Perspective needed

[chicken 2,624]

6 minutes ago, Mullet said:

Spurs are one of those sides in a different hemisphere to us and even they aren't anywhere near the top 3. 

Spurs have real quality up front they think quickly and move the ball quickly. It's like comparing quick hungry Lions to slow fat Buffalo.

It's not nice to lose but Tottenham should be ripping us a new one. We need points against those outside the top 6 which to be fair to DS we look capable of doing.

Watford, Leeds and Leicester at home is hurting us.

I agree with all of that apart from Leicester. They are pretty much in the same bracket as Spurs these days, they have finished above them in recent years and actually won titles... Despite their early run, I think Brighton would be more worthy of putting in that list than Leicester. It's just that we saw how close we came to not just drawing, but arguably winning against Leicester that has them in that list. Though we weren't close Vs Watford at all really.

I'd probably throw in Wolves at home and Newcastle and Burnley away into the mix if being honest. Opportunities there to turn draws into wins. Two goals, four more points and far fewer people would be getting salty.

 

[Danke bitte 965]

1 minute ago, chicken said:

We got a decent amount of mileage on Grabban, who we signed, then sold for profit. Jerome, who got us promoted and a few others we signed from Adams' time as manager. Not all were fantastic, but then he's also been loans manager. At the end of the day, what feels "tin pot" is down to you, not anyone else. All we should care about is if it works.

Normann is a decent DM, we've seen that in the games under Smith, though he's now injured. We did need back up to Pukki, but if you have less than £20m, realistically it's a hit and hope. Like Drmic on a free. The biggest hurdle for Sargent is being so young and the majority of his experience so far being in Germany. We've had a number of players come over from the German leagues in recent years and very few, if any, have won the fans over in their first season. 

Obviously I don’t work under Adams on a day to day basis, he seems a nice guy when he was manager, brought in some good players but I cannot see him cut out to be a DoF with the steel Webber seems to have.

Unfortunately Webber seems to have made a bit of a pig’s ear out of the signings over the summer but as you say, that probably comes down to money. I think the major trip up was his rhetoric of becoming an “established PL side”. That probably set the bar of expectations too high for me. I worry if we go down again he’ll be off, weary of another attempt of Championship promotion. 

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

12 minutes ago, Iwans Big Toe said:

Compared to where we were 5 games ago, things do not look as bleak as they did.

 

Maybe but seems an entirely artificial point to make that comparison since the best performance, by some distance, in those five games was Farke's win at Brentford and immediately following that win things looked less bleak for us than they do tonight.

Of course it is still very early days for Smith and things could change by the end of the season but IMO had Farke not been sacked immediately after the Brentford game we would be sitting with more points on the board tonight than we actually have (not that I would have expected to collect any today but the previous two games were both big opportunities missed).

 

[Tommo 51]

After watching us at St James Park but admittedly via stream for the Spurs game, I think with a couple more starts and working on sharpness of finish in training, playing Idah with Pukki and the formation/shape looks to be worth another go against the better opposition. We created today and apart from the poor defending for goals 2 and 3, we were competitive today.

also thought Sorensen looked decent today. I would play him ahead of PLM whilst Normann is injured and allow Gilmour and McLean to get further forward 

c’mon guys we are looking more competitive now under Smith and at least he appears to have more in game tactical nous than Farke, he can make tactical adjustments that do influence games for the better and I am still optimistic we can achieve the miracle of staying up 

Bring on Man Utd ! 

[Iwans Big Toe 312]

5 minutes ago, Creative Midfielder said:

Maybe but seems an entirely artificial point to make that comparison since the best performance, by some distance, in those five games was Farke's win at Brentford and immediately following that win things looked less bleak for us than they do tonight.

Of course it is still very early days for Smith and things could change by the end of the season but IMO had Farke not been sacked immediately after the Brentford game we would be sitting with more points on the board tonight than we actually have (not that I would have expected to collect any today but the previous two games were both big opportunities missed).

