Since the Man Utd game...

[Bettsj2]

We have to accept that we're going to be mid to lower table. Which means on occassion, we'll go 4 or 5 games without a win. Inconsistent results shape the league outside of the top 10.

We started great but have now stumbled. We'll pick up again.

You can usually tell how a season will go after 10 games. I expect that we'll pick up 4 points from the next two games and that will change the perspective of the start we've had again to a kind of acceptance that we're doing ok and probably will do ok for the rest of the season.

[ealingfox]

It's both funny and soul-destroying that Ulloa slotting that 2nd penner away may have sealed our relegation. The players started to believe their own hype and are now all full-time Billy Big Bollocks, no longer prepared to put in a shift or concentrate on the basics.

[Bilo]

It's both funny and soul-destroying that Ulloa slotting that 2nd penner away may have sealed our relegation. The players started to believe their own hype and are now all full-time Billy Big Bollocks, no longer prepared to put in a shift or concentrate on the basics.

 

Wait, what?!

 

Talk about an overreaction!

 

We've 30 games to play yet and are five points clear of the two teams we came up with. 

[ealingfox]

Wait, what?!

 

Talk about an overreaction!

 

We've 30 games to play yet and are five points clear of the two teams we came up with. 

 

Yeah of course an exaggeration but I think it's fair comment that attitudes appear to have changed after Man U and it's immediate effects look like they are snowballing.

[Larry_LCFC]

There is no denying that the Man United win seemed to trigger something counter-productive. Up to and including that point, we were playing some brilliant attacking and accurate football. The players had a never say die attitude and the effort levels were through the roof. Since that day, we have looked a shadow of the Leicester team that we were. Big egos? Too much confidence? Too much hype? I have no idea but NP needs to sort it fast. Even if we lose, I want to see a performance to be proud of.

[Bilo]

Yeah of course an exaggeration but I think it's fair comment that attitudes appear to have changed after Man U and it's immediate effects look like they are snowballing.

 

It's three poor games that will be forgotten about if we amass four points from Swansea and WBA, which is far from impossible.

 

Attitudes have definitely changed but I can't help thinking that Swansea's open style could actually suit us a bit more than playing against a Warnock side, a Burnley side whose ambitions appear to go no further than sneaking the odd draw and a Newcastle side who were desperate for a win by any means.

[Bamba's Babes]

In hindsight the Manchester United win wasn't a bonus, it was a necessity. Shame.

 

We're an average team.

[Matt]

It's three poor games that will be forgotten about if we amass four points from Swansea and WBA, which is far from impossible.

 

Attitudes have definitely changed but I can't help thinking that Swansea's open style could actually suit us a bit more than playing against a Warnock side, a Burnley side whose ambitions appear to go no further than sneaking the odd draw and a Newcastle side who were desperate for a win by any means.

 

That two letter word that changes so much though - If.

 

I see what you're saying but I honestly can't see us getting anything at Swansea and WBA, well i'll take it one game at a time, let's review after the Swansea game, but and i'm gonna use the word if now, if we don't get anything against Swansea the WBA game almost becomes must win surely, which in itself will bring pressure, nerves, panic.

 

This past 3 games and the coming 5 games (With the exception of Southampton) we're meant to be our 'winnable' games, games where we need to pick point up, the fact we had an exceptional first few games picking up points against opposition we didn't expect to is what is keeping our heads above water.

 

I said it last night and i'll say it again, you looked at the fixture list when it came out and we could quite easily have been going to Palace the other week with 0 points, thank god we didn't because we really would have been in shit.

[iamafox]

In the last three games, we've dropped points due to our mistakes. And these are the reasons:

 

Palace 2-0: Conceded 2 goals from set pieces in quick succession

Burnley 2-2: Conceded a goal from an injury time free kick with Kasper leaving his goal wide open

Newcastle 1-0: Conceded a goal from a counter attack, we even had about 4/5 players back and Newcastle only had 2 breaking forwards

 

So typical of us that we can't beat struggling teams. We never seem to take advantage of these opportunities enough. We have to learn to grind out results when we don't play well, especially at Premier League level. The pressure will mount on Pearson if we continue to perform the way we have done for three games running.

[ADK]

Can't really argue, 3 poor performances.

[Harry - LCFC]

We've been very close to get something more in each of our last three. One finish in any of them and the result would've been different. Fine margins rather than being woefully off the pace IMO.

 

I think this is just more of the same panicked hyperbole we often see after disappointing runs.

[foxfanazer]

If we don't improve quickly, we'll very soon be in the bottom 3

 

Will we? Not if Burnley, QPR and Sunderland continue in their poor form that hasn't been good from the start, unlike ours

[Tom's Pasta]

Three very close games which could have gone either way where we've missed big chances at big moments.

Vardy's chance against palace, holding on for 2 more minutes against burnley, and we were well in the game yesterday as well.

