For those of you who think I am negative, I was absolutely sure we would win the PL last year - even when we were 8 points down to l'arse.
OK - I have taken a lot of stick for the 'transitional season' thread (particularly from Jazz who didn't like the word franchise?), so I might as well say what I really think.
If the present attitude and work rate we have seen from this team does not improve significantly, we will not win the premier league or champions league this season. For those of you who would cite last year 's slow start as reason for optimism, I beg to differ. We completely dominated the first three games last year (redding, portsmouth, cidee) and deserved to win all three by a large margin.
In fact, we were never dominated in a game until the CL tactics changed late last season. And if you would like to cite injuries - Rooney was out for a month, harg didn't play until september (and then not much), saha - nuff said, and cr was suspended after the portsmouth game.
My humble evaluation this season? (and I am talking EFFORT and ATTITUDE here)
newc - brutal (won 6-0 last season)
postmouth - ok
zenit - brutal til were down 2-0
liverpool - brutal after we scored
villareal - brutal
chelsea - brutal after we scored
boro - good mostly because of the young energy
bolton - lucky pen, probably just deserved to win (won 4-0 last season)
aalborg - good, youngsters and bad opposition
blackburn - good at times
That's 10 games that mattered and we really only brought the right attitude for 3 or 4 of them. Yes, we may only be 3 points behind chelski and 'pool (should we win our game in hand) BUT, although we have improved somewhat in the last few games, we are not playing anywhere close to the level that we did last season.
Get rid of ronaldo and anyone else who wants to leave when SAF retires during the January transfer window, play the youngsters as much as possible and RELOAD. Who knows, we might even win the PL that way.
OK - I have taken a lot of stick for the 'transitional season' thread (particularly from Jazz who didn't like the word franchise?), so I might as well say what I really think.
If the present attitude and work rate we have seen from this team does not improve significantly, we will not win the premier league or champions league this season. For those of you who would cite last year 's slow start as reason for optimism, I beg to differ. We completely dominated the first three games last year (redding, portsmouth, cidee) and deserved to win all three by a large margin.
In fact, we were never dominated in a game until the CL tactics changed late last season. And if you would like to cite injuries - Rooney was out for a month, harg didn't play until september (and then not much), saha - nuff said, and cr was suspended after the portsmouth game.
My humble evaluation this season? (and I am talking EFFORT and ATTITUDE here)
newc - brutal (won 6-0 last season)
postmouth - ok
zenit - brutal til were down 2-0
liverpool - brutal after we scored
villareal - brutal
chelsea - brutal after we scored
boro - good mostly because of the young energy
bolton - lucky pen, probably just deserved to win (won 4-0 last season)
aalborg - good, youngsters and bad opposition
blackburn - good at times
That's 10 games that mattered and we really only brought the right attitude for 3 or 4 of them. Yes, we may only be 3 points behind chelski and 'pool (should we win our game in hand) BUT, although we have improved somewhat in the last few games, we are not playing anywhere close to the level that we did last season.
Get rid of ronaldo and anyone else who wants to leave when SAF retires during the January transfer window, play the youngsters as much as possible and RELOAD. Who knows, we might even win the PL that way.