Yorkshire Canary 118 Posted October 20, 2013 I am not as depressed as some on here about our start but even I would confess to being somewhat disappointed and would have hoped/expected to have perhaps another 3 points on the board. The pressure on the manager was always going to be greater after he had spent such a large sum of money. Already some of these signing appear very good eg Olsson, Redmond and Fer. Unfortunately the prize signings and most of the money has been spent on RVW and Hooper and whilst it is still very early days 1 goal in the league underlines the disappointing area. ie goals or lack of them. That said we have faced some top teams to date in Spurs, arsenal and Chelsea and it would not surprise me if 2 out of those 3 finish in the top 3. The win against a very good Southampton side was good and the away win at Stoke was excellent. The 2 really big disappointments have been Villa at home and Hull away. We now go into a period up to Christmas when we have many fixtures against side we will have to win if we are to stay up. Given our very difficult run in at the end of the season I think we need to be going into the new year with over 20 points. This is quite possible but if we do not then I think the Board will rightly or wrongly hit the panic button and seek new leadership. I do not think they will give Hughton the January transfer pot if we are still in the mire after the Christmas fixtures. There have been signs that this squad is not a long way from clicking, but it is all about points. Let us hope we can start pulling away with 3 points against Cardiff on Saturday, if by some nightmare we lose that then the alarm bells will really start to ring. It is clear to me that Palace and sunderland are far worse than us, the issue is which other teams are we better than. I can only say that we are in a mix with Stoke, Cardiff, Hull and Fulham and this will be our mini league that we dare not finish bottom of Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BroadstairsR 2,095 Posted October 20, 2013 There are two leagues in the Premiership (probably more,) the millionaire clubs who can bring £30+ players from the bench and the rest of us.A defeat at the Emirates is not really indicative of our prospects for the season, although we need to get one or two points from these teams as we did last season.After nineteen games we will have faced everybody once. Then I''ll judge. and I am inclined to think that IT WILL BE ON RESULTS ALONE.Points on the board, it''s as black and white as that for me. Promise, performances, luck factors etc. all hide a multitude of complexities. The points tally doesn''t lie. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Herman 9,586 Posted October 20, 2013 Up to the Liverpool game should be a decider. Excepting Man City, on paper it looks to be an easier run with three winnable home games,and we should have moved up the table into a more comfortable mid league position. If not...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
killiecanary 0 Posted October 20, 2013 I agree that the only really disappointing results have been hull away and villa at CR.However hull are picking up points regularly and are obviously not,going to be the guaranteed three points that everyone assumed they would be.Against villa we played ok for the majority of the match. Certainly I thnk I see enough in the team not,yet to be too worried. But the next couple of months are going to be very interesting Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crafty Canary 490 Posted October 20, 2013 The pundits seem to be in agreement that our current position doesn''t fairly reflect the quality of our play and that we should be further up the table. This is partly due to the quality of some of the teams we have played and partly down to a lack of the ''rub of the green''. Losing to clubs like Chelsea (despite the nature of the defeat), Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester City (very likely) are results that will not define our season. It is the Hulls, Stokes and Cardiffs of the division that will do that. I go along with the view that once we have played the other nineteen clubs entirely we will know what our season will be truly like. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Highland Canary 76 Posted October 20, 2013 We already have a longer run to judge our performances than waiting until we''ve completed the 19 this season. Anything less than six points from Cardiff and West Ham and the November international break provides the apposite opportunity for change. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4th floor 4 Posted October 20, 2013 [quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]Given our very difficult run in at the end of the season I think we need to be going into the new year with over 20 points.[/quote]20 points from 20 games would be the minimum I''d expect at that stage. If we''re not much over par by the New Year then I''d like to think that we''d take a calculated gamble in the window rather than go for broke in changing the manager. We do lack a decent deep-lying playmaker who is also good defensively... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ZLF 261 Posted October 20, 2013 Our strongest line up has the core of Ruddy,Turner, Bassong, Tettey, Fer, Howson, Pilks, Ricky - the others are positions where players are of similar capability.Start with those 8 when fit against those outside the top 5 teams and we will pick up good points.The next few months are critical and with the above 8 players remaining fit we should move up the table based on the last few performances. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Reggie Strayshun 0 Posted October 20, 2013 Agree with a good deal of the above, but tend to favour the end of Nov as the crunch time.There''s been some threads on here in the last few hours where several people have alluded to a "massive improvement" lately. Well, call me old-fashioned, but I do not see 4 defeats in 5 as such. The retort has been ..."well 3 of those games were v Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal". Not sure I totally buy that, but let''s give them the benefit of the doubt. However, that excuse will not be able to be trotted out on the evening of Nov 30th, will it ? In short we need at the very least, two wins and a draw from home games v Cardiff, WHU, and Palace. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites