A realistic perspective.

[Perky Canary 0]

I''m a person that tends to worry a lot, and however hard I try to look at the positives, there''s always doubt in my mind that seems to overshadow everything else. However, with the end of the season looming and with a lot of fans there are frustrated/panicking with where Norwich is in the table, if you take a step back and look at everything then I''d say we don''t need to worry.The frustration I feel at times myself due to the "lack of ambition" that comes across when watching a game, Newcastle at home for example. Although we clearly could have taken advantage of that game and taken all 3 points, I personally feel that we shouldn''t be worrying too much about missed points from this game, and games against QPR, Southampton etc because realistically we would have never thought we would have gained points against Manchester United and the might Gunners - but we did and what points we may have unfortunately dropped, we gained from these two games. As for our most recent game against Wigan, again I felt the same frustration and disappointment as many of you. But again taking a step back, this is Wigan, a team that always comes into form during the final stages of the season, and before the game I myself was saying "this is a game we must not lose". This was however without taking into account all factors. We have 4 games at home still to play which are all winnable, and although I would love it if the team could get wins from all 4 of these games, realistically I see us winning 1/2 of them and drawing the rest. This would put us in a healthy position in the table, especially if results go our way.Now the importance of this post was to look at things realistically but I am optimistic that we may even get a point from either Arsenal or Manchester City just because we are hard to beat under Hughton. While many of people don''t like the way he sets out the team or his tactical approach and many of you slate him for it, I think under Lambert we would be very much in the drop zone this year. I think all the games we have drawn and settled for a point this season, we would have lost under Lambert because the only thing keeping us in the mix was the amount of goals we could score. However, I think that our strikers still wouldn''t have scored many more this season under Lambert, even if Holt had that striking partner he likes. As much as I love Holt everyone can see he has lost a bit of edge about him and we can all attempt to work out why but we will never know, and I doubt Holt himself even knows. Furthermore we need to try and stay as positive as we can and with the 4 easily winnable games it isn''t as difficult too as some people claim it is. They say we are fighting with Sunderland now to stay away from that 3rd spot in the drop zone. Well if that was the case then I can say that stats show we would be favorites to stay out of it because no team that has sacked there manager in the last ten games of the season has managed to avoid the drop. (I haven''t checked that fact myself just heard it from a reliable source, feel free to question it and prove me wrong). Although some of you seem to think that Di Canio is the man for the job for Sunderland, he may dominate in the lower leagues, this is the Premier League. There if a big difference between the two.Finally the team are clearly confident that they can stay up and finish on a high. Robert Snodgrass done a Q & A on twitter yesterday and someone asked him, "Do you think we will stay up and where do you think we will finish?" and he replied "Don''t worry we will stay up. 11th.". You could reply to this and say well ofcorse he would say that, he doesn''t want to worry the fans etc. but if he didn''t think that then he could easily just ignore the question. He and the team know they have winnable games coming up. If the team is confident they can do it, then so am I. So should all of us. Realistically we will lose 2 games of our next 7, and I''m optimistic and say we will only lose 1 of those 7. Just my opinion, and I think its a realistic one.

[Ha ya got a loight boy? 0]

Interesting post PT.    For the Holt thing, I still think its a confidence in front of goal thing. He is not getting enough chances to feel confident.   Its a bit like the chicken and egg.   You need to have something there to latch on to.  The best position for a goal in recent matches was at home when he was free on the right charging in on goal and all it need was a simple ball to him and Johnson kicked way out in to touch.   It kind of sums things up for me.  Holt is not getting the service so how can he score/keep his confidence in front of goal?    Its the same for any striker.As to being realistic, the realistic view imo, is the one you mention - we are hard to beat.     This means we are competing against all the clubs in the league and are there to get points off any of them.     Hence the points against MU Arsenal and Spurs.    We are not there to make up the numbers.  If we are going to progress as a club in this league it has to be like this.   If it means we stay defensive for the rest of the season then so be it, as long as we pick up enough points.   Next season will then be the development season, with improved midfield play, with hopefully the addition of some pace and better movement off the ball.   We are all frustrated by it at the moment, but patience has its virtue and I hope the vast majority of our fans understand the bigger picture.   Those that don''t appreciate it probably never will.

[peter2704 0]

I''d also like to add, that although we''ve won 1 in 14/15 games or whatever it is. We''ve only lost 3 league games since the turn of the year all away from home, and are actually unbeaten at home in the league this year. I know we''ve drawn most of these games, but if we draw the reast we will finish on 41 points and that will be more than enough to keep us up! I can see the bottom 3 beaing as follows:

QPR finishing on 30, Reading on 31 and being between Wigan and Villa on Goal Difference on 36 points.

[peter2704 0]

[quote user="peter2704"]

I''d also like to add, that although we''ve won 1 in 14/15 games or whatever it is. We''ve only lost 3 league games since the turn of the year all away from home, and are actually unbeaten at home in the league this year. I know we''ve drawn most of these games, but if we draw the reast we will finish on 41 points and that will be more than enough to keep us up! I can see the bottom 3 beaing as follows:

QPR finishing on 30, Reading on 31 and being between Wigan and Villa on Goal Difference on 36 points.

[/quote]

Obviously I meant we''ve lost 4 league games! D''OH!