Chelsea and for us to hit them with a break or a set piece.
We should be worried against any team with the form we're in.
Wasn't sure where to post this, so here it goes.
Given the kind of football we have been playing, the stat isn't as bad, eh?
Given the kind of football we have been playing, the stat isn't as bad, eh?
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Well it proved to be knee jerk because we won yet again...
Doesn't matter because we haven't been playing well apparently..
He said something interesting yesterday and that was the set plays worked, he seemed to be practicing them in training and that could have been the reason for his smile after the first goal, clearly RVP coming forward to head was planned because we've seen that before and then Falcao heading it from the back post back into the danger area.
What else is interesting is that Burnley have conceded more goals than any other team from corners, we scored two against them.
The manager's attention to detail and exploiting of opposition weaknesses could be responsible for him still being competitive despite poor performances, we might not have created that many chances in the first half but if you exploit opposition weaknesses you can increase your conversion rate.
I remember when we were getting hammered in terms of shots against Arsenal and then we scored, Fellaini clearly looked around to see where Gibbs was and went to him so he would be challenging for the ball, the way he was looking around suggests it was planned.
If we can play so badly and pick up so many points then you must wonder what will happen once the team actually start playing football.
Seems barely believable tbh. That March and April run is going to kill us though.
I'm afraid of the long ball relegation fodder more than sides like spurs Liverpool city etc. We do much better against them. We will be fine. We can beat Liverpool and spurs.
Jippy this is exactly what worries me. Lets hope we are wrong.
He also mentioned that in the post match interview. That we did not exploit the weakness of the opposition more. So he does know and have a plan of how to beat another team. It is just hard to understand why that gets translated into such pish poor performances
....and hello top 3.
Mate seriously I'm feeling really left out, please explain it to me.
Do you not think we will finish in the top 4 ?
Everyone talking about these well organized teams going to do ..... and yet these same teams are 4-5 points behind and have not looked like closing the gap during a period where we have been picking up points left right and center, when playing pretty dross football.
Only City and Southampton of the top teams took 3 points from us even when we were in a worse state than we are now.
We are as close to City and these other teams are to us. So if it is possible for them to catch us, then why is it beyond reason to think we cant catch City.
There is as much chance of us keeping our current position as there is of us dropping to 6th.
It just sounds better, I suppose, to say we are crap and are not going to make top 4. Well we are crap and in 3rd.
I think City are just a superior team to us and even though it's only 5 points I can't see us catching them.
I think we'll finish top four though, even playing as badly as we have been.
I think we'll finish top four though, even playing as badly as we have been.
This is where the CL and EL might come to our aid. Thursday-Sunday at this stage of the season is a killer
We have the quality to grind out some wins, suffer through March and April and then finish with a flourish, which should hopefully be enough for a 4th place finish. I've never argued that.
But people talking as if we're undisputed favorites for top 4 or that 2nd place is a realistic target...
Considering we've been "average" most of the year and are in third, a decent run of form may yet move us up to 2nd. Its not like City have been scintillating.We have the quality to grind out some wins, suffer through March and April and then finish with a flourish, which should hopefully be enough for a 4th place finish. I've never argued that.
But people talking as if we're undisputed favorites for top 4 or that 2nd place is a realistic target...
They've been better than us. Same can be said for Arsenal, Spurs, even bloody Liverpool over the last half dozen of games.
Our recent piss easy fixture list, which we can't even capitalise on properly, is the reason we're barely ahead of them.
I know I sound like that "United fan" over at RAWK who constantly criticises United, but come on.
You CANNOT think we're currently playing well enough to finish top 4, especially with our April fixtures looming.
Hi Kevin!
Same foes for saying with certainty, we are not going to make top 4th. Who really knows.We have the quality to grind out some wins, suffer through March and April and then finish with a flourish, which should hopefully be enough for a 4th place finish. I've never argued that.
But people talking as if we're undisputed favorites for top 4 or that 2nd place is a realistic target...
Evidence to date, we are not being caught having had a fair few draws and a loss recently. So maybe the others are not that good either.
hehe....am i missing something ?
It was because of the usage of word 'scillinating'. That word - together with 'exhilarated' - should be trademarked by him.I love how "Kevin" has become the goto adjective for football knowledge.
[Kevin][/Kevin] should be a custom tag option.
First win since New Years day apparently. Imagine the caf if we were on that kind of run...
It should. I actually used it in that way a few days ago when I needed to use the word exhilarated.
Very good point. Everyone around us are in for a busy few weeks.
I agree with this.
This is the game I think we need to use 352. We really need to keep possession and "shut them down".
Well, we are hitting and holding 3rd place, so yes, we are doing enough to hold onto 3rd place. This is not opinion, but fact.
Now, what we need to do is keep maintaining our results. If we drop, then so will our ranking in the table. But if we maintain our form, 3rd place is a certainty.
I realise that some on here are expecting Barcelona-esque performances and are frustrated that we are not there yet, but we are certainly not a bad side.
We are getting results where necessary and this is despite having poor strikers. Imagine what could've been if we had Costa or Sanchez or Aguero or Kane. We would've probably been competing for first place.
excellent point. Something which we forget. The amount of points Liverpool/Arsenal/City dropped due to CL football was incredible and it should hopefully come in our favour for the remainder of the season. Liverpool of course weren't at their best anyway but it should effect them (Hopefully x2).
You know this how? People thought the same during the first half of the season and it didn't happen. Judging by how we are set up and how we do against teams that actuallly don't want to sit back against us, I'd say there's a good chance we'll get results against the better teams. I also find it hard to believe that we continue to be this crap. It's very similar to the Netherlands at the World Cup, they struggled against Costa Rica and against Australia, because they were the favourites, but they played their best games when they didn't have the responsibility to make the game and were the underdog. Manchester United probably shouldn't be the underdog, but if Arsenal, Liverpool, City and Spurs are trying to play offensively against us, they will play into our hands.
Haha... ha.... On a different note, I do miss Kagawa!
Extend it to the last 17 games. Over that period, in which we've played all our close rivals (one of them twice), we're tied with Southampton for fewest goals conceded and behind only Chelsea in terms of points picked up. Why are March and April going to kill us?
How does that stat look for the 10 or 5 games? Are we doing as well?
We are getting points, but overall the play has not been very good and if that does not improve then that stat could be turned around very quickly.
I guess you didn't watch Arsenal get run over the other day then vs both Spurs and Leicster (even though they won the second of those games) all the teams you mention have been inconsistent which is why they are below us in the league.
Only City and Southampton have beaten us since the Liecster 5-3 game. Since then we have beaten Arsenal Liverpool Southampton and got a point away at Spurs. That all whilst not playing our best football, its most certainly not beyond us to get top 4, we're already there!
If you go for the last 16 games then it's a draw with Chelsea and less points than City.
It's a tough run in anyone's book.
March 2015
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NewcastlevMan Utd
Wed 4 Mar 19:45
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LiverpoolvMan Utd
Sun 22 Mar 13:30
April 2015
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Man UtdvMan City
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EvertonvMan Utd
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