 

I beg to differ. 4 of the 8 points we have gained so far under Smith have come from games we have gone behind in. This is something City, under Farke, had failed to achieve in 35 consecutive games after conceding first in the top flight.

IMO opinion we would currently have a few extra points on the board had Farke been sacked sooner.

 

 

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

49 minutes ago, Iwans Big Toe said:

I beg to differ. 4 of the 8 points we have gained so far under Smith have come from games we have gone behind in. This is something City, under Farke, had failed to achieve in 35 consecutive games after conceding first in the top flight.

IMO opinion we would currently have a few extra points on the board had Farke been sacked sooner.

 

 

Fair enough if that's your opinion, we'll have to agree to differ.

Fair enough also to point out that we have retrieved points under Smith after going behind but still not addressing the point that Brentford away was a much better performance than any of the four under Smith's leadership, precisely because we went out dominated the game, scored goals and then saw the game out for the only time so far this season. Had that momentum been carried into the next four 'relatively easy' games under Smith's leadership I think Farke would have picked up more points.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

4 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

I think we all knew we would lose today but end of the day the real issue is the match highlights how utter woeful we are up top, and it's really hammering it home that quite frankly it's another season of Rotherham away next season

completely this. I look at how awful Watford can be some games but the difference is that their forwards can click much better than ours. That's why they're 3 points better off. Emmanuel Dennis so far looking like signing of the season

[Tetteys Jig 830]

12 minutes ago, Creative Midfielder said:

Fair enough if that's your opinion, we'll have to agree to differ.

Fair enough also to point out that we have retrieved points under Smith after going behind but still not addressing the point that Brentford away was a much better performance than any of the four under Smith's leadership, precisely because we went out dominated the game, scored goals and then saw the game out for the only time so far this season. Had that momentum been carried into the next four 'relatively easy' games under Smith's leadership I think Farke would have picked up more points.

that's just not true about the Brentford game. They absolutely dominated for a lot of that game and we were clinging on for dear life at the end. The difference was that game we managed a clinical period where we did the damage. To often this season we have failed to capitalise on these big moments.

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

1 minute ago, Tetteys Jig said:

that's just not true about the Brentford game. They absolutely dominated for a lot of that game and we were clinging on for dear life at the end. The difference was that game we managed a clinical period where we did the damage. To often this season we have failed to capitalise on these big moments.

Yes we were but that's hardly unexpected is it when you are bottom of the table playing a team who I think were top half at the time away from home? You would be surprised if they didn't throw the kitchen sink at you.

Nevertheless, we went in at half time 2-0 up and saw the game out, away from home - think that ticks pretty much all the boxes.

Contrast that with our previous away game under Smith where we played 80 mins against a 10 man bottom of the table team and only managed to salvage a point with a combination of an opposition mistake and fantastic finish from Pukki.

Today - fair enough, we would have lost whether Farke or Smith was in charge.

 

[Tetteys Jig 830]

12 minutes ago, Creative Midfielder said:

Yes we were but that's hardly unexpected is it when you are bottom of the table playing a team who I think were top half at the time away from home? You would be surprised if they didn't throw the kitchen sink at you.

Nevertheless, we went in at half time 2-0 up and saw the game out, away from home - think that ticks pretty much all the boxes.

Contrast that with our previous away game under Smith where we played 80 mins against a 10 man bottom of the table team and only managed to salvage a point with a combination of an opposition mistake and fantastic finish from Pukki.

Today - fair enough, we would have lost whether Farke or Smith was in charge.

 

I agree Newcastle wasn't great but the 2 games before that were as good as we've been all season. That's why I was so disappointed with the Newcastle game when others seemed content as I know we can and should do better when such an opportunity presents itself.

 

Today we hardly embarrassed ourselves like we did vs Chelsea or City and but for the strikers it may have been a different game. My main gripe is that our summer signings really haven't stepped up to the plate as well as I'd hoped on the whole. It was always going to be tough after losing Buendia and Skipp in summer but I don't think we look all that much better than our title winning side last season currently. Gilmour and Tzolis in particular have been disappointing. I'd have included Sargent but I didn't really expect all that much anyway.