I'd be concerned if teams were completely outplaying us, but they're really not.

[Freesolo]

I think our home form is what really matters this season getting anything away should be seen as a bonus and we are still unbeaten at home in the league.

 

When we got knocked out of the league cup i thought it might have been a positive allowing us to concentrate 100% on the Prem. but i think a few cup games would be a good thing now to let some of our new signings like Powell, lawrence & simpson get a run out and a chance to prove them self as well as other players who are getting no game time

[Monsell1976]

Three very close games which could have gone either way where we've missed big chances at big moments.

Vardy's chance against palace, holding on for 2 more minutes against burnley, and we were well in the game yesterday as well.

I'd be concerned if teams were completely outplaying us, but they're really not.

The palace game we were bullied and they bossed the majority of the game, we played to their strengths, the burnley game we threw it away, but stopped playing good football, and ended up playing their game, and the the Newcastle game is the only game I've not made, and listening to the radio, and reading in here, we appear to have played hoof ball, and they should have won by a lot more.

I'm not saying we are being out played, but we seemed to have lost the passing game that suits us, and opt to play long, which is clearly not our strength, poor tactics in recent weeks, and poor application from the players.

We have proved what we can do, just cannot understand why we keep rolling over, and conceding cheap goals.

Hopefully they look at themselves this week, and we get the team back, that plays high tempo, and plays good football.

[DennisNedry]

Three very close games which could have gone either way where we've missed big chances at big moments.

Vardy's chance against palace, holding on for 2 more minutes against burnley, and we were well in the game yesterday as well.

I'd be concerned if teams were completely outplaying us, but they're really not.

 

Palace dominated us, Burnley outplayed us at home for the full second half, and Newcastle should have had 3 or 4 goals had they taken their chances.

 

Hoping Swansea's attacking open style may actually suit us more.

[Col city fan]

The bit that gets on my nelly is and has always been this:

Putting all the 'analysis' aside, it's this bizarre attitude of overly praising when we ARE performing well (see just 4 wks ago) and then overly-criticising (or being really pessimistic) when we don't.

It's the swing from elation to doom and gloom so quickly that makes no sense.

My assertions are these: I have NO expectations for this season. It's always hard for newly promoted sides to come up, hit the Premiership running and survive. History tells us this. Just see Burnley and QPR this season. At least we are doing better than they are. Secondly, I've always thought this thing about the Prem bottom half being no better than the Championship top half is absolute pony. If it was, the sides promoted each season would have little difficulty staying up.

So.....enjoy it, take it a game at a time, accept we maybe aren't that strong just yet. And analyse. .but analyse realistically. The Geordies had to win on Saturday. You just had to see Pardew's reaction when they scored. Unfortunately, we didn't attack them enough and nail it in their coffin. But that's football. On another day, we would have.

Take your time ladies and gents. It's a long, very tough season. Lets just see what happens each week.

[Silverdaz]

The bit that gets on my nelly is and has always been this:

Putting all the 'analysis' aside, it's this bizarre attitude of overly praising when we ARE performing well (see just 4 wks ago) and then overly-criticising (or being really pessimistic) when we don't.

It's the swing from elation to doom and gloom so quickly that makes no sense.

My assertions are these: I have NO expectations for this season. It's always hard for newly promoted sides to come up, hit the Premiership running and survive. History tells us this. Just see Burnley and QPR this season. At least we are doing better than they are. Secondly, I've always thought this thing about the Prem bottom half being no better than the Championship top half is absolute pony. If it was, the sides promoted each season would have little difficulty staying up.

So.....enjoy it, take it a game at a time, accept we maybe aren't that strong just yet. And analyse. .but analyse realistically. The Geordies had to win on Saturday. You just had to see Pardew's reaction when they scored. Unfortunately, we didn't attack them enough and nail it in their coffin. But that's football. On another day, we would have.

Take your time ladies and gents. It's a long, very tough season. Lets just see what happens each week.

This

[suffolk fox]

The bit that gets on my nelly is and has always been this:

Putting all the 'analysis' aside, it's this bizarre attitude of overly praising when we ARE performing well (see just 4 wks ago) and then overly-criticising (or being really pessimistic) when we don't.

It's the swing from elation to doom and gloom so quickly that makes no sense.

My assertions are these: I have NO expectations for this season. It's always hard for newly promoted sides to come up, hit the Premiership running and survive. History tells us this. Just see Burnley and QPR this season. At least we are doing better than they are. Secondly, I've always thought this thing about the Prem bottom half being no better than the Championship top half is absolute pony. If it was, the sides promoted each season would have little difficulty staying up.

So.....enjoy it, take it a game at a time, accept we maybe aren't that strong just yet. And analyse. .but analyse realistically. The Geordies had to win on Saturday. You just had to see Pardew's reaction when they scored. Unfortunately, we didn't attack them enough and nail it in their coffin. But that's football. On another day, we would have.

