Is it really that bad?

[shailen]

I know we had an excellent start to the season, but in terms of results it hasn't been going that well recently. however, I think there has been an over reaction to our form.

We have competed in every game apart from the Swansea game, and could have got more points if more things went our way. Don't think the quality in the squad or the team/tactics Pearson has picked is the problem. Honestly, it feels like there's a lack of confidence which started when we conceded last minute vs Burnley. When we do win again, I think we will see the 'quality' return. 

Unlike Burnley this season, we have shown that we have quality in our team and can compete with the very best. 

 

[StanSP]

There's been a big over-reaction. A false sense of believing we'll do fine because we matched the bigger teams at the start of the season.

 

Sorry to use Coldplay lyrics, but I think 'nobody said it was easy, nobody said it will ever be this hard' fits perfectly. 

[Kitchandro]

Disagree. The way we have played  since the Man Utd game is very worrying.

 

You're right, we do have  the quality to match a lot of teams in this league, but not if we don't play the right way.

 

Baffling how you can say the team tactics Pearson has played hasn't been the problem, it clearly is. Confidence is now an issue but not because we conceded in the last minute to Burnley, but because our level of performance has dropped dramatically and the results have mirrored that.

 

The way we played against Burnley was in itself a disappointment, and we'd already played poorly at Palace and lost. The rot had already started.

[Renart]

I agree with the OP and Stan SP, the start to the season bred false confidence. Even before the season began people on here were tipping us for a top ten finish - as if it was assured that we would stay up! Really? This season was always going to be a slog. We need to be realistic and take anything better as a bonus! As Corky said in a thread about Emile's return, 'Heskey's side didn't start incredibly when they were promoted and only survived with two games to play.' Admittedly that team did finish 9th but look again at that table (96-97) and see how close it is from 9th down. 

 

Before the start of the season I looked through all of the fixtures and thought that our opening was tough (like everyone else). It happens that I also thought that these last few games would be a little easier (like everyone else). But I thought that we would be in and around where we are now - we have not been relegated yet! It is football and it never quite goes the way that you expect - if it did then I would be top of the predictor league and also have won a lot of money on the accumulator. I ignored the first few games of the season and hoped that the fans and the board would see past them and look ahead. The fact that we did well has almost hurt us more in the eyes of the fans. I also looked, before the season started, at the last 8 games of the season and said to myself that if we were in-and-around 17th then we would have a great chance with our run in. Of course it is too early to be thinking of this but I do not see us being cut adrift and I do see us picking up points along the way - I just hope that the faith is kept with NP as it would be a shame for us to dump a guy who has brought us this far and has been really successful - in spite of what people say.

 

Let us be honest, we over-performed in the opening games and we are now in-and-around our level (this might hurt some of you but it is the truth); this does not mean we cannot do better or that it isn't worth trying to solve the problems. This is not excusing poor displays by individuals or by the team but  we will have purple patches and we will have times where things don't go so great! We just have to hope that it evens itself out and that when the cards fall we find ourselves 17th or higher. 

 

The final 8 games are:

 

West Ham  (H)

Albion  (A)

Swansea  (H)

Burnley (A)

 

Newcastle (A)

Southampton (H)

Sunderland (A)

QPR (H)

 

There are some big 6 pointers in there I think and no games where you are going to write off 3 points. Stick with NP and if we are still in the mix as we approach these games then I think we have a very good chance of staying up! And then we build again for next season. We live in a world where we want/expect instance success, well for us to be successful it means that someone else is not going to be. There are another 19 teams trying to do the same as us - win a game of football - and we have no god-given-right to expect results to go our way, even after our success of last season. We are where we should be - no better and no worse. Let's get on and try and win the next game!

[Corky]

The football, formations, personnel changes have been bizarre recently but the belief that we are all but relegated which seems to prevail is just odd. 

 

Unfortunately we are going to have spells without a win, it's just frustrating it has come in matches we'd look at beforehand as getting points from. This creeps into other things though- interviews are over scrutinised, every positive thing another team does is blown up and "why can't we do that?", players out of the side become fantastic overnight and their faults are glossed over/ forgotten, and inevitably calls for the manager to go.

 

We've had six years without a relegation battle so this is a change from what we've been used to. It won't be pleasant and joyful like last season, it will be a struggle.

 

The last six weeks have been frustrating and worrying, but we are no lost cause. 

[The Guvnor]

Sorry but I don't understand the phrase 'over performed' which has been used for generalising our first few games. We played with pace and desire chased players down and also passed the ball around nicely like we did last season. I don't know what the answer is to return to form, maybe a settled side and the players believing in their ability again,hopefully a couple of wins will help achieve this!

