cityfanlee23

To be honest, we've been well below standards for the majority of 1st halves this season, we only seem to really come into games in the second half. Very frustrating as it's largely unnecessary with the quality we have to not be pushing forward aggressively. I know our entire style is to tire the opponents out, but at this level, it just really isn't necessary to do it at such a slow tempo, and we are constantly 1 mistake away from dropping points. We need to start waking up the moment that first whistle blows.

To be honest Mav really has not lived upto expectactions given how electric he was at times in Ligue 1, different league obviously but he just seems like he can never make his mind up, he's so quick and tricky, yet he rarely tries to take his man on. Fatawu drives play forward whereas Mavididi more often than not slows it down.

Alves is one of the most important young players we’ve had in years, and to be honest he could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of our relegation, if we had stayed up chances would be limited but now we have dropped down he can ease himself in slowly against lower opposition and get some good minutes under his belt and grow his confidence. He was definitely one of the players I mentioned as a “silver lining” in relegation terms as him and a few others can get minutes they likely wouldn’t have got otherwise. Plenty of young players have been wasted rotting on the benches of premier league clubs. plus we are absolutely desperate for that Maddison style midfielder who can link the midfield and the attack effectively as that’s somewhere we definitely lack in transition. Right now we seem to hit teams on the break and immediately go out to the wingers who eventually pass it back to the midfielders and it ends up being passed around the back 4 when we had a perfect opportunity to create a good chance initially, we need someone in the middle with the ability to beat a man and drive into space. Hopefully we take our time with Will and nurture him into the role.

Considering the fact he has gone out on loan to a champions league team it’s probably worth not risking it and selling and it’s definitely not worth risking it from the players point of view. But when you consider just how phenomenal he was in those couple of games when Dean Smith came in and he was genuinely unplayable, then you look at the transformation Wilf has had having moved away from Rodgersball to Enzos system, part of me does wonder “what if” we had not managed to loan him out, in those couple of games he turned up he was absolutely outstanding, he was everywhere. But all in all it’s not a gamble us or the player should take and wish him well, it did seem like the premier league didn’t suit him in general.

I'm not really that disappointed by the play tonight, we've been very sloppy but there have been sloppy moments for us in every game this season, I think the difference is Sunderland have really pressed us all game without really gifting us the clear-cut counter attack opportunities that Southampton gifted us. One of the downsides of our system is that we require space to pass into, but when we lose possession it leaves us with big gaps throughout and Sunderland have been quite effective at exploiting that, but haven't been able to finish anything thankfully. Overall I think this is the biggest test for us tactically tonight and we've dealt with it quite well considering.

Top 6 is tight but it's surprising that Sunderland are not more comfortable given how they are playing tonight, definitely the best team we have faced by some distance, and they are very physically fit too, most teams have been dead on their feet by the 75th minute with half of the effort Sunderland have put in. Play like this for the rest of the season they will comfortably finish in the top 6 imo.

Casadei just lacking that final decision and final play, but apart from that he's a very well-rounded player and you can tell why Chelsea apparently rate him highly. Just needs that cutting edge. Can see him becoming a very solid premier league player in future

You can't say that. Way too negative Our progression in such a short period of time under Enzo has been phenomenal, but we have a long way to go yet.

Very strange response, but whatever makes you happy.

Just shows how much we tire teams out, I think Sunderland have banked on getting a goal before the 70th minute where they inevitably crash, they've been very aggressive tonight.

Read the post again. Really getting bored of people like yourself reading an entire post, dismissing everything other than the bit you don't like then trying to pretend I didn't say the other stuff. Call it negativity all you like, I'm looking at the medium and long term as well as this game.

No, what part of my post did you think was trolling?

We really need to bury these games. Week in week out we get to the 75th minute and we are 1 mistake away from dropping points. Sunderland have a goal in them tonight. NEED to finish this game off. With that said, I've no doubt we will probably score 1 or 2 in the final 10 mins, but this game should be over.

Today is just another example of wasteful we are with clear cut chances. We should have a minimum of 4 goals tonight.

Sunderland are the better team yet we could still be 3 up if chances had gone our way, this division is pretty poor overall. Looking forward to the future, we really need to improve if we go up, I know we are nowhere near promoted yet, but January is a pivotal month to strengthen IMO with players at the level of Winks, players currently at PL clubs that are not getting the chances they deserve. I know we also have a lot of games left to really click as a unit, but the next window needs to be meticulously executed, we have been quite comfortable in most games by the 90th minute this season, but if they were prem games, given the chances we have given away to opponents this season we could well be struggling. I know there are a lot of people who think we are playing at the level of a mid table prem club, but to be honest i think we are a long way off that right now. Hopefully we can just keep chipping away and improving week by week.

Looking back at that Faes tackle, lucky lucky boy. Penalty.

