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Blurboy1980

How did we go unbeaten in 10 matches?

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Yes I know the answer is by not losing by my goodness we look terrible at this moment and never seen more boring football in my life. If we manage to survive this year...Thank goodness for that stretch.

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Perhaps, partly because...We had a strong squad when Arsenal were not at their best and so got an unlikely win. That win gave the entire squad a good dose of self-belief and so went on from there.Away at West Brom, was always going to be difficult, and a 2-1 loss isn''t that disgraceful but maybe that took a bit of wind from their sails but it was a great effort againt Man C & Chelsea. Arguably, with Ruddy in goal, we would have drawn against Man C that may have spurred on furtehr success.It''s a complex answer.

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Apart from the Liverpool game we haven''t lost a league game by more than 1 goal since the unbeaten run started. Likewise in our unbeaten run we never won by more than a single goal. Maybe we were a bit lucky during the unbeaten run and were unlucky after it.

As for injuries that might play a part but Ruddy was injured for most of the unbeaten run too.

A couple of refereeing decisions going the other way and we might be practically safe by now.

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A little bit of luck, and a lot of John Ruddy.

Not being harsh but I feel we wouldn''t have conceeded as many with Ruddy in goal, as well as Bunn has done at times.

We are in a rut at the moment, get out of it again and get some confidence ans there''s no reason we can''t rediscover that form.

I do think we got very, very lucky at times over those games - but that''s what it''s all about, sometimes you just need a little luck and we aren''t getting any at the moment

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What specifiacally was the luck? I''d say the Everton game and that''s about it. I''d say more that our rut is partly due to bad luck (West Ham, possibly Man City, Bassongs header that grazed the bar against Chelsea)

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Of course.We went ten games unbeaten through luck.  We''ve just gone seven games without a win because Hughton is rubbish. That''s Pink Un logic all over.

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Not really chops, I agree we''ve been unlucky the last few games - especially at Wet Spam, we should have got way more from the game than we did.

As long as there is a performance there against Spurs, I think we could muster at least a point

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Confidence does a lot for a team. If we beat Spurs then QPR all of a sudden everyone will be positive again and not highlight the problems as much. Just shows how fickle football fans are. The team would be likely to be more confident in themselves and especially with the crowd behind them instead of criticising.

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[quote user="Quilts1990"]

Confidence does a lot for a team. If we beat Spurs then QPR all of a sudden everyone will be positive again and not highlight the problems as much. Just shows how fickle football fans are. The team would be likely to be more confident in themselves and especially with the crowd behind them instead of criticising.

[/quote]

We need four points from the next two. That will settle everyone down and give us a little more breathing space.

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We played well, especially defensively, and rode our luck. However, we over relied on the same 11 with injuries, tiredness etc. In addition, teams have nullified the effectiveness of key players, especially Wes and Grant. The team now lack both confidence and ideas.

Having watched the Leeds game I still expect a very heavy defeat on Wednesday. My best guess 3-0 to Spurs.

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We had that extra yard that Luton had yesterday and a bit more fight and ran for 50/50 balls instead of not being bothered.

Is this a weakness in the management team unable to motivate the team constantly. Lambert was good at this or he and him back room staff were.

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Well, as all we are doing is speculating here''s my two cents worth. Something happened within the club that affected the players attitudes. In football we all know teams of our level in this division will go through good periods followed by bad stretches in terms of points earned. However, to go from the level of fight we had as a squad ( which also takes account of loss of key players to injury ) to a level that looks like the players are just not up for a fight at all is difficult to fathom. My attitude this season has been, win or lose, as long as I see the team showing a good attitude and determination then I find that an enjoyable experience, regardless of the results and, I might add, regardless of whether we find ourselves smack down at the bottom of the division. If something did happen within the club ( or not ) we may never know. I hope I''m wrong but , in my view, the difference I have observed in fighting for the ball/pressuring the opposition suggests an underlying cause rather than just covering it up with "it''s a bad stretch." 

 

Whatever it is, for myself, I will be measuring it in coming games in the effort and attitude on display, not the results.

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Playing well!

 

Riding our luck!

 

Avoiding injury and hitting upon a formation that worked!

 

The 1st game we lost was West Brom away where our luck run out and we could have easily have drawn the game!

 

The next two games Chelsea and Man City at home we ran them close, just coming up short!

 

West Ham away we were lucky to get away without a thrashing although we could have drawn the game with better decisions from the ref. We''d of done better with a better formation. Playing Martin leftback, R Bennett rightback and dropping Garrido was ridiculous and put us on the back foot straight away. Also playing a lower Championship player Kane upfront on his own was not good, he needed someone upfront with him!

 

Newcastle at home the midfield didn''t turn up meaning that lone striker Jackson had little support and no decent through balls with which to have a chance at goal. This game was the most disapointing cause Newcastle are one of the poorest teams I''ve seen in the League this season and were there for the taking!

 

Liverpool away - without Bassing we was always going to struggle and so it proved!

 

All this proves that theres a thin line between winning and losing games in the Premiership. Thats why only a little tinkering, decent form and a little luck and we''ll win some games again, which winning "a few" games is all we have to do in order to stay up!