[Renart]

Sorry but I don't understand the phrase 'over performed' which has been used for generalising our first few games. We played with pace and desire chased players down and also passed the ball around nicely like we did last season. I don't know what the answer is to return to form, maybe a settled side and the players believing in their ability again,hopefully a couple of wins will help achieve this!

 

I take your point here. I think 'exceeded expectations' might have been a better phrase. Whether the games that followed the Man U game came as a result of changes being made, or a loss of confidence, or teams being prepared for the way we play, or an ability to maintain that tempo, I don't know; but, the point that I was trying to make was that there will be ups-and-downs. We ht the ground running and that was obviously not sustainable for whatever reason. I hope that like Newcastle we scrape a win somewhere and that this will kick start our season again. I genuinely think that this will happen. I also think that there will be other blips along the way. 

[shailen]

Disagree. The way we have played  since the Man Utd game is very worrying.

 

You're right, we do have  the quality to match a lot of teams in this league, but not if we don't play the right way.

 

Baffling how you can say the team tactics Pearson has played hasn't been the problem, it clearly is. Confidence is now an issue but not because we conceded in the last minute to Burnley, but because our level of performance has dropped dramatically and the results have mirrored that.

 

The way we played against Burnley was in itself a disappointment, and we'd already played poorly at Palace and lost. The rot had already started.

Not saying tactics aren't important but they seem to only be scrutinized when you're losing. Newcastle are the biggest example, they haven't changed anything but the confidence from beating us and they've won four in a row. I have to admit Iquestioned Pearsons team vs West Brom but we played well, and surely if we keep playing well the results will come

[ScouseFox]

going 5 without a win is not too worrying, even against poorer opposition. going 5 without even looking like we could win, want to win or barely even want to cross the half way line is the worry.

 

i'd expect to lose at least half our games this season (we've lost 5 from our first 10 for example) it's just the way we're losing. if we'd lost a few 2-1 but missed 3 decent chances or we'd lost 3-0 because we'd quite simply been outclassed then fair enough, but they've all been incredibly depressing losses. 

[filbertway]

going 5 without a win is not too worrying, even against poorer opposition. going 5 without even looking like we could win, want to win or barely even want to cross the half way line is the worry.

 

i'd expect to lose at least half our games this season (we've lost 5 from our first 10 for example) it's just the way we're losing. if we'd lost a few 2-1 but missed 3 decent chances or we'd lost 3-0 because we'd quite simply been outclassed then fair enough, but they've all been incredibly depressing losses. 

 

Surely it looked like we were going to win the Burnley game? The West Brom game as well could have been a different story with a bit of luck.

 

Rolling over and taking it away from home is disappointing though.

[ScouseFox]

Surely it looked like we were going to win the Burnley game? The West Brom game as well could have been a different story with a bit of luck.

 

Rolling over and taking it away from home is disappointing though.

 

that's only because burnley were absolutely awful too though. 

 

gotta disagree, can't say at any stage i thought we'd win the west brom game. thought we were unlucky not to get 0-0 but we never looked like scoring, let alone scoring twice once we were behind. 

 

yeah unless we change something i'll be surprised if we even score another goal away from home let alone get any points or wins. we literally just let both newcastle and swansea beat us. hopefully tomorrow will be different, if not results wise, at least in the performance. 

[Leicesterpool]

It seems at the moment we're only capable of raising our game when we're up against the big clubs

[filbertway]

that's only because burnley were absolutely awful too though. 

 

gotta disagree, can't say at any stage i thought we'd win the west brom game. thought we were unlucky not to get 0-0 but we never looked like scoring, let alone scoring twice once we were behind. 

 

yeah unless we change something i'll be surprised if we even score another goal away from home let alone get any points or wins. we literally just let both newcastle and swansea beat us. hopefully tomorrow will be different, if not results wise, at least in the performance. 

 

To be fair I was only going by MOTD but it looked like we edged the number of chances, admittedly none that were clear cut but King's header, Drinkwater's blocked shot or Vardy's overhead kick could have gone in on another day. Not exactly inspiring stuff I know, but on another day I think it could have been 3 points to us.

 

Interested to see how we line up tomorrow, guessing what it will be is about as easy as getting 4 numbers on the lottery.

[ozleicester]

Played some good games and won and drawn, played some poor games and been beaten. This will continue over the next 6 months and hopefully we will end up having got enough points to remain in the premier league. 

[Guest Col city fan]

One game at a time...