oxtonfox

i agree with you. If we could choose games to win then Id go for all those 3 over Brentford but we can’t choose of course. In preferential order I’d say Villa, Chelsea, West Ham then Brentford. I think West Ham will be the easiest of 4 tricky games 🙂

Madders is a very good player. Not a great player as he hasn't earned that accolade/adjective that's used too liberally today. He has annoying traits such as looking at himself in the mirror, hairstyles etc. but heh I can put up with that if his play is good enough! His deliveries need working on from corners and his free kick quality has dipped quite a bit since December last year. His work rate has improved since last year but he has developed a habit of falling over too easily when tackled. Needs to get back on his bike, deliver the ball much quicker when he can and get a bit of confidence back. I'd still have him in the team every time though 'cos he's got the x-factor.

There's every chance of a meltdown given their form compared to ours, thery're at home, we are rubbish at lunchtime kick offs, it's on telly and it's a ground we're not used to. Any other reasons you need?

The most vital game of the season so far is West Ham. Forget the Liverpool or Man City games over Christmas; this is the one. We need the crowd, the team to work off each other and get some evening match time fervour. We're all worried at the mo, but I sense we can get back on the bike on Wednesday. There will be a few tweaks to the team but I hope we play Ihenacho from the start as he deserves to play and it may confuse Moyes working out a plan just with Vardy up top. Don't worry about a holding midfielder we should be dominating this one. Go 4-4 effin 2 - with two wide men and two up top as we are at home.

This is the key time for Brendan now. Same with any manager though; you have to deal with the bad times and drag the team back around. Freefall is a bit over the top at the moment but we do look very fragile as a team in terms of getting bullied and losing second balls. We haven't got the physicality that Liverpool, Burnley and Southampton have so we have to make that up with speed and skill. Neither of those attributes are evident recently. We've hit the Crest of a slump. Time for Brendan to do some magic and sign a player or two to breathe life into the squad.

Love seeing the term fancy dans reminds me of Ron Atkinson and co. And football in the 90s. I'm not confident either and it becomes our most important game of the season until Saturday then until next Tuesday. Aaaargh I am in fear of the next 3.!

A decent signing or two would shake it up a bit and hopefully for the benefit of the whole team. There feels like some complacency has set in and need a kick up the backside as a minimum. I also think we believe we’re better than what we are.

I took my city shirt off when we were 1-0 up. Put it back on for the last 10 mins so I blame myself. Sorry everyone 😟

very disappointing result when we should have won against moderate team. They showed more desire

Interesting last game of the season then us at home to Man U. Winner gets fourth place ?

Burnley are on a bad run but so are we so it's a battle of the out of form teams in the league. My Burnley mate tells me they are even getting stick from their fans which is rare and he thinks we will win. A Brendan pick me up I hope has worked for this week. We've got to compete though and I would play James Justin in place of Chilly if he needs a break from the action.

Rodgers generally is a very good tactician. You only have to look at his results to see that since he was a manager. I think the issue we have is that we have a relatively shallow squad in quality and Rodgers doesn’t trust too many outside the first team. Now injuries to key players have hit e.g Vardy, Ndidi and the chinks are starting to show. Add to that some more marginal factors such as a physically light team, winter weather, youngish players, lack of on field leadership then we are getting results we might expect. We need a midfield general a la Cambiasso and as we’ve said an effective wide man who is a combo of the best bits of Albrighton, Gray and Barnes.

I agree with that last point. If we can put the West Ham and Newcastle wins down to: a) very good performance from the reserves in the first case and b) an abject 10 man team in the second our form since villa away has been poor for many games now from the first team. The slump has been going on a while, I hope Brendan gets this and doesn't excuse it because they are young, they have a lot to learn, management speak etc. We need action not words!

Not sure Rodgers will do this, he’s pretty stubborn with his thinking and seems to inately trust Chilwell and Perez regardless of poor performance. I don’t think he will start Nacho either after that Norwich aberration. I agree with your thinking though as we need a 2 goal start the way we’re playing.

you can be sure Wood will score again from a right wing cross where Ben has turned his back