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Bunn played in half of the 10 games unbeaten (admittedly only for part of the Everton match). To suggest it''s somehow down to the Ruddy injury is missing the point. The last two games we have been woeful. We created nothing at Liverpool, and the back four looked terrified for most of the match.

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There are those rose tinted glasses again thinking we played well in all our ten game run. We played terrible in some of the games and got lucky to get away with results. Sunderland we only played for the first half same goes for Wigan Swansea away, Stoke, Reading was a bore. 90th min equaliser at Everton. Played bad at Southampton got a lucky goal from a set piece.

Might think i am being harsh but i think i am being very fair. We went ten games unbeaten with Luck.

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some one earlier in teh season mentioned something statistical? about over performing then returning to a more normal level?

perhaps we had an out performing filling around a couple of slices of normal peforming bread in our pl sandwich?

a couple of undefeated games will go a long way - ad well as improved passing!

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Arsenal - We were simply the better team and deserved the winVilla - Performed okay, should''ve had a penalty which could''ve seen us winningStoke - Solid performance, deserved to winReading - Awful game going forward but defensively played well earning a pointMan U - Defended out of our skins and just edged them for the winEverton - The only game I perceive us to have got a result through luckSouthampton - Slightly lucky with our goal but Southampton''s should have been dissallowed so they even outSunderland - Best first half performance all season, bit of pressure at the end but deserved to winSwansea - Game of two halves, deserved to winWigan - Got no decisions our way, forced 3 pointsCan someone please point out which games in which you would say we were lucky. I''d say at most Everton and Southampton

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Good post Prozac. Nice to be discussing positives.

I would not even say Everton or Southampton.

Everton we were pushed back in the first quarter but after that neither side created a lot. OK it was a last minute goal but it would be hard to begrudge us a draw - I sat in the home end that day and the Everton fans were certainly getting frustrated with their team which tells the story.

Southampton - yes both goals were a bit fortunate, but apart from the Lallana volley can not remember them creating much else. I thought we were the better side second half although we didn''t really create that much. A draw again totally fair.

OTBC

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By not letting the opposition score more than us.

In all seriousness mainly confidence after the first few wins. And big wins against arsenal and united , we will find it again hopefully Wednesday night otbc

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I think a lot of this comes down to confidence and the inability of the management team to motivate the team.We defended extremely well against Arsenal, went 1-0 up and held on, which gave the team the kick start it needed in terms of confidence.  The players went into the next match believing that they could win, which then went a huge way to achieving a result.  This then continued for several matches as its easy to manage a team on a roll.  Confidence breeds more confidence etc.A management team earns their money when results and luck are going against you and Hughton etc seem to come up desperately short here.  I believe this is why either side of the unbeaten run, we''ve been on two extremely poor runs of form.  The players don''t believe they can win, which isn''t helped by the fact that it seems in most matches, the management team doesn''t actually believe we can win either.  This is also why we struggle to come back from going behind in a match and why the half time team talk seems to be a complete non-event for us. 

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If our first choice team is a match for most teams, as the 10 game run showed, we need to strengthen all areas as it appears losing any of our first choice players has a significant effect e.g. Holt, Ruddy, Bassong, Tettey, Johnson, Whittaker, Garrido.  The only areas we appear to have surplus in terms of quality is Snodgrass/Pilkington/E Bennett.R Bennett, Bunn, Tierney, Turner, Howson, Fox, Morison, Jackson, Barnett, Kane all have varying size question marks against them. In fact, for the rest of this season I think we can assume Harry Kane''s question mark can be replaced by a big red cross.  He might be good for Spurs next year but frankly what the f*ck do I care if he is?

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Tettey came into the team and played outstandingly. He is not currently playing at the same level.

Whittaker giving us more defensive stability than R.Martin who i really like but is found wanting defensively at times at this level.

Wes was on fire. Again his form has dropped since.

Ruddy was fit and playing really well.

Bassong was fit and Turner found his feet meaning the two if them formed an excellent partnership.

Our slump has in my view been primarily due to a combination of injuries to key players, coinciding with a loss of form/burnout to a few players and a run of tricky games. The trouble is now we are in a bit of a slump we really need a big, high tempo performance to get us out of it but Hoots tactics are not really geared to that type of gameplan. I actually think those tactics in part started the slump at West Brom which was a game we could have won but ended up losing after Clarke took the initiative. Since then I feel a few players look a bit frustrated.

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[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]some one earlier in teh season mentioned something statistical? about over performing then returning to a more normal level?

perhaps we had an out performing filling around a couple of slices of normal peforming bread in our pl sandwich?

a couple of undefeated games will go a long way - ad well as improved passing![/quote]

It''s the statistical rule of reversion to mean. I can repeat it if anyone wants. But there is no doubt that both the unbeaten run and the unwinning run are statistical anomalies.

One thing that helps explain in my view is the huge mental and physical effort of that run. If we were exhausted after some of the matches then how must the players have felt. I remember Tettey sinking to his knees in total exhaustion at the end of one game.

I think they reached a point when they couldn''t sustain it and hence the poor performances. Losing despite fighting hard against Chelsea, injuries, loss of momentum and burn out are the reasons in my view.

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