Of course not, because we were playing well above our teams capability. We were massively over performing what we all expected. Very strange thing point you’ve made there. Have a good one 👍

Yeah I’d like to see him slotting more into a traditional “Maddison” style role, more often than not in transition when I see him on the ball it’s in our own half with little space to move or options to pass to. Would love to see him playing behind the striker.

He’s just so far beyond this level, there’s a few elements of his game he can improve on but he’s a premier league keeper already imo. If he continues like this he will be off to a top 6 club in a few years for a big fee, hopefully we go up and can offer him a good contract.

That is just massively disingenuous though. Here is my post. "Great result, dominated the game. Some sloppy play at times but that's to be expected, hopefully the "injuries" are not serious. We really need to find a solution to really "click" in the final third. Relative to the quality we have and the quality of chances we create, we are still incredibly wasteful. I think in terms of conversion rate we are about 7th last time I checked. Would be really nice if we could bury these games before the 75 minute mark as we often enter the final 15 minutes with the opposition creating a few chances and often in a position to steal points from us. In the end it's another great result and the best ever start in the championship " I made 3 positive points, I then defended the fact we expect to be sloppy at times, and then spoke about something I think we can improve. I did not once say we are bad and we should be overly criticizing the team, I simply pointed out that we can still improve whilst openly acknowledging that we played well, dominated and got a great result overall. The context regarding the fact we enter the final 75 minutes more often than not with the game still in the balance is a concern of mine, especially given the fact we have such quality and want to get promotion. Your reply made it sound like all I did was complain, or that I'm being a downer or that i'm just trying to moan, it just seems disingenuous to ignore the other points which were positive. Edit: Just to add, It's often difficult to convey emotion over the internet, I get it, it sounds like i'm just moaning but I was genuinely just trying to be balanced. I've given a lengthy response on the principle, but there are no hard feelings and nothing personal.

I guess it's just pent-up frustration at the sheer amount of people that seemingly purposefully ignore the entire post and pick out one comment and make that your entire position. I completely get that it might come across as a downer, but if you actually look at the post as a whole I made multiple positive points, then made the comment that there is an area we still need to improve (for balance) and then finished off with a mention of the record we've just broken. If people see it as a "downer" it's because they WANT to see it as a downer. Regarding the comment on "the time you chose to post it annoyed. Immediately after setting a record number of wins" given where we are in the table I'm not sure there is ever a right time to point out some improvements

You don't think that's exactly what Enzo will be doing in training next week? In my post on this thread I made more positive remarks than negative, I've consistently pointed out this season and preseason the great parts of our play and great traits of individual players. I've been hammered on here multiple times for pointing out multiple players that this forum had written off as garbage and saying they should be given a chance based on xyz traits or elements of their game, Ndidi being a prime example where I said £15m for him was a stupidly low price and had many people commenting telling me why I was wrong and he's rubbish and should be sold, now they are falling over themselves to say how much of a revelation he's been. I've been massively complimentary to our play this season, but god forbid you point out some elements of our game that need to improve and you get endless responses from loads of people jumping down your throat because I'm trying to be balanced? This idea that I'm somehow not happy with our amazing start because I point out that in the final third we are quite wasteful relative to the quality we have is just disingenuous. If you think Enzo is not going into training next week and going through the parts of play he wasn't happy with then I'm not sure what to tell you. It's literally the job of the manager to improve players, you can only improve by fixing mistakes and tightening up decision-making. I'm obviously not for a moment comparing myself to a professional manager because they've forgotten more than I know. But just because I don't always post 100% positive things and I try to balance the amazing start with the things we can improve on doesn't mean I'm somehow not happy. Crazy how many people on this forum read a post that points out multiple positives, but completely ignore them and hound you for saying something they decide is "negative" rather than just trying to improve something. At no point did I say our attacking third is shit or that it should be hammered, I simply said we are wasteful and that the final third often looks like it hasn't "clicked" yet. Good grief.

IMO my expectations are not "too high" I've simply said we waste a lot of chances relative to our quality, I don't really think there are many on here who would disagree with that. I'm more than happy with the results. I just tend to focus on what needs to be improved rather than getting carried away with HMS piss the league. I'm so excited by where we are right now and how much of an amazing job Enzo is doing, but I often like to look at what needs to improve rather than week in week out stating the obvious that we dominated and won.

I'm loving it

xG is okay but I think it's a very complicated statistic, the xG is fine but it doesn't really have any way to take into account the quality of player or the quality of chances. Given the quality of chances we create not just in terms of shots on goal but also in terms of getting into a shooting position. In terms of shots taken to goals scored we should be top of the table with the players we have which was my point on that. All of this was part of a wider point that on many occasions this season we have gone into the final 15 minutes with the opposition still able to take points from us, yes ultimately we have finished off many games in that final period, but given the quality we have, we should be burying games long before that.