Make sure we do not lose on Friday but play with purpose and controlled aggression. Nerves would affect both teams given the results today and the abysmal performances put in by Palace and Leicester. Fingers crossed Everton win and of course Abu Dhabi will as well. Then a draw or better a win on Friday may well be sufficient. Southampton are in form and they play their rivals after Abu Dhabi. NP and company need to keep the frame of mind positive and the team relaxed as possible. There should be some more resolve given they have fought back from losing positions twice in the space of a week.
Abu Dhabi will hand them a drubbing as well. Hopefully we can keep it limited and may be get a one off performance to snatch a point if we can show the same level of commitment and organization and goalkeeping Southampton did. Hopefully Carlo has laid into his players as well.
Well, bit of a nothing game this one now. Nothing riding on it and both teams playing for pride. Just have to hope for Sky’s sake it’s not a dull nil all affair.
Well least it focuses the mind to go for a win at West Ham rather than play dot a draw.. Otherwise think we are almost doomed with Man City and Arsenal to play.
Loser gets put on a very stressful rollercoaster. 34 could be easily enough. 34 could be nowhere near enough. Biggest concern is that we are looking to Everton to keep us up if we lose to West Ham, the also-rans that have the moccasins on.
Ake is out as well, so it's definitely not all rosy for Bournemouth. City game could be messy for them, I just hope we have some degree of comfort by the time we play them so that we can maybe afford to take a narrow defeat to them
Just been on the West Ham forum just to gauge their mood. They are surprisingly respectful of us and they are fearing Deeney. Even though half our fans can't stand Deeney (zztop), neither can Wet Ham and I suspect the majority of fans in the Premier League. This makes him an asset in my eyes. Teams still fear what he can do. They are predicting a draw and do seem to rate Watford as being of similar ability to themselves. I'd say that's fair, and home advantage is not really an advantage right now. They do have some match winners, but we can nullify that by sticking to a strong game plan. If we can beat Newcastle, then we can get a result at West Ham. It's going to be a battle, not for the fainthearted, but it'll be decided by small margins no doubt. Let's hope this one goes in our favour. We are due some luck, the odd good decision to go our way. We need to be on it from the off. No 45 minute performance. We're going to need everyone on their game for 90 minutes. Play well, get the rub of the green (which were owed in buckets this season), and see the job out. We can do this.
It's the weird results time of the season, when desperate teams throw everything at better teams who have taken their feet off the gas. That 100 seconds of madness by Leicester may have relegated us. That and Mikhail Antonio. If we get nothing out of west ham what are the odds we get anything out of Arsenal and City? We have to be bold and sensible and hard-working at West Ham. And Antonio's the man to stop. Not just because of his 4-goal spree but because we've seen him bully our defence before. He is too big, fast and physical for them.
Antonio is not that good. The reason he plays for West ham and not a top team is because he's wildly inconsistent. It is a good thing he's on this hot streak, as for player like him a massive non scoring streak is now certain. Disclaimer: I've made all that up.
It's not 100 seconds of madness in a match not involving us, a player scoring 4 in a match not involving us, nor even an unspotted handball away to Newcastle that might relegate us. It's a season of mostly inept performances. That said, I do agree we need to stop Antonio.
We are already looking at our wandering loanees and considering which will be our saviour. The fact is, if we were drawing up a list of targets for our needs, Cucho, Suarez and Estipunan would not be the ones we'd be looking at. Can see them being in the squad as virtually unused subs, in the mould of Pussetto, Pedro and Peneranda
I know it's asking a lot but my dream scenario is that we beat West Ham and Villa, who I think have a better shot at escaping than Bournemouth despite having 1 point fewer, beat Everton in the next round of matches. West Ham would then be just one ahead of Villa with their decider to come on the last day and having to face Man U before that.
The bizarre thing is that Leicester were putting all the pressure on Muff's dodgy defence, then Muff lost their best defender and from that moment on were under no pressure at all. I guess Schmeichel was still reflecting on his blunder for the first goal when he made such a poor attempt to stop the second.
Ha. Except you haven't: He is wildly inconsistent. But his m.o. of energetic, pacey, physical play has pretty consistently discumbobulated (Spelling?) our slow and feeble defence. I could foresee a possible man-on-man job for Kabasele here: Just stay with him Kabs - and don't lose concentration.
I have watched their match against Norwich, admittedly 4-0 is a very convincing win but The Canaries were waving the white flag the moment they went behind. Norwich did create a few chances which mainly come down the flanks. The worrying thing for me was that West Ham look strong from set-pieces. Having said that I fancy Sarr up against Cresswell every time. This could be about who has the biggest bottle.
My brother and I literally had the same convo this morning. Their biggest threat is from set pieces. We have to be switched on for every FK and corner. However Sarr vs Cresswell is where we will get our joy from. It’s going to be a great game, but I have confidence that we will turn up and win. I would much rather Pearson motivating our boys than Moyes, and I think that’s where the game will be won.
Antonio feels like one of those players that always scores against us, probably as he has done for West Ham, Forest and Sheffield Wednesday. But if you look at it, he was far more prolific against us at the start of his career where he scored six in his first eight games against us. Hasn't actually scored against us since the 4-2 comeback in 16/17 if I've read his stats right. So glass half full, his recent scoring record against us isn't very good. Glass half empty, he's overdue a goal against us...
Watched the History Boys if only to point out that used to be my form classroom. That drafty old English block.
I'm sure he will. But would we sign him if he wasn't already a 'Pozzo' player? Conversely, it might be that he is far better than anything we could afford, without the risk/strategy of sending a developing player out on loan, but my view is that these players pay off far less than they should.
I hope so, I think their defence will be terrible without Ake, Leicester didn't really put them under much pressure when he went off. I imagine City will make a few changes though with the FA cup game coming up but I imagine they will have enough still to beat a dodgy Bournemouth side. I am praying, Man City will be in a buoyant mood after their news earlier today and demolish Bournemouth. My housemate is a Manc and he said they are going for a record for most goals scored in a Premier League season.
Yes, that makes sense. Alan Bennett - wouldn't he be a Leeds Utd supporter? I look forward to a 15 minute monologue from an imaginary Leeds Ultra. Actually I don't. And wouldn't that use up all their vocabulary in one go?
IMO part of the problem with their 'model' is that they don't have control of the day-to-day coaching when these youngsters are loaned out. And anyway if they stayed here I wonder if any of our coaches, whoever they may be at the time, have much of a motivation or capability in coaching long-term development.
We've seen with Peneranda and Success how the lack of anyone taking a day to day interest in a young player's career can pan out.
I suspect rugby league might be more his thing? The parochial Northernness of it strikes me as likely to appeal to him.