Take your time ladies and gents. It's a long, very tough season. Lets just see what happens each week.

This.........Col don't often agree with you but this is spot on.

[egg_fried_rice]

The bit that gets on my nelly is and has always been this:

Putting all the 'analysis' aside, it's this bizarre attitude of overly praising when we ARE performing well (see just 4 wks ago) and then overly-criticising (or being really pessimistic) when we don't.

It's the swing from elation to doom and gloom so quickly that makes no sense.

My assertions are these: I have NO expectations for this season. It's always hard for newly promoted sides to come up, hit the Premiership running and survive. History tells us this. Just see Burnley and QPR this season. At least we are doing better than they are. Secondly, I've always thought this thing about the Prem bottom half being no better than the Championship top half is absolute pony. If it was, the sides promoted each season would have little difficulty staying up.

So.....enjoy it, take it a game at a time, accept we maybe aren't that strong just yet. And analyse. .but analyse realistically. The Geordies had to win on Saturday. You just had to see Pardew's reaction when they scored. Unfortunately, we didn't attack them enough and nail it in their coffin. But that's football. On another day, we would have.

Take your time ladies and gents. It's a long, very tough season. Lets just see what happens each week.

 

You've nailed it there, but you've got to remember that passions for football run so deep it causes the highs to be spectacular and the lows to be crippling. You may have learnt to deal with the misery on a Saturday evening following a poor performance better than most - I thought I had, but I was effing and jeffing as much as anyone on Saturday, I just declined to post as I knew it would pass. It's important to retain perspective, but that's often so much easier said than done!

[Guest ttfn]

The bit that gets on my nelly is and has always been this:

Putting all the 'analysis' aside, it's this bizarre attitude of overly praising when we ARE performing well (see just 4 wks ago) and then overly-criticising (or being really pessimistic) when we don't.

It's the swing from elation to doom and gloom so quickly that makes no sense.

My assertions are these: I have NO expectations for this season. It's always hard for newly promoted sides to come up, hit the Premiership running and survive. History tells us this. Just see Burnley and QPR this season. At least we are doing better than they are. Secondly, I've always thought this thing about the Prem bottom half being no better than the Championship top half is absolute pony. If it was, the sides promoted each season would have little difficulty staying up.

So.....enjoy it, take it a game at a time, accept we maybe aren't that strong just yet. And analyse. .but analyse realistically. The Geordies had to win on Saturday. You just had to see Pardew's reaction when they scored. Unfortunately, we didn't attack them enough and nail it in their coffin. But that's football. On another day, we would have.

Take your time ladies and gents. It's a long, very tough season. Lets just see what happens each week.

You're right, except about the gap between the Championship and the premier league (in my opinion).

Only 4 of the last 15 sides to be promoted have been relegated straightaway (1 in 3.75).

Given that the top 7 from the previous season never go down (assuming they are last season's top 7, which they sadly pretty much invariably are), the other relegated teams must come from those which finished 8th to 17th, which is the part of the league perceived as "weak". This means that in the last 5 seasons, the teams which finished 8th to 17th were relegated 11 times out of a possible 50 (1 in 4.5).

The difference is clearly not that great. Perhaps the issue is that some people think that we ought to stay up comfortably, which I understand you taking issue with, but on the occasions when teams have got over 100 points the previous season they have invariably stayed up comfortably.

Expectation is set as much by our dominance last season as the objective quality of the teams in the premier league (which clearly given that they were the 1st to 17th best sides a league structure of thousands last season, clearly can't be that bad) if that makes sense.

[Corky]

The bit that gets on my nelly is and has always been this:

Putting all the 'analysis' aside, it's this bizarre attitude of overly praising when we ARE performing well (see just 4 wks ago) and then overly-criticising (or being really pessimistic) when we don't.

It's the swing from elation to doom and gloom so quickly that makes no sense.

 

 

 

You don't mean we had talk of qualifying for Europe after the Man United game and now we are virtually relegated, do you? I doubt that would happen.

 

We have been poor recently, we were very good before it, we haven't really had a middle ground this season.

 

We need a win and a good performance soon, that's clear. 4 points from the next two would be a healthy return.

[ScouseFox]

the only issue i have with col's post is when he says "see burnley and qpr" as if they are anywhere near as good as us. why should we "see burnley and qpr" and see they are struggling so accept we should struggle too? we've got a better everything than burnley and a better everything than qpr bar wage bill. we were comfortably, comfortably better than both last year, yet because they filled the places below us and came up too they're the new level we're aiming for? with last season's squad, this season's additions and a far superior manager we shouldn't even have to think about being better or on a level with qpr and bloody burnley. 

 

we are far superior to most teams that come up, we as fans know that, which is why there's some muffled discontent with our last three pathetic performances that have had the results to go with them. 

 

oh and the bottom half of this league is doggo and has been for 5 or 6 years.